Advertisement
Published: October 2nd 2011
Edit Blog Post
After Paris, I boarded the big blue bus to officially start my trip of Europe. My Busabout ticket covers 33 destinations in 9 countries and allows me to hop on and off the bus as I please – so I choose how long I stay at each destination and simply book my seat on the bus to get to the next stop. I can also skip places if I don’t want to stop (but ofcourse I want to go just about everywhere!).
So buckle up and share the ride with me, first stop Belgium.
A medieval town complete with cobbled streets, winding canals, grassy green fields and endless chocolate shops.. it almost sounds like a fairytale doesn’t it? (well that’s what the guide books think), welcome to Bruges, Belgium!
I arrived mid-afternoon and kicked off my stay in this small town with a free guided walking tour (you tip the guide how much you think he/she deserves after the tour concludes). I think this is the best way to get your bearings of a new city, particularly when you’re on a budget (after Paris I think it’s time I worked on some sort of budget so I don’t end
up coming home too soon).
My travel buddy Steve (from camp) also joined me in Bruges and again it was a delight to have some familiar company, someone to take photos for me and of course someone to influence my eating habits!
Day one was overcast and cloudy so we took the opportunity to discover some history behind the brown, creamy substance ever so popular in Belgium with a visit to the Chocolate Museum. The best part was the free samples and truffle demonstration! And the rest, well let’s just say we could have found out all the history in a library/online if we really wanted to know, but the tasting was most important!
Now onto the humble French Fry or ‘Chips’ as we Aussies call them. Our golden deep fried friend was founded in Belgium – not by the French. The German soldiers overheard the Belgiun soldiers speaking French and thought they were from France, so hence the name ‘French Fries’. So the ‘Friet Museum’ is dedicated to the beginnings of the chip and again, a museum not worth the trouble unless it’s raining and you need an indoor activity!
One place worth a visit
is the ‘Belfort’. 66 steps up a steep and narrow passage and we enjoyed panoramic views of Bruges and beyond. And for anyone that has seen the movie ‘In Bruges’, I think it’s definitely possible to get a heart attack climbing the stairs if you have over indulged in chips and chocolates!
Can you guess what Belgium is also famous for apart from chocolate? Waffles! So yes, I enjoyed a few of those to my tastebuds delight!
Being such a small town, on day two we took the train to see a near-by town called ‘Ghent’. And the most exciting thing to do there was climb the Belfort Tower – so we did! Oh and we came across an ‘Australian shop’ and an ‘Australian Ice-creamery’ that quoted “home made”– this got me a little excited until I asked what made them ‘Australian’? The manager said neither the ice-cream recipe nor the staff were Australian at all, it’s simply the name because the first machine they used there was from Australia (well thats what I understood the lady to say..). How very ‘un-Australian’!
Our last day in Bruges did feel a bit like a fairy-tale, actually it reminded
me of the movie, ‘The Sound-of-Music’ (and I’m not even in Austria yet!). We hired bikes and rode past some windmills before amping up the peddle power 20km out of town to a beachside town called ‘Heist’. We followed the canal, along a tree lined path (this part reminded me of the T-S-O-M), passed grassy fields and got some country farm fresh air, then arrived at the beach! Shame we didn’t have our swimmers for a dip after we worked up a sweat on the ride!
The storm clouds were on the way so we enjoyed the view for awhile and made the trip back as fast as we could but didn’t quite beat the rain, instead it beat me – I came to a sudden stop on the slippery pavement and came face to face with it, I’m ok though! This day was the highlight of Belgium, worth the sweat and (almost) tears!
I was then back onboard the bus for about 8 hours, making a brief overnight stop in Amsterdam (coming back here later on) and onto Germany - where an old friend awaits my arrival!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0307s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb