We love this city and have visited it many times. It is known as the Venice of the north and the history of Bruges dates back as far as the 9th century when it was founded by the Vikings. The name Brugge is thought to have come from the Scandinavian word brygga meaning harbour. Zeebrugge (translated as Bruges at Sea) is only ten miles away. When we first travelled to Bruges, we would take the ferry from Felixstowe to Zeebrugge, unfortunately that service no longer exists as Felixstowe has become one of the biggest freight ports in the UK, with ships the size of cities arriving daily from China. The only other alternative is a ferry to the Hook of Holland from Harwich where you can drive down the coast to Belgium, or the Eurotunnel to France. We stay at the Bolterhuis hotel which is a typical narrow house with steep staircases. We book in to the hotel and park the car several streets away. Parking space is difficult to find in Bruges as the streets are very narrow. Many of the hotels have car parks underground and by utilizing this space, the streets are less crowded and the cars are protected from the heat in summer and from frost in the winter.

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We start off with a cold drink in the main square. The place is packed with tourists and the cafe is very busy and crowded so we move off to another little bar right beside the river, where the temperature is a lot cooler and it is much less crowded. After cooling down we find a restaurant nearby and manage to grab a seat by the water. Ed chooses moule frites and I have a delicious mixed salad. We will be heading back to the UK tomorrow after an incredible journey across Europe.

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We end the evening in our usual bar – Bar’N which has a wonderful interior and is decorated like a Barn with a huge Longhorn Steer jutting out from the wall. We discuss our plans for the next trip, before heading back to the hotel to pack.

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In the morning, after a delicious breakfast we drive towards Calais. We stop at Eurocity and head to Carrefour. This time we fill the car to the brim with loads of wine and other goodies. We are so glad that we did, as we would never in our wildest imaginations have imagined what was heading to Europe and the rest of the world from Wuhan. We wouldn’t be visiting Europe for the foreseeable future.

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