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 ;)

Amsterdam Day II Keukenhof part deux

And we continue our tour of the Keukenhof- and I've taken these flower shots out of order. I could give the play by play of the day, but in truth it isn't going to make any difference to you, and to me... well- its already a little foggy. I will say that this particular exhibit below, which sort of had a "bridal" theme was seen just prior to our blood sugar dropping to dangerously low levels. Well... my blood sugar at least.Ready to see more flowers?? Well... at this point I needed a drink, Kate kind of looks like she had to much to drink, I caught her mid blink I think.... (ooh a rhyme). We had our first Dutch/Belgium style fries with mayo here, and they lived up to our expectations despite the fact that we bought them from a park's cafeteria. The Heineken, in full disclosure not much better than what it tastes like in the U.S., contrary to popular belief. I really found it to be the same sub-par, cheap beer... marginally better than Budweiser, worse than pretty much everything else I'd drink, Miller High Life, Schlitz, and PBR included. (I've been known to get the latter when ever I see a good deal.. or Schlitz in a bottle... there's just something about it).

Beginning the showcase of out-of-order photographs is Kate standing in the giant wooden shoes. Yes, Kate took some lovely shots of me in the spacious clogs as well... and some strange woman even photo bombs, albeit unintentionally. (I actually just became aware of the term "photo bomb" today and decided to make use of it. Pretty frickin out of it and square huh? Lets face it, the "rube" force has always been strong with me). Lovely masonry by the way.

This is Kate looking depressed near the harvested tulip fields. Sadness. The park was still beautiful. It could have been MORE beautiful, but alas, it was what it was.

Kate sitting in the middle of three purple flower pots.

Disclaimer: the remainder of the photos in this entry were taken by Kate M. Fazio on May 14th, 2011. I can not take any creative licence for these, other than for my strange desire to be photographed next to this clearly AWESOME pained fiberglass elephant.

CUBES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was an obnoxious family photographing themselves by the cubes- ignoring signs that said don't walk on grass or touch the cubes. The mom was instructing her little boys to pose looking like big strong men holding the cubes up. The boys seemed more interested in kicking them or trying to scale the cubes, which moved violently (I think they were paper mache on a wire frame, made from magazine clippings). We spent some more time regrouping while Kate waited 15 minutes to get this excellent shot. I plan to hang it up next to a great picture of some spray-painted hay bails we saw several years ago in a sculpture garden in Queens ;) .

At this point, we are very much of the mind---- what haven't we seen? Is it time to go? Are we getting tulip gardened out? I think we are. But alas we find this cool maze which was incredibly easy to maneuver- I'm not even sure we took one wrong turn. But don't forget these photos are out of order--- so while this story would soon be ending for me, you are only 3 quarters of the way through, or something like that.

I really like this shot Kate took of the stream. A simple unexceptional scene, yet somehow it stands out to me. I think I just really like how the flowing water is captured amidst the greenery.

WINDMILL! First one we saw, and we even got to climb up to the deck, very cool. We listened to a little abbreviated "history of the windmill" delivered by one of the park employees. Apparently this one was moved here and used to be a grain mill. They give the illusion that it is a mill to pump water, as so many in the Netherlands are, but today it is actually non functional- or it spins, but does not serve a purpose other to look pretty and educate.

These weird flowers are super cool. Kate took a lot of time getting great photos of these. There are several I could have picked from, and I have no idea which shot was the best to use. I used my best judgement.

More harvested fields. I think this is the photo that actually shows one small patch where purple flowers remain, but you can't really tell by looking at it here. We barely could tell in person in all honesty.

Note the canal. While chilling out looking at it we saw a massive 3-4 foot long fish leap out of the water. Probably some sort of invasive carp. It was awesome. Lets hear it for mutant gold fish helping make our day that much more interesting.

Some dweeb smiling in front of azaleas or some sort of pink flowery shrubbery.

I could keep posting pictures of flowers... we certainly took enough, but I think next chapter in this documentation of our 2011 European jaunt will move back to the city.

My moving in stuff is winding down a bit now, really it is. I'll try to get a few posts in the next couple of days. On July 10th I have a work related trip to Japan- so I'll slip into obscurity for a week. But if I get the chance while I'm there, I'll document some of it and try to share.

Till next time,