We booked Bruges the way I book most things now, which is to say four days before we went and with no real plan beyond ‘canals, chips, somewhere the kids can run around, leading to me apologising to strangers.’ The historic centre there has UNESCO World Heritage status, so it’s all cobbles and gabled houses leaning into each other. Somehow, that was still less impressive to my two than the chip shop on the corner offering a bottle of mayo that was the size of their heads.
It was genuinely a lovely few days, the kind of trip that looks perfect in photos and is a joy to remember, even if it felt like a small military operation in real life.
The Bit Nobody Puts in the Holiday Photos
Getting two overtired kids through a weekend of walking, waffles and no nap schedule is its own sport. By the second evening, we had a system, which involved a bath, reading a book, then putting them to bed, before that strange limbo where you and your partner sit in a hotel room too tired to talk and too wired to sleep.
That was the evening I ended up on a video call with my friend Elke, who has lived just outside Bruges for years and who I always end up asking for local tips that I then mostly ignore. We got onto the subject of how differently people wind down once the kids are finally asleep. Mine is usually trash telly and whatever snack survived the day. Hers, she said, is ten quiet minutes on her phone looking at odds and reviews on a comparison site.
She mentioned lepetitjournal’s page on online casinos for belgian players as the one she trusts for checking a site is properly licensed before she bothers spending any money, which felt like a very Belgian way to be sensible about a small treat.
Why I Rated This Trip
What I liked most about the trip was how little we tried to force anything. We picked one big thing a day, such as a canal boat, a chocolate shop or a park with actual space for the kids to run, then left everything else loose.
I also came home wanting to be better at the small, deliberate kind of rest that Elke described, rather than just collapsing in front of a screen because I am too tired to choose anything else.
I haven’t managed it yet.
But watching someone treat winding down as something worth doing properly, rather than an afterthought once the day has worn you out, has stuck with me more than the Belgian waffles.
Next time, I’d book fewer days and slow down more within them. We tried to fit in everything we wanted to do, then ended up rushing past half of them anyway.
The kids don’t remember the things we scheduled, but they do remember the afternoon we let them chase pigeons in the main square with UNESCO World Heritage status, for no reason at all.