Christmas Markets Holiday 09
The good:
John (the driver) swapped Lille and Brugge round on the first day, which did mean I didn't get to buy any yarn in Lille, as we only made it to Anny Blatt, and that was closed on monday mornings :( But otherwise it was the right amount of time as the Market there was very small (the big wheel is, however, very, very big)
I was disappointed not to have a full day in Brugge, but it was lovely to have longer there than we have ever had before - we managed to go to both markets and to Hema.
The optional trip to Sluis was ok. The drive through the countryside with John's commentary was very interesting - Sluis itself was a nice Netherlands town (with very cheap wine in the supermarket), but the clog place we had ostensibly be taken to visit was crap. The bloke couldn't be bothered to demonstrate clog making to us, but still seemed offended when we didn't buy the tat in his shop. We got back in time for me to have a swim in the hotel pool - which was so dinky! Still I did feel better afterwards
We didn't do the guided coach tour of Bruxelle, as we wanted more time in the city, but it didn't matter, as we had the guide with us from leaving Ostend, so we had lots of tour on the way into, and out of Bruxelle, which was very interesting. The most disappointing thing was the lack of disabled access to the town museum, meaning Mum couldn't go to see the costumes of the Manneken Pis.
You could really tell that for all we went to 3 countries, that they are in fact all Flanders, as the architecture was so similar between all the places:
Lille
Brugge
Bruxelle
I didn't take so many photos this time - I seem to be out of the habit. Which is a shame, as I did see so many things I loved the look of. I do like this area of Europe very much.
- The driver was one of the most informative we have ever had
- The driver rearranged a couple of the days so we could see more/spend more time in the better town
- We got a whole afternoon in Brugge
- I bought sock yarn
- The hotel had a pool, jacuzzi, steam room and sauna
- The food was very good
- Cheap wine in the Netherlands
- Lille was very disappointing
- I couldn't swim before breakfast as the pool didn't open til 9!
- The clog place in Sluis was a waste of space
- The hotel bar was *so* expensive
John (the driver) swapped Lille and Brugge round on the first day, which did mean I didn't get to buy any yarn in Lille, as we only made it to Anny Blatt, and that was closed on monday mornings :( But otherwise it was the right amount of time as the Market there was very small (the big wheel is, however, very, very big)
I was disappointed not to have a full day in Brugge, but it was lovely to have longer there than we have ever had before - we managed to go to both markets and to Hema.
The optional trip to Sluis was ok. The drive through the countryside with John's commentary was very interesting - Sluis itself was a nice Netherlands town (with very cheap wine in the supermarket), but the clog place we had ostensibly be taken to visit was crap. The bloke couldn't be bothered to demonstrate clog making to us, but still seemed offended when we didn't buy the tat in his shop. We got back in time for me to have a swim in the hotel pool - which was so dinky! Still I did feel better afterwards
We didn't do the guided coach tour of Bruxelle, as we wanted more time in the city, but it didn't matter, as we had the guide with us from leaving Ostend, so we had lots of tour on the way into, and out of Bruxelle, which was very interesting. The most disappointing thing was the lack of disabled access to the town museum, meaning Mum couldn't go to see the costumes of the Manneken Pis.
You could really tell that for all we went to 3 countries, that they are in fact all Flanders, as the architecture was so similar between all the places:
Lille
Brugge
Bruxelle
I didn't take so many photos this time - I seem to be out of the habit. Which is a shame, as I did see so many things I loved the look of. I do like this area of Europe very much.