Off to Bruges/Brugge/Bruge

There appears to be some confusion about the spelling of the town's name - try booking a ticket there, when each agency has its own preference, and ignores all others.

Anyway, after a taxi to St Pancras (see previous blogs) and a Eurostar ride through the chunnel (ditto), and a local train ride (forgot to photograph) we arrived in the Market Square. 

 Very colourful, very hot, very many tourists (Sunday afternoon), but the beer was good.

 Belgian sandwiches, Belgium chips and a Belgian beer called Kwak. It comes in sort of yard-glass on a wooden frame. You grasp the vertical wooden handle (see below), tilt and drink.

 The entrance foyer to Martin's Relais, where we're staying.

 Thye view from our room.

 One of these tourist boats went past as I stood in our window, wearing only shorts. (It was very hot). Suddenly every camera on the boat was taking photos of me - I am now local colour!

 Watching the last day of the Tour and recovering from the heat.

 Ditto Cathy, but she can multi-task.

 Swans a la Bruges.

 This appears to be your standard Bruges bookshop.

Hold back the walls. (I am NOT paranoid).

 It cooled down so we went out and found a lovely square with a restaurant.

 This is a long spoon .........

 ..... to eat a long-delayed creme brulee .......

 ............ which like all the glories of this world, was transient.

 Bruges philosophy.

 Bookgrocer obviously isn't the only one to open new shops. Well done on the new boutique, Ruth.

 Walking home past some Bruges houses.

Home at last.

 La nuit s'avance

Sights around Putney

Putney Bridge under repair. You can still walk across it, but all other traffic is chaotic.

 It's not Oscar and Lucinda (friends of ours from Melbourne) but it looks just like them.

The mainline, with the ruins of an old branch line bridge across it.

 Same, same.

 Power distribution in the streets of Putney.

 District Line bridge.

 Same bridge with District Line tube.

 Putney skyline. Putney has the highest birthrate in all Europe, and the building rate is not far behind that.

A Surprise Visit

Christine and Phoebe Rafty happened to be in London for a couple of days, and caught the tube down to Putney to have lunch by the river.

 Lunch proceeded smoothly until the scene stealer woke up.

 And then she said  .............

 Putney railway bridge with some loose Aussies in the foreground.

 "Now tell me all about it".

Lissy in London

 A momentous day: Lissy is presented with a bottle of breast milk ......... 

 ...... which she thinks 'isn't too bad'.

 She doesn't look too unhappy, and she certainly isn't starving.

She's always ready for an outing. We spent several days this week house hunting, and Lissy's comments were always appreciated.

 The sun's a bit bright, but we can fix that.

 The shades also hide her eyes, so the estate agents have no idea of her true reaction to the houses being viewed.

 After a hard morning's work, lunch at a Pret  ................

 .... then home for some quiet reading. She is looking at Jen's book on My Family (after Anne Porter)

    Hmmmmm. Where am I?

 Breakfast in Putney.

 All done up for another outing. No wonder she sleeps so well.

 Sorry. These next are just repetitions with no obvious point.

 As are these!