After Paris I feel like my trip is in the home stretch. I feel like I have been on the road for long enough now that being on the road has become my new normal. Looking back, I cant believe how much I've seen and done over the last month. I think the adjustment back to regular, non-action packed home life will feel strange at first. It will be odd to not be constantly in motion, for my surroundings not to be constantly changing. But it will also be nice to rest, because travel can be exhausting. I can tell that I am slowing down a little bit and am ready for a break, but I have found that in those moments it is important not to put my trip on cruise control and coast to the end. I have to keep my foot on the gas, because I may never find myself in the driver's seat again. I have to keep doing and seeing everything that I can with the time that I have left, and I am. But I'll also be glad for the comforts of home and the chance to rest at the end.
Those thoughts were occupying my mind as I left France and entered Belgium. My stay in Belgium was going to be short, just two days, and so I had very little time in which to fit a whole lot of sightseeing. My plan was to go from Paris to Bruges, with a short stop in Brussels on the way. I got a fairly early start and had reserved a seat on the high speed train to Brussels, so I was there before noon. When I got there I found a raucous scene, with hordes of people dressed up in either green or red clothing blowing whistles and air horns, chanting, yelling, laughing, and drinking. I had no idea what it was all about at the time (although I heard later that it was some kind of political demonstration) and I wish I had asked a local. It was certainly entertaining anyway.
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| Brussels - Grand Place |
My itinerary for my stop in Brussels was just a self-guided walk around the historic city center which was supposed to take 2-3 hours. I found Brussels to be much like other old European cities, with ample historic character and charm. Its main square, the Grand Place, was one of the most attractive squares I've seen in Europe. Brussels doesn't really have any big, must-see sights, but it was certainly a pleasant place for a break from the train. Belgium being known as the source of some of the best chocolate in the world, Brussels has artisan chocolatiers all over the place. I stopped in at one and bought a small selection; everything was sold by weight at a flat rate of about $5/100 grams, so I got a nice variety, including chocolate flavored with marscapone which was super tasty. My walk continued past the Brussels stock exchange and the Mannekin Pis, the famed fountain consisting of a baby boy peeing into a pool, before ending up back at the train station. I had noticed that train traffic in Belgium's train stations can be very quick, trains sometimes stopping for what seems like a minute or less, so I wanted to take time to make sure I knew which train I needed to get on and which platform I needed to be at. I did so and my departure to Bruges went without incident, getting me there in the early evening.
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| Brussels - a neat shopping arcade whose name I can't remember |
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| Brussels Stock Exchange |
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| Brussels - the Mannekin Pis |
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| Brussels - a Tintin cartoon on a wall |
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| Brussels - in a tapestry shop (Belgium has historically produced excellent tapestries - see some of my pictures from the Loire Chateaux for some other examples) |
It is said that Bruges is "more Gothic than Gothic," which I found to be true to some extent. Much of the architecture is actually neo-Gothic, having the appearance of Gothic architecture while having actually been rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 19th century. Bruges' heyday was in fact the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, when the city was a thriving nautical trading center and one of the richest and most influential cities in Europe. Bruges and its neighbor and cultural cousin, Amsterdam, were both cities where business, in the hands of common people, thrived and began to replace the nobility and old feudal order of the Middle Ages. This region is where the first vestiges of capitalism in the form that we know it were born and where the power in society began to shift, going from the top down to the bottom up. You see those trends of history particularly reflected in Bruges, where emblems of the old trade guilds still adorn important buildings, where the city hall has been housed in the same building since the Middle Ages, and where an old market square is still used to host the daily fish market just as it has been for centuries. But what makes Bruges really cool is that in addition to its nicely preserved medieval-commercial character, it is strategically crisscrossed by a bunch of pretty little canals. The canals had a practical purpose in 16th century Bruges, when its low elevation made canals the most effective way to move people and goods into, around, and out of the city. Nowadays they really only have two purposes: to putt tourists around on expensive canal cruises, and to figure prominently in photos of the picturesque medieval city. They serve those purposes well though, making Bruges a charmingly atmospheric place to visit.
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| Bruges - the view from atop the bell tower |
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| Bruges - a canal at night |
Like Brussels, Bruges doesn't really have any major sights. You go to Bruges for its ambiance, which it has plenty of, and everything else is just stuff to do while you enjoy it. My one full day there consisted of a loop around the city, in which I climbed the bell tower on the Markt Square, looked around in the Gothic city council chamber in the still-in-use medieval city hall, toured a local art museum, and then ended the day with a tour of the De Halve Maan Brewery. The brewery, which has been in continuous operation since 1856, is the only one remaining in Bruges. Their beer, which I had the fortune to sample twice in my time in Bruges, is truly excellent, and you could tell that the people who worked there were proud of their beer and passionate about their craft. It was a fun and enlightening experience, and a nice break from the usual museum/cathedral/town square litany of sights. I particularly enjoyed talking to the tour guide, who I was surprised to find knew about the strong craft brewing industry and culture in the Pacific Northwest when I mentioned where I live. It was also really interesting to hear her perspective on how Belgium's membership in the European Union affects their brewing operation, and to see how citizens of EU countries view the union (she was clearly pretty conservative and didn't like it much). At the end of the tour we all got a free glass of the brewery's Bruges Zot ("Fool from Bruges"), a tasty Belgian blonde ale, which punctuated the day nicely. After the brewery tour I got myself some dinner, took some time to wrap up some writing, and then got myself to bed in anticipation of a long day journeying to Amsterdam the next day.
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| Bruges - another canal |
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| Bruges - the city hall chamber |
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| Bruges - an old fish market |
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| Bruges - a view from the top of the De Halve Maan brewery |
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| Bruges - city hall |
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| Bruges - one more canal shot |
I am in Amsterdam now, the final destination of my trip, with about 14 hours left before I fly home. I've really loved Amsterdam, and I'm hoping to find time to write about it and share my final post of the trip with you all tomorrow.
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