Bruges

It was great to arrive yesterday in Southampton and get (a fair bit of) the band back together on board MS Norwegian Prima, the ugly, floating block of flats that is to take us to Iceland.

Once we got our bearings, found our cabins and totally abused the free drinks packages, we had dinner, fell asleep and awoke ready to visit Bruges.

Once we had caught the shuttle to town - about a thirty-minute trip - we joined about ten thousand (small exaggeration) other tourists on the well-trodden path around the town, over bridges, through squares and past chocolate shops.

Even with all the people, it was a beautiful place to see, with its canals winding all around the centre of town. Every bridge, even every glimpse of a canal provides another opportunity for the ten thousand phones, cameras and selfie sticks.

We walked to the Markt Square, with its Bell Tower dating from 1240 and rows of buildings looking typically Belgian in their stone work and decoration.

Then, on to the Burg, an enclosed fortress in the tenth century and another attractive town square today before we made our way back past the Dijver, a strip of park alongside the canal, to the Church of Our Lady - with the third tallest brick tower in the world - and finally the the lovely Minniewater Park to our starting point.Læs mere