1. Belgium is probably the most underrated country in Western Europe. I guessing being between Paris and Amsterdam, people usually just skip the scenic, beer-filled country to arrive in either the appealing sex and drugs in Amsterdam or the culture, art, and fashion in Paris. So, I arrived in Belgium around 10:30 and started the sightseeing. In a single afternoon, I crammed in visits to the Palace of Justice, the National Gallery of the Beaux Arts, and numerous Art Nouveau buildings. A particular highlight was going to the house of Victor Horta, the famed Art Nouveau architect. I had learned about his house in my Modern Architecture class and was really impressed to see it in person. I had forgotten that it was in Brussels, so it was a nice surprise to realize I had the opportunity to see it. The National Gallery was also extremely interesting. A particularly important painting, "The Death of Marat," which corresponds to one of France's most turbulent political periods, was extremely fascinating. More artists with work at the National Gallery included Peter Brugel, El Bosco, and Roger van Der Weyden.
After the National Gallery, I decided to walk to what seemed like a fairly safe, interesting park nearby. When I arrived near the entrance, there were two people with clip boards trying to collect signatures to help the poor children. When the woman approached me, she asked me to sign her form. I immediately said, "No, no, no" with a Spanish accent and proceeded to enter the park. I was in an area that was overlooking all of the park, and therefore I wanted to take a picture. The woman had returned to where she was a 3 or 4 meters away from me and I figured that I was done with her. Well, upon seeing me take a picture, her friend came over and began to ask me to sign the form to help the children. He kept asking and I just wanted to get rid of them, so I put my camera in my jacket pocket and began to make up some bogus name and address to put on the form. When I was about halfway finished fabricating an identity, I realized that the woman that had first approached me was now extremely close to me, close enough that I felt her rummaging around my pocket with the camera. See, I had not zipped the pocket and the cord was hanging out of the pocket; I was an easy target. Anyway upon this rapid realization, I threw the pen and the clip board in the air and just started walking relatively quickly away. Of course, they both yelled at me; I had foiled their robbery.
That night, my friend, Caroline, came to Brussels to travel with me. We went to the historic town square for dinner and had potage, French for vegetable soup, and beer. I had the large Affligem blonde, which was incredible. It's only been around since 1074, almost 1000 years. (The butter with the bread was also the best I've ever had.)
2. I've always wanted to go to Germany and so it was great that we were able to work that into our trip. We to Cologne and Dusseldorf. Cologne is famous for the cathedral, which really is pretty amazing. After all of the cathedrals and churches that I have visited in Spain, this one topped them all. Never have I seen a church such high ceilings. We paid the 2.50 euros to climb the bell tower, I think it was around 12 stories, easy. We walked around the city for a few hours, ate some pretzels, and then headed to Dusseldorf for the rest of the day. Dusseldorf was one of my favorite sites this trip. The Rhine river runs through heart of the old part of the city. There were old churches, municipal buildings, and restaurants. We still had not eaten by 3 and found a great place to eat that served schnitzel. I had a jaeger schnitzel, which was surprisingly similar to the jaeger schnitzel I've had at home. I also had an Alt, the locally brewed beer. After lunch we continued to explore and went to the more modern area to see the famous office complex by Frank Gehry. At 6, we took the train to Amsterdam, where I also had a Beck's.
3. We arrived in Amsterdam around 8:30 and took the street car from the central train station to our hotel. After having wandered the streets lost, we found the hotel, checked in, and hurriedly left in an attempt to find some grub. We had read that Surinamese and Indonesian are both pretty popular in the Netherlands, as they were both colonies. We ended up finding an Indochinese restaurant. And although we were the only customers inside, it proved to be a very good meal. I had a spicy beef stew dish with prawn chips, green beans, and rice. The iced tea ranks right up there as one of the best that I've had. Sweetened perfectly, ice (which is rare in Europe), and lemon. After dinner, we decided we would peruse the read light district. The map that the hotel had given us was unfortunately not very helpful. From my travels as a young child, I remembered that it was near the waterfront. Amsterdam is surrounded by water, so that didn't help either. Fortunately, I recognized that a group of guys around my age was speaking Spanish. A group of twenty-year olds would know, right? So, I asked and they told me that it was hidden near the central train station. At first I believed them, but when they started laughing I was more or less convinced that they had been drunk and therefore were lying. So we returned to the main square to have a coffee, beer, etc. Before we ordered, I heard another group speaking Spanish, and so I asked them. This time, however, I used the phrase zona roja, which literally translates to red neighborhood. They seemed to understand and they too told us that it was near the central train station. With that, we went to the train station and continued searching. It wasn't for another hour or so that we actually found the red light district, after I had gone inside the train station and asked the information desk where it was.
After we had had our fill exploring the city, we began to walk back to the hotel, which was probably 3 miles away from the red light district. About halfway there we decided that a taxi would be a worthwhile investment, since we had been walking since 7 in the morning and it was then 2 at night. Although we knew exactly where we needed to go, we flagged a taxi and told him that we knew we were close to the hotel, but we still wanted to use the taxi. He said everything was fine, we got in the car, and then he started to go in the opposite direction of hotel. I'm not stupd, and I told him to pull over right away. I was not going to have him charge us 40 euros to go a mile. We had not been in the car more than a minute when we told him to pull over, but somehow the fare managed to be 7 euros. I felt a ripped off. We got out, and began our trek to the hotel anew. It's really fairly simple to navigate in Amsterdam, even if you happen to be drugged out of your mind, drunk, lost, or an idiot, all you need to do is follow the tram tracks that would correspond to your line.
The next day was jam-packed. We went to the Van Gogh Museum, the Rjiks Museum, the Rembrant House, the Heineken Brewery (which was unfortunately closed for renovations), the flea market, and the flower market. We also managed to have lunch at a Surinamese restaurant and also found time to take a scenic canal boat ride. For dinner we had thai food; the red curry was great.
That night, I had best beer I've ever tasted at a random bar down some random side street. It was a dark beer, way better than Guinness. The name was something like Higden Jan, unfortunately I cannot fully remember. I know that there was something with an H and then the second word was Jan. I guess I'll have to keep trying beer until I find it again.
4. The next day, we went to Haarlem. Sound familiar? Think Harlem, NYC. Remember Manhattan was New Amsterdam before the British purchased it from the Dutch. I'm really glad that I was able to get to a small town in the Netherlands. While Haarlem is only 15 minutes away by train, it is far enough away to experience a different aspect of Dutch culture. Haarlem has an old town square, a famous church, a modern art museum, and the Frans Hals Museum. The highlight from this excursion was the lunch. We went to a neat off-the-beaten-path cafe full of locals. Caroline and I both had a toasted rosemary bread with a melted goat cheese, pine nuts, and a little honey, over arugula. It was hands down the best meal I've had in europe so far. All for 7 euros. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. I was more focused on eating.
As an aside, I've also decided that Flemish would be extremely easy to learn. I've already taught myself a few things. For example, ijs and lijn translate into ice and line. IJ makes an I sound. Simple.
5. Bruges is the most idyllic city in Europe. I haven't been to Switzerland and I hear every town is pretty picturesque, but so far Bruges takes the cake. Bruges is in the Flemish speaking area of Belgium. Word can't really describe how postcard perfect it was. I did however buy a great Belgian beer shirt as well as some assorted Belgian chocolates.
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