TGV to Brugge

At 10am we departed from Avignon on the TGV (fast train) to Brugge. What an enjoyable way to travel through the country just sit back and relax and take it all in. Our 1st stop was Lyon for all of 5min. North of Lyon the countryside was so picturesque with beautiful rolling farmland  intensive cropping white cattle and the occasional Chateau set amongst it along with pockets of trees throughout which adds to the beauty of the French countryside. Another stop at Charles de Gaulle (Paris) and by 2.30pm we were in Brussells ~ unbelievable to go so far in such a short time.  Brussells station is so huge and was so crowded we were rather overwhelmed by where and how to get to our platform for the last hour of our journey to Brugge with only 20mins to find it and queues of people on escalators etc. However we made it but jumped on the wrong carriage as many others did and ended up standing for the first 40mins as the isle was full of others standing and you couldn't move one way or the other. There must have been a carriage half empty somewhere. In no time we were in Brugge and its another one of those WOW places. It must be one of the nicest cities I've ever visited. We checked into our lovely little hotel which is so homely feels more like a B&B then headed out around the central walkway marked on our map. It's all lace, chocolate and beautiful shoe shops and not to forget the delicious Belgium beer. We stopped at a very popular beer restaurant where they sell 400 different beers. We just asked for a light beer. The weather is rather different here ~ only 16deg and its now raining so the raincoats are out.

The central square in Brugge