In Brugges

After a ridiculously early start to wander down to Cleopatra's Needle on the Embankment from the travelodge, we are on the bus and chatting to new acquaintances.
These new folks will become the most familiar faces to us over the next 13 weeks. The time whizzes by on our way down to Dover as we exchange polite conversation, have question and answer sessions on why we are on the trip and gain snippets of background on each other (and try and remember names).
The ferry crossing is smooth to Calais and we are back there in less than a week... to the port we left on a cold and blustery day less than a week ago. This time we are only in France for a couple of hours so dozing comes easily after the 5am wake up call.
We arrive at our first hostel of the trip (Charlie Rockets) and have a short wander around Brugge prior to joining about a dozen of our fellow bus-mates on a short cycle ride around the city.
We gain a better insight with the cycle owner including some history on the architecture, buildings, etc. Some of his stories are even true we're sure. One of the things he points out are the ancient church spires that are fixed to the ground at various points as we travel around. These were apparently taken down during WW2 as they were aiding the Germans to navigate around. However, once removed, they were not replaced on top of their original homes, and now they are part of the street furniture. The final part of the ride takes us around the city outskirts (the ramparts) where we see windmills and wait for boats who are visiting Brugge to pass under a bridge that rises on a simple, yet effective wire rope mechanism.
Despite the myriad of chocolatiers, waffles and other fantastic sweet smells coming from a host of eating establishments, we opt for frites and mayo on one of the main squares where we'd 'enjoyed' a local band playing earlier in the afternoon. Then as the evening sun changes the colours on the tops of the buildings, we make our way back to the main group for our first night of hostel living (and are thankful that tonight we are sharing a double room).