Luckily we again evaded the border patrol police as we crossed into the land of chocolate and thought the rest of the trip would be smooth sailing. Unfortunately this was not the case........
We arrived in Brussels at 9:30pm and had a connecting train to Bruges, leaving at 10:04pm. Little did we know that a train strike came into affect that night at 10pm and therefore we missed our train.
After taking into consideration the additional money we would have had to pay to stay in Brussels that night, plus the money we had already paid for the hostel in Bruges, we finally bit the bullet and forked out a painful 180 euros for a 50-minute cab ride to Bruges.
We were knackered after a huge day at Versailles and then the train ride, so we hit the sack pretty much as soon as we got settled in at the excellent St. Christopher's Hostel.
The hostel was running a free walking tour (you're expected to pay a tip at the end) at 10:30am each day, so we put our names down and joined a group of about 25 others for an interesting look at the city. The tour was heavily based around the movie 'In Bruges' and as Anna and I both hadn't seen it, there were a lot of things we didn't understand, eg. 'thats where Colin Farrell jumped out the window into the canal' etc.
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| steps used by chimney sweepers back in the day - the amount of steps signified how wealthy the family was |
Although we didn't get as much out of the tour as we would have liked, we did get to soak up the atmosphere of one of the most beautiful cities we have seen. The cobblestone lane ways, dreamy canals, soaring spires and step-gabled buildings all combined to make the place just picture-perfect.
Bruges was one of Europe's leading trade centres in the 14th century, but the waterway linking the city to the sea silted up, cutting its economic lifeline. Traders abandoned the city, leaving it suspended in time for centuries. These days however, everyone knows about its beauty and this means plenty of tourists, especially Asian ones who waddle around the city in their big tour groups, taking more photos than I do!
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| the Irish are quite funny |
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| a little leprechauns entrance haha |
I walked around town for a bit after the tour ended, and spent the majority of the time checking out some of the tantalising chocolate stores that were close to outnumbering the souvenir stores! In fact, before you even entered a chocolate store, you had it on your mind because the whole town literally smelled of chocolate and waffles, it was rurally cool, but didn't bode well for us health wise!
Heaps of places around town had these really cool candle mountains that had obviously taken a while to create. I am so starting one of these when we get home haha!
The hostel had a really good bar with ridiculously cheap beers, so I had one or two or three beers with a few randoms and then Anna and I went out for dinner. We didn't get very far as there was a restaurant quite close by that was really cheap and it looked like it had a great menu.
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I was apprehensive at first to try the local specialty, Flemish stew, but I am so glad I did because it was better than good. It was basically a meaty stew, except it was done in beer. Another one to add to our 'food list' for an attempt at cooking ourselves when we finally get home!
That night was probably the coldest conditions we have felt since way back at the start in Florence, so we didn't walk around too much after dinner and also Anna was still feeling a little average, so we called it a night.
Anna was even worse the next morning, so I left her in bed and went out to explore. There were so many great little spots along the canals, it was like Belgium's answer to Venice, so it was good to be able to take as many photos as I wanted without worrying about annoying my girl haha.
I came across a photography shop with many shots of family portraits in the window. This one below was just so wrong, seriously, who would do such a thing!
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| Minne-water (Lake of Love) |
My first real stop was the UNESCO World Heritage listed Ten Wijngaerde Begijnhof, which was a beautiful area of hushed calm, surrounded by the romantic Minne-water.
A begijnhof is usually enclosed around a central garden and the Bruges one was no different. It is a pretty cluster of historic houses usually built to house lay sisters. The idea originated in the 12th century, when many such women were left widowed by their crusader-knight husbands.
These "Beguines" were religious women who wished to live an independent but committed life outside the recognised orders with their vows of fidelity and poverty.
Another 15-minutes of walking west and I reached the train station where I was able to organise tickets for our next destination, Amsterdam. Close by were the 'Godshuizen', a bunch of tiny white houses that were built from the 14th century for the poor and the sick and then I reached one of the gate houses that lie on the outskirts of the old town.
Today, nothing is left from the medieval fortifications that formed a circle around Bruges, except for the four gates (poorten) that lie at random points on the outskirts of the small city. At the Smedenpoort you can view how the defensive walls made of sand were used to catch cannonballs, making the city very hard to invade. A traitor opened the gate from the inside in 1688 and his skull was subsequently hung up on the inside of the gate to deter anyone from doing it in the future!
There were some interesting chocolate stores along the way that had some funny stuff in their windows and I couldn't help but take a few photos!
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| gives a new meaning to milk chocolate |
By that stage it was nearing 2pm, so I needed to get back home and see how Anna was going. Luckily she had piped up a bit and she was eager to get out and about. We stopped at a great little butcher near us that not only had amazing meats, but also some fantastic small pre-cooked meals like spaghetti carbonara and lasagne that we got stuck into.
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| Bruges Stadhuis |
Our first stop was the Burg, a beautiful medieval square that includes the 1420 Stadhuis (City Hall). This building is smothered in statuettes and was a real sight. Next door is the easily missed Basilica of the Holy Blood, which was one of the more unusual churches we have been to.
Not that we are religious by any stretch of the imagination, but we had to go and see the cylinder that is believed to contain the blood of JC himself. This cylinder was taken on a crusade to Jerusalem in the 12th century and true catholics really do believe that it is filled with Jesus' blood. Every day it is taken out of its safe and put on a pillow to be worshipped.
We thought this was nonsense and when we got up there to 'worship' the phial, I swear it was just ketchup, probably Heinz I think.
We stumbled upon an area that was like a shrine to beer. There was a shop selling so many different types of beer and amazingly each one of these beers had its own unique beer glass. There were of course beer souvenirs ranging from t-shirts to slippers to postcards, but my favourite thing was the 'beer wall' which must of had at least 250 different beer bottles in a big glass cabinet and it had famous quotes written above it, such as "Here's to alcohol; the cause of, and solution to all life's problems" - Homer Simpson 1987 haha.
The temperature was starting to drop, so we found a great little chocolate store that was also going coffee and one of the more interesting chocolates I have had; chocolate with avocado cream, it was unreal!!
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| Anna is still adamant that she wants one of these in Barwon Heads |
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| this upside-down cannon was left behind by Dutch troops in 1631, nobody knows when and how it got stuck in the pavement! |
We then headed off to the chocolate museum, something we had really been looking forward to!! We knew that there was chocolate to taste at the end, but first we were teased through a tracing of the history of chocolate.
We arrived in a room full of impressive chocolate carvings, and then were led into a room where we were to get a demonstration on how the famous Belgian chocolate praline is made.
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It was kind of interesting to see the whole process, but really we just wanted to eat the final product! We had to stand there and wait for the demonstration to be given in both Dutch and English, but finally it was over and we got to eat the most delicious chocolaty goodness, god it was good!
Being a pretty quiet town, there wasn't much night life during the week, so that night we had a few beers with some other Aussie girls in our hostel bar and then we all went out for a pretty decent and cheap meal.
Although we had previously been warned against staying in Brussels, we still wanted to check it out, so the next day we hopped on the train and spent the day there. Most of the ket sights were within short walking distance of the Grand Place, so we headed there first.
Brussels magnificent central square, the Grand Pl, is just that, grand! Statues and trade symbols adorn the square's elegant guildhalls that were rebuilt shortly after the originals were bombarded by the French in 1695, but one older survivor, the splendid Hotel de Ville (City hall) still stands.
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| I never knew this, but TinTin is from Brussels! |
It seemed like an interesting city, there were lots of pretty buildings, nice cafe's, lots of cool murals on many corners and my favourite, the national monument of Belgium.
The 'Manneken Pis' is a fountain in the form of a little boy cheerfully taking a leak into a fountain pool. This really is a surreal national symbol, but I think it's great haha!
We had to wait a while to get a few photo's because there were so many people trying to get a peek at the little fella. It really was funny to see how popular it was and as you can imagine, every souvenir shop was full of Manneken Pis related paraphernalia.
Since the little boy became so popular, there is now also a statue of a dog pretending to hang a leak on a random street corner haha. Sexual equality is also ensured by the Manneken Pis' lesser-known squatting sister, the Jeanneke Pis, who is located in a small alleyway in the middle of the night-club district!
One of our little guide maps recommended a chinese restaurant called Chaochow City (didn't fill me with a lot of confidence) for lunch that is a real hit with the locals, so we gave it a try. Three plates of food between the two of us for less than 10 euro was great value, but we were slightly concerned that it could come back to haunt us later on.
The heavens opened up whilst we were eating and unfortunately my 5 euro umbrella that I bought in Florence just couldn't cope with it anymore. Anna thought it was the most hilarious thing ever, I have actually never seen her laugh that hard for so long as I battled my way around the streets for the next hour or so.
The resplendent Galeries St-Hubert was opened in 1847 and was Europe's first covered shopping arcade. It included some of Brussels' high-fashion boutiques, elegant chocolate shops and the most loved cafe in town.
The whiff of waffles had been entering my nasal passage for the last few days and it was finally time to see what all the fuss was about. They came with fresh strawberries and icing sugar and was absolutely delicious, but I really wish I had got them with hot chocolate sauce as well; such an error, although not a bad enough error to put it in the same category as the beetroot salad I ordered in Southern Italy with the Batrouney clan!
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| just a lazy 105 euros for these delectable treats |
Time was getting away from us, so once we finished our coffee's we headed off to the train station and caught the train back to Bruges. Brussels had been a pretty cool city, but we were both very happy with our decision to stay in the pretty town of Bruges instead.
Walking back to our hostel from the train station, I took Anna past a few of the things I had seen whilst she was in bed sick. We saw the Begijnhof from the outside and the surrounding Lake of Love which was now swarming with big beautiful white swans, some of the interesting old-school architecture and the funny photography shop haha!
That evening I had a few pre-dinner beers down in the bar and then we went searching for a restaurant. We came across a cool Spanish tapas place and had a feast of all sorts of things, it was really good. I also had a few beers that were around 8-9% and by the end of dinner I could definitely feel them!
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| Anna wanted a photo because she thought she looked cute with her hoodie on |
There was an Aussie girl and a few American blokes in our room that were down in the bar playing a few drinking games, so I decided to join them for a few more beers, but it turned out that these blokes were typical young immature American wanders that thought they knew everything, so I pulled a phantom after about an hour and went to bed.
The next morning was pretty average weather-wise, so we made sure we donned our rain jackets as we had hired bikes to ride around the bike track that follows the old medieval fortifications.
It was a really pretty ride, lots of green grass and even green water, but the best thing was the old-school windmills that lined the eastern side of town.
We circled the town pretty easily after about an hour and a half of riding, including stopping for photo's etc and handed back the bikes just in time to escape additional charges. Then it was off to Bruges' nerve centre, the Markt Place. This huge open square is ringed by step-gabled street cafe's and dominated by the 84m 13th century Belfort, that is Belgium's most famous belfry. I was super keen to climb its 366 steps to the top, but unfortunately by the time I got there, I was rudely told that it had closed for the rest of the day.
The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to shopping for clothes, and shopping for chocolate!
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| more chocolate! |
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pretty impressive costume, but still not getting any of our money!
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| need I say more........ |
The chocolate vagina's were tempting, but instead I went for the waffles and made sure this time I had them covered in hot chocolate sauce, so so good!
Anna made a successful purchase at Zara, so we both went home happy!
Luckily it was the weekend, so we were able to go to 'T Ganzespel' for dinner. This place is renowned amongst the locals for its excellent wintery food, its excellent beer and its equally excellent prices.
We started off with a hot and steamy soup that was served to us from a big pot at our table and then each had a main that sent a quite silence over our table; we were enjoying our food too much to talk haha!
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| a great example of how each beer comes with its own glass |
We went back to the Markt Place (correct spelling yes) for coffee and to check out the belfry all lit up and then headed back home to make sure our bags were packed and electronic devices were all charging as we had to leave bright and early in the morning.
Thankfully the trains were all back working as they should and after changing trains at the massive and seriously impressive Antwerp train station, it was all the way to Amsterdam. Anna again hid in the toilets as the border patrol police circled and again managed to get through unscathed.
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