The trip to Bruge was by two trains. The first by a private operator, Thalys, from Paris Nord to Brussels. They use the same special high speed track that the Eurostar and the TGV use and it takes 1hour and twenty minutes to travel the 300km and it reaches a maximum speed of 300km/hr!! The second train was from Brussels to Bruge on Belgian Rail and that took 1 hour with one stop at Ghent. Both very efficient and quick services that travelled to the minute. However, on the way home from Brussels the train had to slow down considerably for a portion of the trip. We were told the reason - “some people on the track?” - Jill guessed that somebody may have threatened to commit suicide by jumping in front of the train.

We stayed at a beautiful B&B in Bruge called Cote Canal. It had beautiful gardens on a canal and a hostess who was really genuine in making our stay comfortable. She gave us many suggestions for nice walks along the canals and good places to eat that the locals frequent. Also The hostess has a labrador dog that sits in the window that overlooks the canal and must be the most photographed dog in Europe; he has also appeared in the movies and travelogues.

On the first day it was HOT and we walked a fair way to a family brewery that had been there since 1856. We found an Aussie style beer garden at the brewery so we had to stay and have a couple of beers after all it was a hot day; we also had a lunch of Flemish stew - beef casserole made with dark beer and secret herbs and spices - it was delicious. We had made a tactical error - we now had to get back to the B&B in the heat. It was a slow restful process. We took a touristy canal trip that went straight past our B&B which was a bit of a rest on the way “home”. That night we went to the locals cafe near their botanical gardens. Jill had some cheese croquettes while I had some chilli con carne ( Belgian style).

The second day was a lovely continental breakfast in the gardens overlooking the canal (and the canal boats full of tourists) then a slow walk to the market square where a market was in progress and we found Jill’s favourite stand - the rotisserie chicken place only this time they had chickens, turkey, pork loin, ham, sausages and just about anything else that could be rotisseried including crispy potatoes. The town and market was very crowded with tourist groups and we could not help but feel for the locals trying to use their market - they probably come in the early morning.

Bruge is a canal city that is very different to Venice or Copenhagen. There is more variety in the architecture and there are more trees and gardens. It is made for walking and there are about three days of walking needed to cover all the beauty spots. We did a fair bit of walking but as a cavalry officer the canal boat trip and a city tour bus covered all the ground adequately.

We would return to Bruge to cover more of the history and the area.

We were very impressed with the ease(and speed) of train travel - not a limiting factor in travel in Europe.