Sep 24 - Bruges, Belgium

Doug had to nudge me awake this morning at 8:00 a.m. I finally had a great night’s sleep. We had been sailing since about 7:30 p.m. last night. These ships are so smooth that you can’t tell that you’re moving unless you watch the horizon.

At breakfast, we saw another familiar face - Satria - who was our waiter on both of our previous cruises. He recognized us too, so I guess we haven’t changed that much in 3-4 years! Doug is happily watching the shoreline from our balcony right now. We are passing the port area of Antwerp, so there is lots of equipment and ships and cranes for him to analyze. At 10:00 a.m., we have a safety drill, followed by a port talk with Andreea, our cruise director. We have downloaded the Scenic app onto our phones - it gives a running commentary of the nearby sights and will be used by the local guides on our various walking tours. Andreea will explain it too. We leave for Bruges, Belgium (second country of this trip) at 1:00 p.m. after lunch after docking in Antwerp around noon.

Another familiar face appeared when it came time to board the buses. It was Malinda, our bus driver from the last cruise. She is a wonderfully skillful and smooth driver. Our guide was Rudi. He gave us a running commentary for part of the 90-minute drive to Bruges and then gave us some quiet time to watch the scenery. Belgium gets lots of rain, so agriculture is a main industry, as evidenced by the very green fields that we saw. We learned that it was Belgium that invented French fries and beer brewing and perfected the art of making chocolate. Bruges has a beer factory that sends the beer to be bottled to a plant outside the town via an underground piping system. Digging must be done very carefully in Bruges!

Bruges is one of the most perfectly preserved medieval cities in the whole of Europe. It is full of tall brick merchant houses, picturesque canals and cobbled streets. It is often called the Venice of the North because of its many canals. Bruges rose to prominence in the 1100s as a hub for the Flemish cloth trade, importing English wool and exporting clothing around the world. Its harbour was filled with shops bringing spices, wine and wealth to the wealthy of the town. The harbour silted up and Bruges lost out as a port to Antwerp. It became a centre of lace making in the 17th century and continues to do a huge trade in lace. It is the home of the famous painter Peter Paul Rubens. In 2000, the old town was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

When we arrived in Bruges, it was raining lightly, but nothing that we couldn’t survive. Rudi led us on a walking tour of the town, and told us about its history, architecture and culture. Bruges is Brugge in Flemish, one of the three main languages of Belgium, the other two being French (think Hercule Poirot) and German. We had some free time after the tour so we found the same little shop where I bought a piece of lace in 2016 - my first initial. It now has a mate with my second initial. Then we scarfed down a Belgian waffle. Then we got trapped in a chocolate store. Bruges is very pretty but is a very dangerous place for the crowds of tourists who enjoy its hospitality every day!!

We had dinner with a lovely couple from Australia. There are lots of Aussies on this ship - Scenic is based in Australia and so is a favourite of the Aussies.

Discovered there is a step counter on my phone - we did about 10,000 steps - that’s about 4.3 miles. That should partially offset the chocolate fest we just had.

We are doing a bike tour of the town of Veere tomorrow. All those gym sessions are hopefully going to allow us to survive!Read more