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Ogri & friends - Brugge 2006
'Rally review' by Rich 18th December 2006
(photos supplied by Slim)
The annual Christmas shopping trip to Brugge always seems to come around before you know it!
Darren, who organises it, had arranged for us all to meet up at 9.30 at Clacket Lane services on the M25 (in the middle of rush hour!), then to drive down to Dover together - yes drive down in cars, it is a shopping trip after all. Most of us meet ok and arrived at Dover in plenty of time, Ogri on time - things have changed!
Following a smooth crossing we head up the motorway to Brugge. Unfortunately we needed fuel ASAP, so lost contact with the others in Calais. Not a problem as me and Aly have been before so know the way - well right up to the massive car park that is.
All is going well until the temperature gauge starts creeping up. A quick pit-stop at the next services reveals the girl is drinking lots of water and puffing white smoke - head gasket!!
We decide to carry on, only about 10 miles to go, and worry about it latter. Despite it sounding like a bag of shit we made to the underground car park but I couldn't remember how to get to the right part so we just dumped the car and walked. Arriving at the Hotel we found the others already in the Bar, surprise surprise, so quickly dumped our stuff and joined them.
First night in Brugge so that will be the Bottle Bar then the Irish Bar. First food, we all split up into small groups and hit the town. Me, Aly, Shunt & Laura find the cheap and tacky pizza place on the main square. If you get the chance to go you have to try it out, the food is good but the decor is great! We spent so long stuffing our faces that we missed out on the Bottle Bar and went straight to the Irish Bar. It's empty, what's going on. After much piss-taking from Wendy Lady at Darren's expense, it starts to fill up. On comes the entertainment, the same singer as last year who defiantly remembers us! Tef, Kay, Paul & Joy finally catch up after spending most of the day sat on the M1and the night descends into the usual round of drinking and piss-taking.
We all behaved ourselves and straight to bed with our hot chocolates, honest.
Friday, up for breakfast by 9.45, bit of a struggle. Down to the Bar to plan our day. Nicky & (mister Nicky) join us and we decide to go to the Ice Sculpture and wander off across town. This years theme was 'Ice Age 2'/Frozen Planet. It always gets me how f**king cold it is there. This year's sculptures included a slide, and yes, we just had to. Darren the whuss held onto the sides all the way down whilst Kendle nearly shot off the end. To the bar in then, schnapps on the rocks - a block of ice with a hole in the top for the drink! Numb lips. Out of the frozen tent to warm up. Someone then decided we should all go to the Chocolate Museum. Off we go traipsing off across town again. The lure of shops and food stalls proves to much for some and we end up spread out all over the main square. Where to meet up again? - That'll be a bar then! Fed and watered we head off again. Shame no-one knows where it is! Finally find it to find out that it is only a Museum with only a small tasting area that wasn't being used we I got their! Bastards. With sightseeing over we head back to the hotel to get ready for the next lot of drinking. Off to the Bottle Bar then the Irish Bar, bit of a theme going on here. Several Noel beers later and I give in to temptation of Chimay Grande Reserve. Time to leave, off to 'De Pub' - it looked good earlier. It's shit, I last 90 seconds, off to the Irish Bar. Following drinking all day I don't last long and call it a day and ably assisted by Aly head off back to the Hotel. If you want to know what happened later I'm sure their will be photos of drunken naked people somewhere!!!!!!!
I'm in shock at such lewd behaviour.
Saturday, some ill looking people at breakfast, those who made it anyway. Apparently there had been some funny noises in the night, not just my snoring (sorry Aly). So how is the chocolate front bottom Kat?. Saturday means Christmas market, right in front of the hotel. Round the market in the rain, cheap chocolate, odds and sods and 2kg of bananas later(!) we are done. We split in to two as a group lead by Darren head off to Oostende to go to the bomb shop, yes really, Jack Daniels shop and meet up with big John and others from De Klepps in the Barbeque Bar. The rest stayed in Brugge for more shopping and sightseeing. Night time means more drinking, this time we split up Me Aly, Kat, Ian (God), Kent, Lyn, Chalky, Wendy, Mr & Mrs Rick went to the Bootle Bar to get our last fix of Belgium Beer. To be responsible and make sure the drivers didn't drink to much we, the non drivers, decided to drink their drinks for them. A very responsible attitude I'm sure you would agree, well me Kent and Lyn thought so as we staggered out in the wee small hours!
Sunday and home, where did the weekend go?. Checking the weather forecast on British TV it's not looking good. Very ruff crossings, delays likely. So one sick car and Chalky's needing a bump start after the interior light stuck on! We leave first to see if we can limp the car back to Dover at least. All goes well as we slowly drive back. We meet up with the others as we go through passport control and are told there are long delays and we won't board until 13.45. We are given vouchers for 2.5 euros each and apologies. Funny really as we are booked on the 14.00 crossing. We've got over an hour to kill. Calais terminal is shit. Nothing, absolutely nothing. We get soaked walking around trying to find even a drinks machine. Coffee's crap when we do find one. Oh well, at least we've got our voucher. We board the 11.00 ferry at 13.30! saying very nice things to the car for getting us back this for. Guess what you can get on a ferry for 2.5 euros - naff all! The crossing is not as bad as we thought it would be much to the relief of Aly, Sal, Laura, & Kay. Only problem how is all the ferries are out of position and we spend over an hour waiting outside Dover for a berth to come free. Back on Blighty and we all say good-byes and head off home. Somehow the car stays together all the way back to Newbury and then on to Swindon.
The annual Brugge shopping trip is a social event that Darren has taken over from Paul Colmer that coincides with the St Nicks rally in Oostende. It's not a rally - that makes it totally different from anything else we do as a club. It is also open to non-biking people as well as non-club. Thanks go to Darren, Lyn and Paul Nelson for their efforts in organising the trip.
The above was brought to you with the hindrance of Chimay, Jack Daniels and Verborden Vrucht.
Richard
Southern Rep
Also (in absolutely no structured order)
Aly, Kent, Tonka, Darren, Lyn, Sally, Slim, Teflon, Nicky, Kat, Kay, Chris, Ian (God), Paul Nelson, Mr & Mrs Rick, Joy, Graham, Shunt, Wendy, Laura
main news page Tonka's photos
(photos supplied by Slim)
The annual Christmas shopping trip to Brugge always seems to come around before you know it!
Darren, who organises it, had arranged for us all to meet up at 9.30 at Clacket Lane services on the M25 (in the middle of rush hour!), then to drive down to Dover together - yes drive down in cars, it is a shopping trip after all. Most of us meet ok and arrived at Dover in plenty of time, Ogri on time - things have changed!
Following a smooth crossing we head up the motorway to Brugge. Unfortunately we needed fuel ASAP, so lost contact with the others in Calais. Not a problem as me and Aly have been before so know the way - well right up to the massive car park that is.
All is going well until the temperature gauge starts creeping up. A quick pit-stop at the next services reveals the girl is drinking lots of water and puffing white smoke - head gasket!!
We decide to carry on, only about 10 miles to go, and worry about it latter. Despite it sounding like a bag of shit we made to the underground car park but I couldn't remember how to get to the right part so we just dumped the car and walked. Arriving at the Hotel we found the others already in the Bar, surprise surprise, so quickly dumped our stuff and joined them.
First night in Brugge so that will be the Bottle Bar then the Irish Bar. First food, we all split up into small groups and hit the town. Me, Aly, Shunt & Laura find the cheap and tacky pizza place on the main square. If you get the chance to go you have to try it out, the food is good but the decor is great! We spent so long stuffing our faces that we missed out on the Bottle Bar and went straight to the Irish Bar. It's empty, what's going on. After much piss-taking from Wendy Lady at Darren's expense, it starts to fill up. On comes the entertainment, the same singer as last year who defiantly remembers us! Tef, Kay, Paul & Joy finally catch up after spending most of the day sat on the M1and the night descends into the usual round of drinking and piss-taking.
We all behaved ourselves and straight to bed with our hot chocolates, honest.
Friday, up for breakfast by 9.45, bit of a struggle. Down to the Bar to plan our day. Nicky & (mister Nicky) join us and we decide to go to the Ice Sculpture and wander off across town. This years theme was 'Ice Age 2'/Frozen Planet. It always gets me how f**king cold it is there. This year's sculptures included a slide, and yes, we just had to. Darren the whuss held onto the sides all the way down whilst Kendle nearly shot off the end. To the bar in then, schnapps on the rocks - a block of ice with a hole in the top for the drink! Numb lips. Out of the frozen tent to warm up. Someone then decided we should all go to the Chocolate Museum. Off we go traipsing off across town again. The lure of shops and food stalls proves to much for some and we end up spread out all over the main square. Where to meet up again? - That'll be a bar then! Fed and watered we head off again. Shame no-one knows where it is! Finally find it to find out that it is only a Museum with only a small tasting area that wasn't being used we I got their! Bastards. With sightseeing over we head back to the hotel to get ready for the next lot of drinking. Off to the Bottle Bar then the Irish Bar, bit of a theme going on here. Several Noel beers later and I give in to temptation of Chimay Grande Reserve. Time to leave, off to 'De Pub' - it looked good earlier. It's shit, I last 90 seconds, off to the Irish Bar. Following drinking all day I don't last long and call it a day and ably assisted by Aly head off back to the Hotel. If you want to know what happened later I'm sure their will be photos of drunken naked people somewhere!!!!!!!
I'm in shock at such lewd behaviour.
Saturday, some ill looking people at breakfast, those who made it anyway. Apparently there had been some funny noises in the night, not just my snoring (sorry Aly). So how is the chocolate front bottom Kat?. Saturday means Christmas market, right in front of the hotel. Round the market in the rain, cheap chocolate, odds and sods and 2kg of bananas later(!) we are done. We split in to two as a group lead by Darren head off to Oostende to go to the bomb shop, yes really, Jack Daniels shop and meet up with big John and others from De Klepps in the Barbeque Bar. The rest stayed in Brugge for more shopping and sightseeing. Night time means more drinking, this time we split up Me Aly, Kat, Ian (God), Kent, Lyn, Chalky, Wendy, Mr & Mrs Rick went to the Bootle Bar to get our last fix of Belgium Beer. To be responsible and make sure the drivers didn't drink to much we, the non drivers, decided to drink their drinks for them. A very responsible attitude I'm sure you would agree, well me Kent and Lyn thought so as we staggered out in the wee small hours!
Sunday and home, where did the weekend go?. Checking the weather forecast on British TV it's not looking good. Very ruff crossings, delays likely. So one sick car and Chalky's needing a bump start after the interior light stuck on! We leave first to see if we can limp the car back to Dover at least. All goes well as we slowly drive back. We meet up with the others as we go through passport control and are told there are long delays and we won't board until 13.45. We are given vouchers for 2.5 euros each and apologies. Funny really as we are booked on the 14.00 crossing. We've got over an hour to kill. Calais terminal is shit. Nothing, absolutely nothing. We get soaked walking around trying to find even a drinks machine. Coffee's crap when we do find one. Oh well, at least we've got our voucher. We board the 11.00 ferry at 13.30! saying very nice things to the car for getting us back this for. Guess what you can get on a ferry for 2.5 euros - naff all! The crossing is not as bad as we thought it would be much to the relief of Aly, Sal, Laura, & Kay. Only problem how is all the ferries are out of position and we spend over an hour waiting outside Dover for a berth to come free. Back on Blighty and we all say good-byes and head off home. Somehow the car stays together all the way back to Newbury and then on to Swindon.
The annual Brugge shopping trip is a social event that Darren has taken over from Paul Colmer that coincides with the St Nicks rally in Oostende. It's not a rally - that makes it totally different from anything else we do as a club. It is also open to non-biking people as well as non-club. Thanks go to Darren, Lyn and Paul Nelson for their efforts in organising the trip.
The above was brought to you with the hindrance of Chimay, Jack Daniels and Verborden Vrucht.
Richard
Southern Rep
Also (in absolutely no structured order)
Aly, Kent, Tonka, Darren, Lyn, Sally, Slim, Teflon, Nicky, Kat, Kay, Chris, Ian (God), Paul Nelson, Mr & Mrs Rick, Joy, Graham, Shunt, Wendy, Laura
main news page Tonka's photos
