lyb

laverendrye,

You're right, there is so much more to see in that area of Normanday as far as the battle areas, and I would have loved to see the Canadian cemeteries.

I barely scratched the surface, and that's why when I go back, I want to spend a week or so, just driving around that part of Normandy.

If only I could win that huge lotto, my traveling plans would be so much easier to plan: More money and More Time, 'cause it would be early retirement for me!

Breadman

Great photos eh! I really liked all your pix and having them well annotated is nice - JB

Scarlett

Lyb, this has all been so enjoyable to read.
I have been browsing the photos again
My daughter is in Amsterdam right now and will be going back to Brussels tomorrow. She has spoken of the waterzoo and mussels and chocolates! It is fun to see them in your photos
ok, I will sit back now and wait for the next installment ~

lyb

I've been busy tonight finishing up my Christmas shopping and wrapping gifts. However, since I will be the only one at work in the afternoon, I'm taking my trip journal with me and will write from work, certainly will make the day pass by quicker and more pleasant.

lyb

BRUGES, SUNDAY, OCT 9

The night before I had arranged with the hotel desk clerk to have a taxi come pick me up in the morning to bring me over to the Gare du Nord. I might have been able to do it by bus or the metro, but frankly, with luggage, early in the morning, it’s worth it to me to pay a bit more and not have to deal with public transportation. I got to the train station in plenty of time, as soon as we were able to board, I got to my assigned seat, sat back and relaxed.

I had to make a train change in Brussels, and cringed when I saw the stairs at the train station in Brussels, since my luggage was getting heavier with every day of shopping….eh…I mean of traveling. But I was very lucky, as I started up each stair, there was almost always someone who offered their help, and always someone who looked trustworthy. I gladly took their help. Also, I am happy to report that the train ride was uneventful this time, no “DeGaulle’s revenge” this time!

I stayed at the Hotel Ter Duinen http://www.terduinenhotel.be while in Brugge and highly recommend it. It was in a quiet neighborhood, yet a leisure 10 minute walk to the center of town, the perfect combination. The room was a very good size, superbly clean and since I had decided not to pay extra for a room with a canal view, I didn’t expect a view at all, but I was wrong. I had a little balcony overlooking the inner garden. The hotel breakfast area is very elegant, the breakfast is plenty and included in the price. At check-in, they give you a map and show you where everything is and a discount pass for the most museums. They are very friendly and I almost want to return to Brugge just so I can stay at this hotel again. My room, a full or queen size bed, don’t remember for sure, only cost me 98 euro per night, including breakfast. It was probably my favorite hotel of my entire trip.

My room was totally ready when I got there, but they gave me the key to the room and kept my luggage while I went out and explored the city. I fell in love with Brugge, what a lovely town, it is almost fairytale like! Sometimes I almost hate talking up a place so much because people can expect too much and be dissappointed when they actually visit the place, but I don’t think it can happen with Brugge, at least I’d be very surprised if it did. The architecture is so different than California, I walked around with my eyes wide open the whole time, smiling and grateful to be in this gorgeous place. The weather was in the low to mid 70’s, beautiful bright blue skies with a few clouds that almost seemed added just for decoration. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

I walked along the canal and wound my way through the streets until I got to the Markt and recognized the row of buildings that you see in all the tour books, walked a little around, then went on to the Burg where the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) and the Basilica of the Holy Blood are located. Here are all these buildings with gold decorations, the sun is shining and right in front of the Town Hall is a trio playing Vivaldi’s Four Season, I stood there for quite some time listening to them while I took in all the details of the buildings. It’s a moment that will be imbedded in my memory forever as one of my favorites.

I continued to explore the city and came upon one of the many spots where tour boats start from. I decided to go ahead and do it now to get an even better exploration of the city and also, just in case the weather didn’t stay this nice the next day. The tour guide was very informative pointing out different buildings and areas such as the Minnewater / Lake of Love and telling us by the importance of the swans to the city. It was nice to see the town from a different view point…and talking about view point…the young man who was our tour guide is now known to my friends as “my future husband”. No, don’t get all excited, no romance flourished, but he was soooo nice looking, that after the tour, I saw him just sitting, waiting for the next flock of tourists, and I had to take a picture of him! I could be his mother, very easily, but what can I say…it doesn’t mean that I can’t admire beauty!

After the boat ride, I got some delicious and beautiful dark Belgian chocolates to nourish myself and have energy to continue on with my walk through Brugge. I walked around and then decided that I should get a bit more nourishment than just chocolates. I walked back to the Markt, looked at several menus and finally chose La Taverne Brugeoise. My best friend and her husband, who as I mentioned before, is Belgian, had given me a list of foods that I should eat while in Belgium. That night, I checked off the first, mussels. They were in a beer and cream broth and were fabulous. Along with the “frites” and the Belgian beer, it was a fabulous meal. Especially since I sat looking out at all the buildings and wrote postcards as I drank a second beer…it was rather warm, I had to cool off.
--- To Be Continued ---

---It's time for me to go home, so I will continue the rest of the day from home ---

cmcfong

Oh wonderful to read about beautiful Bruges. I am with you, it is impossible to exaggerate its charms. Only today I received a Christmas card from the Adornes Hotel where I stayed on my last visit. Who else would do that? Charming, charming place and people.

mah1980

lyb,

I'm very interested in this part of your trip as Bruges seems fantastic.

I love your trip report so far!

lyb

BRUGES, SUNDAY, OCT 9 (cont’d)

After lingering for quite some time at the restaurant and not feeling rushed like so many American restaurants would make you feel, I decided to head back to the hotel. It was about 6pm and as I walked back to the hotel away from the center of town, the streets were very serene, people were coming home from work, how did I know? Well, I think I found the secrets of not looking like a tourist; be dressed in business clothes, carry a briefcase and don’t look around at the beautiful buildings around you. There were also families and older couples arm in arm taking early evening strolls. I was so taken by all the building reflections in the canals, and the quiet of the neighborhood which the hotel is in. I noticed that some of the buildings in the surrounding had plaques that said doctor, lawyer, etc. I think I saw one other hotel. It made me feel like I was going home and not a hotel. The weather was so beautiful that I explored some of the streets around the hotel before finally going back.

Remember, I hadn’t seen the room yet since it wasn’t ready when I set off in the morning, I was so pleasantly surprised when I came back and so excited to see the balcony. I unpacked, sat outside on my balcony and read for a little while. Then I did my usual, planning the next day’s activities.

I was so glad that I had scheduled to spend 2 nights in Bruges, I would have hated to have to leave right the next day.

lyb

BRUGES, MONDAY, OCT 10

I had breakfast at the hotel, very lovely. A lot to choose from, wait staff bring you either coffee, tea, hot chocolate and/or juices, a basket of bread and fresh fruit to your table, then there is many other types of bread to pick from, cold cuts, cheese, cereal, nuts, more fresh fruits, you can make yourself toasts, etc. Soft classical music playing in the background in a beautiful room looking out at the canal in the front and the garden in the back, a very relaxing way to start the day and I don’t think anyone could walk away hungry.

Today, I walked to and beyond the Markt and the Burg to some of the streets on the outskirt of the town with some of the less touristy stores, though, don’t get me wrong, there were still some touristy things being sold. The stores had beautiful window displays, I had to take pictures of some of them, the fashions were great looking and the chocolate stores were extremely inviting. I didn’t fight back and went into a store and got a few for myself and some boxes to bring back as souvenirs. I took my purchases, found a little square, sat on a bench, ate my chocolates and looked at people walking by, friends meeting up and shopping. Afterwards, I aimlessly wandered around with no particular plan. I’d turn right on this street, turn left there, I knew the general area that I was in, and where I wanted to go, but I was in no hurry and since Brugge is small, I knew that I’d get to where I wanted to go eventually without having to hold to a strict route.

I went into a very nice Tintin shop. Some of you may not be familiar with Tintin, he is one of the most popular cartoon characters by Herge, a Belgian and he is loved! As a young girl growing up in Quebec, Canada, I always had Tintin hardcover books on my Christmas list, and only finished getting all of the books as an adult. Tintin is so popular that last year, Belgium issued a commerative 75th anniversary 10 euro coin, I unfortunately was unable to get one and now they are being sold for 75 euros and more. The stores sell books, clothes, figurines, both cheaper plastic versions and some higher end that can be up to 500 euros. I spent quite a bit of money at the Tintin store, but couldn’t afford the higher end figurines, however, I really enjoyed seeing them all and there’s always another time.

Eventually, I realized that I was by the train station, yesterday the train station seemed far, but today walking around, it didn’t seem all that far. Of course, if I had been carrying my suitcase and back pack and tried to find the hotel, it would have a VERY long walk.

I walked through the Lake of Love park and then visited the Begijnhof/Beguinage, a nunnery which dates back to the 13th Century. The inner courtyard was nice, but it must be amazing in the springtime with all of the flowers blooming.

I then went into the “Little Lace Shop” and had a great, though a bit sad, conversation with the man who worked there. His uncle owns the shop and this man, who is in mid-40’s has been going to the shop since he is little and has worked for his uncle for 20 years. Unfortunately, now due to a down turn in tourism, they are closing the shop. He said that ever since 9/11, tourism has never returned to the same it was before. I bought quite a few lace things, both for myself and for gifts.

By mid afternoon, I had been walking all day and needed a rest, just at that time, I saw an internet café. I had a coffee, touched base with family back at home and then sat outside in their extremely quiet and peaceful courtyard, finishing my coffee and writing in my journal. I had been sitting outside for a short while when this gorgeous man walked in and sat down at a table in front of me. I started thinking that Brugge was THE place, not only is the town beautiful, but two very good looking men in two days! Wow! And just so you don’t think that I’m this dirty old woman, this good looking woman was closer to my age, somewhere in his forties…and wearing a wedding ring! Lucky woman!

Afterwards, I walked around a bit more and took some pictures from the bridges. One of the tour boats was coming around a particularly beautiful corner and I decided to take a picture of the scene. And lo and behold, who was driving the boat? “my future husband” otherwise known as “gorgeous young guy from day one”. Oh, my God, I’d become a stalker…but honestly, it was sheer coincidence, Brugge is a small town! Here is the ironic thing, at one of the stores I bought a calendar with scenes from Bruges. I had been back home for about 1 month or so, and was again looking at the pictures when I realized that one of the pictures was of a canal boat and maybe you guessed it, my “future husband” was the guide! That sealed it, we’re meant to be…I must return to Brugge to let him know.

That day, I had dinner in the Markt at La Civiere D’Or, I had another typical Belgian dish that I was told I had to have, Chicken Waterzooi, a Belgian Beer - Brugse Tripel and finished off the meal with a very good cappuccino. And then it happened again, the flirting men! It had stopped for a while, but the waiter, who was rather cute, asked me if I was traveling alone and said I should come back later this evening and have drinks with him. I thanked him but said no. Getting together with strangers is not my kind of thing and I certainly won’t start now. However, I started seriously thinking that I’d been living on the wrong continent!

My stay in Brugge was coming to an end, I walked back to the hotel, took more pictures and then got ready to go to Brussels the next day. Poor Brussels, after Brugge it had a lot to live up to.

Tomorrow, if it’s Tuesday, it must be Brussels.

lyb

BRUSSELS, TUESDAY, OCT 11

An uneventful taxi and train ride from Brugge to Brussels and on my way to my hotel, I realized that Brussels was TOTALLY different than Brugge. Brussels is a busy metropolitan city with many modern buildings that don’t have much charm, but that was only my first impression.

I got to my hotel, the Welcome Hotel, http://www.hotelwelcome.com, which is right across from the St Catherine Metro station in the old fish market area. The hotel’s rooms are each decorated in a different theme, reflecting different countries. I stayed in “Cuba”, I have pictures of the room in my photo gallery, http://www.lynnsview.com/Gallery/. It is well done and fun. The rooms are very clean and the staff very helpful and friendly. It gets a very high rating on Trip Advisor and does live up to it. The area has many fish restaurants, but I can’t make any recommendations as I didn’t go to any but on Trip Advisor, I’ve read many raving reviews of the restaurants.

As I checked in, the desk clerk handed me an envelope with my name on it. I thought she was giving me a map of the city or something, but the handwriting on the envelope looked familiar. It was a note from my best friend and her husband welcoming me to the city and wishing me a good stay. Sadly, they had just been to Brussels for his dad’s funeral and had left a few days before I got there. It was a nice touch which I really appreciated. After dropping my luggage in the room and getting my maps, I set off for the Grand Place. It is a 10 – 15 minute walk and I had no problem finding it, though you do have to go through a couple areas that are not exactly great. I didn’t feel unsafe, but I preferred not to go through them at night by myself. Some of the churches I saw on the way were in great need of upkeep, and I was glad to see that it was happening for St Jean de Baptiste, a block behind the hotel. I do hope that there are plans for Ste Catherine church, which seemd like it was a grand church at one point, but now looks extremely dirty and had some “interesting” characters hanging out in front each time I passed by as it was on my way to the Grand Place.

At first, when I got to the Grand Place, I wasn’t sure what to think, it was surely impressive, but it didn’t wow me! I visited the City Museum and got to see the staff preparing for an upcoming exhibit of Mannekin Pis and his numerous costumes. For those of you not familiar with Mannekin Pis, it is a statue of a little boy peeing, located a couple of blocks from the Grand Place. They say that it is as important to Brussels as the Trevi fountain is to Rome. He has 400 outfits that are changed on a regular basis. Some of his costumes are an Elvis white jumpsuit with the high collar and rhinestone, a Canadian Hockey team outfit, national costumes, and others. An exhibition was opening in mid-October and while at the City Museum, I got to see several of the outfits as they were dressing up many little Mannekin Pis.

I then indulged again and bought a few chocolates, can’t be in Belgium and not indulge in Belgian chocolates! Walked around some more, checking out the restaurants, because I wanted to keep my chocolates for dessert. I found a restaurant called, Le Paino, and had one more thing on my list of foods I had to eat, sole, which the waiter recommended, accompanied by a Blanche Haacht Belgian beer. It was very warm, by now I was only wearing a short sleeve top and the sun was bearing down on my table, I was glad for the cool beer. And it happened again, the waiter asked me to come back later in the evening to have drinks with him. What is going on? I started thinking these waiters had seen “Summertime” with Katherine Hepburn too much and think that every single female traveler is out for a European romance. I finally had to ask someone about all these “friendly” waiters. When chatting with the desk clerk at the hotel, I asked her about the “friendly” waiters. She laughed and did say that in the tourist industry, many of the waiters do think and often successfully, that American women traveling alone have a reputation for being extremely “friendly” and seem to believe that the interlude is a “romance”, when it’s actually just “fun” for the waiters. Yep, I think there are many movies out there re-affirming the whole “adventure while touring Europe” story. It’s rather funny.

Grand Place must be a popular place for school field trips, the area was filled with young children from 7 – 11 years old. They had lists of significant locations and building ornaments they had to identify and check off. It was sometimes a challenge having to go around them or stop in time so I wasn’t run over by a group of them. There were also a large group of Japanese tourists in the Grand Place and several of them were asking some of the young children to have their pictures taken with them. One of the little blond boys said to his friend, “I guess it’s the first time they see a Belgian.” I laughed as the exact same thing happened to me once 25 years ago when I was visiting Hawaii. I guess it must be a Japanese thing to do while on vacation.

I left the Place to go and see the real Mannekin Pis, and when I walked up, I couldn’t believe it. It was being cleaned and had a tarp around the fountain which surrounds it! Darn! While I was standing there, a bus load of Japanese tourists came around the corner and they were more resourceful than I was. They found an opened section of the tarp and all of them peeked in and took pictures of the little guy through the opening. After they left, I admit it, I copied them! I’d come this far, I wasn’t going to miss seeing the genuine Mannekin Pis.

lyb

BRUSSELS, TUESDAY, OCT 11 (cont’d)

I came back to the Grand Place and wandered down a street that was filled with restaurants and men standing outside trying to get you to come in to their restaurants, not appealing at all. And then I noticed that the other hotel I had considered staying in was on that street, I saw the lobby and was so happy I hadn’t picked it, I was much happier with the one I chose. I then went through a not so attractive shopping center looking for a restroom, and again, people standing outside their stores trying to entice you to come in and shop. It made me feel … icky. I found the restroom and got out of there as soon as I could.

For some reason, by this time, I was getting cranky as I mentioned in the title of this report. People were getting on my nerves and I was not liking Brussels at all. Looking back, I think I was tired, I had just spent two days in an idyllic place like Brugge and this was a mild shock to my system. I was sitting in the Grand Place writing my postcards, when this young boy of 8 or 9 years old came up to me wanting $, I told him no and then his mother approached me and she was very pushy. I just about yelled at her to get away from me and then…she cursed back at me in some language that I couldn’t recognize! I thought, I’ve just been cursed by a gypsy! And sorry to all of you who find that term offensive, but it’s the best way to describe this woman.

I walked away and saw this small courtyard off the Place, it was almost deserted, quiet and I felt so happy to get away from all the noise that had been going on around me all day. I regrouped and looked on my map to see how to get to the Galeries St-Hubert where the Galerie du Roi, Galerie de la Reine and Galleries des Princes are and saw that they were just off the Grand Place. The Galeries were so nice, with higher end stores and restaurants, no school field trips or throngs of tourists. I sat at a little café for quite some time, had a cappuccino, wrote in my journal and started feeling better about Brussels. These Galeries were nice and I didn’t feel all that insanity that had been going on at the Grand Place.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at a grocery store, got some fruits, cheese and crackers to eat back in my room. I was tired and stayed in that night enjoying spending the night in Cuba.

Tomorrow, a lot more Brussels.

Scarlett

LOL..lyb, my daugther is staying at the Welcome right now..she has the Suite this time, the Silk Road or something? Gorgeous room, she sent photos
She mentioned eating at Falstaff, did you go there?
We get daily emails telling us how wonderful the place and the people are. She will be moving there soon, if we aren't careful LOL

lyb

Scarlett,

No, I didn't eat at Falstaff.

Did your daughter send you pictures of her door from the hall? Make sure she takes on and send it to you, it's very nice. My door had a Cadillac on it, for all the old Cadillacs in Cuba. It's funny when you check in at the Welcome, they don't tell you a room number, it's the Room name, the floor and what the door looks like. It's a real neat place to stay.

Scarlett

This is her 3rd time at the hotel and she has become friendly with Vanessa ...the lady at the hotel..
I had seen their site, but don't remember the doors. Yes, I will tell her to take a photo lol.
She said newsmen were there the other day- taking photos of her room.

Indygirl2

lyb, I'm planning the same itinerary next fall--three days in Paris, two in Bruges and four in Amsterdam--and am dying to hear about the rest of your trip. Any chance that you'll have a chance to finish your report!

Thanks in advance!

Kate

kinseykin1

Loved your pictures, I'm going in April and I can't wait!! Thanks for sharing, What part did you stay in again, i'm staying in the 7th. Kinseykin

baldrick

Hi lyb,

I was in Brugge during Xmas holidays and it was quite a different view than the usual one.
First of all, all the terraces on the market square were removed, which permitted to see the 17th and 18th century façades. A sight I hadn't seen since 20 years. Just beautiful.
The market square had a small ice skating ring, which brought a lot of animation to the square, together with the Xmas shops around the ring, selling hot tea, irish coffee and other heartwarming stuff. On the 30th, it snowed and some 10 cm(4 inches) of snow fell in 3 to 4 hours.
I showed the picture of the red n° 10 front door alongside the Spinolarei to my friends who own the house. My friend's mother was very honoured and we all had a good laugh.
I also had a look at the Civière d'Or (the owner's wife is also a friend) and I can imagine who is your cute waiter who fancied you...
I couldn't see your "husband from the canal boats", because there were no boat services during winter.

Brugge was extremely beautiful. Allthough there were quite some tourists, the town was quiet in atmosphere, permitting to have very silent strolls over town. Also, when covered with snow, the town is a wonderful place to be.