So I was in Belgium for my first time! I completely skipped Belgium last time I was in Europe, and was considering skipping it again this time, but thankfully I didn't.
First stop in Belgium was Antwerp, known for being the biggest diamond trading city in the world. I don't care about this, I just though I should point it out. There's nothing entirely that fascinating here, but they have a main square:
I believe the building in the picture is the city hall. They also have a castle:
Castles are cool. Well done Antwerp. I'm still trying to work out the meaning of the statue at the front left of the entrance to the castle:
After some walking I arrived at a river, and due to my ample reserves of time, I decided to cross this river. Some 80 years before me, someone else decided they wanted to cross this same river, and built a pedestrian tunnel under it. There is an escalator to help you make the descent underground:
It's the original wooden escalator from the 1930's and it's sslllllooooooowwwwww. If you have time to let this escalator take you down without walking down, then you must hate life. Anyway, in my typical style, I power walked down this escalator and then power walked across this seemingly endless tunnel:
When I got to the other end of the river, I looked back across the river, and was greeted with this pretty average view:
I promptly returned across the river.
The next day I was off to Brussels and despite the short distance, the predominate language was now French, instead of Dutch. Not that this matters, since I was transitioning from one language I didn't speak to another language I didn't speak.
There's nothing really happening here. My only recollection was consuming an ice-cream. It was a good ice-cream. Here's a picture from Brussels anyway:
Next, I went to Ghent, a student town in Belgium. The beauty of Belgium is that, because it's so small and has such good transportation, you can literally just wake up every morning and pick a new city to go to. Once again, I had a castle in close proximity:
Ghent is a nice city. As nice as any other Belgium city, but nicely compacted, so it's easy to get around. I'm told when the uni students are around, this is a very lively town, but it was holidays when I was there, so it was a ghost town. But definitively worth a visit. One more picture from Ghent:
Next I made the obligatory stop in Bruges. Bruges is the uber-tourist spot of Belgium. Even more so now, due to the popularity of the movie 'In Bruges'. But just like the movie, I think Bruges is a bit overrated. It's a postcard city, and that's a good thing, because it otherwise seems to lack any liveliness. But rather than spend $1 on postcards, I roamed around the city in poor weather to take some crappy, very un-postcard-like photos. First a visit to the main square, with the belfry in the background:
Next, I took a horrible up close picture of the belfry:
Went to the other square:
Went to a canal:
Done.
Finally, I went to Leuven, another university town, similar to Ghent. Leuven is also well worth a visit. It has this random bug on a needle statue:
And some very detailed, intricate architecture (which you probably can't make out on the photo I'm about to present):
It's also an alcoholic's paradise. Leuven is the home to InBev, the worlds largest brewing company. They brew Stella Artois there. Additionally Leuven has 'the 'longest bar in Europe', not because there is one very long bar, but an entire street of connected bars.
Again, given it was school holidays, it wasn't that lively, but, like Ghent, this would be a mighty fun place during the school year.
One cool thing happening in Leuven while the bell tower songs. In many places in Europe, the bell tower rings a large bell on the hour: Dong, dong, dong, dong. Boring and annoying. In Leuven, at least while I was there, they play entire songs on the bells. I recall some Coldplay and Celine Dion being played.
I should mention, the only reason I had even heard of this town, is because this is the home town of Lise, a Belgium girl I met in Poland. We caught up over dinner on my last night in Leuven, which was nice.
So that was the end of Belgium. For a small country, Belgium really outdoes itself. I haven't even mentioned the best two things about Belgium - the food and beer:
Beer:
The best in the world. Strong, tasty beers, and so much variety.
French fries:
Every Belgium person will tell you that French fries were invented in Belgium. Not sure if that's true, but they certainly are damn good here in any case, probably because they deep fry them twice, to lock in the fat. People eat fries with mayonnaise in paper cones all the time here. There's entire shops dedicated to this nutritional product.
Waffles:
Waffles are the best here too, because they put loads of sugar in the batter. They are so sweet, you don't even need to put anything on top.
Chocolate:
Didn't try it, but it's renowned, so I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's good.
Considering the above list, you would imagine all Belgians would be suffering from mass organ failure, but it doesn't appear to be the case.
First stop in Belgium was Antwerp, known for being the biggest diamond trading city in the world. I don't care about this, I just though I should point it out. There's nothing entirely that fascinating here, but they have a main square:
I believe the building in the picture is the city hall. They also have a castle:
Castles are cool. Well done Antwerp. I'm still trying to work out the meaning of the statue at the front left of the entrance to the castle:
After some walking I arrived at a river, and due to my ample reserves of time, I decided to cross this river. Some 80 years before me, someone else decided they wanted to cross this same river, and built a pedestrian tunnel under it. There is an escalator to help you make the descent underground:
It's the original wooden escalator from the 1930's and it's sslllllooooooowwwwww. If you have time to let this escalator take you down without walking down, then you must hate life. Anyway, in my typical style, I power walked down this escalator and then power walked across this seemingly endless tunnel:
When I got to the other end of the river, I looked back across the river, and was greeted with this pretty average view:
I promptly returned across the river.
The next day I was off to Brussels and despite the short distance, the predominate language was now French, instead of Dutch. Not that this matters, since I was transitioning from one language I didn't speak to another language I didn't speak.
There's nothing really happening here. My only recollection was consuming an ice-cream. It was a good ice-cream. Here's a picture from Brussels anyway:
Next, I went to Ghent, a student town in Belgium. The beauty of Belgium is that, because it's so small and has such good transportation, you can literally just wake up every morning and pick a new city to go to. Once again, I had a castle in close proximity:
Ghent is a nice city. As nice as any other Belgium city, but nicely compacted, so it's easy to get around. I'm told when the uni students are around, this is a very lively town, but it was holidays when I was there, so it was a ghost town. But definitively worth a visit. One more picture from Ghent:
Next, I took a horrible up close picture of the belfry:
Went to the other square:
Went to a canal:
Done.
Finally, I went to Leuven, another university town, similar to Ghent. Leuven is also well worth a visit. It has this random bug on a needle statue:
And some very detailed, intricate architecture (which you probably can't make out on the photo I'm about to present):
It's also an alcoholic's paradise. Leuven is the home to InBev, the worlds largest brewing company. They brew Stella Artois there. Additionally Leuven has 'the 'longest bar in Europe', not because there is one very long bar, but an entire street of connected bars.
Again, given it was school holidays, it wasn't that lively, but, like Ghent, this would be a mighty fun place during the school year.
One cool thing happening in Leuven while the bell tower songs. In many places in Europe, the bell tower rings a large bell on the hour: Dong, dong, dong, dong. Boring and annoying. In Leuven, at least while I was there, they play entire songs on the bells. I recall some Coldplay and Celine Dion being played.
I should mention, the only reason I had even heard of this town, is because this is the home town of Lise, a Belgium girl I met in Poland. We caught up over dinner on my last night in Leuven, which was nice.
So that was the end of Belgium. For a small country, Belgium really outdoes itself. I haven't even mentioned the best two things about Belgium - the food and beer:
Beer:
The best in the world. Strong, tasty beers, and so much variety.
French fries:
Every Belgium person will tell you that French fries were invented in Belgium. Not sure if that's true, but they certainly are damn good here in any case, probably because they deep fry them twice, to lock in the fat. People eat fries with mayonnaise in paper cones all the time here. There's entire shops dedicated to this nutritional product.
Waffles:
Waffles are the best here too, because they put loads of sugar in the batter. They are so sweet, you don't even need to put anything on top.
Chocolate:
Didn't try it, but it's renowned, so I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's good.
Considering the above list, you would imagine all Belgians would be suffering from mass organ failure, but it doesn't appear to be the case.
Summary
Awesome:
Beer, people, architecture, beer and beer
Craptacular:
Every city in Belgium looks exactly the same.
What's Next
A quick trip to Paris, since I'm in the neighborhood.
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