We awoke to lightly clouded morning, with a few more clouds coming in by the afternoon. Overall again a pleasant day for sight seeing  as today we visited Ghent in the morning and Brugges in the afternoon. 

Again breakfast was welcome and every day we say we are coming down earlier to enjoy it at a leisurely pace rather rising to make the first onshore excursion. We left the ship and boarded the coaches waiting on the dock and were welcomes by local experts to show us the city of Ghent, partly by coach and partly  on foot…. Cobblestones! 

For those who stayed on board (not us) they sailed through Erneuzen – Ghent Canal and Westerschelde which is an inlet of the North Sea. The Terneuzen – Ghent Canal is a man-made connection between the Westerschelde and Ghent. 

In the afternoon we visited one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. This well-preserved medieval city is a delight for the eye. A canal boat cruise is part of the experience! 

• Markt square best viewed from the exquisite 285-foot-high tower (366 steps!) (we DID NOT do this) of the late-Gothic Belfort above the medieval trading halls, this large square is flanked by the 19th.century home of the West Flanders parliament and many street cafes.
• Burg the smaller but finer, this square includes the  Holy  Blood Basilica, a two-story church going back to the 12th century containing a reliquary purporting to hold a phial of Christ’s blood. No less impressive, the Stadhuis is Belgium’s oldest City Hall (1376, with 15th.century facade).
• Groening Museum.Home to one of the world’s finest collections of Dutch art, this has wonderful works by ‘Flemish Primitives’ like van Eyck, Memling and Bruegel.
• Memling Museum located in a medieval hospital, this presents six masterpieces by Hans Memling,as well as changing exhibitions. Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk the Gothic Church of Our Lady is notable for containing a small sculpture (Madonna and Child) by Michelangelo as well as the magnificent 15″‘-century gilded tombs of Charles the Bold and his daughter, Mary. 
• Begijnhof  which is close to the many pleasant cafes of Wijngaard­ plein, the Beguinage is a charming convent founded in 1245 that is now occupied by Benedictine nuns.

Flanders emerged as an important producer of lace(kant) during the 16th century. Made from threads of linen produced from locally grow n flax or silk, such filigree yet surprisingly tough patterned textiles were produced exclusively by hand until the 19th century, when machine made products using cheaper cotton swamped the market. In cities like Bruges, though. many shops have exquisite lace made in the traditional manner which is a highly skilled procedure involving braiding and crossing bobbins around pins stuck into a pattern. 

Such a pretty place that I am keen to visit again with more time to explore and enjoy it’ character and charm. With more time it would be a shoppers paradise only to be followed by great food to satisfy the appetite built up exploring the wonderful little stores. Belgian beer is an inexhaustible subject, apparently one can quickly get a good grounding by taking a guided tour of the small brewery so this is a must do for next time for me.

One thing is to be sure, this cruise is not going to be as relaxing as I imagined.  

http://www.traveleurope.com/ This is an accommodation booking site worked really well all hotel matched descriptions and were expecting us on arrival.

http://www.viator.com/ This is a tourist attraction booking sites . We booked our Vatican tour with this site prior to leaving. It was excellent and highly recommended. Used for Hop on Hop off pre bookings London Eye tickets.

We arrived on time Sunday night. Cleared customs quickly. Sarah was waiting to collect us and we were pleased to see home at about 9.30pm. Thanks to everyone for checking out our blog during the trip. I am going to continue to upload some pics etc for a little while for anyone that is interested.

Thanks again Ange

We decided to start out walking towards the Opera area, picking up the bus again and heading to the Eiffel Tower. Madness had set in and we lined up for two+ hours to take the lift to the second level(another hour wait to go to the top..mad but not that mad…save top for next trip) The views were truly spectacular and we spent a long time checking out the views with what seemed like everyone else in Paris. Can’t remember the statistics of this construction but they were amazing. After the tower we headed to Notre Dame but first things first lunch, French Onion soup followed by superb steak for me… no dinner needed again tonight. We spent some time looking around the square in front of Notre Dame. Fatigue and cold was starting to set in so we climbed aboard the trusty bus to headed back to Opera area(stop nearest our hotel) A cab home was the answer to tired legs. The peak hour traffic, the drivers driving skills and constant streams of abuse of the other drivers in French. She seemed like a nice lady but boy did she give to the other taxi drivers when they grid locked a roundabout. An enjoyable day.

We arrived in Paris from Nice on the train (TVG train) at 11.30pm after a 51/2 hours on the most comfortable train I have ever been on. The countryside was very beautiful and as it didn’t get dark until nine we saw more than we expected. Paris is terrific we walked for miles on our first day from our hotel (near Sacré Coeur Catholic basilica) to the Arc de Triomphe. The monument was so much bigger than I expected and the roundabout is crazy. Driving would be a risky business at the best of times. Cutting drivers off is no problem ….the more cars you can cut off the better driver you are, it seems.
We boarded the Hop on Hop off bus and spent the rest of the day on the bus. This was a good opportunity to get our bearings and decide on what to do on day 2. We had a late lunch and didn’t need dinner. No Escargot or frogs legs but I did have the best French Onion soup ever(leaves my version for dead, maybe I can recreate at home). Our hotel is very comfortable and the staff are helpful and friendly. Couldn’t swing a cat in the breakfast room but food was good and worth lining up for.

Will upload Paris info later today…..no time now.

Leaving Paris today for Heathrow and overnight St Giles Hotel. Leave for Sydney lunchtime Saturday arriving at 7pm Sunday and will take a couple of hours to clear customs. All well …….

It was pouring when we got up, the first really wet day since we left home. There have been days with odd showers and misty rain but today it was heavy rain for much of the day. We still headed out and walked along the beach and up and down a lot of the streets along the waterfront. Every street has shops in it and there is evidence that in the summer it would be a very busy place. After braving the rain for most of the morning we gave up and headed for a shopping centre for a look around and something to eat and drink. We were all feeling the cold abit and need sustenance to keep going. At about 3 we were due back at the hotel to collect our bags and head to the station. We were booked on the 5.30 train (TVG -Very fast train) to Paris. After freezing at the station we finally boarded the most comfortable train I have ever seen let alone travelled on. Better still as it was a late train there were many empty seats, the carriage had hardly anyone in it all. As it was daylight until almost nine we again were able to see much of the countryside and the start of the journey was again along the coast passing through Cannes. We arrived in Paris at 11.30pm and were tucked up in the Hotel Bellevue by midnight.