“Following a week that could only be described as ‘one of those weeks you expect when you have horses’, I had my birthday present from my best friend to look forward to. All I knew was that we were going away in the last weekend in January, but I had managed to whittle it down to going to either France or Belgium, which doesn’t narrow it down much! Everyone had managed to keep it secret as to where we were going until the evening before we left when my sister let it slip. It was like a scene from a cartoon; as she realised what she had said she gasped and clamped her hand over her mouth, it was funny.

Tequila on the Eurotunnel

I had an early start on the Friday morning as we were leaving at lunch time and I had to ride all the horses before we left. I somehow managed to get everything done that needed to be done and we left brimming with excitement. There was quite a large group going and we were meeting the other cars at Maidstone services before we went on the Eurotunnel. This was also the first chance we had to meet the others who were going who we'd never met before. We soon found out what our group's intentions were when they started on the Tequila shots in the Eurotunnel terminal!

We arrived in Bruges and booked into our hotel before going out for a group dinner where we could really get to know each other. As we were in Belgium, everyone was drinking beer, which I’m not normally a big fan of, but we discovered a delicious variation on the Belgian favourite; cherry beer. After an excellent evening, we eventually made it to bed around around 2am with the intention of meeting at 10am for breakfast.

Around half of us managed to make it to the morning meeting and we went off to enjoy a superb continental breakfast at a breakfast bar before exploring Bruges. It is a beautiful city and it feels like you step back in time as it has cobbled streets - horses and carts even get the same rights of way as cars. We then climbed the tower in Bruges, which consists of 366 steps. It doesn’t sound too difficult but they are very steep and narrow, making it quite tough. It was worth it, however, as the view from the top of the tower was spectacular.

Funky ribena

Next we went into a local cafe and had some fabulous Belgian waffles before going on a horse and cart round the city. Our horse was called Sarah and we picked one that was sound and nice and plump! As it was a rather crispy -2^oC, we then went to a pub to warm ourselves up before going to an absolutely superb restaurant for dinner. The food was sublime and the service was also second to none. Then, we went to a local pub which is internationally renowned as it serves over 300 different kinds of beer. We tried every fruit beer they had, apple beer and passion fruit beer went down very well, but the strawberry beer and banana beer left us a little confused! There was also blackcurrant beer, which tasted like funky ribena, and raspberry beer, which was also very palatable! You can safely say we certainly tried out the local delicacies.

Daily grind

The group were not quite so perky when we awoke on Sunday morning, and the few of us who were able to fall out of bed met for breakfast again before going shopping for Belgian chocolates, something that absolutely must be done when in Belgium! The trip home was definitely much quieter than the trip out, but we all had an amazing time, but it was back to the grind on Monday!”