 Verwood
Twinning Association coach trip to Bruges
and the "Snow
and Ice" Sculpture Festival
on the 27th to the 29th
November 2015.
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At
06:00 hrs on Friday the 27th July a group of Twinners including
friends left Pennine Way near Morrisons in Verwood on a visit to
Bruges in Belgium. They were due to catch the 09:50 Eurotunnel shuttle
but this had been re-scheduled to 10:20 for "Operational
Reasons" according to Euroshuttle.
On
arrival in Coquelles a lunch and shopping stop was made at Cite Europe
followed by a visit to a Chocolate factory.
Due
to the current issues in France (Nov/Dec 2015) delays on the motorway
when crossing the French / Belgium border amounted to 45 minutes each
way. A warning to anybody else who might be travelling this
route.
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The
Party arrived at the N H Hotel in Bruges some time after 1600 hrs. For
the rest of the free time in Bruges members of the party went their
own way visiting the main square having Carriage Rides trips on the
canals and shopping. The Christmas Market was in full swing and so was
the Ice Skating in the main square but it is not thought that anybody
took advantage of this.
At
some time during the visit most people went to the in Bruges. Ice Magic takes you into the
Belgium Cartoon world of Wanagogo Characters.
All
the walls are ice and all the characters are carved out of ice.
Although probably not well known in the UK the characters consist of
Maya and Willy, Vic the Viking and all their friends. It is
definitely a different and enjoyable experience but it is necessary
to wrap up warm as of necessity it is extremely cold. (see
http://www.icemagic.eu
)
After
an excellent breakfast members went on to discover more of Brugge and
have some lunch before departing the hotell at 15:30. After the
border delay we sailed through the Eurotunnel checks and though having
a crossing of "Q", we were ushered onto the
"O" crossing which was 1/2 an hour earlier, arriving back in
Verwood at about 21:30 time.
Our last chairman
organises these trips so why not look out for future trips. Join the
association and they will be included in the newsletter or on this
site.