Installment #3 - Brussels, Brugge & Trier

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On August 29th I walked into the Amsterdam Central Station at 6:30 am on the dot. Seven minutes too late for the first train to Brussels. The next train wasn’t for another hour, so I made myself cozy and pulled out my book. I was reading “The Sucker’s Kiss,” which I had started on my ride to Amsterdam. I found it a little ironic that the main character made his living as a pick-pocket and here I was in pick-pocket central. I was very fortunate the entire trip and didn’t lose any of my belongings. In fact, I came back with more than I left with. Gotta love souvenirs. :-)


Brussels and I got off to a rocky start. I had asked the man in the Information booth at the train station where I could find the Tourist Information office. I followed his directions and when I realized that my “two minute” walk had turned into ten minutes, I turned around and headed back towards the station. I stepped into a tapestry shop where the owner gave me the correct directions and told me that should I need any further help, to just stop back in. The Tourist Office only made reservations for hotels, not hostels. Luckily they at least provide you with the contact information for the hostels. I searched for a pay phone for about 20 minutes and for the life of me could not find one. In light of my situation, I decided to take the man up on his offer and headed back to the tapestry shop. This gentleman was kind enough to call the hostel for me, helped me set up a reservation, and then drew a map for me on how to get there. The hostel I stayed at was called “Sleep Well” and looked kind of neglected from the outside, but the inside had been nicely renovated. The lobby walls were covered with murals and even had a small statue of the Mannekin Pis, a famous fountain in Brussels.


I spent the majority of the first day simply wandering around and scoping out the best places to eat (naturally!). I found a place called the Food Factory where I stopped for an afternoon snack and hot chocolate, and also to get out of the rain. Brussels was the city where I discovered that Belgian waffles taste much better with Belgian chocolate on them. :-D There is no shortage of waffles in the city, as there were waffle kiosks on nearly every corner. That evening I hadn’t planned to be out very late, but then I was told about a Jazz Café which happened to be having a live performance that night. Clearly I couldn’t pass it up. I joined a fellow hosteller for supper at a Greek restaurant and then we headed to the café. This band wasn’t any normal jazz quartet, they were playing gypsy jazz! I was positively delighted! For those of you who aren’t familiar, gypsy jazz is the type of music you hear in the film Chocolat. The music ended at nearly midnight and I crashed the second I got back to my room. I’ve included my best picture from the night and I apologize that it’s a bit blurry. It was dark and I didn’t want to disturb the performance with a flash.


The next day I decided to explore Brussels by means of a “Hop on, Hop off” tour. On this kind of tour, a bus takes you to multiple destinations around the city and you can choose to get off at any spot you would like. All day long, approximately every half-hour, a bus would arrive at the spot you were dropped off at, and you can just hop back on and continue on with the tour. It was a convenient way to see all of the highlights in the city without having to walk to all of them. I was pretty worn our by this point in the trip, so I only got out at one stop: the Atomium.


The Atomium is a building modeled after an iron crystal molecule that’s been magnified 165 billion times. It was originally built for the Brussels World Fair in 1958 and was just recently revamped. It’s made entirely of steel and stands at a height of 102 metres (approximately 335 feet). It was fun to explore the inside and then see the skyline of the city from the top. All of the spheres were connected by escalators and there were displays inside each one either regarding the World Fair or about the iron molecule itself.


After the last stop on the tour I made my way to the Mannekin Pis, which is a fountain of a statue of a little boy peeing. It was originally built for use as a public drinking fountain, but is now purely decorative and has become a major tourist attraction. The statue itself is only about a foot tall and throughout the year he is dressed up in different costumes. The city has really embraced this little fella.


On my final day in Brussels I spent the morning wandering through the Belgian Comic Strip Centre. Basically it’s a museum dedicated to nothing but comics. It takes you through the development of comics, from the simple black & white one-pagers, to the animated endeavors we see today. I recognized several characters on display, including Smurfs, Marsupalami, Rin-Tin-Tin, and Asterix & Obelix. Almost all of the script, however, was in French, but I was able to catch the story-line from the pictures. The Centre has an in-house library composed entirely of comic books. I spent a little time in there reminiscing. (Yes, I’m old enough to be doing that…) ;-)


I grabbed a panini sandwich for lunch and made my way to the park to enjoy the fountain. There were lots of people out for a stroll and also sharing my idea of lunch in the park. I saw several families out with children, and it was one of those moments where, as a traveler, I had to remember that there are people who consider this place home, too, and not just another travel destination. There’s always another perspective on anything that you see in life.


Being in Brussels, I couldn’t leave before having visited the European Parliament building. I had hoped to sit in on a meeting, but there wasn’t one scheduled for that day, so I took the tour instead. It was free, but relatively short. All total it only lasted about 40 minutes, 15 of which were spent in the corridor where we stood in front of a large sculpture, and the other 25 we were sitting in the debating chamber. Maybe I’ll make it back someday and can sit in on a meeting. How cool would that be?


That same day I headed to Brugge, another city in Belgium. It’s a quaint city filled with cobble-stone streets and beautiful buildings. The central square is gorgeous and there are canals running through the city, as well, adding to the romantic character of the place. This is the city where I purchased my first Belgium chocolates from a Chocolatier, and oh my goodness were they ever good. I walked into the store and when the lady asked me what I wanted, I picked a box-size and asked her to fill it with an assortment, no two alike. She did just that and for the rest of the trip I had a box full of “surprises” since I had no idea what I would bite into next.


My first morning in Brugge I attended the Sand Sculpture Festival. The theme was “Brugge: a story of more than 1000 years.” All of the sculptures represented stories of the city of Brugge, both folk-lore and historical. I took pictures of all of the sculptures, but only included my favorites here, along with the story that goes with them. The literature said that these sculptures were not built to withstand the test of time, but they were still looking pretty good to me. The festival started August 1, which was a month prior to my arrival and the outdoor sculptures showed hardly any signs of wear.


Brugge is a city worth walking through simply to see the architecture and look through the shops. There are also a few windmills along the water towards the edge of town. I spent some time in a park watching the ducks. You could get within an inch of these birds before they’d even budge, so it was obvious they were used to people.


The last destination of my trip was Trier, Germany. Trier’s claim to fame is that it’s the oldest city in Germany. I arrived on a Saturday and wandered through the weekly open-air market. The Marktplatz was filled with people and there was LOTS of ice cream being sold. I believe I quite literally only spent 24 hours in Trier and 9 of those were spent sleeping, so I didn’t explore much. I did, however, get to see the Porta Nigra (the Black Gate), which is a four-story structure that was once part of the city's walls. I also got to see a church or two, so I’ve seen the primary attractions. I purchased a couple of books for the 7 hours of travel back to Schwabisch Hall the next day.


Overall the trip was positively wonderful. I am really looking forward to Christmas break when I will have 3 weeks to explore Europe. :-) I can hardly believe that just next week I will be in Vienna! It’s time to start packing…


There is still more to come, so please stop back. I have visited 4 other cities since the end of my course break. I have so much to catch you up on!


Annie

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Photos

Central Station
Amsterdam Central Station at 6:30 in the morning.

"You Are Here"
These signs were located in every sphere in the Atomium to give you an idea of where you were in the air.

Church
This church is only a block or two away from the Brussels Central Station.

Smurfs
These little guys look familiar? Saw them at the Comic Centre.

Debate Room
There's a ghost in the Parliamentary Building... :-)

Silhouette
Statue in Central Square, Brugge

The Dragon of Male
Once there was an underground passage that connected the Saint Basil's Chapel with the duke's fortress in Male. To each condemned man was offered his freedom if only he could escape along this passage. But the passageway was home to a fierce dragon. One prisoner pondered long over his attempt and clothed himself in a shell of countless shards of glass and mirror. The dragon saw itself reflected hundredfold in the shards and immediately took flight. The prisoner was celebrated as a hero and the dragon was never seen again.

The fish market
On the location where the fish market now stands, was originally, since the middle of the 15th century, the grain market. The fish market was only moved there in 1745, after taking place for centuries on or near the Market Square.

The Holy Blood Procession
One of the artists had a little fun with this one. Take notice of what's behind the second man's head.
The story: The oldest reference to the HOly Blood Procession is found in a charter of the guild of the "pijnders" (dock workers or "unloaders") from 1291. From 1310 onwards, the city authorities decided to let the festival of the Holy Blood take place, with the procession, at the same time as the annual fair. In this way, and also through the town criers who criss-crossed Flanders, the gathering crowds and devotion to the Holy Blood grew.

Comments

[Karen Bartholomew]

jazz!
Love the jazz pic! It looks quite arty. All your pics are fabulous, as are you descriptions. Thanks for taking the time to share!