Belgium

I've managed to find an internet cafe here in Cannes. Although the keyboard is French, the man here showed me how if I press a button on the screen, I can use it like an English keyboard. So, Belgium:

I caught the train from Brussels to Maastricht last Wednesday and managed to locate Grand Place all by myself, without even trying! I confess I was actually trying to locate the tourist office at the time, but that turned out to be in The Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) which was in the Grand Place. Grand Place is really... Grand. There's no other word to describe it, and the photos that I've taken really don't do it justice. You really need to be standing in the middle of Grand Place, dwarfed by the surrounding buildings to get a feel of how magnificent it is. I've just looked at the photos that I've posted here, and they make the place look grotty, so you're just going to have to believe me, or see it for yourself.

Elise arrived in Brussels a couple of hours after me, so after we found our hostel and dumped our bags we headed back in to Grand Place for a caffeine fix at one of the many cafes lining Grand Place, and try to plan our week.
After our much needed coffees and a Croque Monsier (ham and cheese toasted sandwich) we headed off for a little look around Brussels. Our first stop was Galleries St Hubert, a shopping arcade which opened in 1847 which contains a mix of shops and cafes. Elise was looking to buy a lace hanky (for her mum), I was looking to buy chocolate (for me).
After we both had a chocolate fix (this is a photo of Elise eating her 1st Belgium Chocolate from Belgium), we went searching for the Mannekin Pis. And we found him! For those who don't know, the Mannekin Pis is a statue of a little boy peeing, in the centre of Brussels. It is a bit like the little statue in the Conservatory of the City Park in Launceston. Once we were satisfied that we'd taken enough photos of the little guy, we checked out St Katherines Church, then decided it was time for Dinner. We had both decided beforehand that we were going to have mussels and fries for dinner, and there were quite a few places offering mussels, fries and a glass of wine or beer for 10 euro, so we thought we'd try one of those. We got sucked in, however, by a waiter standing outside one restaurant lining the street, who told us that he'd give us a glass of wine for free! So we went inside and it wasn't until we were seated that we saw the menu and found that the mussels here were actually 20 euro! So we decided to save the mussels for another night and instead tried some traditional Flemish Dishes. Elise had the Rabbit cooked in Beer, and I had the Chicken Waterzooi, which is a creamy chicken stew with potatoes and other veges. It was YUMMY! In fact, it was so good that I had Waterzooi again later in the week at another restaurant. It reminded me of the chicken casserol that mum used to cook and put in Crepes.

The next day, in the rain, we visited The Cathedral. It wasn't a great time to visit, as there was a service in progress, so we couldn't walk around, but I heard some of the best church singing that I have ever heard! We then went to the Musees royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique and spent most of our day there, wandering around the 17th and 18th Century paintings in the morning, and the 19th and 20th century paintings in the afternoon. Unfortunately, they were undergoing some renovations, so the 15th and 16th Century art wasn't on display- we still saw enough art to satisfy us for the rest of our Belgium trip, however.

That afternoon, we had a couple of Krieks (Cherry Beers) at Grand Place, before finding a spot to have some Mussels and frites for dinner! They were pretty good. Elise ordered the Mussels in White Wine, and I ordered the Mussels in Garlic. It wasn't until Elise had munched on her 20th piece of garlic, and I was just about on my last mussel, that we realised that the waiter had mixed up our meals! It didn't really matter, as we enjoyed them anyway.

We managed to squeeze in Belgium waffles with chocolate sauce for dessert! VERY RICH. Having since tried the Belgium waffles plain (the way the locals eat them), I have to say that I actually prefer them that way. I never thought I would find anyone with a sweeter tooth than me, but I think that in Belgium (and also in the Netherlands) I am way out of my league! They put sugar in and on just about everything.

On Friday, Elise and I headed off to the Victor Horta Museum which is located a little out of the city centre, to check out some Art Nouveau architecture. We had to catch a couple of metro trains and a tram to get there, and it wasn't until we were waiting for our tram, that we realised that we were actually there 4 hours before it opened! So we checked out the outside of the museum anyway, then went for a walk along some of the surrounding streets which also feature some Art Nouveau architecture, before heading back to the centre of the city, to catch a train to Antwerp.

The Central Station at Antwerp is very spacious and grand, and a lot nicer than the Central station in Brussels. Our first stop in Antwerp was to visit the Diamond Museum, where we saw lots and lots of diamond jewels, and learnt everything you could want to know about diamond (and more). Unfortunately, they didn't let us play with any of the diamonds or give us any free samples. Very disappointing.

That night I learnt a very important lesson. Kriek should be drunk on it's own and not mixed with food! It doesn't taste that great if you are eating a meal while drinking it.

The following day, Elise and I went to De Kathedral in Antwerp, where we took ourselves on a guided tour. It is certainly the nicest and most informative church that I've been in. The parish was first established in 1124, and since that time the church has undergone expansion, been ravaged by fire, has been confiscated by the French revolutionaries, been reclaimed and restored. It is a seven aisle church, and features some famous paintings by Baroque artists such as Peter Paul Rubens. As Mary is the patroness of the Cathedral, many of the works feature her. There are also two large organs, one which contains 5,770 organ pipes!

After the Cathedral, we checked out Antwerp's Grote Markt. Much less grand than Brussels' Grand Place, it is still nonetheless, a nice place featuring all the essentials such as guildhalls and a Stadhuis, plus a rather snazzy water fountain of Silvius Brabo, flinging the hand of the giant Antigonus, into the Scheldt. Legend has it that that is how Antwerp got it's name (which is literally "hand-throw".



We also managed to go through the St Anna Tunnel which is a pedestrian tunnel, 32 metres underground, and travels 500 metres under the Scheldt, linking the city with the Left Bank. It is like you are about to enter a new world or spaceship when you enter the large elevator that takes you underground to the tunnel. When you get out of the elevator at the bottom, all you can see is white tunnel wall stretching out in front. It was a relief to get to the other side without having the walls cave in.

We also visited the National scheepvaartmuseum (ship museum), and I'm happy to say that I have satisfied my curiosity for boats for a lifetime! And we also did a fashionwalk which took us past stores featuring clothes by designers we had never heard of, and could not afford. We also felt a little too dorky to actually enter any of the stores!

That night we did our laundry and felt like geniuses when we managed to work out how to get the soap out of the soap dispenser, as it required you to use 2 machines to do it! We were so proud of ourselves (the instructions were all in Dutch).

On Sunday, we headed to Bruges where we spent 3 nights. The day we got there, it decided to pour with rain, which put a little bit of a dampener on our sightseeing. We managed to find the Belfort in the Markt, and climbed the 366 steps to the Belfry. I did feel a little puffed when we got to the top! It was a lovely view though, and as soon as the man who works here figures out how to get my CD out of the computer (it's stuck) so that I can put my other CD in, then I will put more photos up, but that will probably have to wait for another day!



















We also did a tour of the Stadhuis, and learnt about a little of the history of Bruges. The Gothic Chamber on the 2nd floor was absolutely amazing, with murals painted on the wall, and decorations on the ceiling (unfortunately, weren't allowed to photograph it).

We had dinner at an eetcafe (pub) just around the corner from our hotel, which served greek food. The meal was fantastic (and the beer wasn't half bad either).

On Monday, as the weather had cleared a little, we decided to do a canal cruise, which was a nice way to see a little of Bruges and learn a little about the history of it's buildings (if you could understand the guide, he spoke German, French and English, and I found it a bit hard to catch his English explanations. Elise had no problems, however). We then had the best hot chocolate in the whole world at a little tea-room. It not only tasted great, but the presentation was also superb- a cup of steaming hot milk, and a little saucer of melted chocolate sitting on the top, which you mix in the milk. On the side, a little saucer of whipped cream which you can put on top if you wish (I thought, why not?) and a little saucer with a selection of 4 chocolates. We then went to Choco Story, a chocolate museum, which offered far too much information, and far too little free samples, if you ask me! We did manage to put what we learnt about chocolate to good use though, and went out and bought some!

In the evening we went to 't Brugs Beertje, to sample a couple of the 250 odd Beers that they have on offer. I started with a sweet Trappist (made by monks) Westmalle Blond which was rather nice, then Elise and I shared a REAL Kriek. A real Kriek is one that is made with real cherries, and doesn't just have cherry flavour added to it, and it comes out of a bottle with a cork in it, and it tastes sour. It was great. I prefer it to the "artificial" one. I imagine it will be especially lovely to drink on a warm summer evening. Very refreshing. After staggering out of the pub (Belgium beers have rather high percentages of alcohol), we went and had another beer with our dinner.

On Tuesday, we did a bus tour of the World War I battle fields near Ypres and the surrounding area. This was a very sobbering experience, to visit a few of the 207 war cemetries in the area, and see and walk on some of the places where battles were actually fought, it really emphasised the reality of war. The people in the area are still suffering the affects of that war- there are a few fatalaties every year from unexploded shells in the area, some crops don't grow due to cannisters of poison gas still in the ground, and some houses are collapsing due to being built over some of the dugouts and tunnels. Hundreds of bodies are still being discovered every year, and there are thousands more still buried, in mass graves, having not had a proper burial. We also visited a field dressing station where John McCrae spent much of his time during the war, and where he wrote his famous poem Flanders Fields. I found this tour to be much more thought provoking and worthwhile that any museum I visited in Belgium. Our bus driver/tour guide was Sharon, and she was an Australian.



Yesterday morning, Elise and I said goodbye and she headed off to Luxembourg, and I headed off to Nice. I stayed in a hostel there last night, then caught a train to Cannes this morning. The weather here is much warmer than what I've experienced in The Netherlands and Belgium. I'm looking forward to going swimming and celebrity spotting while I'm here, although after spending half the afternoon typing this blog, I don't have much time to do either today, it may have to wait until tomorrow...
I did see someone famous while I was eating my lunch today. I can't tell you who he was though, as I only recognised him by the crowd of screaming 14 year old girls who were following him. He looked a bit like Puff Daddy, but I'm not sure who he actually was!

My next update will probably be from Perpignan, where I am going to be taking French lessons for 2 weeks!

Hope you are all well, keep up with the emails and comments!

Missing you all

Love,

Lisa x.