A Belgian Marathon
We've just gotten to Bruges in Belgium, but we spent the last 3 days or so in Brussels. To recap...
The day we left Amsterdam was terrible and rainy, but we stopped at a Pancake house (they were everywhere) and enjoyed a local favoirte--Pancakes. We then visited Museum Van Loon (an old house, preserved with the neatest furniture and artwork...I wish I could load pictures now) and attempted to board a train to Brussels, but because of an accident by Den Haag we couldn't take a train for another 3 hours (although each time we asked they just said "another 1.5 hours"...ugh.
by the time we settled at our hotel in Brussels we were beat...and crabby. The next day was rainy as well and we were cold for most of our time in Brussels, but we did get to see soooooooo many buildings and old palaces. We saw quite a few homes and buildings designed by Art Nouveau legend Victor Horta. Of his buildings we saw the Horta Museum (his home), the Comic Book Museum and the Museum of Instruments which had a walking tour where when you stepped by the instrument case the music of those instruments would play--a nice way to avoid the tourist language barrier. We also went to the city museum and learned the history of Brussels and saw all the clothing of Mannekin-Pis (the little boy statue peeing). We saw the little fountain and really it wasn't much to look at, very little, probably smaller than a garden gnome. We ate traditional Waffles and thoroughly enjoyed them, I would liken it to a croissant put in a waffle iron. I even tried to get a bottle of wine, which wasn't to much trouble, till I realized I didn't have a cork screw and it was still raining so I tried to improvise...the rest of the story I will save for those that won't laugh quite so hard at my expense. I will say, I broke a pen and had to do some laundry (thanks George Cutlip for giving me the Tide pakets). I bought some very fun things --mostly postcards, but a cool sweatshirt too.
Brussels was great because it was really a center or business and tourism was integrated very well and didn't take over the city by any means. By the end of day 2 we had seen so much that we couldn't move, we packed up and got ready to leave and made it to Bruges this morning, but found out when we checked in that there was a strike in transport and we wouldn't be able to leave for Paris as we intended tomorrow. Now we've decided to stay in Bruges for two nights instead and we'll cut going into the Louvre. I am very happy with our decision, the hostel we just checked into is AMAZING and the people have been fantastic. I am looking forward to the next couple days and Paris didn't have to really be changed much at all. We really had no choice about this though, so I suppose while I say it worked out for the best, we really have no other option. Odd that the man who gave us our tickets this morning didn't mention this strike and that our tickets weren't useable...
All is well, we're out a bit more Euros than we intended, and we're off to explore Bruges!!!
The day we left Amsterdam was terrible and rainy, but we stopped at a Pancake house (they were everywhere) and enjoyed a local favoirte--Pancakes. We then visited Museum Van Loon (an old house, preserved with the neatest furniture and artwork...I wish I could load pictures now) and attempted to board a train to Brussels, but because of an accident by Den Haag we couldn't take a train for another 3 hours (although each time we asked they just said "another 1.5 hours"...ugh.
by the time we settled at our hotel in Brussels we were beat...and crabby. The next day was rainy as well and we were cold for most of our time in Brussels, but we did get to see soooooooo many buildings and old palaces. We saw quite a few homes and buildings designed by Art Nouveau legend Victor Horta. Of his buildings we saw the Horta Museum (his home), the Comic Book Museum and the Museum of Instruments which had a walking tour where when you stepped by the instrument case the music of those instruments would play--a nice way to avoid the tourist language barrier. We also went to the city museum and learned the history of Brussels and saw all the clothing of Mannekin-Pis (the little boy statue peeing). We saw the little fountain and really it wasn't much to look at, very little, probably smaller than a garden gnome. We ate traditional Waffles and thoroughly enjoyed them, I would liken it to a croissant put in a waffle iron. I even tried to get a bottle of wine, which wasn't to much trouble, till I realized I didn't have a cork screw and it was still raining so I tried to improvise...the rest of the story I will save for those that won't laugh quite so hard at my expense. I will say, I broke a pen and had to do some laundry (thanks George Cutlip for giving me the Tide pakets). I bought some very fun things --mostly postcards, but a cool sweatshirt too.
Brussels was great because it was really a center or business and tourism was integrated very well and didn't take over the city by any means. By the end of day 2 we had seen so much that we couldn't move, we packed up and got ready to leave and made it to Bruges this morning, but found out when we checked in that there was a strike in transport and we wouldn't be able to leave for Paris as we intended tomorrow. Now we've decided to stay in Bruges for two nights instead and we'll cut going into the Louvre. I am very happy with our decision, the hostel we just checked into is AMAZING and the people have been fantastic. I am looking forward to the next couple days and Paris didn't have to really be changed much at all. We really had no choice about this though, so I suppose while I say it worked out for the best, we really have no other option. Odd that the man who gave us our tickets this morning didn't mention this strike and that our tickets weren't useable...
All is well, we're out a bit more Euros than we intended, and we're off to explore Bruges!!!
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