Bruges in Belgium: Wednesday, July 18, 2012:

It was my first time supervising a tour ashore but I think I managed okay – basically my responsibility was to count heads to make sure everyone was there and no one had been left behind – but it meant that I could go along for free.

We had a quick guided tour around the city before getting the chance to explore by ourselves. We enjoyed a beer in Het Hof Van Rembrandt and potato wedges at Café Pick.

I also spotted the pub where we had Belgian beer in 1991 and there were a few other familiar sights from 22 years ago – the horse fountains, carriage rides and various landmarks. We stopped at an Irish pub, called Boru, which had an Irish barmaid who was due to travel home later that day.

We wandered around for a bit before I left Karen enjoying a cup of tea, so I could take a few more photos, and met the rest of the group in the square.

It was a potential disaster when I realised that a few people were missing but it turned out they had made their own way back to the bus. All heads were counted in the end.