Woken by a lone bugler at about eight, very considerate of him, by the time I got ready and went for my shower the band was already gone and the womenfolk with them were having their breakfast in peace.
We got into town about twelve, I did have to walk part of the way back when I remembered we had forgotten the spear batteries for the camera. We had also popped into Aldi to check out the beer and got food for lunch while we were there. As it was dinnertime and as we now had a picnic with us, we walked along the canal until we found a nice spot for us to sit and have it.
The spot we found was at a canal T junction, next to the vertical lift pedestrian bridge, a great place for watching the boats passing by. Where we sat, at what looked like it had once been the site of a swing bridge, anyway it was a nice sheltered place for our lunch.
After lunch we turned right and followed the canal into town along Predikherenrei, a walk we had not done before, it was very pretty and very quiet. When we came to another T junction in the canal system, we followed the canal to the left along Groenerei, all the time taking photos of the canal and bridges as we went.
Then, we did something we have been trying to do for three years, yes today, we eventually went on one of the canal trips. We did get to see bits of Bruges centre we hadn't see before and I took too many photos but I will only post a few here.
After the boat ride dot had an ice-cream and we had a sit in one of the old squares surrounded by pretty old building and watched the world go by.
Then it was time for a beer, we went into B-café, at the rear of 2be Foodshopping Brugge, it was not open the previous night and we thought it must have closed down but there you go, it was open and had been improved. Gone were the stacks of beer grates, replaced by glass cases full of beer bottles and matching classes, a very nice display. Anyway back to the beer, I got the worst beer I have had in my entire life and I am going to have a rant about it, so here goes.
Rodenbach is horrible beer, very sour and vinegary, not nice at all, it tastes like Cameron's Strongarm when the barrel has gone off, why produce a beer that you can not tell if it is off or not. I have been drinking beer for 42 years and did not know there was such a thing as Sour Ale, it must be an acquired taste but one the majority of us will never get, the sour, acidic taste made my throat sore but I did finish it.
Luckily they did have plenty of good, nice beers to take the nasty, nasty taste away, so I had a couple of them to take the taste away. We moved from the canal side, as the breeze was quite cool, and moved into the courtyard next to the beer displays, where the sun was shining and it was much warmer.
By now it was time for food, we set off walking towards a part of town we hadn't walked before (seen from the boat) and popped into a cafe offering beef stew and chips as the days special. We had it with a bottle of Bruggs and although the food was basic, it was very good and very cheap.
We continued walking to Wijngaardplein, the place where the horses from the many horse carriage rides go to rest and have a drink. There was a gated community there (Begijnhof Van Brugge), a square surrounded by houses around a green, I think it was a religious place but no photos were allowed so we did not go in. There was also a silence please sign in there but, there were car parked all around inside, what did they do, push them in.
After another walk we got money form an ATM and went for a drink to a the nice bar, Cafe 't Klein Venetië, I did look for a bar we had been to before, Cafe Terrastje, but could not find it. We had a couple of beers there before the walk back, it was our last night in Belgium before the over night ferry back to England tomorrow.
We got back to the site about 8, I was surprised that the Oompah band had gone.
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