06 Sept'10
Left Amsterdam. Went Kinderdijk. UNESCO World Heritage Site. Series of windmills and water canals. Excellent Water Management. It is absolutely amazingly beautiful! :) The windmills spin surprisingly fast!
Arrived in Brussels, Belgium late at night. After get onto the streets, I realized the mistake made. I did not take down the address of place we are staying at… my god… we wandered around for like ages. Got to keep looking because the mood was quickly deteriorating… Guess what? A old japanese lady walking her dog called out to us, asking whether if we need help! Oh my. She was like god-sent. Haha! She brought us around and went asking around the shops, even taking time off to show us where to buy food, good supermarkets, laundry even. :) She has live in Brussels for 37 years! In the end, we got ourselves into a internet shop and got the address off my email account. Viola! The old lady got us to the street and wish us good luck and good journey! So sweet! absolutely an angel. :)
Check into our hotel and I found out my ipod touch was missing… argh… I left it in the Amsterdam hotel room. :( after many many calls, I finally managed to get the hotel manager to pass my ipod to Taufik. Yes. Taufik is there for an extra day. Hao-shan is there for 2 more. Lucky me. :)
Our hotel looks quite run-downed on the outside, the lift was about 1 Xing Yong sized and the doors were creaky but the room was quite nice! It was big and the beds were ok. :)
07 Sept'10
Woke up fairly early the next morning. Had a less than impressive breakfast in hotel and got off to see the many sights of Brussels. First stop the Parc du Cinquantenaire! Nice! :) In front of the arc, there is a big park. People were letting their dogs running round, playing with other dogs. There is also a cute little children playground. The kids are soOoo cute! All the parents were taking turns to work on the carousel. The things parents do for their kids. So sweet… :)
Grand Place was up next. We got to the 11th century marketplace, Brussels' historic main square and the buildings were amazing… The La Masion du Roi, La Maison des Ducs de Brabant, Le Renard, Le Cornet, Le Roi d'Espange and finally the Hotel de Ville! We took so many photos! Some interesting candy shop caught our eyes. The young lady was very nice, let us each taste a full piece of the candy and we had to get a small bag worth. :) Got directions to Mannekan Pis. And after a short walk, following all the tourists (mainly Mainland Chinese), we saw the cute little pissing boy. :p What caught my eye was a small stickers-filled signboard to the left side of Mannekan Pis. Oh dear! It is a "I love TP" sticker! haha! what are the chances…? :p
The streets of Brussels looks very shady at night and the part which we are staying at is the Turkish area. The kebab shop owner around the corner of our hotel was telling us to take care of ourselves, tourist are prone to get into trouble. And his kebab was delicious! He even treated drinks! So nice! :) Did our laundry in at a shop near our hotel.
08 Sept'10
Very early in the morning, we began our trip to Bruges. We have to take a 1hour train to this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yes. This whole town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. It is a preserved medieval town with a couple of colleges around it. :)
There was a downpour when we got there and we had to wait at the station. Had late lunch in a small bistro/restaurant and tried the Flemish Rabbit. Tasted like chicken. :p
The buildings are so nice. hmm. One thing on the down side is that everything is in French. Yes. That includes the museums… Luckily some of them have summaries in English.
Another notable place in Belgium is the Hergé Museum. Does not ring a bell? He is the author and creator of Tintin! It was one of my most mystical time during my whole Europe trip. I am a Tintin fan! :) There were facts that I did not knew about and there was the shark submarine and there were Tintin comics in every language it was ever published and… and… and.. haha! so many things! Yippee!
A brunch beside the college library. The tomato soup was delicious! :)
On the same day we made our way to Luxembourg. As usual, we made it there when it was dark. Spent a bit of time waiting for the bus and a bit more time getting our directions and we arrived at a very nice hostel. The only hostel in Luxembourg. :) The security was excellent and the rooms are nice. But we did spent 3 hours to get our next stretch of our journey sorted out. The problem was due to the lack of days of our rail passes and the rail connections.
2 comments:
Hi! Your trips sound great & your pix are nice as well.
We visited all these places as well a few years ago and enjoyed them. The only uncomfortable place was the Brussels waterfront where we had planned to tie up our barge for the night. There was a group of young guys hanging around and apparently they were eyeing the bicycles strapped to the top of our barge, gathered from overhearing their conversation.
Rather than staying there & possibly losing our bikes & the worry interfering with our rest,our Captain decided to move down the canal to a marina where all was well and more private too so we did not have interference in that important part of the day, "Happy Hour!" & our wonderful homemade Martinis.
Glad you enjoyed your trip!
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