Once again, I am working with my good friend Lorraine this week and I'm looking forward to a few days in the very beautiful city of Bruges. We left the yard at 5:00am setting off for Dover and our ferry. Most people slept most of the way, we had a quick stop at motorway services because I was in need of a big fat dose of caffeine, then most people were sleeping again. We had a smooth crossing across the channel and both Lorraine and I had a steak breakfast, nom nom!
We headed straight for our hotel and arrived at 1430 hrs. We are staying in the Hotel Portinari which is in a good position on one of the city's central squares and only a short walk from the very central market square and the cathedral. We have a few ladies travelling alone and so mostly for them, but also for anyone else who wanted, we offered everyone to join us for dinner this evening in a little restaurant which Lorraine has used before because after such a long day and maybe not yet making friends, they may not be wanting to go looking for somewhere to eat in a city they don't know. So a total of 12 of us set off for dinner. The conversation was not particularly exciting but Lorraine and I managed to throw in a couple of one liners to liven things up, to the horror of mrs librarian who is rather straight laced, prim and proper. But her reactions just added to the amusement!
One lady who came with us, who I haven't decided on a name for yet, sent her meal back because she didn't want dressing on her salad but, she wasn't very polite about it. When the waiter was equally as impolite back, she pulled him up on it, saying that he shouldn't be speaking to her in that way. His reply was, " with all respect madam, I am speaking to you in the way you spoke to me, and I don't deserve to be spoken to like that either." I say good for him! As the meal went on she was becoming increasingly more difficult with staff until at the end of the meal, the restaurant manager came to Lorraine and I and said thank you for bringing all these people to eat at their restaurant but please don't bring HER again! He then turned to mrs difficult and said, " you are banned madam. Don't come back!" I don't think I have ever known any of our people to be banned from anywhere and I found it quite amusing, but mrs difficult was quite upset. There were tears so I left Lorraine to deal with that one!
So we left the restaurant and Lorraine and I headed for a bar for a couple of beers before returning to the hotel. I like Kriek which is cherry beer and very lovely! So I'm now in my very nice room with a not nice single bed which means putting the mattress on the floor again and I have spotted a mosquito buzzing around so that one will have to be squished before sleep. So after a long, tiring, relatively uneventful day I will wish you all goodnight.
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