We're

ba-ack! And by gum was it was nippy in Belgium.

After a delightful night at Travelodge Kings Cross Royal Scot (really DON'T stay there - read my review on TripAdviser - its a noisy shithole) we got Eurostar to Brussels bright and early Sunday morning as planned. It was quite a comfy journey, the time whizzed past and 2 and a bit hours later we were there.

First thing we did was leave our bags at the train station and head off to the centre. There was a little Christmas Market on there so we browsed, had hot chocolate and went into the Musee de la Ville de Bruxelles just to have a look at this little chap's clothes. As promised in the guidebook, they do actually display his outfits. I particularly liked the Cosmonaut, Elvis and the Mexican Cowboy. But he had all sorts: different national dresses, schoolboy, train driver. Shame that he was all naked again when we saw him.

Then we had our first sample of Belgian food which was more of a mixture of French & Dutch it being croque monsieur and bitterballen (two of my favourite things). P doesn't really care much for bitterballens which means I can eat most of them myself he he. Then after one more wander around the beautiful main square it was back to the station, on the train and an hour later we were in Bruges.

Our hotel was much nicer than the doss house we stayed in on the previous night. Our room overlooked the pretty Japanese Garden. Although the hotel was almost fully booked it was nice and quiet and not too many other guests around. We unpacked and went for a little wander. There's not a whole lot around in this area but we did uncover a really nice little bar which served what looked like lovely food. We intended to come back for dinner on another night but when we did it was closed.

MONDAY

Next morning, on our way into the town centre we stumbled upon the 'Friet Museum'. I said 'No, it can't be' but oh yes it was. It is a museum dedicated to chips/French Fries/Frites - whatever you want to call them this place actually had potatoes displayed in glass cabinets. I mean we couldn't not go in. And we also learned the proper way to make Belgian Frites (double fried don't you know)

The Christmas Market here is a bit lame. They had all the little huts but they mostly had woolens on sale and the others sold nasty food and drinks. Later that night P had a hot chocolate with rum which almost blew her head off. It must have been all rum and no hot chocolate it was truly vile.

We had a look at the Belfry but decided that walking up the tower would most likely kill us and opted to marvel it from the ground. I'm sure the view up there was splendid! Instead we went for lunch where P had her first bucket of Moules Frites and I had Flemish Stew. I can report that both were Yum-mee!

After a few wrong turns we managed to find the Heiligbloed Basiliek (Chapel of Blood) which claims to have a phial of Christ's blood. This is a lovely little church which is tucked away in a corner of a backstreet square. It has the most amazing pulpit in the shape of the globe and is suspended high up on the wall. After that we headed off to the Chocolate Museum. I found this quite dull (not as bad as the Frites Museum though) but I did like looking at all the old chocolate wrappers and packaging. There was a chef on hand to display how to make praline. Belgium is a bit like chocolate aversion therapy because after one day of seeing a chocolate shop literally every 3 yards you can't bear it any longer.

Back at the hotel we decided that it would be just rude to not make use of the facilities so we booked ourselves into the sauna, jacuzzi and steam room. Armed with big fluffy bathrobes and armfuls of towels we unlocked the door and hooray! we were the only people in there. Yay I could skip around naked which is so much more relaxing! An hour and a half later we emerged deep cleaned and totally relaxed.

TUESDAY

We went back into the centre and had another wander around a slightly different area so we could visit Onze Lieve Vrouwerkerk (The Church of Our Lady). I really liked it in there. They had music playing through the speakers which added to the atmosphere. P said it was a Tozet (or however you spell it) which you just sing or play (this one was string music) over and over. Whatever it was I really liked it.

The Groeninge Museum has Hieronymus Bosch's Last Judgement on display and I wanted to see is so off we went. I really liked this museum and saw some wonderful paintings by artists who were new to me and who I'll investigate further.

After lunch we visited St Salvator-kathedraal. It has some truly amazing artwork in there. I found it slightly creepy but P loved it.

That evening we went to Winter Wonderland. P was most eager to go here. I definitely had my doubts. Mainly because it was kept at a constant -6 degrees so that the ice sculptures don't melt. In actual fact it was a nice thing to visit. It was just a big room made from ice which was full of ice sculptures. And there was a bar where we felt it was for the best to drink a shot of vodka from a hollowed out ice cube.

WEDNESDAY

Our last day so it was back to Brussels for us where once again we put our bags in the left luggage and headed off into the town centre for one more wander and lunch. I had oysters for the first time and can report that they are most acceptable and as such have been added to my list of Food I Like.

Some last minute shopping (well it is actually illegal to refuse to bring chocolate back from Belgium isn't it?) and one last drink in a quaint bar on the square it was back on Eurostar for us. The journey was going quite nicely thank you until we stopped at Lille where at least 2 thousand screaming brats embarked all sugared up and hyper after their treat to EuroDisney. Little bastards. I don't think kids actually like Mikey Mouse and all that crap. I know I wasn't that interested when I was a kid. My theory is that parents think that this is something their spawn will like and take them whether they express an interest to go or not. Its just down to Disney's marketing which goes along the lines of 'Children who are deprived of a visit to DisneyLand will grow up to be crack addicts and wife beaters'. Honestly. Just look at the advert.

Anyway we had a v. nice time in Brussels/Bruges. We did loads of stuff but never felt like we were rushing around.

Next stop: BARCELONA New Year's Eve. Yeee-har!