Brugge and Oostende

Easter Sunday. I was the first up again. I suppose the girls had the excuse that they came from London, one time zone behind.

Again we hit the road late. The sun was shining so we headed for the coast, but first to Brugge. I remembered Belgium as more built-up but in those days I was going between cities by train and not paying much attention to the countryside. Brugge's train station is outside the old city and it's a pleasant walk through fields of flowers. There were hundreds of tourists on the same walk.

Brugge is an extremely touristy city but it really is beautiful. Due to the many waterways in the city, it has been likened to a Belgian Venice, which seems to be the standard. There were flocks of swans in the canals and grassy areas.

A pen in a fenced off area was prominently brooding an egg, while tourists, in particular the Japanese, were avidly snapping or filming. You'd swear the pen was in the pay of the tourism bureau.

In addition to the outdoor cafes, there were many waffle and chocolate shops, of course. Everyone was cheerful, even if the weather was not the most clement.

This would have to be one of the most vivid pictures that I took in Belgium; pity that I couldn't improve the composition—I wasn't able to persuade the town to move the buildings a bit for my photo.

We had not had lunch so we headed for Oostende for a very late afternoon meal. After some hesitation we had pots of mussels at a restaurant. It was not the best. The soup was weak and they charged extra for the bread and the chips. Oostende had seen better days. It, together with Calais, were once endpoints of the channel passenger ferries but the tunnel put an end to that era.

Nonetheless it's still a seaside town. We walked on the strand promenade. Seeing a 4 person tandem bike we hired it. Two people had to pedal while the other two enjoyed the ride. While C and I were passengers on the outward trip we played at being slave-drivers, but of course we got our desserts when it was our turn to pedal back, especially as the wind was against us. All that hard work stoked an appetite of course, so we had Belgian waffles, Liege style (sugar on the inside).

We watched the sun set over the Atlantic from the promenade and called it a day.

Back in the flat, after a filling dinner we watched a late film, Memento. It's a rather mystifying story if you don't know how the plot device works. The niece got it.