German Christmas Tour: Day 25 - Brugge

We gave ourselves a bit of a sleep-in this morning given all the fireworks overnight. We descended those famous hotel stairs to the breakfast room overlooking the canal and the beautiful Rosary Quay. We sat next to the open fire and were treated to wonderful coffee, continental breakfast, and fresh Belgian waffles. Abject luxury!

Breakfast overlooking the canal, next to the open fire

Eventually we headed out to do some walking between the various well known tourist spots in town. We started with a family snap in front of Rosary Quay - the most famous view in Brugges, and one that also happens to include the Hotel Relaise Cruyce!

The bridge leading to our hotel

Family snap in front of Brugges' iconic Rosary Quay view
(which includes our hotel!)

We then followed a well-trodden walking tour, heading south from the hotel all the way down to Minniwater park (within spitting distance of the train station) and back again. In particular we passed over the lovely St Bonifacius Bridge (the lovers bridge) with it's surrounding loveliness.

Many views of St Bonifacius Bridge - the lovers bridge.

Getting on to lunchtime, we felt it high time we stopped for a little bite to eat. We came across a small Waffle & Frittes store and decided to chance it. I'm glad we did, because the frittes were amazing - our first truly wonderful frittes since entering Belgium.

A pitt stop for some damn good frittes

Soon we'd reached the markplatz again, and were desirous of some refreshment. The Duvelarium - being on the first floor of the town hall, and with views out over the square - was suggested and heartily agreed upon.

Inside the Duvelorium

We immediately got a great spot on the balcony (a little chilly but not overly so) and ordered up our first round. We decided to play it safe and go for the Duvel standard - bier #38 of the trip.

Bier #38 - Duvel standard.

Balcony bier number one! Just enjoying the view.

To be honest, the standard Duvel was pretty nasty. The alchohol content was 8%, which makes it close to a tripel, but it was so fizzy and so bitter, that none of us actually enjoyed it. We suffered to the end of the glass and found that none of us wanted to move! We were all enjoying the view too much.

And so we lined up for a second round. And what a long line it was! We got in behind a british guy who firstly gave us the lowdown on how the toilets worked (useful), and then confessed to us that he waasn't much of a lager guy. My ears pricked up at this, and I asked him immediately what his preferred selection was. He recommended what ultimately became bier #39 of the trip - Maredsous Brown 8% - an absolutely amazing abbey beer.

Bier #39 - Maredsous Brown 8%

Enjoying Maredsous Brown 8% a little too much

After what turned into 3x Maredsous Brown, I had to be wheeled out of the place. Totally wrecked. But what an amazingly fun afternoon! We spent hours laughing at influencers and their antics down in the square taking photos, as well as trying to photobomb anyone and everyone taking a photo of the townhall. Hilarious!

Light is fading at the end of a fun time.

In the end, totally wrecked, it was all I could do to lie down in our room and try to let myself recover while the others went out to dinner. I'm still not sure how Eb did it, given he matched me beer for beer. Obviously that University of sydney training is paying off. 

German Christmas Tour: Day 24 - Brugge

A nice hotel breakfast got us up and out this morning for our train ride from Cologne to Brugge. We finally said goodbye to Germany with the last spin of our Eurail passes, and bid bonjour to the Belgian CNF. Alighting from our ICE from Cologne, we easily made our connection at Brussels Midi and were soon at Brugge station and looking at the ring road.

A 15 minute luggage drag later and we'd reached our hotel right in the heart of the city - "Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce" - the very hotel that "In Brugge" was filmed at.  The hotel was beautiful inside and out and we couldn't hide our fanboy excitement as we just sat for a minute or two in our rooms and soaked in the atmosphere. It really is like a fairytale.

Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce in the heart of Rosary Quay Brugge.

With our fawning delight sated for now, we headed out in search of some sustenance. We walked to the marktplatz past what must have been several hundred chocolate shops and found a place on the square for lunch - not before marvelling at the tower and fanboying out just a litle more. Even on our last visit to Brugge 30 years ago Katrina and I had never seen the tower in all it's glory, just some bricks disappearing into the fog.

Our choice for lunch - Cafe Sint Joris

Having settled on a cafe for lunch (based solely on the fact that Eb wanted mussels) we cosied up to the heaters outside and ordered a round of drinks - bier #35 for this trip - Leffe Blonde. The Leffe was absolutely amazing from the tap as expected. Mussels and other tidbits (I got an omlette) were ordered and consumed in due course.

Bier #35 - Leffe Blonde.

More lunch snaps.

With a fantastic lunch consumed, and life on the marktplatz experienced, we explored the marktplatz and the christmas market (still going!). Quite a nice market, but nothing we hadn't seen before.

In the Brugges christmas market.

Even though we were very full from lunch, what we really wanted was a waffle. Not sure why it was so important that we snagged one immediately, but it was. Maybe our eagerness to get some purely Belgian experiences under our belts. Maybe even the Leffe had something to do with it! We strolled back to The House of Waffles (quite close to the hotel) and ordered a round of Liege waffles with chocolate sauce. Damn they were sooooo damn good! 

Waffles from The House of Waffles!

By this time it was late afternoon and the kids wanted a rest. They retired to their room for a couple of hours while I took a quick trip out to snap some photos that I had missed. Nothing interesting to report.

After a couple of hours, and with an hour still until dinner, we decided to head out for a quick pre-dinner beer. We had noticed previously that a few of the christmas market stalls were selling beer. I'd even seen someone with a leffe glass with brown beer in it. Unfortunately, we just couldn't find that. We settled on the Zot from the local Half Moon brewery, becoming bier #36 for the trip. Unfortunately for us it tasted bad - really bad;  very surprising to be honest since I'd seen sooo many people drinking it during the day. Anyway, we finished the Zot with difficulty (except Katrina who threw hers) and Clau joined us just before dinner.

Bier #36 - Halfmoon Brugse Zot

Zot - an awful beer at the Brugge christmas market.

Dinner was reserved at a a place called Brasserie Raymond just a block from the Marktplatz. It was a really nice, upmarket place - a typical French brasserie in every way - and they gave us a warm, new years eve welcome.

Brasserie Raymond

Bier #37 - Bourgogne des Flanders

We immediately set about ordering bier #27 for the trip - Bourgogne des Flanders, brewed by another local brewery by the same name. I gotta say, it was just as bad as the Zot; completely different, but totally undrinkable. To me it tasted like prunes. Some kind of wine variant rather than an actual beer. Disgusting! We're batting 66% on failed Belgian beers so far!

The rest of dinner was much better. I had the Flanders steak with frittes which was amazing, followed by a Belgian cappuccino. It was a lot of food given our large lunch, but I did my best.

Belgian cappuccino - black coffee with sweet whipped cream.

After dinner, we went for a stroll around town in the dark. Amazingly, the streets were pretty deserted thanks to the NYE revelry in other parts of town and we had a really relaxing stroll (if a tad chilly!). 

A night stroll around Brugge.

We finally retired to our room with a movie and sleep. At midnight we were woken by the sounds of fireworks - both distant, and the explosions of huge bungers that felt like they were just under our window (and probably were).