End of the first week – Saturday and Sunday - Bruges

Being in Bruges, being inspired by the movie In Bruges, we had to, of course, climb the Belfry, to see where the climax of the movie occurred and also to see the magnificent views that are available from the top of the 366 step climb.

Of course the movie used several tonnes of artistic license, so the insides of the Belfry were nothing like what we’d seen in the movie.  The only queues to be found were the people who were silly enough to get there first thing in the morning, so we queued on the way in, but could have walked right in if we’d arrived 20 minutes later.  The views from the top were pretty good, but now only viewable through meshed wire because of a movie where (spoiler alert) somebody threw themselves off the top of the belfry.  Being a Belfry, there is one set of stairs to go both up and down, so getting up there was easy, but getting down, was a matter of polite negotiation with the later people on their way up.

Saturday really was tourist bedlam, so we did some sightseeing before heading for the peace and solitude of a courtyard restaurant where we had a very enjoyable lunch of carpaccio, croquettes and chicken vol au vent.  Dessert was a wonderfully decadent waffle with chocolate, cream and ice cream, in the best of Belgian traditions.

Dinner on Saturday night was superb.  We took a different course as we left the hotel and ended up in a much nicer part of the city (about two blocks from last night’s electro funk rave).  As luck would have it we saw a very nice restaurant, that was filled with locals.  The highlight of the night was that every table around us ordered a second bottle of wine, without any dramatics from the restaurateur, such as we get in France – Ooooh, la la, hew woant a zecond boatil of vine?  Yes, we do.  An encouraging sigh and hopefully it will be continued into the rest of the holiday.

Sunday started off with a visit to the Salvador Dali exhibition, which is also in town.  We have also visited Dali’s museum in his home town of Figeures in Northern Spain, and it is, like Picasso’s official museum, magnificent.  This exhibition was better than Picasso’s, and very surreal, as was his way.  It was, however, rather sex / erotica centred, but did also had some great quotes from the great man such as:

·         Modesty is not exactly my speciality

·         I am an average painter.  If I were to compare myself to Vermeer or Velasquez, I would have to describe myself as a real artistic disaster.  If I compare myself to my contemporaries, I am simply the best

·         There are some days when I think I am going to die from an overdosis of satisfaction

·         The fact that I myself do not understand the meaning of my paintings at the time that I am painting them does not mean that they have no meaning

·         I am in a permanent state of intellectual erection (strikethrough added by me)

·         It makes me happy that I earn 40,000 dollars before I sit down to breakfast

Such ego – bless the man.

Beyond that, Sunday has been another long walking tour from our guide book, a long lunch, watching the last hour of the Tour de France, a drink before dinner, dinner, good night.