Evening in Bruges

The thing about writing in these travel-blog entries is I can never add quite enough detail to do the experiences justice. Bruges was spectacular, these swans were in the canal immediately in front of our Hotel. You can't really tell from the photo above, but there is actually a swanling on top of the mother (I assume) swan's back. We stayed at Hotel Europ, which I would highly recommend to anyone who visited. It is somewhat of Budget hotel, but it was far more posh than our lodgings in Amsterdam (which served its purpose despite certain things it lacked). Our room was a bit more affordable because it did not sport a canal view. Kate and I figured we weren't in Bruges to spend time in a room so this was just fine. It was clean, had a great free breakfast, (excellent meats, bread, boiled eggs, and fruit). A comfortable small room, nice bathroom with a fitting decor that seemed appropriate for Bruges.

A better view of the canal below.

Notice Kate in the photo below trucking along towards the hotel. Almost there Kate!

Below is the Bruges city hall in The Burg square. This is a short distance from the hotel and where we would be catching a bus back to the train station instead of trying to repeat our "arrival" experience of navigating the cobblestones, suitcases in hand.

After settling into the hotel, using the facilities, and Kate checking out what stations were available on the television we went and found some sustenance in the town. Bistro Lily with its al fresco dining immediately caught our eye. They had Belgian fries with mayo, nice looking sandwiches, and beer.... ahhh beer. Belgian beer! I had a crab sandwich which seemed to be popular- it was "faux" crab, and I knew this going into the arrangement, yet it seemed very popular so I gave it a whirl. Aside from the roll it came on, it wasn't all that great, but I ate three quarters of it. The beer and fries more than made up for it. I can't remember what brand I had off hand (sadly) but it was something I could not get in the states, and it was mighty tasty.

The photo below is a public fish market that unfortunately was not operating when we strolled by. I thought it was photo-worthy regardless.The photo below is the Beguinage, a community of women who have devoted their life to charity and God. This particular community was one of the only remaining communities of this type which is still active. Descriptions of the community are quick to point out that these women are not "nuns". This is probably one of the more beautiful and tranquil places I have ever been. The photo does it no justice. The trees were enormous and permanently leaning from winds that must be quite unrelenting in the sky of Bruges. The breeze, undulating through the leaves made a hypnotic sound that could have had me lying in the grass, gazing up through the branches without much thought to the time I might be wasting. The photo above is Jeruzalemkerk, Kate and I would have loved the chance to explore all of these, but we had the unfortunate luck of being here on a Monday when many of the churches and tourist sites are closed. We would have to fit in some priorities on Tuesday, however we wanted to venture into the Belgian countryside as well so time was limited.

The gate below was near the Beguinage, (Begijnhof- Dutch). The area outside the community was as captivating as the serene area of solitude within. Otherworldly is a descriptor that is lacking in every sense.The photo below is the back side of a complex adjacent to the Basilica of the Holy Blood. This is a pilgrimage site, and we would be taking this site in with more scrutiny later in our stay.The church above is St. Anne's church and it is located in what was once a poorer immigrant community. This once down-and-out neighborhood was a little more my style than De Pijp.WINDMILL!!! There are supposedly 4 of these in Bruges, however since they are far apart we managed to take in two of them. I wanted to climb up to the top of this one, and I probably would have, but Kate had this idea that we were going to get arrested. In truth that stairway was fiercely steep and the whole windmill swiveled slightly so it wasn't the most safe activity to do. If I was younger I would have done it in a heart beat. Lately I'm too much of a klutz so I had visions of myself breaking my neck, and I smartly avoided this.The gate above is one of the old medieval city gates. Complete with outlets designed to facilitate the dumping of hot oil on some jerk you don't want barging in without proper credentials.

So Rick Steves is an ass. Kate had a "Rick Steves" travel guide to Bruges that told us that the city didn't wake up till 10:00 and that was when we should get dinner. In fact just the opposite was true- so much so that this stupid Pizza Hut was the only place save a couple of bars, that was open. My idea of fine Belgian ale with roasting meat, or pots of mussels would have to wait an evening. Instead we had a pepperoni pizza with cheese bread sticks. The weird thing here is they served the bread sticks with ketchup and salsa (no sauce). We asked for some marinara sauce and the waitress looked at us like we had three heads- who knew this was the custom? I had a large beer which was essentially the size of a pitcher. It was just sort of a pilsner, and I've been trying to google what it was, and for the life of me I can't find it. I should have carried a notepad to record all of these important details. Pizza Hut by the way seems to be universally rated one star by people who have been there.

Bruges at night is just fabulous- enchanting. It was quiet, and we felt like we were on an adventure lurking around the old stone masterpieces in the dark, alone with the spirits.

Whooo too much Belgian beer makes for bad photography!!!! These nighttime shots are incredibly difficult to take, especially with my 5 year old digital camera. I'm pretty proud of this one below- it looks photo shopped.

Onward to Bruges

The next day of the trip was one spent partly in transit to Bruges, Belgium. This photograph below was taken at a train station in Ghent (Gent) where we needed to transfer. The train below I believe was a "local" we were on a more long-distance, high speed line. We rushed through Centraal station in Amsterdam but had enough layover in Ghent to grab some drinks and croissants before heading on the next leg of the journey. When we arrived in Bruges we had a little bit of difficulty figuring out what side of the train station to exit to go towards the center of the town. Once we managed to ascertain that this was the street that took us towards our destination. Aside from the cars, it was other worldly, very medieval looking and serene (a nice change from Amsterdam).

Our trek was not without obstacles, while our hotel wasn't terribly far from the train station, we underestimated the difficulty of towing our suitcases down the cobblestone, and we did manage to get a little lost on the way. As you move further into the town the roads get pretty windy, and intuition isn't going to get you far. We didn't have a good map, and were getting side tracked frequently, because the signage on the old streets was hit or miss.

The video here is a church that we stumbled upon while searching for the hotel. It was a nice distraction. I wanted to try and capture the experience that was the Bruges streets so I recorded this short clip of the bells. Note the horse hooves hitting the cobblestone in the background.This is heading towards the main square in Bruges, the tower ahead is the city hall.

One of Bruges canals, strikingly different than those in Amsterdam, they are narrower generally and often have vegetation and gardens wedged between the water and buildings. Another canal below in a more residential area.

There was a carnival going on in Bruges which was sort of interesting. I can imagine some people might have been put off if they were coming there for the untouched old world atmosphere, but Kate & I felt it added to the experience, as it seemed to be primarily attended by locals, and not tourists.

I'll start off the next post with the hotel, and then finish it out with our continued touring of Bruges.

End of the Keukenhof Day: Hooligans!

After leaving the Keukenhof Kate and I made the fateful mistake of missing our transfer stop on the train back to Amsterdam. The result dropped us off at the Amsterdam football (soccer) stadium where the Amsterdam team had just won the National championship for the first time in 15 years. Now if I don't stop and think about how that probably means they beat 4 or 5 other teams from much smaller metropolitan areas, it kind of seems impressive. Regardless the fans were on the brink of a riot and it was cool to see. They were singing, shooting off fireworks and rocking the trains when they arrived in the station. Kate and I were on alert, but were unscathed and were glad to have experienced this.

On the way into the city on a packed train a Dutch gentleman explained the championship to us and warned us to be on guard when we got back in town because there could be violence. The city was electric when we got back and we did see police in riot gear everywhere buzzing along in armored vans. For the most part fans were just loud and jubilant, and all dressed in red bearing the XXX symbol of Amsterdam. This symbol is not what you'd think but rather represents the coat of arms of Amsterdam, 3 silver St. Andrew's crosses, any other suggestion is an unfortunate coincidence (or fortunate dependent upon your perspective).Kate and I wanted to wait for the crowds to thin out a bit so we decided to seek out some activities on the fringes of the center city. This is the "Skinny Bridge" that goes over the Amstel River and is considered to be one of the more picturesque. It actually isn't skinny- and while it stands apart from other bridges in the city, I think Kate and I both thought there were prettier bridges. Apparently the Magere Brug, as it is properly named, used to be skinny to the point where it was just a pedestrian bridge wide enough for one person, but it has been rebuilt.

Kate decided that we should explore one of Amsterdam's "up and coming" hipster sort of neighborhood. (Think Williamsburg in NYC). De Pijp is named for its long straight streets that run parallel, contrary to the hub like rounded streets that are common through the rest of the central city. It was built as a working class community. It appears to be dirty and quite frankly still a slum to me, although there were a couple sections that were more vibrant such as the area where the Moorish columns above were located. That section had a nice square with many sidewalk cafes/ restaurants. It may have been the hooligans chanting off in the distance, the copious amounts of graffiti, how sections of this area seem deserted, the trash, or the abandoned junked bikes lying around everywhere- but this was the one time in Amsterdam where my concern went a little beyond pickpockets or being bothered by perverts (I had someone following me for a couple blocks in the red like district clearly taunting me with one word that I could understand in his dutch "c*cksucker"). Kate didn't notice this at the time, and likewise, I was alone at feeling uneasy in De Pijp. Regardless we cut our touring short because deserted trash filled streets weren't incredibly interesting. It may have been the evening, but on some level I was souring a little on Amsterdam. I like the idea of working to live, instead of living to work- but I was getting the impression that Amsterdam natives were more into hedonism than quality of life- and had long abandoned any concept that they could improve the latter, rather they just waited for the government to throw them a bone. (Damm square and social protest were inseparable). Depressing on some level. The Heineken plant- time was tight so we didn't tour it. A sort of impressive old building anyway.Some of the revelers above as we headed back into town. Kate and I tried to go to the Begijnhof, a community of nuns which is supposed to be picturesque, however it was closed when we got there, and sufficiently walled such that we really couldn't appreciate it. The door is above. We'd check it out when we came back to Amsterdam prior to heading to Barcelona.

This is Kate looking dejected next to the Begijnhof gate. We walked around for a long time being really indecisive on what to eat later. Sadly it got late and contrary to what you might think, Amsterdam is not a city that never sleeps. After 9-9:30 the restaurants begin to close and you are left with the places that attract those who need to tune out (the coffee houses) or the places for those with the munchies. We found the latter. In the tradition of our fine vacation dining experiences it was a cheap to-order place. I had a rice noodle box with peppers mushrooms, onions, chicken in a black pepper sauce. I think Kate had some sort of sweet and sour rice box. Kate had food envy ;) We sadly discovered that Wok to Walk was a chain- seeing them in both Bruges and Barcelona later. It is what it is ;)