Act Local Brugges

We are yet to meet anyone who has been to Brugge who has had a bad thing to say of the experience, so when Dave and Ria suggested that it might be a pleasant way of filling in a day who were we to suggest otherwise?

Having a pair of locals leading us on our tour would of course make it easy for us to melt in with the crowd, to slip unsighted around the tourist traps and into the really interesting stuff behind.  Not for us the touristic breweries, the lace and waffle shops.  We didn't have to buy chocolate just because we were in Belgium, and given our usual mode of transport, we certainly had no desire to ride on a tour boat, nor to follow a guide with a colourful umbrella or silly doll on the end of a stick speaking in several languages at once.

So we did things only the locals do in Brugges, in weather varying between "brisk", "quite chilly" and "go inside now you fool" we took coffee beside the canal where the tour boats leave, sipped "beer and cheese" soup for lunch (no that's not a misprint) in a brewery while watching the horses pulled their tourist-laden carriages across the cobbles, had waffles with our mid afternoon coffee, while in between browsing the lace and chocolate shops.  Perhaps we did sample each of the latter, but it was in moderation as a local would of course.

Between these things we walked, guided by Ria and her determination that we would not miss a nook or cranny during our brief overview of the sights and tastes of Belgium.

Those tourists really don't know what they were missing!