The Quaker’s annual club trip is always a great weekend and the trip to take part in the Bruges events was no exception. The majority of the members who were going met in William Steads from 12:00 on Friday for some lunch and of course it would have been rude not to start the weekend with a beer or wine or two before we headed to the pickup point at the side of the Dolphin Centre in time for cases to be loaded and to get our bums on seats ready to start the journey at 2pm prompt. Carl from CAB travel welcomed us onto the modern big yellow coach and introduced the driver James who would be chauffeuring us for the trip. We travelled to Hull in a couple of hours where Carl took our passports and collected the boarding cards for the group. Once we got these back the officials came onto the coach, did a visual check and selected a few individuals whose bags were checked to make sure there was no alcohol being taken onto the ship. Boarding was very quick and it wasn’t long before everyone had found their cabins and met in the bar for drinks. There is a lot you can choose to do during the evening with the options of gaming machines, cinema, quiz, quieter entertainment in the piano bar, singer/bands in the show bar. You can eat in the cafe bar, an a la carte restaurant or the buffet style restaurant which has a huge choice and is very nice.
We docked on Saturday morning and rejoined the coach to head straight to Bruges to pick up our race packs. The organisation is excellent and they allow transfers right up to picking up numbers and this is when you get the t-shirt if you had pre-ordered or could buy one now that you’ve seen if you like it! Once we had our numbers we all went our own way and explored the city before going back to the coach for the 30 min drive to Ostend to check in to the hotel which was literally a five minute walk from the beach. The thirsty members managed a drink or two to relax before race day. The following morning we had early breakfast before returning to Bruges to start our races from the market square. The half marathon runners were started at the same time as the marathon runners and both did the same course until just before the finish where the marathon course went almost past the finish line to start their second 13 miles which seemed almost cruel. The initial route went through the city on cobbled streets which were quite hard to run on before continuing along the side of the canal where the paths were quite narrow, after that it was long straight tree lined roads with views across fields with some windmills before coming back into the city to the finish. We were really lucky with the weather being near perfect. At the finish they were very efficient in handing out water, recovery drinks and medals. The race number also had vouchers attached that you could exchange for beer and a bowl of pasta/noodles at the end to celebrate. The route had mixed reviews from us, some loved it others found the long, flat straight stretches a little boring. As well as the run a few of the group had chosen to do the family 8k walk and were surprised to find that part way through their event they were taken into a building where they were handed a glass of cava and seated to eat a fancy 2 course meal before carrying on to complete the walk. On telling us runners this we thought they were winding us up until we saw the photo evidence and then felt we maybe had selected the wrong event! We did a quick change on the coach and did some more exploring, eating and drinking before returning to the hotel for a shower and more celebrating.
On Monday morning we checked out at 10am and after a vote on the options for the time we had left we travelled to Ghent for a few hours to explore the beautiful architecture and culture. (Highly recommended if you’ve never been). We went back to Rotterdam to board the ship for the overnight crossing back to Hull and the onward journey back to Darlington.
Carl during the trip took us from coach parks into the cities and informed us of what there was in each plus which direction to go to find the best sights. He provided us with a mountain of bananas on race day and even kept us hydrated with lots of bottles of water and at times bottles of beer and even gin and tonics.
The whole weekend was fabulous, extremely well organised, we were lucky with the weather, it was a great group of very friendly people and we all had a great time. Already we are talking about the trip for next year!
report by April Corbett