Beautiful Brugge

Brugge is about 4-5 hours from Gent by boat. We arrived in the late afternoon in sweltering sunshine and moored at the Flandria Jachthaven which is really well equipped (it has a washing machine and a tumble drier!!) and only about 15 minutes walk from the city centre. The walk is via the Minniewaterpark, a beautiful park with swans, ducks (important features of a park, if you, like Emma, are three years old) and some strikings buildings.

If you have never been to Brugge before, the amount of fantastic buildings is rather overwhelming at first, you could take picture after picture and still keep seeing something beautiful round every corner and in every square.

We decided to take the walk suggested by the Tourist Office which took us past some wonderful buildings, through the fine squares and alongside the canal.

Emma was very taken with this door knocker - although don't

think it would really suit our door at home 

I passed this street-organ player on a side street 

Later in the day we took a canal trip, which sounds like it would have been a bit of a busman's holiday for us, but since the bridges in Brugge are far to low for our boat, was a wonderful way of seeing more of the city than you can on foot.

The following morning I took a trip, on my own, to the lace museum. I make bobbin lace, so I was really excited to see this. Also, to be honest, I was pretty excited about being out on my own for a couple of hours - Stephen and Emma aren't really interested in bobbin lace!

The lace museum is housed in a row of old lacemakers cottages and is pretty small but has some wonderful exhibits. You aren't really supposed to take pictures, but I snuck a flash-free picture of a modern piece, above, on my iphone.

I arrived just after opening time and discovered that the demonstrations only take place in the afternoon, which was a bit disappointing until I realised that it meant I would have the whole museum to myself, which was a real luxury! I also met a lovely American lady, Virginia, who is planning to take up lace, so it was great to have a bit of lace-chat with a fellow enthusiast!

In the afternoon there was a free festival on in Minniewaterpark, "Feest in 't Park" with music, dancing, events for children, craft stand from all around the world (far higher standard than the usual festival crafts) and some great food.

Emma was particularly taken with the African Drumming Workshop 

And she's always ready for an ice-cream, even is she does seem

to end up wearing as much as she eats!