Across the Pond

We were finally on the home stretch of our adventure and spent our last night on the European continent in the historic city of Bruges, in Belgium. I had heard Bruges described as being 'authentically old' and this is true.

 The 17th and 18th century buildings feature the decorative Dutch gabled facades of The Netherlands. Flemish is spoken by people in the northern areas of Belgium, whereas the French language is dominant in the south.

With daylight fading fast, we chose a horse and carriage ride to take us around the town. The variety of architecture is rather like Brussels, but on a smaller scale. 

There is a also canal system in Bruges, although it is not as extensive as that of Amsterdam. I don't think I could ever tire of seeing swans on the water. They are so graceful.

 We felt like we had stepped back in time several hundred years when we explored the back streets of the old town.

This was the view directly opposite our hotel, which was a converted canal house.

We chose Bruges for our last night as it was less than 2 hours drive to Calais, where we had to board the P&O Ferry the next day, for the channel crossing back to the United Kingdom. Here are the last of the trucks boarding the ferry.

It was an overcast and gloomy day, but there was no rain. These are unmistakably the chalky white cliffs of Dover.

We never let a tourist opportunity go begging, so we decided to visit Canterbury. The cathedral was too big and grand to fit into one shot.

I had promised myself that I wouldn't take any more pictures of church interiors or ceilings, but the turquoise colour inside this one was exquisite.

The charming period houses were straight out of a storybook.

We drove through the quaint little villages of Stow on Wold and Burford, on our way to Oxford - home of the famous university. Oxford pictures will be published in the next post.