It was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to Brugge today and our beloved Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce Hotel. It's been such an amazing visit! We got up for our usual 8:45am hotel breakfast, said a loving goodbye to the coffee pots, and commenced the luggage drag back to the train station. Clau has increased her load by 3x 1 litre Mass, so her drag was particularly onerous.
After much huffing and puffing we finally made it to the station, and jumped on the 25 minute train to Ghent Sint Pieters. We ended up just standing with our bags - no point even trying to find a seat. Once we'd arrived, getting into the centre of town proved much more difficult. Our first attempt - Uber - failed us miserably. No driver would touch us. Our second option - a tram - worked remarkably easily, despite us not knowing how to pay (we didn't).
Finallu off the tram, we had a quick 10 minute walk to our domicile for the next 2 nights - Hotel Harmony right on the canal in old town. We left our luggage and headed out to look for something to eat.
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| Hotel Harmony right on (one of) the canals in old town. |
This also proves harder than we first thought. We really just wanted some frittes, but the first place we tried seemed to be in a building that looked closed for renovation. Our next choice - Frittes Atelier - had a line so long I couldn't bring myself to join it. In the end we decided on a burger place "Manhatan Burger" in the old grain store building on the canel (which itself looked like it would fall down at any moment).
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| Bier #42: Steenbrugge Blond |
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| Burgers at Manhatan Burger, This place sucks. |
Long story short, Manhattan burger sucked the big one. My burger was ok, but the frittes were cold and the whole experience in the store was bad. I kicked myself for not joining the line for Atelier. Oh well. The one high point was bier #42 of the trip - Steenbrugge Blond, a beer that was almost as good as Lefe Blond. Almost.
Our afternoon destination was Gravasteen Castle - built in the 11th century, and sitting smack dab in the centre of old town. So wierd seeing it pop into view as you round a corner not 2 blocks from the hotel. We grabbed the english audio tour and followed it around for the hour and a half duration. Very entertaining, and very funny. It really made the visit memorable - and we even learned a thing or two. The medieval arnour and weaponry on display inside was damn impressive!
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| Gravasteen Castle - the audio guide is fantastic! |
After the castle, we retired to the hotel to checkin and see what our rooms looked like. Not bad, but a little noisy from the bars across the canal from us. We had a bit of a rest, made ourselves a hotel-room coffee (passable) and then went out to find somewhere for dinner. We just strolled along Korenmarkt until we saw somewhere that looked open and had empty tables. Cafe Borluut seemed to fit the bill and they even let us sit withut a reservation.
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| Cafe Borluut |
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| Bier #43: Keizer Karel Blond |
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| Dinner at Cafe Borluut |
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| Bier #44: Karmelier Tripel |
The food at Borluut wasn't bad, but wasn't remarkanle. I decided to challenge myself with the Flemish Beef Stew whch was passable. The best part of the night was getting to try bier #43 - Keizer Karel Blond, and bier #44 - Karmelier Tripel. Both very acceptable entries into the list. We're definitely getting better at choosing nice abbey style beers rather than sucky XPA style lagers.
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