to Belgium and back

Just back from a few days in Bruges with Pippa. Unrelated to moving to Brussels in a couple of weeks' time: simply a holiday. I'd show you a picture, but Pippa's the one with the digital camera. We walked round the city admiring the lovely buildings etc (Pippa proving much better that me at following the self-guided tour directions: I'm too easily distracted), took a canal tour (by boat, obviously), and cycled to the beach town Zeebrugge, at which point I went for a swim in the sea and Pippa declared me mad - the latter a more usual occurrence than the former (the sea to me was warm, but I'm used to the Irish sea :-)). The cycle ride was around 20 miles altogether, though getting out of Bruges was the hardest part: crazy 1-way system. We also watched Fantastic Four, which was fun, and I do think the subtitles in both Dutch and French quite added to it. And of course, we checked out many chocolate shops, though were very abstemious on the whole! Thank God for lovely places and friends.

Oh, and I have such admiration (slightly tinged with green in fact) for the waitresses in restaurants there, who switch between fluent Flemish, French and English, without batting an eyelid. I want to learn Dutch!