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I’m just on my way to Bruges now after having ordered a return ticket and enquired which platform the train departs from, all in French. I do struggle a bit with mimicking the accent but I think that’s partly because I resent having to.

You see it’s perfectly acceptable for David Ginola to turn up on Match of The Day’s World Cup coverage, flick his flowing locks a few times, wink at Des and then proceed to knock out excellent standard English but with a completely blatant French accent. So why is the reverse considered uncouth. I’d love to be fluent but say everything in a ‘mad for it style’, that’d get right on their nerves.

26 Euros for a return, not too bad but maybe a little pricey when it’s only an hour away. It may transpire that it could work out to be cheaper to have got an interrail ticket, or a series of different interrail tickets. The problem is with the amount of complicated options available married to the endless possibilities and variables of my route, it’s basically a bastard to work out. So I’m winging it and hoping I get lucky.

The first place I visited was the Our Lady’s Church with the building itself being pretty good but the paintings, sculptures and carvings it houses being the real treat. There was one 16th century sculpture of The Madonna (I knew mad Madge was getting on a bit but that shocked me that did) and Child by Michelangelo that was particularly good.

After that I went up The Belfort which should be 8 Euros to over 25s but the lady decided to charge me the under 25s price of 4 Euros so I wasn’t complaining. It was quite the walk up the 366 steps in cramped conditions but it gave a good view of the city rooftops when I finally got there. Just before the top I had a little rest in a small room as there was a sign up saying the different tunes that would be played every quarter hour by the bell I think (but that doesn’t sound right?), anyway at half past it was supposed to be ‘Oh Danny Boy’ and it was only 5 minutes off so I hung about, it never materialised though.

Next up I had a look round the Salvador Dali Museum-Gallery adjacent to the Belfry, 8 Euros in on a student card. It was quite small so I wasn’t there too long but I enjoyed it, surrealism appeals to me.

Lastly I sampled a little bag of authentic Belgian chocolates from Chocolaterie De Burg. Yum and yum once more is all I can say, beaut they was.

So all in all even though I was only there a short while I managed to squeeze a fair bit in and I warmed to Bruges. It’s a very pretty city but still nothing has come close to the beauty of Praha for me.

The journey home doesn’t look like it’s going to be much fun, the aisles of a pretty long train are jam packed never mind the seating and there is a baby screaming like I’ve never heard, I reckon it’s possessed. Still, only an hour. Actually, a load of people have got off in Gent so my gluteus maximus is now happily parked on a seat.

PS I know it’s a lame post title today but since when has that bothered me, or you. I don’t even like the flick.