As well as fine buildings Bruges is replete with water and is sometimes known as The Venice of the North. I’ve never been to Venice but Bruges is certainly lovely, whatever.

The church in the background here is Bruges Cathedral, The Church of Our Lady:-

This shows the bridge from which the previous photo was taken:-

And this the view from the bridge to the other side:-

View of same building left above from the opposite canal bank:-

And round the corner:-

Canal and bridge:-

Canal:-

Another bridge:-

Some photos of the Markt (Market Square) in Bruges:-

The statue you can see in the above photo – a seat for tired tourists – is of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck, two local heroes from the 14th Century:-

These horse-drawn carriages were offering trips round the city. At €50 each we gave that a bye. Shanks’s pony is better for you anyway.

I liked this compasstower. It has a Deco feel (rule of three in the windows) but I suspect it is much earlier:-

The Provincial Court takes up one side of the square:-

On the square’s south side lies the Belfry of Bruges:-

Alternate view of the Belfry from its courtyard:-

Bruges (Brugge) in West Flanders in Belgium is a lovely small city with great buildings.

We entered it through Smedenpoort, a gatehouse built over what looked like may once have been a moat:-

Smedenpoort from the city side of the gate:-

View to right from bridge seen above:-

View to left:-

The streets into the centre were festooned with banners. I couldn’t quite make out what they were displaying:-

The Humber Bridge from King George Dock, Hull:-

The exit from King George Dock is through a sea lock. A very tight squeeze! Looking directly down the ship’s side:-

Other side of ship. Only centimetres of water between ship and lock side:-

The sea lock:-

Lock emptying:-

Nearly at level:-

Finally moving off:-

Humber Bridge from Humber Estuary:-

I never did see the KCom stadium but on the way out of the Humber I spotted the very distinctive Grimsby Dock Tower (picture from Wikipedia):-

Some way beyond it were the four floodlight pylons of what looked very like a football ground which I assume must have been Blundell Park, home of Grimsby Town FC, though it seems the ground is actually in Cleethorpes.

For our trip to Belgium and the Netherlands we took the ferry from Hull across to Zeebrugge.

At Hull we got onto the ship, examined the cabin, no room to have a cat never mind swing one, then went up on deck.

Hull was surprisingly green but with some industry too.

Over the dockside rooftops I spotted what I thought might be a football ground with what appeared to be the word KCom on a stand. Was it the KCom stadium, the home of Hull City AFC (and Hull FC, one of the city’s two big Rugby League clubs) I wondered? But it looked too small.

It turns out that it was KCom I had spotted but it was KCom Craven Park, the home of the other Rugby League club, Hull Kingston Rovers.

In this zoom shot the end S of “Rovers” can be seen on the far stand’s seats.

Some modern architecture in Hull:-

Just got back from a fortnight away. I’m knackered.

It didn’t help that I had a disturbed sleep on the ferry (due to the folk in the cabin next door) then the public address system boomed out at 7 o’clock British time.

The ferry crew kicked us off the ship at ten past nine and then we sat on the quayside for ninety minutes twiddling our thumbs. (Okay, we both actually had books we could read so it wasn’t all wasted.)

But it was as if passport control hadn’t realised there was a ship coming in. Either that or they don’t open up till ten o’clock. Most odd.

There had been no such problem at the other end. We just rolled off the ferry at Zeebrugge, went into a queue of about four cars at most, had our passports looked at and then we were off.

I took loads of photos. Goodness knows when I’ll get round to uploading them. There is still quite a few from the trips we did last summer I haven’t posted yet as I jumped to the cruise pictures – of which Honfleur is still to come here.

We had a serendipitous metro stop opposite this lovely stylish building in Matosinhos. Pity the metro car’s windows intrude on the clarity:-

I have no idea of the building’s purpose but it’s another striking one:-

Rule of three in the extension’s windows:-

This stunning Art Deco building fetauring a green peacock motif below the Novidade lettering is Armazéns Cunhas, a department store.

The shop’s motto is apparently “novelties, we sell cheaper.”

Next door was the mundane by comparison, Era Porto Baixa:-

Gail Edwin Aguiar has some more stunning Deco from Porto on Flickr.

Coliseu at https://flic.kr/p/sWsaUi, Garagem Passos Manuel at https://flic.kr/p/tAJp5S.

And on Gail at Large, Serralves:-

The Wine Box, Porto, on the northern road approaches to Dom Luís I Bridge has Art Deco styling:-

Another tall Deco building. Note cartouche below roofline:,-

This one’s yellow paintwork emphasises the strong horizontals:-

Terrace of Deco:-

Zoom to lower down the terrace:-

Hotel Vincci, Porto, is a modern Deco style hotel by the banks of the River Douro. Helitours landing pad is in the foreground.

More of Hotel Vincci fron River Douro- plus heritage tram to left:-

Close-up. I like the clock:-

There’s a different view of the hotel here.