Beige Belgium

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Beige Belgium

Or perhaps I should say, grey Belgium. We flew out of Pisa airport on a cheap Ryan air flight - had to make sure the baggage was under 15kg - mine was 14.7kg - phew!! We flew into Charlesroi in Brussels, caught the bus into Brussels then the train straight to Bruges. We had tried to get accommodation in Brussels and Ghent for 3 nights - they had availability for 1st and 3rd night but not the second so we ended up at an HI hostel in Bruges.

The hostel was about 15 minute walk from the city centre but was nice enough. Bruges itself was beautiful - it got tagged in Lonely Planet as a tad fake and very touristy which I guess they were correct on both points but it is still a lovely city especially when it's lit up at night. We dumped our bags at the hostel and walked into the city centre - had tea at a pub called Soeur Sourire which means sister smile but the woman behind the bar didn't smile much.

Next day we did a full on explore of the centre - lots of chocolate shops so we tasted a bit of that. There was an english guy doing a one man show all about Bruges so we went to that - only 4 of us in the audience but he was funny and took us on a whirlwind tour of Bruges. We tested out a few of the Belgian beers, Rodenbach - v nice and Kriek which is a cherry beer - that was my favourite. Weather is getting cold now - into Autumn in Europe so having dumped my fleece in Rome I ended up buying a cheap jumper in Bruges.

We decided that as we were so close to the Netherlands we would hire bikes and cycle there for lunch. It was a flat road following the canal and the guy in the bike shop gave us a map with the path marked to go to Sluis which is just over the border. Before we had even left Bruges I pulled on my front brake too hard and shot over the handlebars - no major bones broken but I took all the skin off my right elbow and gave my right shoulder a good old wrench. Anyway, dusted myself off and got back on the bike. We must have got lost along the way as it took us longer than the one and a half hours it should have taken. Never mind, we made it and had a nice lunch in Sluis before riding back into Bruges.

Next day we decided to head off to Antwerp with a stop off in Ghent for a quick look around. We caught the train early morning and had a quick squizz around Ghent. At the moment it looks like a big construction site - there are roadworks everywhere and lots of monuments are being renovated. It's also a very grey sort of place but interesting nonethless. We had a map which told us we had to try the best fries in Belgium at the market. It was a stall run by Jozef and his wife - no frozen fries used here, they peel the potatoes and chop them themselves then cook them in the traditional way. We had a small serve each with mayo - yummy! We had tried the moules frites - mussels and chips in Bruges but were disappointed - well I certainly was. Ex hubby No 2 used to make the best mussels with white wine, tomatoes and garlic so nothing was going to be as good for me.

We arrived in Antwerp to discover the hostel we wanted to stay in was fully booked. My shoulder was giving me gyp but we had to go back into town then catch a tram out to the HI hostel which was out in the sticks. Finding the tram took us forever but eventually a nice lady police officer helped us out. The hostel was pretty old and there weren't many people staying there but they had cheap beers at the bar. I bought myself a couple of packets of frozen peas to put on my shoulder and arm - kept asking the lady at the hostel to put them in the freezer for me - I think she thought I had lost my marbles - they did help though.

Antwerp was very cosmopolitan and huge so it took us a while to make our way around. We got talking to an old guy who was telling us all about the city and he also told us there was a free concert. We headed to where he told us but by the time we got there it had finished - darn it. Decided to have a look at Luxembourg so that's our next destination.

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Photos

Beautiful
Bruges

Chocolate...
they make all sorts in chocolate here

Ouch
that hurt!!! Part of the bicycle injury

Am I in Belgium
or the Netherlands

Waffles?
Yep, they do waffles too