… and living in the south east of England I really mean that.

Let me explain. We live around 35miles/55kms from the Eurotunnel. Once the other side, Bruges is less than 75miles/120km from Calais. The drive to Meriden, once considered the centre of England, is 145miles/234kms, and don't get me started on the centre of Britain - one for another time - It's true, I'm a Southerner (Also a Londoner - That's what my birth certificate says!)

Anyway, We have been to Bruges 3 times, including our first European Christmas market back in 2006. Our last visit we left home early with my Mother in tow, (It was a Birthday treat for her), and was drinking a hot chocolate overlooking the Place De Bruges by 10:30am.

However you're here for the pictures, so a selection from March 2005, December 2005 & March 2015 (It seems I don't like Bruges when it's warm then)

So as you may have noticed there's a 10-year span between the first & last images in this gallery. Originally a Canon EOS10D, before the story takes me to a Canon EOS 1Ds MkIII - The one remaining constant is capturing them in raw format - more of that in this post (Shooting Raw).

All my images are catalogued in Adobe Lightroom, before being processed in Adobe Photoshop. Most of these images have then been passed through Google's Nik collection of filters in Photoshop before landing back in Lightroom.

As always, any questions about individual images, techniques or even Bruges itself, just ask - here to help.

And why not? This is one amazing place. Granted there are a lot of tourists, and the obvious tourist traps, but there's also lovely quiet places to find. It's worth exploring.

Or why not make it for Christmas? Have you seen our Memories of Bruges?

Why not check out the latest deals on Booking.Com?