I’ve decided that because I love Christmas so much, I’d like to see a new Christmas market every year. For 2015 we’re about to book Bath, purely based on how much effort goes into the Bath Christmas Market website and the beautiful guides that they send me in the post. And for 2014 we decided on Bruges by train, both times with G’s parents, which I think makes a lovely new Christmas tradition, our other new one being ice skating with my family on Christmas Eve.

Bruges 2014

Up at the crack of dawn, we grabbed the first train into St Pancras station and from there took the Eurostar to Brussels. After a bit of wandering and fannying we had time for a quick drink in a packed bar (this was first thing in the morning, mind) before we caught our connecting train the rest of the way to Bruges. All I remember from the journey there was my ears popping, cheese sarnies, and lots of naps under a blanket of scarves.

When we pulled up in Bruges, we hopped into a taxi, dropped our bits off at our hotel, then went for a wander into the city centre. I didn’t know what to expect from Bruges really - I definitely didn’t know it has canals, which was a lovely surprise - and the cobbled streets and medieval buildings were absolutely stunning, it has a really beautiful untouched, Gothic vibe to it. The Christmas markets that we saw had many of the usual things you’d expect (hence the lack of photos!), but another thing we didn’t know was that Bruges has many lace souvenir shops, with windows and market stalls packed full of intricate designs.

The Beer Wall

But of course, being British, we were there for the Belgian beer and chocolate. We managed to spot the famous Beer Wall, which is exactly what it sounds like. Having navigated our way across the canal and past The Wall, we were hit by a blast of hot air as we entered the bar - which is basically covered in wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor beer decor. And it’s not as simple as knowing the difference between lager, ale and stout - oh no, the Belgians take their beers much more seriously. After a whole lot of to-ing and fro-ing with the bar maid, G opted for a Leffe Blonde, a popular local pale beer, while his dad had 0% and his mum and I had gluten free. I don’t know what I was thinking - beer tastes just as awful sans gluten.

Ribs n Beer

We grabbed a shed-load of Christmas presents from the shop, including some proper Advocaat, which I don’t think I’ll be buying again in a hurry after it practically lit my throat on fire come Christmas morning. We also raided the local chocolateries for Belgian truffles and other little goodies before heading back to our hotel room and getting ready for dinner. G’s mum had done all of the research this time (we’re a real TripAdvisor-loving family…), and she’d found us a place to try called Ribs n Beer - well, you just know with a name like that it’s going to be totes amaze.

A word of caution to the Brits: DO NOT, whatever you do, go for the local recipe. G and I felt like snails shriveling up into little balls until we could take no more, at which point the manager explained that the Belgians like their food really salty and wouldn’t recommend it to tourists. At least it’s all-you-can-eat there, so we didn’t feel too bad sending our plates back. We felt even less bad when our new plates of BBQ-smothered ribs arrived, mm-mm-mmm.

Boat tours and chocolate shoes

The next day we decided to make the most of Bruges’ canals and went for a boat tour. Now, that was lovely and all, but just outside the tour’s ticket booth is a shop called The Chocolate Crown, where I saw them - chocolate shoes. I don’t think you heard me - SHOES. Made out of CHOCOLATE. Okay, so it didn’t change my life taste-wise, but just look how pretty it is.

Mid-afternoon it started to drizzle, so after popping our heads in and out of packed cafés we eventually found a restaurant tucked away down a side alley, which was larger and less busy, but dimly lit so it still felt quite cozy. Determined to try some Belgian classics, we of course all ordered waffles and hot chocolate - to hell with our intolerances! It was such a novelty to tip actual pieces of chocolate into warm milk and plop on as much (all) of the cream as you wanted.

To fill the time between “lunch” and dinner we decided to do a bus tour of Bruges. They make a real effort for tourists - there were headphones for each seat with a choice of 6 different languages, so we were able to listen to all the facts about the history and landmarks of Bruges as we whizzed around the city. Which I of course forgot the second after we stepped off the bus.

The meat sweats at El Greco

That night we (eventually) found the other restaurant that G’s mum had picked out - El Greco. Besides not being able to find the place we also had a little trouble figuring out the menu, and our table by the window was smelling a bit, howyousay, funky. Before we gave up on the place entirely, we moved to the table next to us and figured out enough to order a humungous platter of meat between the four of us, which turned out to be a total winner.

On the way home the next day we had time to wander around Brussels between trains. I won’t go too much into it - basically we grabbed another bus tour, where the driver drove way too fast, the headphones didn’t work, and we ended up hopping off early to find somewhere for lunch. At least lunch was good; upon letting our waiter know that yes, we did indeed love Belgium, he replied with: “And Belgium loves you!”

We want to visit as many European cities as possible, so we probably won’t return to many of them. I think Bruges might be one of the few exceptions, though.

What are your top tips for the next time I go to beautiful Bruges? Which is your favourite city that you would always return to given the chance?