September 22^nd to 25^th - Bruges 2005

Off We Go

This year’s trip was a long weekend in Bruges, Belgium with 12 cars attending. Everyone in the group travelled to Ashford for an overnight stay to catch the 9am Eurotunnel train to Sangatte at the start of our trip.

A Swinging Time in Ashford

Wednesday evening was a chance for everyone to get acquainted with those people from outside the South Wales area including David and Audrey Russell and Terry and Joy Bowler and was spent in Frankie and Benny’s diner. Unfortunately, due to what can only be described as a “Senior Moment”, Mike had booked one less room that we needed at Ashford and when John and Maureen arrived at about 2am there was some frantic calling around. Unfortunately, there were no free rooms at all and this resulted in John and Maureen having to share a room with a very shamefaced Mike (and Michelle); we will draw a discrete veil over the room sharing incident…

Sangatte to Bruges

Thursday morning saw us all driving down to the Eurotunnel terminal for our train across. Fortunately, Mike had actually reserved enough places for us and after a “satisfactory” breakfast in the terminal, it was off in the train. The 35 minute crossing is much better than a boat ride and gave us just enough time to drop the roofs on the cars and do some last minute load adjustments before we drove out in France and straight to the nearest petrol station to fill up on the (slightly) cheaper French fuel. The drive to Bruges was a reasonably fast drive along the Autoroutes with one brief loss of direction before arriving at the Novotel Bruges Zuid.

Great Hotel

The hotel’s Internet pictures which seemed to suggest it was at the side of a major road did it no justice at all. It turned out to be in a pleasant wooded area about a 10 minute drive from the town centre and the rooms, staff etc. were very pleasant. The gardens and surroundings were great and would have been even better if they hadn’t shipped all the outdoor furniture offsite for the Winter only the week before.

Bruges

Thursday afternoon was a go-as-you-please session with most people finding their way into the town centre. Some went in bay Taxi to allow for a few sherberts in town whilst others drove to the excellent park & ride close to the town. Bruges itself is a picture-postcard place filled with beautiful buildings including many shops and restaurants. The place feels like it is pedestrianised, but you soon learn that it’s not and you need to be wary of cars, buses, bicycles and motor scooters haring through the town. Tom, Jodie and Martyn witnessed one accident between a scooter and a car that looked quite nasty. It was great strolling around the town bumping into various small groups from our party. Some of us took boat rides, some horse and carriage tours and others simply walked around taking in the sights and tastes.
More on Bruges (Brugge) can be found at www.brugge.be

Beer, Beer and More Beer

Friday evening was our trip to the Halve Maan (Half Moon) brewery. A fleet of taxis arrived at the hotel to ferry us to the brewery where we were greeted and shown around by a very jovial and knowledgeable tour guide. The brewery was small but interesting. In the midst of a display of beer cans was one from the Felinfoel brewery near Llanelli. This caused a bit of a stir and even more so when the guide informed us that Felinfoel was the first brewer in the world to put beer in cans!
(hmmm… not according to the history on Felinfoel’s own Web site - felinfoel-brewery.com)
I have since been told that these were screw-topped cans to allow Welsh troops in France to receive some of their favourite tipple during the fighting. The tour was followed by an excellent dinner and a rather disappointing “tasting” session; disappointing because the brewery only seemed to make one beer!

Kwak, Kwak, Kwak

To make up for the lack of variety in the tasting, after dinner, most of us went to a pub across the road for some drinks. Some of our group had by that time discovered a local beer with the comical name of “Kwak” served in a sort of miniature yard of ale style glass held in a wooden stand. This beer is amazing; it’s strong, tastes heavenly, makes you happy drunk, makes you sleep like a baby and doesn’t give a hangover! We spent the evening Kwaking away until Ceri decided that the group wasn’t properly arranged and decided to rearrange the tables outside the pub. This was met with some resistance from various members of the group and a hilarious 20 minute session with Ceri fighting with different people to force them to move took place.
For more information Kwak, sorry Click, HERE

Saturday

Saturday was another great day with the members of the Flanders MX-5 Owners club meeting us at our hotel in some great looking cars. They had very kindly drawn up a beautiful route using Tulip diagrams which took us along some great roads and into Holland. It was marvellous to see various small groups of people driving the wrong way and then coming back again. There was one section where we seemed to end up driving through a pedestrian area in a small town crammed with shoppers and tourists; we were assured it was the right route and did eventually meet up with the correct road. Saturday evening, we had dinner at our hotel with several of the Flanders members where two presentations took place. Firstly as a thank you, Mike presented Peter Vandenbrouke with a splendid UK owners club hat. That was followed by Lindsey presenting a rather embarrassed Mike with a Tin-Tin calendar bought by the whole of our gang as a thank you for organising the weekend.

Sunday and Off Home

Sunday morning was spent with packing and various people doing last minute dashes into Bruges for souvenirs or replacement chocolate as they had accidentally eaten what they’d bought earlier in the weekend. Ceri spotted Michelle’s attempt to charge several beers to his room the previous evening and managed to stop it before paying he bill. Then it was off for the drive back to Sangatte and the train home. There was a last minute panic for one couple who had left the train ticket back at the hotel (you know who you are!), but the supremely organised Mike produced copies of their documentation and Eurotunnel waived them right through.

Non Monsieur Eet Ees Sunday

We had one last French moment when we all pulled up at the Cité de Europe shopping mall to find almost every shop was shut on Sunday as was the petrol station!! This is definitely a planning consideration for next year’s trip if we go through France.

Beware High Vehicle

On the entry to the Eurotunnel terminal Mike made a mess of reading the direction signs and half of our group ended up in the high vehicles queue. This couldn’t have been more wrong but we pressed on with it and ended up in a high carriage with several lorries and coaches. On arriving back at Folkestone it was a quick stop for petrol before all making our way home.

A Great Time Was Had by All

The Bruges trip was a great success and everyone seemed to enjoy it. The Belgian people are supremely hospitable and their mastery of multiple languages is embarrassingly impressive. Many people said they would go back to Bruges again for a longer look around and most said they’d even sign up for another one of Mike’s trips.

Next year’s trip was discussed on the journey home with Amsterdam being a definite possibility, so watch the website and STHT for details.