… cold and wet day today.
But it was a bad night for me, because although I’d settled down to relax in some kind of comfort, the wind must have changed during the night. There’s an air vent in the bathroom with a cap that’s presumably above roof level, and the wind must have turned to go underneath it because the rattling came right down into the bathroom at about 03:15.
That kept me awake for hours, it seemed like, and I don’t remember going back to sleep after that.
Nevertheless when the alarm went off I eventually managed to crawl out of the bed and into the shower. And then I was downstairs to breakfast at 08:00. Following that, I wandered over to the station to buy a couple of rail tickets.
At 09:30 Hannah came round and we went off to explore the market – there’s a huge market here outside the Gare du Midi on a Sunday morning. But at 11:00 we were on the railway station platform for the train coming from Leuven to Oostende. Alison was already on board, and we joined her for our journey to Bruges.
It had been beautiful in Brussels but by the time that we reached Bruges it was teeming down. Nevertheless we hit the streets and swam up to the city centre.
We had a beautiful day around the town despite the weather. Alison and Hannah even climbed up to the top of the belfry, all 366 steps of it, and I would have liked to have gone up too, but I have to be realistic.
The day ended with us in a restaurant in a side-street. It catered for people with different allergies and our meals were delicious. Hannah and I had coconut curry and Alison had a polenta lasagna.
We arrived at the railway station at the same time as a train to Leuven so we hopped on board. And now I’m back in the hotel. Totally exhausted.
Hannah leaves tomorrow afternoon and then I’m going to sleep for a week.
