March 7th
Time to leave for the airport. Sad that we must head to the airport for our long day of travel home. It is so great to see people traveling by train early on a Sunday morning. You see all kinds of groups. A group of girls chatting and enjoying a danish as they head out on their Sunday. A couple of business men chatting over coffee, people running between trains, and hoping to make it before the doors close. Everyone going about their day, as we sadly begin to end our vacation. Thankfully we have a few chocolates stashed for our travels. We board the train, as we pull away from Brussels; the sun is rising over the city. All we see as we chug to the airport are tall modern glass buildings, slums, graffiti, and destructed buildings. Hard to believe what you find in the city center of Brussels as you leave. Good bye Belgium, you will be missed, we will be back.
3/8/10
The Vacation is about to end, and we are so sad
March 6th
We pack up and head to grab our bus to the station. The good thing about having your blackberry in Europe is you are connected, can enjoy looking things up on the train, walking the streets, check face book, negative is being connected. Email from Delta stating time to check in, can be a real downer on the end of the trip, yet one of the best things 24 hours before your trip. Irony.
We are off to Ghent. We are not sure what we are in for after Brugge. Not many places you can go after the city of Brugge
Tram is down; city is tore up, mud and dirt everywhere. You can imagine it would be a great city center, but not ideal to visit in the current situation, oh well make the most of it.
There is plenty to see from the Belfry, to the cathedral to the church that make up the sky line. Very impressive and amazing to catch up on the history of Ghent. These are must sees. We take in the market square, and look for one more beer bar. We head to the Galvateen, there is a torture museum in the basement. Wow what humans will do to other humans when the time calls. Thank goodness that is not the way our world. The Bridge over the Canal takes us two streets lined with the homes and guild houses of the wealthy. It is an amazing site to see these built right on the canal. We wander to a local cafe for lunch. More wandering and shopping. Trish finds the perfect blue boots, finally redemption for the boots in Amsterdam. What do you mean they don’t come larger than a 39. This is almost comical. We find a couple of great shops, before heading to the station. But first we must find the Turkish Pizza we have heard so much about. Well worth the search, as good as expected and reviewed. Next time we have it with meat, not vegetarian style. Why can’t there be a Turkish Pizza place in Utah. What is the count on all the places that we need to open in Utah after this trip...................... hhhmmmm.
To Brussels we go. Check into our great hotel near the train station for an easy walk with luggage, but far enough that we don’t have any of the noise of a station. We walk the city once last time, how can an entire city smell of waffles. The aroma floats through the city. We wander around checking out the shops, people watching. It seems that there is a whole new group of tourists hitting the city today. The market is alive and busy. We buy chocolates, waffles, and frites, knowing we are going to change our diet very soon. Back to hotel to pack up and call it a vacation.
We pack up and head to grab our bus to the station. The good thing about having your blackberry in Europe is you are connected, can enjoy looking things up on the train, walking the streets, check face book, negative is being connected. Email from Delta stating time to check in, can be a real downer on the end of the trip, yet one of the best things 24 hours before your trip. Irony.
We are off to Ghent. We are not sure what we are in for after Brugge. Not many places you can go after the city of Brugge
Tram is down; city is tore up, mud and dirt everywhere. You can imagine it would be a great city center, but not ideal to visit in the current situation, oh well make the most of it.
There is plenty to see from the Belfry, to the cathedral to the church that make up the sky line. Very impressive and amazing to catch up on the history of Ghent. These are must sees. We take in the market square, and look for one more beer bar. We head to the Galvateen, there is a torture museum in the basement. Wow what humans will do to other humans when the time calls. Thank goodness that is not the way our world. The Bridge over the Canal takes us two streets lined with the homes and guild houses of the wealthy. It is an amazing site to see these built right on the canal. We wander to a local cafe for lunch. More wandering and shopping. Trish finds the perfect blue boots, finally redemption for the boots in Amsterdam. What do you mean they don’t come larger than a 39. This is almost comical. We find a couple of great shops, before heading to the station. But first we must find the Turkish Pizza we have heard so much about. Well worth the search, as good as expected and reviewed. Next time we have it with meat, not vegetarian style. Why can’t there be a Turkish Pizza place in Utah. What is the count on all the places that we need to open in Utah after this trip...................... hhhmmmm.
To Brussels we go. Check into our great hotel near the train station for an easy walk with luggage, but far enough that we don’t have any of the noise of a station. We walk the city once last time, how can an entire city smell of waffles. The aroma floats through the city. We wander around checking out the shops, people watching. It seems that there is a whole new group of tourists hitting the city today. The market is alive and busy. We buy chocolates, waffles, and frites, knowing we are going to change our diet very soon. Back to hotel to pack up and call it a vacation.
The English blokes and back to Brugge
There is a group of six English Blokes ordering all of the cold beer. The bartender has to keep checking to see if there are enough for them to all enjoy the same kind of beer. Six more __________ sorry I only have four, okay..... Six more ________, sorry I only have three. They are tearing through all the beer that has been chilled for the day. That is what happens when a great Belgium Beer bar is treated like a Frat Party. Time to head back to the train and back to Brugges. We stroll over to the train station, Chris stops for photos ops and Trish to the station. Hurry Chris no time for a sweet treat, if we miss this train, we have to wait for the next one, and we are pretty much done with this town. Back to Brugge we go.
To the hotel to drop our stuff and head out for some shopping and touring. We inquire with the Hotel owner about the Riot Police from last night. Oh that, he says,”.there are some protestors about a forest. Well I can’t really call it a forest; there are maybe 20 trees that are being taken down to build. The people are upset; here the Police don’t take any chances. Not sure why they are so upset there will be double or triple that many trees planted. Can’t really call it a forest”
We wander the streets and people watch. Come across a quiet dark bar with a fireplace and some locals enjoying their Friday night. We join them for a pint, and some conversation. The owner seems to love Jazz and good drink. We settle up the bill, and are on our way. A few doors down we find a great local Tapas place. The kitchen is shared by two chefs that own the place and plan the menus. Sharing duties between the kitchen and the front of the restaurant.. The place is packed and the only open place is the bar, we chat with the bartender and enjoy dinner of tapas. We ask if this is locals or tourists. He states almost all locals always. Not many tourists, tonight, we are 1 of 2 tables, of tourists in the bar and restaurant. The bartender asked where we were from. Always a hard thing to answer. If we say the US, they say, of course, but where. But if we state Salt Lake City, Utah are we just arrogant Americans? The response varies, so we continue to say US. He of course interested to know if we still like our president. He states I read in America his rating is falling and the dislike is very high. He also, is quick to ask how Americans behave the way they do, he still can’t figure out how our last president ever won, really how did so many people like Bush. It makes for good conversation. Dinner was lovely; everyone should enjoy some tuna tartar with wasabi ice cream at least once. There is more kava being poured than should be legal. What a great idea, start each meal kava. We ask the bartender, what the celebration is. “The seniors/last years, only 100 days of school remaining” Really this is a celebration that is official, yes indeed he had one himself, plenty of fun then, not so fun now. Here you can drink at 16 it is perfectly normal, you can’t drive until you are 18. We tell him in the US this would be mayhem. Maybe this explains the protesters from last night and all of the people with painted faces today. 100 Days.
Time to go, we say our goodbyes, and wander back to the Monks hole, from last night. This night, still very cool and interesting, but we quickly realize, it is us and a bunch of people that are celebrating 100 Days (read here, young kids), we head home to pack up. Reality is hitting, we are almost done with vacation. We talk about what we have learned, what we would do differently how many days in each place, where would we come back to, what would we pack. We have had a wonderful time.
To the hotel to drop our stuff and head out for some shopping and touring. We inquire with the Hotel owner about the Riot Police from last night. Oh that, he says,”.there are some protestors about a forest. Well I can’t really call it a forest; there are maybe 20 trees that are being taken down to build. The people are upset; here the Police don’t take any chances. Not sure why they are so upset there will be double or triple that many trees planted. Can’t really call it a forest”
We wander the streets and people watch. Come across a quiet dark bar with a fireplace and some locals enjoying their Friday night. We join them for a pint, and some conversation. The owner seems to love Jazz and good drink. We settle up the bill, and are on our way. A few doors down we find a great local Tapas place. The kitchen is shared by two chefs that own the place and plan the menus. Sharing duties between the kitchen and the front of the restaurant.. The place is packed and the only open place is the bar, we chat with the bartender and enjoy dinner of tapas. We ask if this is locals or tourists. He states almost all locals always. Not many tourists, tonight, we are 1 of 2 tables, of tourists in the bar and restaurant. The bartender asked where we were from. Always a hard thing to answer. If we say the US, they say, of course, but where. But if we state Salt Lake City, Utah are we just arrogant Americans? The response varies, so we continue to say US. He of course interested to know if we still like our president. He states I read in America his rating is falling and the dislike is very high. He also, is quick to ask how Americans behave the way they do, he still can’t figure out how our last president ever won, really how did so many people like Bush. It makes for good conversation. Dinner was lovely; everyone should enjoy some tuna tartar with wasabi ice cream at least once. There is more kava being poured than should be legal. What a great idea, start each meal kava. We ask the bartender, what the celebration is. “The seniors/last years, only 100 days of school remaining” Really this is a celebration that is official, yes indeed he had one himself, plenty of fun then, not so fun now. Here you can drink at 16 it is perfectly normal, you can’t drive until you are 18. We tell him in the US this would be mayhem. Maybe this explains the protesters from last night and all of the people with painted faces today. 100 Days.
Time to go, we say our goodbyes, and wander back to the Monks hole, from last night. This night, still very cool and interesting, but we quickly realize, it is us and a bunch of people that are celebrating 100 Days (read here, young kids), we head home to pack up. Reality is hitting, we are almost done with vacation. We talk about what we have learned, what we would do differently how many days in each place, where would we come back to, what would we pack. We have had a wonderful time.
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