Brucatos Italy France Belgium 2015: Hello from stunning Brugge!

Monday, June 08, 2015

Hello in Dutch! (Here where we are in Belgium, most everyone speaks English without an accent!)

Last night we again weren’t hungry for dinner, so nothing to report other than a fairly early night to bed, which was nice. Up at the usual time this morning, and breakfast again at 8 a.m. After that, we finished our packing, checked out and said goodbye to the lovely couple at Hotel du Croise and were on our way about 9 a.m. The laundry we had checked out was only a few minutes away, and when we got there, we found that they have only five working machines, and four of them were taken! Grabbed the last one and got laundry started, and sat down to wait.

Bedford House cemetary

Only thing left from the chateau is ice cellar & moat!

(Actually only 27 minutes!) By the time we were ready for the dryer (of which they have two) it seemed like the California freeways at rush hour – people were literally lining up at the door trying to find a free washer … and one lovely lady apparently picked today to do duvets – she had literally baskets of them, and kept jamming them in these small washers. Oh well! We were done by 10:30 and back on the road. I can only suggest that if anyone wants to invest in a golden opportunity, an additional Laundromat in Marcq would be very popular indeed!

Then out of town and into Belgium in minutes, and heading in the general direction of Brugge. Once again, the signs of WWI are everywhere. We passed cemeteries on both sides of the road, as well as various memorials along the route. Very, very sobering. As we didn’t want to arrive too early – check-in was at 2 p.m. -- we took our time. In fact, R thought it would be fun to have lunch on the coast, so that’s where we headed. Well…before we knew it, we were in Oostend, and honestly folks?

Driving next to ocean; note artillery

More guns pointed toward Britain

Quite a swirling and windy day!

That place is scary! There is a complete wall of apartments and condos all along the beach, and we couldn’t find any place to eat! When we finally ran out of condos, we ran into what looks to be a public park that is filled with old (WWII) artillery cannons and cement bunkers, all along the coastline. Most unattractive! So, we decided we might as well head into Brugge, if we didn’t want to starve!

We were in the outskirts of Brugge about 1:15-ish and I want to sincerely congratulate Robert for getting us to Hotel Patritius! He was amazing, and how he found it, I’ll never know. Because of heavy traffic and parking all around the outskirts of town, we apparently missed the entrance we should have taken. But that didn’t matter to him at all, as he very skillfully got us right to the back door of the hotel! Brugge is an island surrounded by canals – apparently it is known as the Venice of Belgium, and there are lots of tiny little streets (lots of one-ways) as well as bridges here and there. I am hoping that now that we have found the hotel, we can just leave the car alone tomorrow entirely as there seems to be lots to do here in town!

One of the gateways to Old Brugge

Room 33 in Hotel Patritius

We checked in, and are in lovely room 33 on the third floor. It is a very spacious room (especially after Lille!) with a window overlooking the lovely garden in the backyard. (Where it would be fun to sit if it wasn’t so windy outside!) Plenty of room for suitcases and us, which is a refreshing change. I got us more or less settled in, while R set up the computer. Great computer signal, which is always nice. Then out to find someplace for lunch, as it was just about 1:45 p.m. We got a map and several suggestions from Elvi, the lovely owner, and headed out.

Markt Square in Brugge

Our lovely pub/restaurant!

We passed one of Elvi’s suggestions on our way to her first place, but when we got there, found it was closed! So, back to a very crowded Cambrinus, a pub restaurant that carries over 400 varieties of beer! (And also a few wines, which is good for me…) It took them a few minutes to find room for us, but we were eventually seated at a nice table. The guy right next to us was just finishing up dinner, and it looked so good that I had to ask what he had ordered – Carbonade, which is the Flemish version of Boeuf Bourgignon only made with beer (surprise!) instead of wine. So, I ordered that, and R ordered their slices of chicken also done in beer with mushrooms and pearl onions. I had a glass of very good dry red wine, and R (at my insistence)… had their “flight” of beers to sample. My dish also came with Belgian fries (apparently it was the Belgians, not the French who invented them in the first place) with a flavored mayonnaise, which were wonderful!

Wow! Both of our meals were wonderful – the unfortunate thing being that of course now, we’re not hungry at all, so won’t be able to try something else wonderful for dinner tonight! Tomorrow, we say, we will have both lunch and dinner…we’ll see!

After our late lunch, we walked through the Market square, which was very crowded, and then, about 3:30 p.m. headed back to the hotel for naps. Felt SO good! Up again at 6 and figure we’ll go out for a nice walk as it doesn’t get dark until almost 10:30 p.m.

Tomorrow I plan on hitting the chocolate museum and possibly the lace and/or diamond museum (do you think they give out samples??) as well as take a boat ride around the canals, which is a very popular thing to do. So, more later from beautifull Brugge!