8 30 am: the bus departs to Bruges. My driver’s name is Ricardo. He is from Barcelona, Catalonia. He has been living in Aalst for 11 years and still does not speak Flemish. Hate it. But he is a nice guy; a bit too talkative and too macho, but nice.
9 am: there is an accident on the highway and we have some delay. I stop talking as nobody is listening and are still sleeping a bit.
10 am: I arrive at ‘t Zand where Roger; our local guide; meets us. Roger is funny but talks too much about his experiences with Americans than about Bruges. I love talking Bruhs with him though. He takes them to the new concert hall and starts the tour.
10 10 am: Mrs Callen asks if Roger is going to be with us for the entire day cos she does not like him. He speaks too soft and he is not informative enough. Puffy in the meantime is desperate for a restroom stop. We normally let them go on t Zand but there was no time now so we have to go the st jan hospital.
10 15 am. Puffy tells me she REALLY needs to go. I decide to already take the wc people to the wc. I don’t want puffy to embarrass her self by peeing on the street. Although to be honest I would have thought it to be funny. Two other women follow us. Byt the time Roger is at the hospital almost everyone needs a pit stop. Puffy sort of went into the men’s room and was surprised to see all the men peeing when she got out of the toilet. She informs the entire group about her funny mistake. Nobody really wants to know about it, but she continues telling it. I ask her ‘you have never seen men pee in your life?’ to which she replies ‘o honey I have seen men pee and I have seen their penises in all kinds of shapes and all kinds of colours. Circumsized and uncircumsized’. The rest of the group begs me not to ask more details.
11 25 am. Roger is still talking about the Belfry when he actually should be at the Burg and end his walking tour. But he is very talkative and just goes on and on.
11 45 am. I arrive too late, as normal, at the canal boat stop. We have to let a French group go first. The people don’t complain though. However; the captain of the little boat gets on the people’s nerves as his English is really some kind of mixture of Cockney English and Australian English. Of course the Brits come in masses to Bruges, so that is the English they want to hear. But Americans don’t understand shit of British English. The weather is fine and people are happy. But they are getting hungry.
12 30 am. I take the people to the Lace store for a demonstration. Mrs Puma has been there last year and promised to come back this year. Last year she was wearing a perfume that one of the ladies selling lace absolutely adored, so Mrs Puma had a bottle of that perfume with her. She got a lace dress for her granddaughter in return.
1 pm. People are really exhausted and tired and hungry. They feel sorry that they do not have a lot of free time. They need to meet me at 2 30 in front of the belfry or better in front of the left frituur in front of the belfry.
1 15 pm. Mrs Wilding Smith comes to talk to me about her concern for Mrs Anrold. She is fed up with the fact she needs to look after Mrs Arnold in stead of doing what she wants to do. Like visiting the Groeninge Museum. I assure her for the 10th time this trip that she should not be so worried about Mrs Arnold and promise that I will keep an eye on her. Mrs Arnold is 89y old and totally confused. She is stubborn thinks she can still do everything on her own but is basically very lost out there on her. I put her in a restaurant and tell her she has to stay there until we meet.
1 30 pm. I go check out the Begijnhof to see it is restored yet as it wasn’t this spring. I start to worry about my group because the program tells me I have to walk them from the Grote markt to the Begijnhof and via the Minnewaterpark to the Katelijne Parking. That is a 45 minute walk! And these people are already so tired.
2pm. I see Florence leave the restaurant and wonder around. I tell here she really needs to stay at one place because she will never find her way back to the Belfry. I have her sit next to a British bloke and ask her again to remain seated there. As we are going to leave in half an hour.
2 30 pm. Almost everyone is at the frituur. The Pumas and the Shortells tell me they will go on their own to the bus stop. Puffy already wants to walk ahead and I point her where she should go. I don’t worry about them. But Florence is missing. She is not at the seat I told her to stay.
2 35 pm. People are getting worried and annoyed. Florence Arnold is still missing. I go running around the Grote Markt for a second time and find her at a post card stand and start giving her a lecture. I could not help it. I felt like a father talking to a 3y old. How the whole group was looking for her; how worried everyone was, how she really has to realize that she is getting older. She had totally forgot about the 2 30 meeting or the fact that I told her to stay seating and I think she somehow realized that she had annoyed me and the group by being so forgetful and stubborn. I take the people for a shortcut walk to the busparking as we really do not have time to do a big tour.
2 45 pm I take them to the Begijnhof via a little small alley that takes you to the brewerij of the BRugse Zot. But who is missing? Puffy! We had picked her up during our walk but she somehow got stuck behind. Puffy cannot walk fast and needs to stop quite often. But this time she was really slow. I go look for her and also start sounding like an elementary school teacher. I go crazy inside. I remind Puffy to the fact that I explicitly told her it would be a lot of walking. But she said she would manage.
2 55 pm I am fed up and go in a souvenir shop to order a taxi. I put Florence and Elaine (puffy) in a taxi. They reluctantly get in. I had sent the rest of the group inside of the Begijnhof to have a peek while doing this. I really want this day to be over as soon as possible.
3 15 pm We arrive on time at the bus stop. Elaine and Florance are already on the bus. But no Pumas and Shortells. I go crazy!!!!!!!!
3 30 pm I am sweating like hell. I ran to the Katelijnepoort to see if they were there, I ran to the begijnhof to see if they were there. Nada. I decide to drive to ‘t Zand to see if they are there (although I had explicitly said to the foursome that they should not go back to t Zand. But as I am leaving, we see them walk a bit further. They had gone to the TRAIN station instead.
3 40 pm We leave Bruges with a delay. I tell them it is there last change to ask something about Belgium they always wanted to know. In stead I have to talk about my carreer so far, my parents and my future dreams.
4 pm. I stop talking. I think I have bored the people to death with my ambition plans. But the people are just incredibly tired.
5 15 pm We arrive at the hotel. Everyone goes to the room to freshen themselves up for the farewell drink. Except Mr Anderson. He has some questions about the transfer to the airport tomorrow. He is scheduled to leave at 8 30 am for a flight at 11 30 am. I say it is enough time, but he is worried. Turns out they booked their flights themselves and they are leaving from Amsterdam airport and not from Brussels! HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5 30 pm I go with mr Anderson to the train station and help them buy tickets for the next day. Mr Anderson is really delighted with my health. I just figure why not excersise some more after all the running today?
6 pm. I finally take a shower. I think of the speech I should hold.
6 30 pm Farewell Time. I stress out how lucky hey have been with the weather and appreciate their interest in Flanders and Belgium. And I wish them a safe flight. Of course there is hugging. Lots of hugging. But the hugging comes with an envelope so I don’t mind hugging at all. Even Puffy gets a hug.
7 pm I am still at the farewell party. Mrs Callen showed me the pictures of her children. Both her oldest son and daughter are married with children and then she shows the picture of her youngest daughter stating that she is 33 and SINGLE and would love my funny history lessons. I kindly thank her for the info but need to avert my eyes from the picture as the daughter looks too much like her mother. Mr Giardina sees my reaction and shows me the picture of his 26y old granddaughter who just loves to travel. He whispers: I bet you think she is prettier.
7 45 pm Mr Anderson comes talk to me again. He has lost his camera with all the pictures of the trip on the bus. I call Ricardo who is already at home. He will let me know something tomorrow.
8 pm I finally have said goodbye to the last person at the drink stand and rush to the UGC cinema to get a ticket for Lady In The Water
8 30 pm I am bored to death during the sceening. The movie sucks and I am tired. I get out of the hotel. Get myself a durum and orange juice and head to my hotel room to watch some tv.
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