Chocolate, Christmas Markets and Beer!

If you read my last blog, you would have read that I recently took my wife on a mini cruise to Bruges.  This blog is about Bruges and the trip we took.

We were up early, as we heard the Captain’s announcement of the morning, and to be honest, we thought it was earlier, but our phones hadn’t changed times, so was bit of a mad rush to get up and ready, as we had booked an excursion to Burges, normally, I would do something like this myself, but as the ship doesn’t wait, I organised an excursion through Cruising Excursions.  We headed up to the Plaza as were only after a quick breakfast, but the queue was relatively long, so we skipped this and headed down to the Speciality restaurant Cafe Jardin, this is located on Deck 8 in the middle of the ship (part of the Atrium) – so we were seated, and were told it was a “Continental” style breakfast, which was fine for us, as we were just looking for something to eat before heading off.  I ordered the Poached Eggs on a Muffin with Italian Ham, and my wife ordered the pancakes with Bacon and Maple Syrup, really enjoyed breakfast and to be honest, was nice to be away from the hustle of the buffet restaurant.

After breakfast, we headed off the ship, and headed to the red buses outside that took us to the port gates, where our bus was waiting to take us into Bruges centre.  Please note, if doing any excursions or getting off the ship, remember to take your passports.  The transfer to Bruges took around 20 minutes and you get dropped off at a coach park, and then have a 10-15 minute (or quicker) walk into the centre.  We got to Bruges about 10-10.30 so was a little bit early for everything open, so we stopped outside a cafe and had a quick drink.

By 11 most of the stalls were open, so we had a good wander around, looking at all the various stalls, and even bought a Christmas decoration.  After the markets, we took a walk down the small side streets to the many many chocolate shops.  After a lot of walking around it was then time to head back to the coach park for our transfer back to the ship, which again was great, and hopped on the bus to the ship.  We then headed to Horizon Grill for a quick bite to eat, then headed back to Winners Bar for a couple, then headed back to the cabin.

The dress code tonight was Gala Night, and I and my wife aren’t one for dressing up, so we decided we would head to the Buffet restaurant for tea.  We got dressed smartly casual and headed back down to Winner’s bar (we did spend a lot of time here as this did serve pints on draught rather than bottles (pints worked out better as bottles were the same price).  It was lovely to see everyone really dressed up, even the kids were in tuxedos, suits, and dresses.  Afterward, we headed to the Plaza Buffet restaurant and could see we weren’t the only ones to not partake in Gala night, so we enjoyed a good Indian meal (that was the theme for the night).

At this point, I could hear the Captain’s announcement to say it was going to be a rocky journey home, so please take care around the staircases.  At this point, we did retire for the night as my wife wasn’t feeling great again.  And I will be perfectly honest, the Captain wasn’t lying!  We put our suitcase out the night before so that we could leave the ship without dragging a big suitcase around with us at breakfast.  The coat hangers in the wardrobe were going back and forth all night, so we did struggle to sleep, but again we only really felt it as we were quite high up the ship and also up the front, if we were mid-ship or lower down, the effects wouldn’t have been so bad.

The next morning, again it was an early start as we had to be out of the cabin by 8am, so we headed straight up for breakfast, and this time the Plaza wasn’t so busy so we stocked up on breakfast, then headed off on our journey home.  I didn’t have to do anything to check out, as luckily, the bill had been settled through the night, so all we had to do was scan our cards, and try and remember where we parked the car!

It was a great cruise, and a great little one to start my wife off on, so here’s to many more.  Our next one now is booked already for 2020 with Marella for the Canaries, so fingers crossed will be a bit warmer!

Until next time!