Still In Bruges

Up here in my attic bedroom I listened to the rain falling on the roof most of the night. It continued into the morning so I decided to wait for it to clear before venturing forth today.

Thought a change of scenery was in order and took myself off to explore the canal which surrounds the city and it's park-like banks.

Filled my lungs with beautiful fresh oxygen and that lovely scent after rain. Didn't even have to wait to take photos without other humans in the frame. For the first hour or so I hardly passed a soul.

I'm still astonished at the age and condition of the buildings here. Most date from the 1600's and they are remarkably well preserved. It is obvious that maintenance is an ongoing thing and the owners take pride in their buildings. I guess that is why it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

A bevy of swans live in the town and they share the canals happily with the tourist boats. There is one particular area of bank that they appear to use as their dry dock. Spotted it yesterday in the boat and fortuitously came across it on my wanderings today.

The swans don't appear to pay any attention to the tourists photographing them and they also seem happy to share their canal bank with the ducks.

Something that became more apparent to me today was the groups of

tourists being led around town by a flag bearing leader. These groups gather all over the place and then follow their 'leader' like a flock of sheep at a pretty fast clip, never pausing to explore anything that might interest them personally. Oh, how awful that must be.

Treated myself to dinner in a nice restaurant tonight and watched even more of these sad groups being led about. Thinking to myself, how wonderful my own experience has been. I chatted to a local in a shop about those poor folk and said how much I enjoyed my casual journey and having the opportunity to meet and talk with locals. He said they were bad for business too because they were marched right past all of the small independent traders and taken to the more commercial establishments.

I have enjoyed staying here at the Montovani Hotel. The climb to the top of the building is a bit of a workout for me but once I am up here

it is peaceful and quiet. Breakfast has been good and the coffee is extra special. I have had 4 cups each morning.

I am so pleased I had the opportunity to come to Bruges. It wasn't part of the original plan but poor Ari's accident led me here. I would have missed it otherwise, so I have had the chance to make a 'silk purse out of a sow's ear' as mum would have said.

The first two small pics below are where I dined tonight. Notice the red letterbox in the street. Sky and Ruby, that is where your next post cards are coming from. The statues and fountain are in the square in front of the restaurant. I am thinking about sitting there tomorrow morning sipping something pleasant and watching the world go by while I wait to catch my afternoon train back to Brussels and my reunion with the invalid.