Chocolate heaven (and the beer's quite good too)

Visit to Brugge, 24 - 26 November, 2006

So I'm in Brugge and a lovely time I'm having to be sure. The beer (yes beer, sorry gin fans) is flowing smoothly and the chocolate is crumbling nicely, and then, joy of joys, we (GSG is accompanied by vodkaslut, whiskeydiva, and minesalager) discover chocolate/vanilla/assorted fruit flavoured gins! What could round off your first night on a binge-drinking voyage to a foreign city (no rowdiness mind, this all innocent fun) any better? The Belgians have got Christmas sorted - non of that 'win a teddy bear' nonsense in their winter fayres, oh no, they go for the straight up, 'come get your alcohol' type vendors. Hurrah for the plain-speaking Belgians!

Alcohol is good, I think that's the message I take away from my visit. Not that there aren't lots of cultural sites to visit and enjoy also- our boat trip along the canal on our last day was very enjoyable, and the Chocolate Museum was also very palatable (in every way), but basically, it's all about sensory enjoyment- 'Fill your face and drink to you can't say Aberystwyth' that's the message. 'Abstinence?', well its a wierd, puritanical British invention. Yes, over the long weekend I was there, I enjoyed more beer than I've ever drank before in the rest of my life put together, ever, and I consider that an accomplishment. I'm converted (or more broad-minded depending how you look at it)! Beer is wonderful, especially the dark stuff- Westmalle was a favourite I remember.

I particularly reccomend the 'pub of 300 beers' which was, ahem, appropriately named, and also Café Vlissinghe, the oldest pub in Brugge, which is about 400 years old, and stayed open especially for us it seemed (except for a couple of old men playing chess all evening in an authentic Belgian/Dutch way). The Belgians are extremely accomodating in their permissiveness and tolerence of drunk British people we found. They didn't even mind taking our photo for us, although we were all rather red-faced and 'deep in the mire' at the time. God Bless. GSG.