Road trip to Belgium
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2008
1
17
36
Trip End
Ongoing
Brussels,
Belgium
Saturday, December 13, 2008
December 13th and 14th
This weekend I went to Belgium with Suzanne (from New York) and the only other assistant in her town, Joe. Due to a crazy philosophy teacher, they had access to a car, which is amazing here. It was so nice to travel and not have to worry about train schedules and have some freedom. I met them at a train station in between my town and theirs. Then we were off. I found it a little shocking that neither of them had a map. We basically got to Brussels just by following signs. I was thinking that Dad would find this really unbelievable. Our plan was to spend Saturday in Brussels and Sunday in Bruges. We arrived in Brussels at about 11, and tried to find our hotel. We had to stop in the train station to get a map so we could locate it. When we got to the hotel we were pretty shocked. It looked way too fancy to be our hotel. It was too early to check in, so we left out bags there, hoping it was the right hotel, and headed out to find lunch. Brussels seems to be a pretty ethnically mixed city, and we actually had lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant.
After lunch we set out to find the Grand Place, a huge plaza that Brussels is famous for. It was pretty grand. It was surrounded by super old buildings, some with a ton of gold gilt decorations. They had a kind of lights show in the middle. They were a bunch a blue lights on top of poles set up all around and some made different sounds. It was a lot cooler later in the evening. After checking out the place we found one of the first glass shopping arcades in Europe. We also found chocolate shops giving out free samples, which was perfect. In Belgium we set the goal of eating chocolate, waffles, beer, and fries, and I am glad to say our mission was accomplished. We wandered around the Christmas market, which was huge, and packed. They had a giant ice skating rink, plus a Ferris wheel. It was freezing, so Suzanne and I got some hot wine. Shortly after we got our Belgium waffles. I got one covered in warm melty chocolate and pretty much got it all over me. Luckily Suzanne was there to clean me up. It was definitely worth the mess. Yum, my mouth is watering right now thinking about it. At the Christmas market they also had a mysterious attraction called the ice monster. We were quite puzzled by what this could be and went out searching for it. It turned out to be a giant inflatable monster thing, which you could walk into, if you dared, and paid 5 euros. They had a Santa taking tickets at the entrance and it was quite juxtaposition. We declined to go inside.
After the Christmas market we went looking for the fountain, "Menneken pis," which is a statue of a little boy peeing. Since he is naked, people from all over the world bring outfits for him to wear, and when we saw him he was wearing a jogging suit. They have replicas of him in a ton of restaurants and shops. For some un-understandable reason he is famous. I didn't really find it that captivating, but oh well. In the evening they were going to have some kind of show in the main square, so we found a really cool café and got our Belgium beer. The ambiance of the place we found was really cool and chic. It was kind of old-fashioned, and it was super crowded. It was nice to get warm for awhile and have our Belgium beer. After we were there for awhile we headed back to the Grand Place to catch the show.
This show was really something else. I don't think you would see anything like it at home. It was really arty and abstract. There were people drumming, and then some women in elaborate red costumes came out and did some dancing. After that some people came out in white costumes and started singing opera-like songs. Things kept going back and forth between people dressed in red on one side and people dressed in white who were singing on the other side. All the action took place on the balcony of one of the buildings in the Grand Place. Also, all the lights I mentioned earlier pulsated and changed color along with the music. Every once and awhile they would shine huge lights on the building that made it look like it was snowing. It is pretty hard to explain because it was so bizarre. There seemed to be some kind of story line going on, but it was too abstract for any of us to pick up on. Also, at one point in time, a person all dressed in white arose on top of a white column in the crowd. It was a pretty cool experience and definitely different than what you would see at home in a Christmas setting.
After the show we went out to find dinner and found a really nice little café. The food was really good and not too expensive. I actually had Steak tartar, which is raw steak, and it was pretty good. We also of course had to have some Belgium beer. After dinner we went back to the hotel, and to our relief it was the right one. Our room was a triple, and it was one of the nicest hotels I have stayed in in Europe. Our room was supposed to cost 140 euros a night, but Suzanne found some last minute deal, and it was only 67 for the three of us. The beds were so comfortable with soft sheets. We had TV with cable, and a hairdryer. It sounds pretty standard for an American hotel, but in Europe hotels can be pretty sparse/bare and tiny. We also had a free breakfast buffet in the morning, which was great. We decided to wake up and got to the main art museum in Brussels before heading to Bruges. So we went to bed, ready to start the next day.
We had our breakfast and left the hotel at about 10:30. We started heading towards the museum, but we got sidetracked at a pretty little park full of sculptures. We got to the museum and spent quite awhile there. It was fairly big, plus it was divided into two sections, ancient art and modern art. I could have spent longer there, but we wanted to get to Bruges while it was still light out, so we had to cut our visit short. Brussels was one of the homes of the Surrealists, one of my favorite types of art. I will have to come back and check it out again. We left the museum and got on the road to Bruges. It took a little longer than we thought, but we finally made it. The nice thing about a car is that you have freedom, but that bad thing is that you have to park it. It took us about an hour to find a parking spot. Apparently all of Europe comes to Bruges on Sunday. It was crazy packed. We took a bus into town, but the town is pretty small, and we could have walked, but the bus was free. We basically just walked around and checked out the sights. Bruges is supposed to be one of the prettiest towns in Europe. We got some fries in their main square, thus all our goals were met. Everything there was super cute. There are little canals that run through the city everywhere. It is one of the oldest cities in Europe. During the wars it wasn't really touched, so they have one of the oldest city halls there. They also had a Christmas market, which was insanely packed, but pretty. Lights were up all over town, which was really nice. It was almost dark when we got there, so I really want to go back when it is light, and possibly when things are green and prettier.
After wandering around for awhile we went on a search for a restaurant. Everything was expensive! We had to walk around awhile until we found something reasonable. We did get some traditional Flemish food though. Side note: In Belgium they speak French and Flemish. While we were in Brussels we could hear an even mix of both. When we got to Bruges, it seemed to be exclusively Flemish, although most everyone in the shops and restaurants spoke those two languages plus English. Anyway, for dinner I got chicken cooked in a beer sauce, and of course another Belgium beer. They really don't have much of a beer selection in France. The focus is more on wine. We left Bruges at about 9ish, and I was back in Laon at about midnight. The car we had was stick shift, so Joe drove the whole time. I can't drive stick at all, and Suzanne is just a beginner. It was nice seeing France by road instead of rail though. They have some really interesting road signs. For example, they have brown signs which indicate points of interest, but instead of saying what is there, there is just a picture. We saw one sign that just had a giant frog on it. It was pretty amusing to try and guess what some of them were. Overall it was a nice trip to Belgium, and I definitely would like to go back and spend a little more time there.
