A few weekends ago my parents had their Ruby Wedding Anniversary! We wanted to take them somewhere to celebrate that was special but not too far away from London, as they would be travelling down to us from Liverpool. As we live in South East London we are not too far away from the Euro Tunnel, so decided on a road trip.

Who knew the fairytale city of Bruges was less than a 4 hour drive away from London?! I couldn’t believe it that we could get to Bruges quicker than it would normally take me to get home to Liverpool.

The Euro Tunnel is perfect for a quick weekend away! It is around 45 minutes from South East London, you drive onto the train, sit in your car and relax for 35 minutes until you reach France. Bruges is then an hours drive away.

THE HOTEL

A 700 year old mansion that has been converted into a family run boutique hotel. As soon as you enter this dreamy place you instantly feel at home.

Greeted by the owner Frederik, he gave us a tour around the hotel and offered us complimentary drinks and nibbles before showing us to our rooms. The hotel has a small, intimate bar overlooking the canal for you to enjoy a drink or two, but I loved the fact that you could sit anywhere in the house for drinks as if you were at home. Our favourite room being the Garden Room. This used to be the garden, so Frederik’s wife (who decorated every part of the hotel herself) wanted to keep that outdoorsy feel to the space, which she did perfectly!

 

 

 

 

THE ROOMS

 

The hotel has 15 different rooms to choose from. As it was a special trip for my parents, they had kindly upgraded them to ‘The Hermes Duplex Suite’ which had an upstairs living area, exposed beams and overlooked the Canal. I had pre-ordered a bottle of Prosecco for them (meaning my mum and I) which was waiting in their room on a tray along with fresh fruit and macaroons when we arrived.

We stayed in a ‘Missoni Deluxe Room’ which is one of their ‘classic’ rooms, but it felt just as fancy. My favourite parts being the bright picture wall and the Super King marshmallow of a bed.

 

EATING OUT

The hotel has a lovely little restaurant for breakfast (pictured above) but it doesn’t serve dinner. They sent us a list of lots of local Flemish restaurants to try out which they then prebook for us. We picked one called ‘Couvert’.

The majority of the restaurants, along with this one, are small, intimate and family run.

The food was delicious, I had the scallops which were in THE TASTIEST sauce and I actually tried my first (and last) snail!! They are served as nibbles before your meal along with olives.

This place was super cosy and the perfect place for a date night, but maybe not so suitable for groups.

 

 

 

BELGIAN CHOCOLATE FIX

 

You can’t visit Bruge without getting a Belgian Chocolate fix. We visited Godiva for their chocolate dipped strawberries and Dumon Chocolatier for a box of their famous truffles…the perfect end to our dreamy little weekend…

 

 

 

 

 

Ashley x