Brugge, Belgium
Trip Start
Jan 05, 2008
1
51
61
Trip End
Jun 20, 2008
Brugge,
West Flanders,
Belgium
Friday, April 25, 2008
Well, we had planned on a short visit to Brussels, Belgium, before visiting Brugge. We just did not plan on it being as short as it was. The visit lasted about 2 hours. We arrived in Brussels, again arriving in a city without a hotel, at about 1PM and we had planned on heading to the city center tourist office. The bus station we arrived at was also connected to the metro, so we figured instead of walking through the city with the bags, we would save some energy and catch a ride on the metro. Not that simple. Alane got the direction form the metro office to head down the escalator and catch any of the next trains and it would take us to the center. The full packed two car metro that we caught didn't seem right and then when we ended up heading out of the city we realized that we were heading on the wrong direction. After being annoyed that we were heading in the wrong direction Alane spotted a suspicious looking man on the metro so she kept a careful eye on him
Brugge
. In doing so - at a busy stop - she saw the man unzipping another man's backpack pocket and stealing his wallet and exiting the train. You would think that if you're in that situation you would be able to help the other person, but Alane froze, she couldn't believe what she saw and she froze, but she did tell me when it was happening, but I didn't really get it. So we contemplated to ourselves to tell the guy who had just been robbed that he was actually robbed, but then we thought that first he may not understand us since we don't speak french or dutch, and that he may be pissed that we did not stop the guy who had robbed him. He seemed so content not knowing he had been robbed so we just left it that way and exited the metro ourselves on the next stop. The metro ended up being more of a tram and when we exited we were standing on an overpass of a major highway not knowing what to do. We spotted another stop a few hundred yards away and headed there to see what we could find out. It was the correct stop for the tram heading back, so we waited. While waiting a few buses came and dropped off more passengers for the tram. One bus unloaded a bunch of young boys (10-13) who were loud and boisterous and also very rude. They crowded the seats pushing everyone else out and kept harassing a slightly older girl (15 or so). The boys were saying stuff to her in french and getting close to her, pretending to touch her, and when her bus arrived she got up from the stop and entered the bus, one young boy followed her and slapped her on the butt as she was boarding and ran off and all his buddies cheered! Alane wasn't very happy with this and only made her visions of Brussels that much worse. I questioned as to why the girl being harassed didn't respond to any of this... not even a stare. She just tried to ignore the whole thing
Brugge
. Finally our tram/metro came to take us back and we boarded along with all the rude boys back to the station where we started. Exiting the metro, guess who we saw?? The Pickpocketer!! Probably waiting for another victim. Alane wasn't happy with this either. We went back upstairs trying to figure where we went wrong, realizing that earlier we had entered the train going the wrong way! So back downstairs to catch the right train. Then we started talking and before getting on the next metro we decided to get out of Brussels and catch the next train to Brugge, which left from the same station an hour later. We grabbed a bite to eat and relax from the stress that had just occurred and caught the train going the right way.
One positive from the day is that we arrived in Brugge just a bit after 5PM only to find the tourist office, who we were hoping would find us a hotel, closed. The employee was exiting and at least gave us a free map of the city, which I lost that night, and directions on how to catch a bus to the center. I didn't feel like walking too much so after a bit of walking, attempting to call some hostels from our guide, which we couldn't call at the pay phone because every public phone around seemed to be accessed with calling cards not coins, we ended up staying at a hotel that offered a better rate and changed out a single bed for a double bed in one of there single rooms. Nice gesture and we took the room only to find that by switching out the beds we had minimal walking, and storage space in the room. At least we paid 65 euros for a room that everyone else was paying 80+ euros.
After dropping our bags we headed out to find a suitable hotel for the next two nights, which we found and it was cheaper than the one we were staying
Brugge
. After this long day we sat down for a few local Brugge beers after the stressful day. Even Alane had one!!Day 2
More good weather. Brugge is considered the Venice of the North, but to us it seemed more like a combination of a mini Florence and a mini Amsterdam. It only resembles Venice because of few of its canals use the sides of the buildings as the barrier, but the bigger canals have actual concrete walls. Either way, it is a gorgeous get away town for many tourists it seems. It's only an hour from Brussels and 1 1/2 hours from the UK with a direct ferry. We enjoyed the scenery and the weather by spending the majority of the day walking on the outer canal that wraps and circles the city, walking through the parks and trying to find a true Belgium waffle. This ended up being very difficult because all the waffles being sold were little squares like the ones we have in the US! We ended up not ever finding a Belgium waffle as big as Belgium waffle in the US. Maybe we invented the large Belgium waffle like we invented the french fries. Oh well, we enjoyed our tour of the city.
Day 3
We actually just did more of what we did yesterday. No surprises, no problems, just chilling and enjoying.
