Across Europe Fall 04

Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 12:44:14 -0700 (PDT)

Ok so we got to Bruges on the 9th. Bruges, belgium is an AWESOME town. I would recommend Belgium to anyone, especially for a first trip to Europe. We were in the Flemish speaking part, but everyone spoke english and french and flemish. It was very easy to communicate and everyone was totally nice!! Bruges was gorgeous, all cobblestone streets and canals and these cute little brick and stone buildings. Our B&B was great too, the woman who ran it was really nice and breakfast was really tasty. We walked to the top of the belfry which got us a great view of the city, then we saw the groenig musuem that had paintings from jan van eck a famous belgian painter, among others. We also saw the gunnther musuem that had artifacts from medieval bruges and belgium. the brewery tour was really interesting too, all the info on how they make beer now and how they used to a long time ago. it was in english and french, the woman kept switching back and forth - that was cool. My favorite part though was the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo - the only sculpture by michelangelo to leave italy in his lifetime. It was gorgeous and really moving and FREE!

 

The next day we took the train to Ghent where we saw a medieval castle that was so picturesque and beautiful that it almost seemed to have been made just to look nice but it wasnt. there was a museum of medieveal torture stuff that almost made me sick but was interesting.

 

And of course, the chocolate and beer in belgium was AWESOME. I could stay there forever and live off of beer and chocolate - and most of you know I dont usually like beer. but this was really great beer!! and strong! I could only have 2 or 3!! Oh and we also splurged one night and had mussels and fries - the national dish of bruges or belgium, not sure which.

 

Then this morning we left bruges for antwerp. We stopped in antwerp to see the diamond musuem, which was really interesting. And so far all the train stuff was SUPER easy. I just read the signs and ask at the ticket counter if there is a sooner train leaving than what it says on the sign (sometimes the sign will say one thing - which is the end station - but it will stop where we want to go) and the most we had to wait was like 20 minutes. But today when we went to get on the train to amsterdam from antwerp we were told that they were working on the tracks around the border with the netherlands, so we would have to get off the train and take a bus then get back on the train. I racked my brain and asked if we could go through brussels or something, but we had to do it that way. When we got off the train in some random town in the netherlands, there were like 500 people waiting for like 4 busses. everyone was pushing and shoving and there was obviously no way we were going to fit, so we waited for more to come. then another train arrived, and there was more buses but we still didnt push hard enough - this time we were right up front but we tried to put our packs underneath and that made us lose the seats we might have had. so we watited. I was flipping out that we were never going to get a bus. but finally we did. we then got another train into amsterdam. unfortunately the little gadget that I got seth to store our picutures broke on the train so I was even more upset dont kno what we are going to do about pics now. then we got to amsterdam station and we couldnt find change to buy tickets for the tram to take us to our hostel. then we found tickets and couldnt decipher the map of the trams, then we figured that out and got on the tram and it didnt go the way it was supposed to - maybe cause it is sunday, we dont really know why. but we got lucky and it went where we wanted to go anyway, jsut the long way around. then we found our hostel - it seems acceptable. it smells like pot, but what do you expect in amsterdam. but the bed is nice and the bathroom we only share with 6 other people and it is ok. then the grocery store was closed so we found a restaurant. now we are hanging out in the bar, free internet access and chaep drinks is a good deal. hopefully the netherlands gets better since right now I am thumbs up on belgium and not impressed with the netherlands.

 

Bye

 

Meg

// posted by Megamay @ 3:42 PM