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Published: June 13th 2007
so, before going to belgium we kind of just assumed that our little bit of french would get us by in such an international country. as it turns out, brussels is the only international city. though touristy, bruges is predominantly flemish. we were not prepared for this, to say the least.
on our way to bruges from paris, we had to switch trains in brussels, so we figured we'd get out and wander around for a bit because we'd heard good things. well, coming into the train station we saw grafitti everywhere, which was a little discouraging. however, we sucked it up and decided to make our way to the grand place, a large, rectangular plaza surrounded by the old town hall and some other really old looking buildings. can't you tell i absorbed the culture of the city? in any case, we found the grand place, which was full of tourists. we took some pictures and realized that the last english-speaking tour of the town hall for the day had already left. no biggie. we walked across the square to neuhaus, one of the original chocolate houses of belgium. christine and stephie j had fun in there. i don't care for chocolate too much, but i still bought a few pieces. we also walked around to the mannekin pis, the fountain of the little boy peeing. it was exhilarating, as you can imagine. after that and lunch we were pretty much unimpressed and ready to head to bruges. sorry, brussels...you weren't what we were expecting.
when we got to bruges, we took it easy the first evening. we wandered around a little, ate an early dinner in markt square (at the foot of the belfort; i got mussels...mmm!), ran (almost literally) back to our hostel's bar to catch happy hour with some belgian beer (including the cherry beer), and finished the night off with some belgian waffles. it was a pretty compact first day. we hadn't seen many sites, but we had conquered belgium's food and drink.
the second day in bruges was a monday, and most touristy things in bruges are closed on monday, so we rented bikes to ride to the beach. we all were a little shaky on the bikes, but it actually worked out very well. stephie j conquered her phobia, and the entire trek was lovely. we ended up biking a total of 36-ish km, and we rode through beautiful countryside the entire way. we hung out in a small beach town, stuck our feet in the north sea, and made sandwiches on the beach. the ride back was much quicker, and we felt like we had accomplished something. later on we went to an internet cafe to check up on reservations for germany and such, and we heard from our irish counterparts that they were making the trip to munich to join us! how spontaneous and awesome! we were all very excited...there will be much more on this later...after munich.
the third day was our bruges-touristy day. we went up the 366 steps to the belfort and back down them again, took a canal tour, and toured the de halve maan brewery, which included a free beer. sweet! after that was finished, we were pretty much finished with bruges (and it was only 3 pm), so we thought we'd be a little more spontaneous. we got the bus the choice was between antwerp and ghent. ghent was much closer, so we chose to go there. all domestic travel in belgium was free with our eurail pass, which was nice.
ghent was a pretty city. a small city. we took a tram to the center of town and saw their belfort and some old churches as we walked around the city to find dinner. we wandered all over the city. the streets and canal were lined with flower boxes, and there was a nice blend of really old and new all around the city. we finally found a civilized part of town at the foot of one of the churches and ate a nice dinner with some belgian beer. for dessert, i had hot chocolate, and christine and stephie j each had a huge belgian waffle with strawberries and cream. needless to say, ghent left a much better impression on us than did brussels.
overall belgium was wonderful. life seems much simpler there. people ride bikes everywhere, and every road has a bike path beside it. their countryside is green and serene. bruges, though touristy, still went to sleep at 9 or 10 every night. we felt bad for not knowing the language, but the people in general were very nice and spoke to us in english. we liked trying all of the food and beers that the country had to offer, and i think we all loved the bike ride through the countryside. belgium was good to us...dank!
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Mommie/Mrs. D
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'Remember those 366 steps! : )
We enjoyed your account of Belgium, Megg! Thanks for sharing your travels with us via the internet, Sweetie! I remember those 366 steps up the Bruges belfort; I counted every one. 'Hope you got to see a nice view of the village while you were "up there." Have a safe, fun-filled trip! Give our love to Christini and Stephie J. We love you! : )