Tuesday, June 21st:
The Markt Square of Bruges:
Bruges, or Brugge in Dutch, is a charming and picturesque city. It reminds me a lot of Prague, just smaller and less touristy. It seems as though it was plucked out of the medieval times and remained well preserved until the present day. It also definitely deserves its nickname as Venice-North, as it is very romantic and filled with pretty little canals. Belgium is also a funny country, because there is no one national language. Nearly every citizen you meet can speak French, Dutch, German, and English, and they all use each of them every day. It is quite disheartening when you only know one, maybe two languages when you meet these people. It was also our first taste of the Dutch language, which to me seems so close to English, yet so far, as sometimes it can seem even stranger than some of the Scandinavian languages we encountered.
Inside the Basilica of the Holy Blood:
We woke up pretty early to enjoy our breakfast, but were confused with the situation. Our hotel’s restaurant is closed on Tuesdays, and while they gave us vouchers for breakfast nearby, it took us about ten minutes to find the place, all the while thinking we had been screwed. We finally found the Prestige Bakery and ate a huge continental breakfast. It was similar to the one we had in Aachen, as we ate rolls and assorted jams with some ham and cheese. We also had some tea, and the bakery seems remarkably French to me. Anyways, we left breakfast feeling very full and walked over to our first site, the Basilica of the Holy Blood on the Burg Square. This church is fairly small, but makes up for it with beautiful windows and a giant painting. It is also famous in the city as beneath a silver tabernacle inside the sanctuary is a piece of cloth allegedly stained with the blood of Christ. It is hidden from tourist view, but rumor has it the city takes it out one day each year.
View of Bruges from the Top of the Belfry:
We met Sam and Annie after to climb the 366 steps up to the top of the Brugge Belfort (Belfry), the tall clock tower that stands above Markt Square. The climb was fairly steep and rigorous, but the views at the top are more than worth it. We were also up there at noon, so we got to experience first-hand the (really loud) chiming of the forty-seven bells in the belfry, capped off with twelve deep rings of the main bell. We hung out up top for a while, enjoying the view, then climbed back down to find a boat tour on the canals. We wandered around looking for a while before finding a half-hour tour for about seven Euro, and got on one of the boats (again, with a tour guide that spoke four or more languages). The half-hour tour offered us the best views of the city and its cozy, small houses, and was a cool way to experience the city and its canals. We also got to see a good number of swans that famously swim around the Bruges canals dodging the boat tours.
The Belfry from Our Canal Tour Boat:
Leaving the boat tour, everyone was hungry and we split up to enjoy lunches separately due to some differing tastes. Jen and I found a cool place called Mozarthuy’s Brasserie. I had really wanted to eat some Belgian Waffles, even telling Jen in the days leading up to our day in Bruges that we were not allowed to eat waffles and had to wait until we were in Belgium. I ate some tomato soup with meatballs in it along with my Belgian Waffle covered in fresh fruit. Jen ate a vegetarian omelet with cheese, and we both drank a local beer called Brugse Zot. We also got to eat some of the famous Belgian fries with mayo and ketchup here before we left to go meet Sam and Annie again.
The Welcome Church of Our Lady from a Canal Bridge:
Right next to our hotel was a wonderful beer store called “Die Bier Tempel” filled with local and craft brews. I got some beer called Kwak, and a wonderful beer called Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel. We each purchased some of these to take with us on our walk to the southern portion of the city, and (politely) finished them before going into a big church undergoing construction called Sint-Salvatorskathedraal, or the Holy Savior’s Cathedral. The inside of the church is much bigger than the outside and it houses beautiful religious artwork, tapestries, and 15th century altars and choir stalls. There is also a treasury of some holy artifacts, but we did not go inside. Instead we walked the short distance over to the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, the Welcome Church of Our Lady. This brick tower was built in the 13th century and took over 200 years to complete, and it is the tallest building in the city. Inside it is another massive sanctuary however it holds a special piece of artwork inside: one of the few works of Michelangelo that ever left Italy. The sculpture is the main attraction in the church, and it is called “Madonna and Child,” and it is made out of white marble. There are also some cool ancient sarcophagi inside as well as the tomb of Charles the Bold of Burgundy.
Michaelangelo's Madonna and Child Inside the Welcome Church of Our Lady:
By now our time had flown by and it was time to get moving to catch our train to Amsterdam! We had such a blast in Bruges with Sam and Annie, but we had to keep moving. We said our goodbyes and caught a cab to the station. We lucked out, also, because we found some earlier trains through Antwerp to Amsterdam that would get us to our hotel at around 9pm. The train ride was quick and easy, and in no time we were in Amsterdam. My first thought was that literally everyone in this city bikes, and it is easily seen why. The whole city is a maze of one-way and no-car streets, so biking makes a lot of sense. I thought there were a lot of bikers in Copenhagen, but it doesn’t even compare. We quickly fell into a small tourist trap, as there were no maps of the city in the central train station so we got a cab, soon realizing that we had to pay about fifteen Euros (including the tip the cabbie took from me without asking) to go about two hundred yards. Anyways, we checked into the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel before we headed out to walk around the city a bit.
Amsterdam Centraal Station:
The Old Town of Amsterdam is the place you want to be, but it is also one of the stranger places to experience, especially at night. This is the same area filled with red lights at night, and the same area that emits the characteristic smell of cannabis that Amsterdam has become synonymous with. Coffeeshops, as they call them, are all over the place, offering legal “soft drugs” of marijuana and hashish to anyone who inquires. Less frequently seen are Smartshops, which sell legal psychedelic mushrooms and supplements. What a weird city! It is strange, though, because due to the reputation Amsterdam has there are packs of stoned teenagers all over the place on their “green pilgrimage” of sorts, but one learns to ignore it. The Red Light District is also equally weird. There are parts of the city just filled with one-roomed apartments, and although it doesn’t get dark until about 11pm here, girls will begin to line the windows at around 530pm. These women basically stand there in the windows, going about their business on their phones or whatever, just waiting for a guy to come along who wants their services. It is very strange, but it is such a large and lively area that a tourist should not miss it nor be worried about it. There are tons of great bars in the area, and most people just walk up and down the canals catching passing glimpses of the girls as if they are another tourist attraction in the city.
The "Coffeeshop"-Filled Alleyways of Amsterdam:
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