Many Firsts! (October 1-2, 2011)

This weekend was FABULOUS! We took a trip to Belgium with our friends George and Barbara (I will refer to them as G&B). It was such a good time! This weekend in Germany was a 3 day weekend, EVERYTHING was shut down Monday, October 3 to celebrate the reunification day, in German it's Tag der Deutschen Einheit. So we had 3 different plans for going somewhere this weekend, and Bruges was a GREAT choice! Originally we were going to go Oktoberfest (which is only in Munich, I thought it was everywhere in Germany, but just Munich).  But we decided it was too short notice to find a hotel and the tickets were expensive, so we decided it wouldn't be worth it this year. It's ok, I don't like beer anyways. So the next plan was to go to Hamburg and spend a couple nights. Well, we couldn't find a hotel at all, and then we finally realized that for 3 day weekend we needed to plan WAY in advance since EVERYONE is traveling. So we settled on Bruges. Our plan was to go to Oostende from Bruges, pass the French border and see Dunkirk (where if things had been different, Germany could have won WWII), and maybe go to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. So for those of you who saw my status and I said I was going to 3 countries, well, unfortunately the plans changed. We ended up staying in Belgium. But it was still awesome! And I'll make it to France and the Netherlands soon enough! I just wanted to clear that up first.

We left early in the morning on Saturday and took the train to Bruges, Belgium. We got there and saw an ad for a cheap hotel room, and since we didn't prebook anything (Belgium didn't have a holiday weekend, so we figured it'd be safe) we decided to check that out right away. We apparently got very lucky! They had 2 rooms available! They didn't have any 4 person rooms, so we had to get separate rooms. But this was actually a VERY good thing because of how the room was set up. haha. This was so weird, there was NO privacy! The rooms were very nice, everything was super clean and very modern. I walked in and looked around, I looked to the right and saw a small sink on a "dividing wall" (and by dividing wall, I mean an 18 inch wide post) and right next to that was the shower. the shower was in the main room....with CLEAR GLASS WALLS AND DOORS!!! Everyone could see everything! Sure it was frosted in special areas, but uhhh yeah, not frosted enough. Don't drop your soap or someone may get a show! So this is why it was a rather good thing that we weren't sharing a room with G&B. Then I started freaking out because I couldn't find the toilet! My first thought was the toilet isn't going to have ANYthing around it, like a jail cell! But then I couldn't see it at all, so I thought we had a use a community one in the lobby or something! I was so scared! But then what I thought was the closet by the door turned out to be the toilet. The door was thin as cardboard and was a swinging door, it didn't latch at all, had no hinges or door frame. So there was about 6 inches of space between the door and the ceiling. I'll put it this way, we turned the tv on before going in! Still the room was quite nice and very comfortable (assuming, of course, you don't mind a little openness with whomever you're rooming with!!!).

After we put our stuff down we set out for the town which was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. Instantly my camera was out, I felt like I needed to take a picture every few feet, the city was BEAUTIFUL! In previous blogs I have shown pictures of the Altstadt in German cities, which is the old city. Well pretty much all European cities have an old city. The unique thing about Bruges is that the whole city is the old city! Normally it's very clear when you enter or leave the old city. So that never happens in Bruges. We began by eating our way through the city! We found an open air market and stopped at a tent for authentic Belgium waffles. I took a bite and all I could say was "holy crap". It's not like a normal waffle! It's also quite different than what you can get in the states that claim to be a Belgium waffle. The only similar thing is the size. You could choose different toppings, we got ours with cream and that was also delicious. The waffles were pre-made, and when we ordered them she steamed them in a big pot. They were a lot more dense than a typical waffle, but not cake-like. Not cookie-like either. It is really hard to describe. Inside there were lumps of sugar that were crunchy and sweet in every bite. Wow. They were good! Next stop....Belgium fries! I actually didn't know fries were a thing in Belgium, but they are, and they were amazing. The weird thing though is that normally the Belgians dip them in mayo. EWWWW! Luckily they had a list of many sauces to choose from, and we got a pepper sauce that was amazing. Then we sat over the water eating them and the views were spectacular! Honestly everywhere we walked was beautiful! I kid you not when I say I was taking pictures with every few steps! I don't recall seeing a more beautiful city! After the fries, we walked all over the city, we found some windmills and looked around the cathedral and walked and walked until it felt like our feet were gonna fall off. It was a great time! We decided to head back to the hotel and rest up/clean up before dinner. We asked the receptionist for some recommendations, oh and before I tell you about that I should mention that pretty much everyone in Belgium speaks at least 4 languages, Dutch, French, English, and usually German or something like that. It was kind of comforting to hear the majority of people speaking English because it was the one language they had in common. So the receptionist spoke English very well with a bit of an Irish accent, but we weren't sure. She got out a city map, gave us some dinner recommendations, told us a few great bars to hang out at, and all the areas of the city to stay away from once the sun goes down! Good stuff to know! She lives right in the middle of the city, so she knew the town well. Her descriptions of the places were exactly right to a tee! It was awesome! So nice to have a local telling you what's up! Dinner was a bust though as everything was extremely pricy on the menus, 20 euro a person on average! But we found a cheaper sandwich place that was pretty good. One of the bars closed early, so we stopped in before dinner. Here are her descriptions of 2 of the bars she told us about. The first one, "It's a family owned bar and they don't do it to make money, they just enjoy it. They brew their own beer, but do NOT go there on an empty stomach or you'll get wasted, the beer is strong! It's hard to find though, mostly the locals go there. It's down a street that you may mistake as a someone's open door and it's so narrow you'll scrape your elbows if you put your arms out." The bar is called De Garr. The atmosphere was great! we sat upstairs, and by stairs I mean a tiny tiny little narrow spiral staircase. We ordered a round of beer. As I stated before, I do not like beer. I never have. To me, it tastes like pee. But the place was so cute, and homey, and a family owned place not in it for profit? I had to try their beer. It wasn't bad at all!!! I had to drink it slowly for sure so as to not gag it, but it was pretty good. They brought out cheese cubes that really brought out the flavor. The cheese had this mustard dipping sauce, and I could take or leave mustard but this was SOOOO amazing! I can't describe the flavor just know that Skye HATES mustard, but enjoyed this stuff. So I finished the whole beer all by myself! Something I have never done before!!! The next bar she told us about was an Irish bar, she said it was a fun atmosphere with a pool table and foos-ball but that sometimes there was a cocky bar tender. She was dead on again! The cocky bar tender was the owner, who was british! When everyone else ordered beer (homemade again, but I couldn't do another beer) I tried to describe a different drink to him, and he made fun of me and said I had to have a "pretty cocktail" but I laughed and teased back with him. So it was fun, he made me a pretty blue cocktail. haha. As we headed back home we came across part of the canal and another bridge. The town had canals running through all over, which just made it that much prettier. It was so still that it looked like the buildings were sitting on a mirror! I have never seen water that perfectly still (that wasn't disgusting)! We had to stop and stare at it a few minutes.

The next day we got up early and took the train to Oostende which was about 15 minutes. Oostende is one of the cities on the coast of the English Channel/North Sea. We walked to the beach and Barbara and I took off our shoes and walked in the sand. It wasn't the softest sand ever, but it was ok. The water was FREEZING!!! But now I have stood in the English Channel/North sea!!! YAY! The bad part about Oostende was that it looked like the city was unfinished. Most everything was under construction, so it looked a little industrial, messy and empty of shops and things. It wasn't all like this, it just looked like a work in progress. I think when they finish it will be beautiful. However, it also reminded me of something in Florida. Almost everything looked new and modern. We had coffee at a place on the beach and got TOTALLY ripped off. The tiny little mug of coffee was only half full, the rest was whipped cream, and it wasn't very hot. Then they charged us 2.70 euro for it. NOT WORTH IT! It was depressing, and refills? don't even think about it, Europe doesn't know the word 'refills'.

After this we headed to Antwerp. G&B decided to stay in Oostende and take a trolly along the coast, which sounded great, but we found out it doesn't actually go along the coast, and though it would be fun to see small Belgian towns, we wanted to make sure we got to see Antwerp. We also wanted to take the late train back to Cologne so that we didn't have to pay for another night in a hotel or hostel. Skye and I caught the train to Antwerp where we walked around for the afternoon. This city is the perfect example of a modern city with an old city. The old city was very far away from the train station and everything leading up to it looked like Chicago or some other big city in the states. Beautiful and fun, but not very European. We walked around, had more Belgian fries and went back to the train station to catch the last train out of Brussels. Here is something I should note especially for those of you who are planning to visit Europe. We made our first train just fine from Antwerp to Brussels. However, our tickets didn't say what station or platform our next train was. And usually the big cities have 2 or 3 train stations. So we ended up getting off at the wrong station, we couldn't find where our train left from ANYWHERE on the charts, so we finally found the information desk and a guy informed us that it had left 6 minutes before. So then he sent us to the international line and that's where we found out that the Cologne wasn't listed on the charts was because we went to the wrong station. But how were we supposed to know when it wasn't listed on our tickets or information sheet ANYWHERE!!! And that was the last train to Cologne! So we got re-routed and had to go to Liege from Brussels, then to Aachen, Germany, and from there to Cologne. and on a slow train. So our new arrival time was 11:44pm instead of 8pm. and with many many stops! It was horrible! and the train to Liege was so crowded we had to stand in the isles for half of it. So if you ever plan to travel around Europe, make sure when you buy your tickets from the people, that they give you a sheet that says which train station and which train to take and at what time. Sometimes they are open tickets, but you still need to ask which train station! At least if you are in the right train station, the charts will tell you where your train is!

All in all it was one of the best weekends ever! It was my first time to a European country (other than Germany, obviously), first stay in a European hotel, my first time to finish a beer, and first time to like it!

Bruges Pics:

Walking to Markt Square (the center of the city)

 

Markt Square was literally 4 sides of breath taking buildings, so I had to try to capture each side, so this is side 1 (I don't know why but I don't have a pic of the 4th side).

side 2 in Markt square

Skye and I against side 3 in Markt Square

Bruges town hall on the right, on the left some awesome red ivy covered building

Bruges Cathedral

A room inside the Cathedral

Group picture! Skye, George, Me, Barbara

one of the bridges over the canal going through the city

Another bridge over the canal, they had a ton of boat tours through the canals

This is taken from the same spot as the picture above, just looking to the left instead of right. Isn't it SO pretty? I love it!

This is the city at night with the perfect mirror reflection

This is the street the first bar was on, De Garr, you can kind of read the sign. Nice and narrow!

Here is the infamous beer! Nicht so schlect!

You can't see it very well, but this building says 1669 on it. That's when it was built! Many of the buildings had dates like this.

Random picture in the city of the buildings

Random building in a smaller city square

This was our view while we ate our Belgian fries.

The Fries

My delicious Belgian waffle!!!

Front of windmill

Back of windmill

Oostende Pics:

Oostende Cathedral

I'm in the North Sea/English Channel!

The North Sea/English Channel, you can almost see England from here! :)

Oh these were SO gross! Barnacles! Can you see them? This long path of weird uneven cobblestone was built all the way to this rocky patch in the water, and these barnacles were all over it!!! People were walking on it and the barnacles were crunching. OHHH SICK!

Coast

 Antwerp Pics:

Antwerp is famous for their blocks and blocks and blocks of diamond stores, these are some of them

And here are some of the many many many sparkley diamonds

Just outside the train station

Pretty doorway we passed on the way to the old city

We finally made it to the old city!

Old city and Cathedral

Old city and Cathedral

Old city and Cathedral