10. Bruge 21st Dec 2025 to 3rd Jan 2026 Christmas and New Year

We have started using Flix bus, which whilst isn't always the most comfortable at times, it is convenient as it picks us up at Bristol Bus station and takes us all the way to Brugge train station, via Victoria bus station in London, we means we don't have to keep taking our luggage on and off too many times, and it is excellent value. It does take a good 12 hrs though.

We arrived at the boat at 5am on 22nd December and connected the water etc.. and then went to bed for a few hours. I had turned the heating on remotely when we were at Dover, so that it would be toasty warm on the boat, and it was.

Ayanna looked good. Dany had been watching over her carefully. Ayhan gave her a thorough rinse with a jet wash and we did some grocery shopping and then put up the Christmas lights on the outside and few for inside. The Marina was looking really pretty with all the boats illuminated. On the second night, we invited Rachel and Janos from 'C'savargo' for dinner on our boat, they have been so helpful and such a great source of information to us since we met them over a year ago. It was good to finally have some time together.

The forecast for our time in Bruge was cold and windy, and boy was it cold and windy. At times the wind chill factor made it feel like -12℃. We wrapped up warm and went out most days to enjoy the Christmas lights and atmosphere. As you would imagine, Bruge was buzzing with tourists and Christmas markets, .

On Christmas Day we went to the Crown Plaza in Bruge for Christmas brunch with seven other boaters, three of whom we had met before but the others not, so it was lovely to get to know some new people. The food was a delightful open buffet with oysters, lobsters, the most tender lamb I have ever tasted, desserts, cheese and so much more food that I just didn't get the chance to taste due to being full. The staff were excellent and the wine was flowing. We had a really fun time, with no stress and we were the last to leave. 🤭

Early evening we went onto one of the couples boats - Conney and Peter on Mira-Ceti - for some more drinks and nibbles. It had been a great day.

New year's day evening, we went to have drinks and nibbles on 'Sirius' with Ade and Rose plus the others that we had spent Christmas with. We had a fun evening. We have made some lovely new friends.

We spent the rest of our time enjoying Bruge and walked around the amazing light show one evening.

Keeping our boat in Bruge and staying on the boat for a Christmas and New year, had been one of the things that we had wanted to achieve whilst having our Dutch Barge, so it was great to have accomplished this. ✓😊 Looking forward to the 2026 Cruising season.