We spent 4 days in Belgium. Two days in Brussels, one in Antwerp, and one day in Brugge - exploring each day from our host's, Peter and Lieke, home in Dendermonde(see previous post below).
Brussels is a very laid back city. For the most part we just walked around, stopping when we felt like it for fries, waffles, or a good Belgian beer. At home we are used to shelling out several dollars for a Chimay or Duval, but even in a sit down restaurant here, they were no more than 2.50 euro a piece. We now feel spoiled, and are not looking forward to paying $6 a bottle in a few months. There was a major EU conference taking place while we were there, which may have been interesting, had we known anything at all about EU politics, but ended up being very frustrating. First, it was somehow happening in one of the museums that we planned to visit, but also many of the roads in the heart of downtown were cordoned off with barbed wire fences, making it hard for us to figure out how to get from point A to point B. One thing that made it a bit easier was the free "Use It" maps that our hosts had given us, one for each of the Belgian cities that we would visit. The maps are made by some non-profit organization made up of locals who want you to have a good, non-touristy time in Belgium. They suggest things that might actually be worth our time and money versus what they consider silly tourist attractions. They also listed several ways to act like a local ("run over tourists with your bicycle" or "always complain that Brugge is dead, but if you hear someone else complain, start defending it") and surefire ways to piss them off ("what time does Brugge close?"). In Brussels it told us to skip the costly Atomium (a building shaped like an atom of some element that was supposed to change the face of energy forever, but didn't) and ride to the top floor of Parking Garage 58 instead. We did, and it was great! Totally free, no lines, and clearly no crowds. We were actually only going to hang out for a quick minute and then go see some live music around the corner but we ended up skipping the music and staying for over an hour. The views of the city were amazing. We also starred in a 2 minute student film that was being shot one day while we were looking for lunch (okay, "starred in" may be an overstatement, but we were asked to be in it). Later that day we visited a museum of Musical Instruments. Upon entrance we were given headphones to wear which worked via some crazy infrared technology: whenever we walked up to an intrument, we would hear it being played! The collection was impressive, with several cases of "families" of instruments, but there wasn't much to read in English and it was hard to tell which instrument we were actually hearing. We were in and out pretty quickly. And yes, we saw the peeing boy statue. It was rather ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as the swarming Asian tourists snapping endless pictures in front of it.
We didn't get as far as we wanted in Antwerp, due to some problems on the train track on our way in. What should have been a 35 minute ride lasted for two hours. We pretty much used the Use It Antwerp map to plan our entire afternoon. We visited the Ruben House Museum, for just a euro for each of us. It was actually in the artist's estate which was a different twist. Much of the original furnishings and stamped leather walls were still in place, as well as Ruben's personal collection of paintings and sculptures. The architecture of the house and his courtyard and gardens were very pretty too... pillars, columns, high cielings, etc. Next we headed to a vintage shop just off of the main shopping street. Mostly we just looked, as we don't have much room in our packs to add to our wardrobe, but Andy did end up buying a jacket there. The highlight of Antwerp, however, was lunch. Again, it was reccommended by locals in the Use It map. The place was called "Diksmuidse Boterkoeken" and it should have been right down the street from the vintage shop. We had some problems finding it, and walked past it a few times. We finally realized that it was in the basement of a shopping plaza and made our way down. We were standing in the line at the counter looking at the menu, all of it in Dutch, not recognizing a single word and thinking maybe we should go elsewhere, when the little old lady behind the counter offered us a menu in English. A few minutes later, with sandwiches in hand, we were down the hall a bit and looking for a place to sit. The man who had made our (HUGE) sandwiches (for 3 euro each) was pulling out a folding table for us from behind their little deli counter. We thanked him profusely and ate our lunch right there, chatting with the two of them, ending up completly stuffed. They gave us each a free pastry for dessert and we signed their guestbook, which had notes from visitors from all over the world. That trip to the sandwich shop alone would have made our time in Antwerp worth it. That night we cooked dinner for our hosts and watched one of their sons gymnastics class. While we were cooking we heard Lieke on the phone and she came over and asked us if we wanted a place to stay in Bruges. Her friend was attending a couchsurfing dinner the next day and offered a place to stay. We had assumed that since we hadn't yet found a place we would be sleeping in a hostel. We graciously accepted.
Bruges is a very small, very quaint, and picturesque town. We arrived in the early afternoon and stashed our bags in lockers at the train station so we could walk around for a few hours before dinner. The streets that we chose to get us from the train station to the city center were somehow deserted. We were nearly alone, save for a few bicyclists and small cars buzzing by. It really did feel like we were on a movie set. Shortly we were in the town center where, though still quaint, we were far from alone. For the first time on this trip I actually felt like everyone that I was surrounded by was a tourist, or more accurately, everyone I was surrounded by WAS in fact a tourist. It didn't take away from the beauty of the town. It was interesting, looking around and seeing everyone taking a lame picture in a chocolate shop (surely at the displeasure of its owners) or pointing at something, or you know, wearing a fanny pack.... something to obviously denote that they were on vacation. The dinner that night was a much more intimate affair than the previous CS dinner we attended. There were only about 9 of us, and we were the only two non-Belgians in attendance. Again, everyone we met was just incredibley kind, asking about our journey and offering tips on places that they had been. Despite the fact that we were the only two people who didn't speak Dutch, they tried to speak only in English for the entire night, even if we weren't part of the conversation. Of course there were moments they would lapse, and we would enjoy trying to figure out what they were saying based only on body langage and similar words (two girls were recalling, very animatedly, a recent paintball excursion at one point. We were served four courses of vegetarian food. First, crackers with two different tapenades as appetizers, next a homemade miso soup with tofu and seaweed, the main course was a heaping serving of lentils and vegetables, and for dessert we had pecan pie served with hot chocolate shots! What a great night. One of the girls lived in Cologne for several years, and upon hearing that it was our next stop, she gave us all of the "must know" info. The woman hosting us, Martine, left a few minutes before us but made sure to tell us about a beautiful nighttime walk we could take before ending up at her place. The walk was just across the street from the train station, and is definitely a must for anyone visiting Bruges in the future!
In the morning we again left our bags in the train station and set out to enjoy more of Brugge. We were able to enter the Church of Our Lady, which holds Michelangelo's Madonna and Child. We leisiurely wandered around a bit more and stopped to spectate a few rounds of a Bocce-like game played with metal balls by a flock of old men, all smoking cigars and consumed with competition. This was pure entertainment. Later, we hunted down a bowl of reasonable priced mussels for Andy (food here is very expensive), the one Belgian specialty that we had not yet tried. We were about to give up and pay 20 euro for a plate but found some nice outside dining with a 10 euro mussels special! Much better. After that we were on the train again, this time to Cologne. (Ah, but not without a pitstop in Dendermonde one last time, where I had left my shoes!)
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