Old Man Down The Road

And so we reach our last day in the land of the Flems. Despite the calamity of yesterday it's been a really pleasant trip, nice people, nice food and a really comfy bed. As one does when one has had breakfast we packed and checked out. I reminded the concierge that the last time we stayed that he said he hoped that we would return and, if we did, he would let me have one of the Klimt sketches that was in the lounge. Despite racking his brain he was unable to recall the conversation and, based on that, he wouldn't be able to let me have it. Well, I had to try.

I had promised 3M that we would go to the Diamond museum and, to be honest, I really didn't fancy it. But it turned out to be very interesting. We didn't go to the lecture on cutting and polishing diamonds (neither of us really wanted to) but I managed to get more answers to my questions about Bruges than I did at the wretched Historium exhibition. Well worth a visit if you go to Bruges.

We went for a light lunch and when the waitress approached our table she let out a little squeal and stepped back. Why? She thought Bullseye, who was in my shoulder bag with his head and front legs hanging out, was real. Really? In Bruges where there are as many dogs as there are people? She thought a tatty and battered knitted dog was real? Well, needless to say, 3M's ego bounced through the roof. And I can't say I blame her, it's good when people see how well she knits.

When we left the café I noticed a shop that had lots of pottery dogs of all breeds in the window. Having begged and grovelled to my finance director she finally agreed to let me buy a couple, as long as we had enough money for the car park. Tchah! Who cares about that? But I've got the ones I wanted. There was also a very nice model of a Schnauzer in there that somebody who occasionally looks at my Blips would have loved.

Walked back to the car-park. Have I mentioned we really like the Centrum car-park? It's great. It's got hundreds of spaces and is usually quite full but what they have is a little light above each space; if it's red, it's occupied, green means it's vacant so you can look down all the lanes and see if a space is free without having to drive round and round looking for one. A simple idea and a wonderful time-saver. But, as always, I digress. On the walk back we were going to call into Sint-Salvators Kathedraal as I wanted to see the Martyrdom of St. Hippolytus by Dieric Bouts, a triptych completed by Hugo van der Goes. Of course, as I wanted to see it, the cathedral was shut. C'est la vie, as they say in Albania. No matter, 3M created her own work of art above with a pic of me waddling towards the cathedral with Bullseye trying to chew through the strap of my bag,

And now we're on the ferry, destination Hull. Ah well, at least we're not stopping there.