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).