Catch up Belgium 2011

Well, it's Saturday the 6th Sept and I'm here in Belgium.  I arrived on Thursday after getting up at 4.30am to catch a cheap flight with Ryanair.  I will have to reconsider if it's getting a flight a bit cheaper when I have to get up at that time.  I'm not a morning person.  Anyway, there was a Aussie girl working at the hostel and warned me that Ryanair is like Tiger, unreliable, but there were no

One of the old canal gates to enter Brugge

problems.  Here is something.  Ryanair does not allocate seats.  You just get on and pick one, unless you have reserved seats during online check-in (which you have to check-in on line, no choice).  So, caught a plane, then shuttle bus, then train (which decided to make a couple of middle oof nowhere stops and arrived an hour late) to Brugge.  I love Brugge.  It's like a fairytale or something.  Canals, beautiful building, lots of restaurants and cafes.  I could live here for awhile.  Anyway, finally got to Brugge, checked in to the hostel.  Oh, my, goodness.  I had to laugh when I walked in to my room.  Ok, the hostel is set in the old quarter so is an old building.  Firstly, getting up the stairs.  My room (private with shared bathroom, as that was all I could get) is on the 3rd floor, and I had to walk up a narrow, steep, winding staircase that would give most people vertigo coming down.  Oh, and the bannister is below hip height on me, so I stick to the wall side always. 

To the end and turn left to my hostel

Anyway, that was freaky enough, and then I got to the top, opened my door, and laughed as it was so worn out, run down, falling to pieces, I just couldn't believe it.  Seriously, lino old, worn, cracked and lifting.  Wallpaper, peeling off, torn, plastered over I don't know what type of wall, but it is uneven and rough, and the wallpaper seems to be even plaster over pipes that half come out of the wall.  Oh, the ceiling had a leak at some time so there is an area that has partly collapsed (I wish I had taken a photo of my room).  The only reason I have stayed is that I was talking to one of the guys who run the place, and they have only just bought it.  It must be very recent as they have started working on the place since I've been here and need money

Canal in Brugge

coming in to fix it.  At least they are trying to do something, and it's not their fault it has become so run down (two of the showers are currently closed as they are being fixed due to leaking into the room underneath).  The toilets are rooms that have kind of just had a wall put across somewhere and made a box, where you barely have enough room to stand in (good luck guys and anyone bigger than me).  Anyway, you have some idea of what it is like.  It is in a good position though, but the guys who own it need all the luck they can get to fix it (and lots of money).  Yesterday I went for a 20km bike ride.  Yes, unlike me, but I only did it because the country is flat and I had a chance of it not killing me.  The actual ride didn't but the seat nearly did.  Rock hard and I am still feeling it today.  Very sore.  I went riding out along one of the canals (yes very romantic) to a town called Damme (actually I went further than that but stopped at Damme on the way back)  It's an old port apparently, along with Brugge, but the connection with the seas eventually was blocked by sand in about 1500.  Anyway, great day apart from the sore bits. 

Along my canal bike ride

Went to Gent today, but the area the train arrives in looks like an ordinary town and has none of the pretty buildings etc.  The was no tourist info apart form a map board outside the station, which of course was in Flemish.  That is something about this place, so many people speak English but there are no signs or info in English.  Even the tourist info centre in Brugge has hardly any English pamphlets and when you try to use the computers in English it says 'this page is unavailable' or something like that as I can't read Flemish.  Anyway, so I wandered around a bit hoping to find some pretty buildings but they were hiding, so I eventually came back to Brugge.  I was also dying of heat exhaustion as I was unfortunately wearing long sleeves.  I have gone from wearing a singlet, thermal top, light jumper and jacket in Ireland to a t-shirt in Belgium.  I didn't expect the temperature to be so different so quickly, so if this continues in the next country I may have to toss or send clothes home andbuy summer stuff sooner than expected.
Ok, that will do for now.  I'm trying to be good and write as I go.  I was slack with Ireland so my email was a bit vague, but I'm trying to put a bit more detail this time.  Don't worry, that doesn't mean you have more to read as I will only be here for a couple of weeks and then I can send it.  Enough raving, I'm going.  Back soon.
PS  I have my carton ice coffee milks again, yay.  Ireland doesn’t have flavoured milks in a carton.  They don’t even have cold milk or milkshakes etc.  The milk sits out on the tables (the thought grosses me out) all day so you can put it in your tea/coffee.  But even if you ask for a milkshake (mistake) it’s not cold (kinda like warm beer in the UK).  They don’t have many juices in the fridge either.  Missed my juice and flavoured milk.  And the icecream tastes different eg Magnum icecreams are smaller and have a different flavour (due to be made in a different country, using different water and products I would assume), and soft serves taste different (yuk) and repeats on you.

12th September – Well, me being good didn’t last long.  A week later and I finally write something again, but I am now in Portugal.  So, to finish off Belgium if I can remember.  While still in Brugge I decided to do a day tour, as it is so much easier to see things sometimes.  The tour went around to a number of sites in the Flanders (outside of Brugge as I can see that myself) region.  To be honest I now can’t remember the names of places (I will have to look them up to name photos) but we say some great buildings like Loppem Chateau (yes I just looked that up).  It has the largest private collection of Belgian paintings, plus some great sculptures etc.  It is very interesting and worth

Inside Loppem Chateau

Sculpture where we had waffles

seeing.  I also had a Belgian waffles the tradition way (icing sugar and cream).  I thought it would be a bit bland done that way, but that is all the waffle needs, yum.  Of course there was chocolate tasting, yuk.  No seriously.  I was looking forward to the chocolate, but out of the three I tried (we were just given a tray of them to sample, so we didn’t know what they were) I only liked one which was a praline.  The other was marzipan which I don’t like, and the 3rd had sickly green goop inside (it was actually a white frog so I had to take that one).  The other sampling we had was of course beer.  Now I don’t like beer, but I thought I may as well try them anyway (George will be proud.  Hi George).  It was 4 different styles of beer.  Of course I didn’t like them, but some were better than others.  The last one we tried was a fruit beer that didn’t even slightly taste like beer.  It was a cherry flavour, and for those who can remember having the cherry flavoured cough syrup when you were a kid, well that’s what it tasted like.  So of course I didn’t like that either.  Overall, Brugge was beautiful and great to visit.

Inside Namur Citadel

Next was Namur with it’s citadel.  Unfortunately, due to lack of accommodation I was only there one night.  You need at least 2 so you don’t have to lug around your backpack when you are visiting the citadel.  But it was good.  I would have liked more time at the citadel to do one of the tours (one was a history of the place and the tunnels that ran underneath.)  Next was Dinant.  Again only one night because of accommodation issues, but you could actually do it in a day trip from Namur (less than an hour by train).  But if you want to spend time in that area, there is plenty in the south to see.  Dinant was gobsmacking.  Seriously, your jaw drops as you round the corner from the train station. It has a huge cathedral and then is backdropped by cliffs and Namur’s citadel.  I will add a photo of that one.

Cathedral and Citadel of Dinant

Finally I went to Brussels.  I only saw about half as it is a typically city and takes a while to walk around.  It is too big and noisy for me.  Too much traffic and traffic lights and wide roads etc.  But it has some great buildings (like all of Belgium), and the Great-Place is definitely great.  I also went to the Museum of Musical Instruments.  Definitely worth going.  You are given head phones and as you walk around you plug them in to different areas and listen to some of the instruments.  Pretty cool.  Definitely makes a museum more interesting that just looking at things.  Although, some of the instruments were very interesting, or beautiful, to look at.

Okey dokey.  That is all from Belgium.  Like I said I am now in Portugal, or Porto to be exact.  Until next time…

Palace in Brussels

Building in Grand Place

Building in Grand Place