As well as being a blatant attempt to get search engine traffic from people innocently interesting in watching the In Bruges, this is genuinely where Bee and I were last week.
Here is a picture of a chocolate shop to prove it:
So there, now you know it must be true.
What do you mean I could have just got that off flickr? How distrustful you are. I see your point though, it is the kind of thing I would do, so here is another one of Bee posing next to a decidedly frozen canal:
(Can you see what I’m doing here? This is basically a modern-day version of being made to sit through your dodgy uncle’s dreadful slide show of his holiday photos. Are you bored yet?)
Despite the cold, the eurostar delays and the dodgy chicken shop Bee insisted we eat in on Friday lunchtime, we had a very lovely time, wandering the medieval cobbled streets, admiring the beautiful architecture, appreciating Bruges as an influential centre of Flemish art… Who am I kidding, we mainly looked in chocolate shops and drank a lot of hot milk with chunks of chocolate melted in it. I did make Bee go in a gallery, but I’m not sure we quite embraced the spirit of it. There was someone filming in the first room we went in, and I dared Bee to walk behind the interviewee and cough loudly. Childish.
I also made her climb up The Belfrey, but only by promising that she could vandalise it when she got to the top by scrawling her initials on the wall in green highlighter pen. Bad mummy. Still, lovely views… (seamless link to next slide):
We were spared having to try out our Flemish, as fortunately we seemed to be instantly recognisable as English and therefore hopeless at foreign languages. I’m not sure what gave it away, I’m thinking perhaps it was that classically British trait of having no sense of style:
Only joking Bee!
We certainly seemed to be giving off signals of some kind though. We were accosted by a man dressed as a knight in a small shopping precinct at one point. “Ahh! You look English,” he said, stopping us and kissing my hand, “are you from London?”
“No,” we replied cautiously, a little scared that he seemed to be just wandering round like an escaped lunatic.
“Ahhh! Grimsby then?”
Hmmm…
Anyway, suffice to say a festive, if not slightly frosty time was had by all, and I managed not to come back a stone heavier. Result.
How have you been. Have missed hearing from you lately? Busy writing your book? :-)
Hi! I have been very neglectful of my blog lately I know :-(
I have been really busy with work, Christmas stuff, kids… excuses, excuses….
How is your book? How did NaNo go? I am envious of your trip to Bruges, even if someone thought you were from Grimsby.
It wasn’t terribly flattering to think I had the look of Grimsby about me (no offence to anyone from Grimsby…)
NaNo was a spectacular fail. I wrote about 7,000 words in the first few days, felt like I was going a bit mad and that my head was exploding with dialogue, then got offered some work which meant I didn’t have time really anyway, which was rather a relief after the whole mad dialogue thing :-)
Oh heck yes, it’s all coming back to me now (it was the shot of the bridge that did it)….or am I remember it from the film? Life and art blur…. I seem to recall lace somewhere in the equation, and beer?
Not sure how I’ve missed your blog before but I do like your style!
Janex
There are a LOT of bridges. Lace features strongly in the equation, as does tapestry for some reason…
Glad you’ve found me :-)
x
Funny you should mention that; I still have a lovely tapestry table runner and a pillow cover, as well as a lace-edged bread-basket liner, that I picked up on my trip there some 12 years ago!
Well there you go see! It was lace, lace, tapestry, more lace on every corner.
Sounds like fun. I was in Bruges back in 1985 at the ripe old age of 20, having too much fun, all I remember is that it was one of my favorite places that we stopped on a 5 week backpack/suitcase/eurail pass/hostel tour with my favorite cousin.
That does sound like fun! Mine was a much more boringly grown up three day eurostar tour…
Haha! Jo you have to write the next Bridget Jones book, pleeeeease, your sense of humour is the perfect antidote to the winter blues!
Haha! I would LOVE to do that :-)
Sounds great, love the fact that London and Grimsby are the only place in England fantastic xx