Brugge, Amsterdam, and Paris

Well, I’ve now learned that I will need to post much more often because so much has happened since my last post that it is unlikely most of you will stay awake to finish this one. Since my last post, we have spent more time in Brugge and visited Amsterdam and Paris. We are en route back to Brussels now for another day and a half before mom leaves and my program orientation starts!

The second day we spent in Brugge, we went to the frites (French fries although they were actually invented in Belgium) museum, the chocolate museum, the City Hall museum, the Brugge Liberty Museum, a gothic artifacts museum, and the Belfry tower. The Belfry was amazing although it was a treacherous climb (for someone as clumsy as I). It was a very overcast day again so the view wasn’t as spectacular as it would have been on a clear day but still great and well worth the climb. I stayed up in the Belfry for about an hour just enjoying the view, listening to the bells, and laughing at all the obnoxious tourists that ventured up throughout the morning. The City Hall and liberty museums were both kind of disappointing. There wasn’t too much to see and most of the explanations were in Flemish (which, by the way, is one of the most ridiculous languages I have ever seen and heard). I think we missed a bit of the City Hall museum because there was a private wedding (which we almost walked in on :/) happening in one of the exhibit rooms. The frites museum was very informative but I had no idea that there was so much to learn about the history, biology, and frying of potatoes (for example, Belgian fries are so special and unique because they are cooked twice… that’s about all I remember). Following the trail of free samples, we sniffed out the chocolate museum where we were able to “research” the best chocolate makers. This trip was necessary for background information in preparation for our chocolate walking tour of Brussels tomorrow J. We got some groceries for dinner and I picked up a large bottle of Delerium Tremens, another great blonde beer. This one is distinct in that it has a higher alcohol content (8.5%) than the other blondes I had been sampling but it was just as delicious. I’ll wait to give a rating until I try it on tap at the source.

*Interesting beer side note in Belgium: You know how in America, Bud Lite is a pretty crappy beer so they try and make it more interesting with things like Bud Lite Lime? Well, they do the same thing here except their idea of a beer to do that with is Hoëgarden. I got mom a Hoëgarden Rôsée (raspberry) thinking she would like it (she didn’t but that’s beside the point) and it literally tasted like raspberry soda. In fact, I refuse to recognize it on the Beer List because I think it hardly qualifies as beer.

All in all Brugge is a beautiful city that looks frozen in time and it was a perfect place to spend a few days on our trip!

On Sunday, we debated about where we could go for one last day trip near Brugge. We considered both Gent and Antwerp but most attractions in those cities are closed on Sundays so we had to settle for Amsterdam (darn!).

Just leaving the train station gave us a breathtaking view. We picked up one-day city and transportation passes and set off for the Van Gogh museum. The collection was huge and just beautiful. Despite the crowds (this time of year, similar to Brugge, there seem to be more tourists than residents in Amsterdam), it was a great museum and we got to see some of his most famous pieces. It was a beautiful day so we walked across a small park to the Rijktsmuseum (sp?) to see some more beautiful artwork and artifacts. We hopped back on the tram to get to the docks of one of Amsterdam’s famous canals to get on a Canal Cruise around the City. Seeing Amsterdam via the canals is probably the best way to drink it all in (at least in the summer) but the Cruise itself was a little disappointing. It was very hard to hear the English recordings and it was pretty uncomfortable.

*Joke of the cruise: Just pass the gay district in Amsterdam, we went past some houses that were actually crooked because they weren’t built properly on the canals. Our Captain’s quote as we went by: “But it is hard to find anything straight around this part of town.”

After the Cruise, we didn’t have time for much else so we headed back to the train station. Amsterdam, its sights, its people, and its aromas were definitely another highlight of the trip.

*For all of you Song of Ice and Fire fans following the blog, I finished A Storm of Swords on the train home from Amsterdam. It was quite hard to contain my excitement in public.

Early the next morning we headed back to the train station for our trip to Paris. Our apartment was beautifully positioned (turn left from our metro exit and BAM! the Arc de Triomph) and we spent the afternoon walking around our neighborhood and enjoying some Paris shopping. That evening, we took a bike and boat tour of Paris. Considering that I hadn’t climbed aboard a bike in about six years, I did pretty well (I only ran into one guard rail along the way) and taking in Paris at sunset atop a bike is just an indescribable experience. No matter where you look, there is something beautiful to see. We cycled almost eight miles around the city. Part of the tour was a boat trip on the Seine (we were rewarded for our hard work on the bikes with some free wine). Cruising between the Louvre and the Musée D’orsay and floating past an illuminated Notre Dame while a breeze passes on a beautiful summer evening is definitely a nice way to spend your first night in Paris (just in case you were curious).

Our first stop on Tuesday was the Arc de Triomph. This time, I had a perfectly clear day to enjoy the view of Paris (I promise pictures are coming soon). Later that day we visited the Musée D’Orsay which is a much more manageable if not equally as impressive museum as the Louvre. It has a beautiful collection of impressionist and post-impressionist works that kept us occupied for quite a while. There is also a beautiful hall of statues when you first walk in but unfortunately there were no pictures allowed in this museum. Next we visited Notre Dame. We didn’t stay there too long because services were going on and there were hordes of tourists milling around the church that made it difficult to stay still for very long. The statues and stain glass (on the outside and inside) were just stunning and so impressive (even for Jews like us…lol). In the evening we walked around the Marais district and got dinner before heading back for a walk along the Champs Élysees to our apartment.

Wednesday (Mom’s Birthday!!) we went to the Pantheon and walked around the Latin Quarter, visited the Musée de L’Orangerie, and finally the Louvre. The Pantheon was beautiful and had some very interesting artwork depicting the history or Paris (works of St. Genevieve, the Patron Saint of Paris, and Joan of Arc chief among them). The Pantheon is also the site of the graves of some of the most famous Parisians including Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and Marie Curie. The Musée de L’Orangerie also had a beautiful collection but the easy highlight was two large ovular rooms full of Monet’s Water Lillies. Each contains four huge canvases that surround the admirers with Monet’s masterpieces. A walk through the Tuilerie Gardens brought us to the Louvre where we spent the last hour and a half of energy we had for the day. While we barely scratched the surface of the museum, we saw so much. We walked through four galleries of French, Greek, and Italian statues leading up to The Winged Victory. A walk around the corner led us to Mona Lisa and hallways upon hallways of paintings. We walked for as long as we could before throwing in the towel and finding a nice birthday dinner for Mom.

Well that brings us to today. We walked around a little bit more this morning before heading to the train station. We are about 20 minutes from Brussels and it looks pretty rainy. After we check in to the hotel, we are thinking a nice leisurely afternoon and maybe trying to find the Vesalius College campus for a sneak peak before classes start.

Hopefully you made it through that but if not, the picture book version is coming soon. Happy Trails!