Brugge (Bruges) Trip Oct 2011

This is a personal diary note of my trip to Bruges as we say in England. If you speak Flemish, it is Brugge. So, my second away VIP trip with Birmingham City FC and I’m in Belgium.  I left home at 7.45am on 19 October and unlocked the back door at 2.15am on 21 October.

This time I had not pre-booked a parking space and was relieved to find plenty of spaces in Long Stay 1. On opening the car door, I had my first cold blast of Birmingham air. As it was a nice sunny day, I didn’t mind as I was dressed for the occasion.

Into the airport and quickly found Adam and Ollie from the club. Bag was soon checked in and instead of hanging around, I went upstairs for hot cuppa. I spotted two chaps wearing blue and sat next to them and had a natter. The retired Dad had supported the club since the mid 50’s and his son Simon naturally followed. As you do! To prove it is a small world, Simon lives in Totterdown, Bristol. Unbelievable!

Now one thing I hate about airports is delayed flights. You would have thought that as it is a private charter plane for the Birmingham City team, you would not have any delays. Wrong! The plane did not arrive on time, so we had a 50 min delays. Not too bad, but nevertheless, somewhat annoying.

So we finally landed at Oostend Airport around 3pm local time and then a 30 min coach trip to the hotel. So I’m finally in my hotel room around 4pm having left home at 7.45am (UK time). And it’s only a 40 minute flight. Given it was a nice sunny day, it was dump bags and go for a walk to get my bearings before darkness fell. I’m glad I made the effort as the sun was in the right position to get some good pictures around the main square in Brugge.

Nice shop window display

And again

Lots of lace in Belgium

Having walked down a few side streets, I soon stumbled across a bunch of Blues fans in their early 20’s. It was about 5.30pm and they were already drunk as a skunk. They thought I was a local which I thought was agreat compliment. I showed them by badge and we put arms round shoulders whilst having a good sing. With that, I made my excuses and left. It wasn’t long before I was in the opposite direction seeking out the locals!

Think you should have the idea by now that beer features quite a lot!

The most astonishing fan I met on the trip was a 17 year old from Brum. He had travelled over all by himself having locked his back door at 1.30am. Ouch! What an enterprising young chap.

One of the buildings in the main square

A grande building on the main square

small part of the main square

I soon found a nice place to eat. it was outside, but under a canopy with infra-red heaters. So I was nice and cosy and md well sheltered against the cold evening. There was no language problems and the waiter was taken aback that I did not need a menu! I said I was after traditional local food and settled for a beef stew. I then ordered my favourite Belgium beer, and the waiter smiled and gave me the “thumbs up”.

My Favourite Belgium Beer

I have never really understood why we brits order beer by the litre and then spend all evening in the loo. Slowly sip a beer of around 10% strength and enjoy the evening. You are rocking and rolling after 3, a wreck after 4. Well, I am at any rate!

So it was then back to the hotel, watch a Champions League match and off to kip. It had already been a long day, and I knew Thursday would be equally long and tiring.

The hotel breakfast was excellent and I went for the cooked brekkie. I decided to give what looked like to be a local black sausage a go, only to find out it was black pudding. My word, what a find!

A quick peruse of the hotel then followed and to my dismay there was a Brit drinking a litre of booze in the hotel bar at 10.30am. Oh my god, get a life!

So out for another wander round the side streets and you stumble on these things:

C&A remember them??

So it's not just us with red post boxes then

Just like Holland, this place is so flat it makes the Broads look hilly. Bikes, bikes and more bikes

I have my own bar and Happy Hour is avaiable as well

I then went to back to the main square to take pictures and videos of the fans and the flags. A good time was had by all. The local Police got it right and they were mainly on push bikes and aged 50 ish. Mind you, they all wore truncheons and carried a side arm.

All the Police wore trunceons and side arms. They also posed for pictures and handcuffed a few fans for the pics as well.

As far as I could make out, there was no trouble at all in the square. In fact I did not see any trouble at all during the entire trip. Boystrous yes, but that was it.

small part of the main square

The famous Belfry Tower. Still in full working order and very nice chimes

View of Belfry Tower viewed from the far side of the square

So it was then back to the hotel for all the VIP’s to gather together and off for the pre-match meal in a small out of the way restaurant. Very nice to and great banter from all concerned. Wonder why I am always on the loudest table?!!

Kempinski Hotel where I stayed. A very grande building about 4 mins walk to the main square

And so onto the game. Lots of security for the 5.5k faithfull. It’s a nice looking stadium as well.

Very basic seating at the stadium

Jan Breysel Stadium, the home of Club Brugge KV. Free Wi-Fi at the ground as well. Fab

As for the game, well highly entertaining and astonishingly, history repeated itself. Blues were caught cold and went 1 down in 2nd minute, the got back into the game and started dominating. Final score Brugge 1 Blues 2. That was Brugge’s first loss at home in the 2011/12 season, and first ever home defeat to an English team in European competitions. Stunning.

The crowd must have been around 27k, and there were 5.5k Brummies singing their hearts out, putting the locals to shame. Utterly fantastic.

One of the treats for me was the number of Blues fans late taking their seats. This led to a bit of chaos and virtually everyone stood throughout the game. Standing up for a Europa League match is fab.

And then the trip to the airport where all the Blues players were applauded as they entered the departure lounge.

Chris Hughton, the Blues manager is never off duty

I managed to have a 5 minute conversation with Paul Trollope (Assistant Manager) whilst waiting to board. What a nice chap.

The plane landed about 30 mins late and Brum airport was a shambles. The electronic passport machines were down and at least 3 planes had landed at the same time. Monster queues and a few snarly comments made. Despite to 20 mins to clear passport control, the bags had still not arrived at the carousel, so more waiting. And then I just missed the courtesy bus, so had a 15 min wait outside to get back to the car.

And then the car parking charge works on the 24 hour clock, not the time parked. So I had 3 days of parking charges. Thankfully the M42 and M5 were devoid of traffic, so it was an easy drive home. Finally hit the sack at 3am and woke up naturally to bright sunshine at 11.30am.

Next stop, Braga. North Portugal late in November.

All the videos are on You Tube and I hope these links work. If not, go onto You Tube and plug my name in and they should appear on my channel. I posted these videos about 24 hours ago and the viewing figures already stand at 2,062!!

Final whistle & fans singing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR8LrE13A6k

Jan Breydel Stadion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR8LrE13A6k

Fans singing “Keep Right On” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wqNRAJL088

Players warming up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-EXW-4ytvY

Brugge main square, day before the game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKtjiiILVlg

Brugge main square, fans kicking football http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL36eCagXpQ

Brugge main square, fans and flags http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE-4ydWAKKE

Players at Oostend Airport awaiting flight back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvq6llCkIVM

A selection of fans flags:

Maribor Trip Sept 2011

This is a personal diary note of my trip to Maribor, Slovenia. I left home at 6.30am on 28 September and unlocked the back door at 2.35am on 30 September. It was a VIP trip with Birmingham City FC to watch the away match against Maribor in the Europa Cup League Game.

Having pre-booked my parking ticket in Long Stay 1 at Birmingham International Airport, I found parking quite difficult. It’s a truly massive car park that was 99.9% full. Eventually found a spot and was grateful for the courtesy bus to turn up so quickly as I was cutting it fine given the earlier M42 traffic jam.

Into the airport and quickly found Adam from the club. Bag was soon checked in and I stood back and watch the players and manager arrive along with the other 50 VIP’s. Needless to say, two TV crews were lurking and Chris Hughton, the manager was soon being interviewed. No rest for the wicked then!

Chris Hughton being interviewed after checking in at B'ham Int Airport

It was easy to spot “Big Zig” our Slovakian centre forward as it is a bit difficult to hide when you are 6′ 7″. He was soon accosted for signatures and duly obliged. As in fact did all the team.

Having managed to get a window seat, I took the opportunity of grabbing a couple of pics during the 2hr flight:

English fields near B'ham International airport

Classic puffy clouds from plane window. Probably SW France below

Sat next to me on the plane was Keith who was well know to lots on the trip. He totally outgadgeted me. In one hand he had a Blackberry and an iPhone was in the other hand. He was like that for about 20 mins while awaiting take off, then he tutted as his 2nd Blackberry rang.

Having left in sunshine and pretty good warmth, we arrived to a  clear blue sky and warmth of about 24C.

Maribor Airport sign

It is a small ramshackled airport that somehow added to the charm. You picked your baggage off the trailer yourself. Then onto the coach and off to the 5* hotel which was only about 20 mins drive away.

City Hotel. Not exactly a great looking building!

It is a brand new hotel, having opened in July 2011. The inside was magnificent. On checking in, I was in room 301, so needless to say, I pressed button 3 on the lift. Err, wrong. Quite wrong. I did what everybody else did and failed to look at the buttons a little more closely. I was on level “P”. And the 5th floor for the restaurant was reached by pressing button “2”. Clearly a local quirky thing!!

Oh yes, the confusing lift buttons

As you walk straight out of the hotels main entrance, the river Drava is right in front of you. It’s a proper river as well given it is well over 100m wide. These pictures should give you a good idea:

As you can see, it's a decent sized river

There is ample parking all along the riverside, and it was a nice surprise to find a modern ticketing machine.

Solar Powered Parking Ticket machine

Close up of water feature

Water feature underneath road bridge

So a nice gentle walk to the right along the riverside and the first item of note is…………a sex shop. And next to that what looked like a lapdanding club. I’m as confused as you as to why I didn’t pop in! Anyway a little further and there are several bars to sit down, enjoy the view and sample the local beer.

One of the local beers. It's pronounced "Onion"

And then a little further on, an by now I’m only 400m from the hotel and you find the oldest vine in the world.

At 400 years of age, this is the oldest vine in the world

Oldest vine in the worls plaque

Now I do like my wine, but I’m no expert. It turns out that Slovenia is one of the top 5% of quality wine-producing regions in the world. As it is a small country, production is small which probably accounts why I do not recollect seeing any in my local shops. So if you ever come across any, indulge yourself. I believe the better ones are of the white variety.

Rather than use scarecrows to keep the birds off the fruit, the locals developed a wind rattle. mightily impressed with that thought process.

Wind rattle. Better than the usual scarecrow??

Having arrived at about 4pm local time, that was pretty much it for the day. Found a nice pizzeria and wondered back to the hotel via a bar or two. I had no language problems at all with the majority of people speaking excellent conversational english. I found out that about 20 years ago, the official second language was German. This was then ditched for English.

The evening ended in the hotel bar where I asked for the local lethal spirit, There were big smiles on the bar staff faces and was given a shot of the local clear brandy free gratis. Guess they don’t get many requests then!

And so onto the day of the game. Brummies everywhere. Blue sky, and nice and warm. the centre of the town quickly filled up and I took some video coverage.

All the VIP’s gathered at 3pm at the hotel and then we had a fantastic meal together before the game, How about this for a menu:

Pre-match menu at a first class restaurant in Maribor

Blues players (wearing yellow away kit) warming up

The stadium is only two years old and was built on the site of a cemetery. Plenty of history then! The locals had warned us that their fans were notorious for all the noise they made. Whilst they started off in good voice they gradually became quieter and quieter. I subsequently had an email from a Maribor supporter who said “you didn’t out sing us, we were a silent movie”. What a great comment!

As for the game itself, we let a silly goal in and were losing 1 – 0 at half time. All the fans were scratching their heads wondering how on earth we were going to score. Thankfully, the second half was much improved and we won 1 – 2. Total astonishment. Our first away trip in the Europa Cup League format and we only won. What a great way to end a trip.

With that it was straight onto the coach outside the ground. Just to show how small the airport is, we were given our boarding tickets on the coach! A happy trip home is always welcome and the time just whizzed by. We landed at 00.30am on Friday. Then back to the car and drive home. Opened the back door at 2.35am feeling utterly knackered. A quick cuppa to relax then I hit the sack. Trouble is some bugger rang me at 9.50am, so I felt groggy for the rest of the day. Cannot wait for the Brugge trip!

My videos are on you Tube and can be found here. I finally finished this blog somewhat late as it is now 16 October. At that date, all the following videos had been viewed a total of 2,220 times:

The Oldest Vine in the World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3Oqwtaaa0s

Players after the game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZle55fC39s

Maribor Stadium http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcogImM9QBk

Maribor Centre Square http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Q3R6NCs9A

City Hotel View  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBgk9uHkIvI

City Hotel Room http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msEkBkjkBJY

City Hotel Lobby http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVTDjP2HOCg