Hot in Bruges

We had a tasty dinner last night and a convivial evening on the ferry including a lively game of bingo. The pupils were well behaved and pleasant. It was exciting to go to sleep in our little cabin feeling the gentle motion of the sea as we sailed south towards Zeebrugge. I slept really well and felt refreshed after a surprisingly good shower in our tiny ensuite toilet. Our first stop was at Bruges where we had a lovely morning. I love Bruges! We wandered around the streets looking at the medieval buildings and all the chocolate shops and ended up having drinks in the gorgeous market square which is overlooked by the cathedral. It was extremely warm and sitting outside in such a beautiful setting was idyllic. I would definitely like to go back and explore the town more. We headed off to our next destination which was Ostend for our next concert. I thought it would just be a big port but in fact it has nice shopping streets and lots of street cafés. Our concert was in a large square on a rather magnificent bandstand. We needed a converter plug for the keyboard and we had left all our convertors on the bus so I nipped off to a hardware shop to get one and helped find the right socket with Richie. I felt pleased to be useful because the music teachers are all making me feel very welcome. After another brilliant concert and coffee in a great wee Belgian bar (very traditional with polished dark wood) we set off on our travels again, this time to Paris. I read my current book for a while but soon followed my colleagues into the Land of Nod. Dinner was on the way at a "Flunch" (a cafeteria-style restaurant) in Compiègnes, delayed by our inability to locate said eatery among the plethora of retail parks in the area. When we eventually arrived the ordering system was initially a bit confusing to us Scottish people but we got the hang of it, luckily because I believe that we will be dining in more "Flunches" before the week is out! Anyway we have now arrived at our hotel so I will go and unpack with Audrey my lovely "roomie."