This is a bit of a new one on me. I’m not normally one for travel reviews but I’ve been to some incredible places recently and it feels a shame not to have shared them so here goes.
I booked a P&O mini cruise from Hull for Martyn for Christmas. I thought it would be something for us both to look forward to. I booked it to depart on Valentines so that instead of going out for something to eat we could have a Titanic moment on the boat.
That did not happen.
After going through security we dropped our bags off in our cabin. I say cabin, it was more of a large wardrobe with a bunkbed. If you have never been on a mini cruise before you have to be prepared for how small the room is. We had two rucksacks and we were crowded. I obviously stuck Martyn on the top bunk because 1) it was my first time on a ferry and I didn’t know if I was going to get sea sick and 2) there was no side to it so you could fall. Despite this we had the best night sleep. Martyn loved the top bunk and I liked the not sharing the quilt! It was such a good night sleep that we genuinely considered investing in bunk beds for when we got home.
Anyway before the best sleep of our lives we ate at the ferries all you can eat buffet restaurant and it was so good. Was it worth the £21 price tag? Probably not, but I think we wouldn’t have had such a good time if we were scrimping and scraping on food. I would probably recommend paying for meals before hand so it doesn’t feel like such a huge cut out of your spending money, (plus I think its a couple of pounds cheaper if you book in advance). After tea we went down to the show bar where there was an acoustic duo performing. We were also very lucky to be sailing on Valentines day so the boat was decorated with love heart balloons and sweets and felt really romantic.
We docked at around 9am and it took us until about 10am to get into Bruges with the queueing to get off the ferry and the bus into the town and the confusion over times. (Your phone does not change itself straight away and it is confusing!)
When we got there we went for breakfast in this nice little cafe, I had a cheese and ham croissant, Martyn ate one of everything. Then we visited a chocolate shop, and another and another and another and another. I think we visited roughly 30 chocolate shops. We found the bell tower, and went into a couple of stationery shops (guilty!) but could we find a pub? Could we chuff. The bus back to the boat left at about 5:30pm so we set off at 5. As we were walking back we found every single pub in Bruges which was so annoying.
When we got back on the ferry we enjoyed our £21 tea and then proceeded to get very very drunk and had a wail of a time.
So yeah Bruges. It was nice, it was very scenic and beautiful and we had a wonderful Valentine’s day there but it was the ferry where we had the most fun. It’s a really nice break away and we spent the rest of the day once we had docked laid on the sofa recovering. It is so close to us and so convenient and two for £80 you really cannot go wrong. We started planning our next trip as soon as we got back.
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