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Published: October 27th 2006
Hello Everyone!
We had five days to make a whirlwind tour of the Benelux and we decided we would start with Amsterdam, head to Brussels, and from there visit Luxembourg. We didn’t have the easiest time getting to Amsterdam because we were running about two minutes late to the train, but as we ran to our platform it appeared our train was still there so we jumped on. The train immediately started to move just as I realized it was the wrong train, our train (also running behind) would have been the next one to arrive. We stopped at the next station, only five minutes away, and returned back to the Berlin main train station to find a new way to the Netherlands. To top it off, it was the day after the World Cup Finale and thousands of people were also leaving Berlin—it was a bit hectic at the train station, to say the least.
After two hours of working things out we were on our way and made it to Amsterdam before sunset. We decided before calling it a night, we would walk around the city to get our bearings and found ourselves in a place unlike
Watch out for the bikes in Amsterdam!
There are more bikes then people in this town!any we had ever seen before. Amsterdam is a town that is run on sex, drugs, and souvenir shops. It’s really quite interesting and fun to check out. We didn’t get too much sight seeing in, just walked through the main streets, over the many canals, and then decided we should head towards the place we were going to stay. We were couch-surfing in a town called Den Haag, about 40 minutes away by train, and we didn’t want to keep our host up too late. We arrived with no troubles and after talking and getting to know our host we were ready to crash.
The next day we were off to Amsterdam, we didn’t know what kind of language barrier would exist in Holland, but we quickly realized that pretty much everyone speaks perfect English. We asked our couch-surfing host why this is and he said they begin learning in school at an early age, but also partly due to the TV. It seems that they don’t want to bother with dubbing over television shows so they just keep them in English and add subtitles, even the cartoons for the kids…learning at such a young age! It was
a nice convenience for us, but we still tried to learn some basic Dutch (thank you, please, good-bye, etc) because one thing we learned on this trip is that just speaking a little bit of their language goes a long way.
Once in Amsterdam, our first stop was at a coffee shop for latte macchiatos and a muffin for breakfast, and then we were off. We walked through the red light district, which was more humorous then anything—women striking poses behind windows to drum up business and shops selling paraphernalia of all sorts. However, for the better part of five hours we just walked around checking out the local architecture as well was passing by the Heineken brewery (a little too expensive to warrant a tour). One thing we were willing to pay for was the Anne Frank museum, which is located in the building where she and her family went into hiding during WWII. For those of you that have read The Diary of Anne Frank, you know exactly what we saw, but those who are unfamiliar here is the super duper abridged version. The Franks were Jewish, Hitler was crazy, they hid in the attic of the
The Anne Frank Museum
Interesting to view first hand the place we read about in our youth. father’s work place, always had to be super quiet, Anne kept a diary (hence the title), they were eventually captured, the Franks went to the concentration camps, only Daddy Frank lived, someone had saved her journals, gave them to her father and he published it, a great read.
It was nice to visit, but I don’t think you get enough bang for your buck, for the budget traveler anyway. I had read the book in junior high and so had Heather so it was cool in that aspect that we knew the story and were able to relate that while walking through the house. After all the walking we were a bit tired so we stopped off at another coffee shop and then headed back towards Den Haag. The next morning we were heading to Brussels.
We shoved off pretty early and arrived in Brussels before lunch time. We were couch-surfing once again, but our hosts were not able to meet up with us until around 6pm due to work and school. So we threw our luggage in a locker, grabbed our trusty guide book and hit the streets. We hadn’t heard many great things about Brussels, beside
Please, there are ladies present!
The story goes that he put out the spark of a bomb fuse with his pee saving something famous...or something like that. it being a big city and the capital of Belgium, but it is the home of the European Union and thus considered the capitol of Europe as well. We were able to view Mannequin Piss, which I am sure most of you know even if you haven’t heard the term Mannequin Piss. It is a small fountain of a little boy peeing which has been replicated more times than I can count. In Brussels, it is the original and the locals have fun dressing him up in different costumes. There is actually a museum dedicated just to his costumes that have been created. We passed on the museum, but had fun at the fountain and the souvenir chocolate shops nearby that had free samples of Belgium chocolate!
Getting around Brussels is interesting because they have three official languages, Dutch (actually Flemish, but it is version of Dutch), French, and German. It is estimated that about 60% speak Dutch, 40% speak French and under 1% speak German, so to make sure no one gets lost all the street signs are in both, Flemish and French. Since German was only 1% it looked like my German skills wouldn’t get us too
far, but many people speak English here as well and we know a little French to get us by.
Our next stop was one of the most beautiful market squares in Europe, the Grand Palace or De Grote Markt…depending on what language you use : ) This is one place in Belgium that you must not miss! It is breath taking and you could just sit there and people watch all day long. After the market we walked around the city some more, checked out the St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral, and ended our walk at the Parc de Bruxelles—which is surrounded by the Royal Palace, Belgium Parliament, and US Embassy.
We had plans to meet up with our couch-surfing hosts Ben and Cendrine around 5pm and after cleaning up head to the house of Cendrine’s sister for a barbeque. Ben met us at the metro station and walked us to their flat, which was very lovely, and introduced us to the newest member of their family, Gigi their new little baby pug dog, very adorable! We talked with Ben and Cendrine for sometime, played around with Gigi, and then headed to the barbeque.
The barbeque was
Ben, Cendrine, and family. Thanks for the great times!
We had a blast in Brussels and it we owe it all to Ben and Cendrine, thanks a million! a great time with delicious food and drink. We enjoyed some tasty sausages and also sampled some of the local drink, a cherry flavored beer. After eating, the husband of Cendrine’s sister pulled out a box of Cuban cigars and the boys each had one. The sun was starting to set and Ben recommended we all walked to this view point to watch the sunset. We arrived at this cliff with an elevator, took it up, and enjoyed a spectacular view of the city with the sunset behind it.
After taking in the sunset, Cendrine headed home because she had a busy following day, but Ben, Heather, and I headed to a local pub called Delirium which, according to Guinness Book of World Records, has the most varieties of beers commercially available. We tried our fair share of them (one was a 12% Belgian beer!) and decided to call it a night…well, after one more pub stop on the way back home.
The next morning we awoke early, not to sight see, but because there were some painters coming to fix a wall and Ben forgot about them. No big deal because we were heading to the little
town of Brugge, Belgium for a little day trip and sight seeing. Brugge, considered the “Venice of the North”, was a very beautiful, quaint, and relaxing town. We viewed the beautiful market square, walked along the beautiful canals, walked around a nunnery, but the highlight of our trip had to be the Lace Making Museum.
To be honest, I wasn’t one hundred percent excited to view a museum dedicated to lace, and the museum was ok, but the greatest part was at the end of the lace gallery there were these little old ladies making lace and you could stand there and watch them for as long as you liked. After viewing the lace demonstration and learning that it is super difficult to make lace, we walked along the water front to view the many windmills and then headed back to Brussels to relax for the night and play with little Gigi. We had a great time with Ben and Cendrine and are very glad to call them great friends. We needed some rest because the next day we were heading to Luxembourg for the afternoon and then back to Berlin in the evening.
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg was
a quick, very quick, stop for us. Mostly people said—Luxembourg, why bother—but we would have no problems returning here for another couple of days. We did the usual walking the streets, taking in the sights, but we made a little detour to view the famous fortress that was built into the cliffs in a series of tunnels that stretch over 23 kilometers which gave it the nickname of “The Gibraltar of the North.” We got a little lost at one point, but found our way out and ran to the train station to make it back to Berlin before midnight.
We enjoyed the Benelux, saw some crazy things, met some great people couch-surfing, and would definitely recommend spending some time in this part of Europe! We were heading back to Berlin for the weekend to celebrate the revival of the Love Parade and also to do some more touring in Germany, so look forward to our next blog where we get our dance on with some crazy techno, take a trip back to my past in Memmingen, and enjoy the high society life of Lübeck.
Love Ben and Heather
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anonymous
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Nice to see it through your eyes
Hi, I'm Diana and I'm Dutch. Haven't lived in Holland for a while, but just back and enjoying your pictures. Have my own blog and stumbled upon yours through this. Nice pics of the canals, although a shame you only 'did' Amsterdam but hey........Just one thing, it's Manneke Pis, Manneke being 'Belgium' for 'little man'. Keep up the travels, I hope you make it all the way!!!