My Saturday mornings are normally my laziest. I slouch in front of the tv, trying in vain to find something good to watch. Then, having found only news and the Coronation Street Omnibus, I catch up with my news feeds on my phone. Having done that, I try to find something else on my phone to keep me occupied. My first port of call is normally a webcam App (WorldView Live). Do you remember when webcams were cool? Everyone had to have one and everyone marvelled at how fantastic the Internet was in allowing us to see live and grainy images from around the world. Well, I’m still there. I still love webcams.

Last Saturday, having been through my usual Saturday morning routine, I went into WorldView Live to see what was going on. Bern was holding it’s usual Saturday market, skiers were still queuing for the lifts at the resorts, everything seemed normal. Except in Brugge that is. Something different was going down.

I quickly discovered that I was watching the start of the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders), an annual UCI ProTour road cycling race. You can see the cyclists waiting at the start at the bottom left of the image. On next image refresh, the race had started and the team cars wee in pursuit.

Although I was only seeing the event in still frames, it was rather exciting. I have a lot of favourite webcam locations, but only very rarely is something interesting actually happening. in the next image, the crowds had been allowed from behind the barriers.

25 minutes later, the crowds had all but vanished and tidy-up was in full swing.

This isn’t the first time the Brugge webcam has been featured on this blog. In December 2007, I managed to capture my mum and sister in the same market square.

• Tags
• belgium
• brugge
• cycling

After one failed attempt and via a flurry of text messages, I’ve managed to capture my mum and sister on the live Brugge webcam. They’re the two standing in the foreground next to the lamppost with the bin next to it. They’re there all week for the Brugge Christmas market, which is taking place behind them. The rows of sheds are the stalls and the Christmassy gantries border an ice rink. All this under the shadow of the Belfry Tower and surrounded by streets filled to the brim with chocolate & lace shops. If you’ve never been, Brugge is a beautiful place that’s definitely worth visiting.

Dad and I have now allowed them to put their umbrella back up and to continue exploring. I’ll post a link to my sister’s photos once she posts them to Flickr.

• Tags
• belgium
• brugge