In Bruges

Day 1 - Saturday 16 May - leaving Australia
Rhonda and I left Canberra on a fairly cold morning - chauffeured to the airport by a friend, Mary Howell.
A short flight to Sydney and we were ready for some serious pre-flight bubbly in the Qantas Club with John and Lea, before they flew out on Cathay Pacific.

Enjoying bubbly in the Sydney International Qantas lounge with John and Lea

We were, however, to learn just how far the Qantas obsession with cost cutting has gone - but not until we transited through our next destination, Dubai, where we had a 3 1/2 hour stopover.  The bubbly in Sydney was OK, but nothing to write a blog about.  The bubbly provided by Emirates was worthy of comment - Moet et Chandon.  Score one to Emirates.

We had requested an upgrade by Qantas from economy class using frequent flyer points for our flight to Dubai, but sadly we didn't get the upgrade.  We were very lucky in Dubai in being given an upgrade by Emirates to business class, even though we didn't request one.  Score two to Emirates.

The quality of the seating in Emirates business class was fantastic (I can't say it was first class, because there was a first class), as you can see from the photo of my seat below.  Score three to Emirates.

Emirates business-class seat

The standard of service on Emirates was superb, and the cabin crew were very friendly and helpful (mind you, we were in business class).  Early in the flight from Dubai to Paris, Rhonda and I went to the bar at the back of the business class section.  It was rather comfortable.

Enjoying a Veuve Clicquot - even better that Moet

We had a lovely chat with Sharon, an Irish girl who was working as a hostess while taking a break from social work.  She was lovely and showed Rhonda how to wear the hostess headdress.  Score four to Emirates.

Enjoying the business class bar on our Emirates A380 with Sharon

I haven't even mentioned the gourmet in-flight dining and complimentary toiletries bag with Bulgari products!  Slam dunk to Emirates.

Day 2 - Sunday 17 may - Paris to Bruges
It was almost disappointing to arrive at Paris Charles de Gaul airport, but we had to keep moving.  A short walk took us to the TGV train station at the airport where we caught our train to Brussels.  A brief (less than 2 hours) trip at 300 kph saw us in Brussels where we transferred to a slow train for the one hour trip to Bruges, arriving at 2pm.  We checked in to the Grand Hotel Casselbergh (it really is grand, our room is below).

Our room - there are other bits not shown

We soon met up with John and Lea and set out together to explore the shortest route to a café serving crepes and waffles for afternoon tea.  Apologies to Lea for catching her mid-bite.

Bruges is very picturesque, and filled with historic buildings, chocolate shops (that's shops selling chocolates, not shops made out of chocolate, in case you were wondering), cafes and restaurants, lace shops, museums, chocolate shops and more chocolate shops.  We did a short walk around before heading back to the hotel.

Scenic canal near out hotel

Back at the hotel we met up with more travelling companions, Peter and Lyn, who arrived later in the afternoon.  We headed out for a fairly simple dinner, shown below, after which we walked around a bit taking in the sites.

My fairly simple dinner - it really did taste as good as it looked

The Belfry in the main square near our hotel

Eventually jet lag caught up with us and we adjourned to the bar at the hotel for a cuppa.  Soon finding it difficult to keep our eyes open, we all headed off to sleep.