Brugge

In a nutshell, we did a boat tour, wandered around, ate some chocolate, went to the Flemish Primitives museum and saw some amazing paintings, saw a massive medieval procession, saw a Michael Angelo statue in the Church of the Holy Mary, ate mussels, drank Belgian beer and got bit by many many muggies in a cheap hotel called the Central, which was, very central but the room was teeny tiny and the walls were covered in smears that were once muggies.
It was a lovely couple of days, we really felt like we were on holiday, even if it was only a couple of days. The medieval procession was a once in 5 years lucky bonus. With 70 odd different bits that went past, we got to see the entire history of Brugge laid out in front of us. I'm glad we read the history bit in the guide book as this helped it to all make sense. For example, the swans in the parade referred to a power struggle where the Mayor of Brugge, whose coat of arms included a swan, when they killed him and took his power, the successor said there must always be swans in Brugge and to this day there are. Sick eh?