Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Easter In Bruges

One of my favourite films is called "In Bruges". If you haven't seen it you should - it's fucking brilliant.

Two inept hitmen are sent to Bruges to hide out after a job, which is one of the main character's ideal location with lots of historic places to see and the other's idea of hell which means he wants to spend most of his time drinking. It features copious amounts of violence and a dwarf on ketamine. It also has a shit load of swearing, which personally I'm not a massive fan of, as you may well know if you're a regular reader of my ramblings. But it's actually a dark comedy rather than an action or horror movie and there's nothing overly cerebral in the plot to confuse my tiny mind - a few of the best clips are here but it does contain a few plot spoilers https://youtu.be/Pr35evOG1s4

It was on TV a few months ago and I watched it with Mrs AC who asked if I'd ever visited Bruges. I have, I was 7 or 8 and the only memory I have of going is spending half the day being told off by my mother because I'd managed to tread in some dog poo. I'll repeat that I was 7 or 8!

Mrs AC then declared she wanted to visit as it looked fantastic. Any idea which of the main characters I'm going to be yet?

Mrs AC, despite being American, is actually quite cultured and loves visiting historic European cities as her image of Europe whilst she was growing up was that we all live in some sort of medieval fantasy land. Bruges hits that spot as it's Northern Europe's best preserved historic city and the whole city centre has been designated as a UNESCO world heritage site. There are some far better photos than I'm capable of taking here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruges.

But Bruges, being in Belgium, is not that far from the brewery where the world's best beer is made https://ayecarambapoker.blogspot.com/2019/10/im-just-going-outside-for-some-beers.html?m=1 so having put in another order we organised a long weekend away over the Easter break which is a 4 day weekend in the UK.

An early start and a long wait at the eurotunnel entrance (thanks Brexit!) didn't phase us and once we arrived in France (only 35 minutes by train under the English Channel) it was an easy 2 hour drive through northern France and Belgium before arriving mid afternoon and checking into a B&B not unlike that featured in the film. Less than 2 hours after arriving I'm itching for a beer despite Mrs AC's protestations that she wanted to do more sight seeing and we ended up in a fantastic 800 year old cellar bar with over 100 beers to choose from https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g188671-d4295035-Reviews-Le_Trappiste-Bruges_West_Flanders_Province.html.

The weekend flew by like this before I took Mrs AC to Brussels for the flight home on Monday as she needed to be back in London whilst the only pick up day for my beer was on Tuesday so I found another B&B near the brewery and drove home on Tuesday with a trunk full of beer and a few bottles of wine (Mrs AC is the oenophile whereas I could barely tell a merlot from a malbec). Well I say a trunk full but thanks to Brexit we are now only able to transport a limited amount of booze before incurring import taxes but 42 litres of beer and 18 litres of wine should keep us going for a while. 

Please comment below with your favourite film and whether you've visited the location where it was set or filmed. My next favourite film is Dumb and Dumber but I'm not sure I fancy a cross country road trip whilst driving a dog liveried van! 

11 comments:

  1. "Mrs AC, despite being American, is actually quite cultured and loves visiting historic European cities ..."

    "My next favourite film is Dumb and Dumber ..."

    We Americans should be so cultured. Mwahahaha!

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    1. Mrs AC is far more cultured and intelligent than I am.

      I like to remind her that she's a lucky girl to have me, she likes to call me deluded for some unknown reason!

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  2. loved the film and really enjoyed your blog post! And, really loved lightning's comment ;-) s.i.

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  3. I've never heard of the movie buuuuut I have heard of Bruges thanks to Club Brugge :) . I'll give you a favorite TV show instead of a movie. On a trip to NYC a decade ago, I stopped by for a photo outside Tom's Restaurant (West 112th St and Broadway) aka Monk's Cafe on Seinfeld.

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    1. I thought you would have heard of the football club!

      Seinfeld was never really big over here so I don't think I've seen more than a few bits. I'm not a huge fan of most American comedy series as I just don't find them funny - I can sit through entire episodes of Big Bang or how I met your mother without finding anything remotely funny

      I do like Frasier though - it's been rerun on British tv recently and I still find it funny. Although it's set in Seattle I think literally one episode was actually filmed there.

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    3. I did grow up on Mr. Bean and reruns of Benny Hill before the move to the US of A.

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  4. How about the EURO2024 draw? Decent group for my team to squeeze out a second place haha

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    1. Hey

      I think the group is OK for you actually - Denmark peaked a few years ago and are probably on the way down. Some of the 3rd place teams go through to the knockout phase so as long as you can beat Slovenia and keep the goal difference respectable then you may well go through on 3 points so getting a draw v Denmark or us will be good enough I think

      There's also the cricket World Cup in June 24 to look forward to as well! Some of the games are in the US and both the US and Canada are playing in it as well

      Seems like forever since I blogged something but I've really had nothing of interest to write about for absolutely ages

      Hope you and family are all well

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    2. Agree, second place is there for the taking. I entered the lottery for game tickets against Slovenia and Denmark in Munich. Would be cool to see at least one game.
      Cricket in the USA, now that is something you don't hear about every day.
      Bring back the blog and the Vegas poker stories!

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