We flew into an airport that is supposedly "just south" of Brussels, but really takes about 50 minutes to get to by train. (That detail really isn't important except to portray my skepticism of the airport nam
e.) Anyway, we got in and made our way to our first stop: Antwerp. We spent a couple of hours there, checking out the sites and just getting a feel fro the town. Antwerp is a pretty modern town, apparently a fashion mecca, and second in diamonds only to some other town I can't remember. :) The weather was gorgeous, so we also got to sit outside and enjoy a Belgium beer (of which they have more than 700 varieties). The plan was to hang out in Antwerp for a while and then go to Burgge, BUT...we didn't quite ration our time correctly and had to run a good portion of the way to the train station. After going back and forth between thinking we were going to make the train and then miss it, we eventually did make it and made our way to Burgge.Brugge is now my most favorite city in the whole world. It's a little town-- only 120,0
00 people-- but it's fantastic. It has all the ambiance of an old medevil central European town, but feels a bit like Italy at the same time because it's a city of canals. Add in the element of fall and the leaves changing, and you can understand why I filled my camera's memory card. We got into town, walked around for a bit, found the hostel and had an amazing dinner there....Andrew continued to comment on how good the ribs were several days after the fact. Then we wandered a little more, found out KU beat K-State, (ROCK CHALK!!) and then hit the sack. (Keep in mind, we had been going since at least 2:30 that morning, and Andrew hadn't slept at all.)The plan for Sunday was to get up, walk around a bit, head to mass, walk around a bit more, and then head off to Gent. That plan got thrown off because in setting my phone as an alarm, I forgot to adjust for the hour time difference between London and Brugge. We w
ere out the door by 9 a.m. as planned...but that was London time. All ended up being fine...we got some cool pictures of the dense fog that covers Brugge in the morning, went to mass in Flemish (interesting expereince), and then continued with the plan henceforth. I mentioned before that Brugge is a city of canals, and because it wasn't too expensive, we took a boat ride on the canal...probably the best $8 I spent the whole trip. After that we took a brewery tour, walked around in a former convent, and (finally) got the most delicious waffle I've ever had. Its hard to describe the immense joy my tastebuds had from this waffle; it seems the waffle was deep fried rather than made on a griddle, and you could taste the sugar granules in the batter. Plus, we got ones drizzled
with chocolate. AMAZING. After realizing it really couldn't get any better in Brugge, we headed out before any of the charm could dissipate.The next stop was Gent (or Ghent). We spent more time in Brugge than we were planning on, so it was nearly dusk when we arrived. At that point we also weren't sure if we were going to stay there or go on to Brussles for the night, but since it was dark and we JUST made it there, we decided to stay. Gent is also a canal town, so it had some wonderful night shots and some bigger buildings b/c it was about twice the size as Brugge. However, unlike Brugge, it's not a tourist town at all, so it wasn't as "nice" and didn't have as much to do. So..we (again) walked around a bit, and then found the most amazing Thai food I've ever had. (My turn to talk about the food for days.) The plan was to head back to the hostel b/c it was again a long day, but a cute little bar/ pub caught our eye on the way home, so we went in. Both when we entered and left, the people in there applauded, and one of the guys there was playing an accordion. It was delightful. The whole time we were there, Andrew kept saying that he thought everyone in there (which was only about 20 people) knew each other and that maybe we were crashing a private party. I kept saying no, that it was a small town, on Sunday night, and it's probably just a gathering of regulars. Well, turns out he was right...the bar tender told us so as we were leaving. Oops.
Monday morning we went an explored a refurbished medevil castle that was surprisingly able to maintain
much of its character (including the smell of the latrine.) We wandered around there for a while, explored a church, ate some delicious fries (Belgians are obsessed with fries as much as waffles, chocolate, and beer) discovered that all the statues around the town had had green rubber balls placed on their noses overnight, and then made our way to Brussles.Brussels was nice...we were only there a short time, but got to see a fair amount of things. One of the big draws is a statue of this little boy peeing. Yes, peeing, and every stupid tourist shop around town has some sort of commemorative memorabilia so you can take the statue home with you. Weird.
I know this is long, and since there isn't anything too exciting to say about what happened the rest of the trip, I'll leave you here. Of course there are lots of little stories that I can fill in here and there, but I'll wait to tell you in person. Moral of the trip: Belgium is spectacular...go there!
