Arrived after a 6 hour ride to an overcast sky but at least we have stayed dry on all our journeys, bar 1 so far this tour! Colin and I are taking bets that we'll get wet returning from Hull; he is saying it will be dry and I'm saying it will rain( he has probably seen the weather forecast on the IPad!).

For the first time this holiday our communication system failed us when we got on the bike this morning which meant that not only couldn't we talk (although I have to say we don't chat a lot when riding, as I prefer to let him concentrate on the road!), but Colin couldn't hear the sat nav and when the sun shone on the screen he couldn't see where we were supposed to be going! I suggested that it was a problem in our helmets but Colin thought it was because it had been raining and perhaps the contacts had got wet. So we travelled for about an hour and then when we stopped for coffee he noticed that the wires were hanging out of his helmet- when he put them back the system worked! I did tell him "I told you so!" and he admitted that I had been right!

The change between the 2 countries was hardly noticeable, if we hadn't spotted the Belgique sign on the road side we would have been hard pressed to say we had entered our 13th country.

The houses as we passed further on became brick built which we haven't come across before. Brugge has a very small centre with almost all of its popular tourist attractions clustered within about a 30 minute walk.The hotel receptionist had warned us not to have anything to eat or drink in the main squares as it was very expensive and as we looked at the menus of Mussels and chips for 24 euros we agreed! We managed to find a little cafe where 2 meals and 2 beers cost less than 20 euros so of course Colin was more than happy; we then went to the Carrefour supermarket and got a bar of nougat and some biscuits for pudding - nothing but the highlife for us!

As we carried on walking round it started to rain so we decided to head back to the hotel bar, on the way we ducked into a hostel bar where we spotted a Z900, this was the bike Colin had many years ago so he got all nostalgic! On our way back to the hotel once more, a car pulled up and the lady asked if we spoke English; in a very posh voice Colin replied he did and the bloke said "Thank God, you're English" and the lady asked if we knew where this street was and then the lady said they were looking for the Hotel Flanders, which is our hotel and was just behind them on the street but of course it was one way! She said they had been driving around for 2 hours looking for it! After we had got back to the hotel and been up to our room we met the man as we were coming down to the bar and he blamed his wife's navigating!

We have sampled a few Belgium beers as we felt it would be rude not to, as in other countries we have always drunk or eaten their traditional and local food and drink! What I like about the Belgium beer, is that each one has it's own particular shaped glass; I can't imagine how large their glass cabinets are in their homes or perhaps they settle of 1 or 2 they prefer and have the glasses to suit them!