Belgium Day 8 - Bruges and Home

We packed and tidied up, and left the apartment. We left the car where it was and walked into town. We bought some nice Belgian chocolates, then queued up for the Belfort tower. We got in just before 11 to hear the bells, and stayed until 11.30 to hear the chimes then.

The chimes are controlled by the pegs in the carillon pushing levers.

We walked around a bit more, then bought some frites for lunch.

After making our way back to the car we drove to Brussels Charleroi airport, about 160km away. After dropping the car off we went into the airport, and had a couple of beers while waiting for our flight.

It was ahead of time and we landed about 18:45, and got a taxi home.

Belgium Day 7 - Ypres

We had breakfast of fruit salad and toast, then got in the car and drove the 60km or so to Ypres. There we parked near the Menin Gate, a World War I memorial engraved with 70,000 names of dead soldiers with no known grave.

We then walked to the main square and went to the In Flanders Field museum.

After that we walked along a canal to Essex Farm cemetery, then round the ramparts round the town.

We had a beer in a bar then got back in the car and drove to Tyne Cot cemetery, which is the largest WWI cemetery with nearly 12,000 graves and over 30,000 names engraved.

We then drove home but couldn't find any shops open to buy food, so we had scrambled eggs and biscuits and cheese.

Belgium Day 6 - Bruges

The apartment was well equipped with breakfast goods, we had cereal, toast and orange juice. We walked into Bruges and had a look first at Burg Place.

Then on to Markt Place with its famous Belfort tower. We wanted to go up but there was a huge queue so we decided to come back another time.

We walked over to the canal and decided to go on a boat trip. This took us round a few of the canals in the centre and we saw lots of the sights.

We then did a walking tour out of one of the guide books and visited a few of the churches and squares.

We stopped for coffee and cake, then walked back to the apartment. We chose a restaurant from TripAdvisor, De Verloren, which was just up the road and phoned to book a table. We went there at 18:30, Scott had wild boar stew and Shirley had Flemish stew, washed down with some of the local beer.

Belgium Day 5 - Ghent and Bruges

We had toast and yoghurt for breakfast, then packed up, tidied and left the apartment. We walked to Louise Metro station then caught the Metro to Brussels Midi station. At the Europcar desk we picked up our hired car for the rest of the trip, a black Volkswagen Up!

We were heading for Bruges but Ghent was on the way so we stopped there for a few hours. They had Christmas markets in the square, we visited the Belfort tower and climbed to the top.

We walked around town a bit more, and had lunch of bread and soup in a cafe, followed by a Belgian waffle and chocolate as we walked.

We returned to the car and drove to Bruges, finding the apartment to the east of the city centre in Hugo Verrieststraat. It was called a "loft" but it was on the ground floor and had access to a small garden.

We went for a walk into town, round the Christmas markets in the square and saw some of the many chocolate shops.

On the way home we had a drink in a bar called De Muppets before going to the supermarket to buy supplies. Dinner was burgers, cheese, tomato, onion and avocado.