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![[Benelux 2013 Trip Report] Day 6: The Hague“I wouldn’t go there if not for business!” said the Amsterdam B&B owner, surprised that we stopped by The Hague. Judging from the itinerary we seemed to did a lot of cute and tame activities, but we really liked the city for delivering great food - the soused herring, the best apple pie ever, and one excellent Brasserie.Itinerary of the day: Plein (William the Silent statue) → Binnenhof → Panorama Mesdeg → Gemeentemuseum → Haringkraam Buitenhof → Dudok → Escher in het Paleis → Madurodam[[MORE]]
There are a few cities that I tend to call them by their original name rather than their anglicized version, despite trying to be consistent. Napoli is one, and Den Haag is another. “The Hague” just doesn’t have the same punch!Holiday Inn’s breakfast is pretty standard continental, so not much to talk about there. What I really loved about the hotel is the vicinity to William the Silent statue. My friend joked that I can finally take this photo and shop him with Egmont and Hoorn’s statues in Brussels…(not a bad idea actually)We took a quick tour around the Binnenhof, the parliament building complex. There’s not really a whole lot going on, so we exited pretty quickly.Ridderzaal (Hall of Knights), used for royal receptions.Johan de Witt statue. I didn’t know who he was, but later read into his tragic story when I saw a striking painting of him and his brother at the Rijksmuseum. I mainly snatched this photo because of the balls separating the plaza from the road. We’ve noticed a lot of balls being used in Dutch infrastructure, which I will show more examples later on. Why balls? Why not use columns? Hofvijver, the court pond. I don’t know why I keep running into Canadian Embassy everywhere…maybe I should start collecting these as souvenirs.Our first museum of the day was Panorama Mesdeg. The museum was specifically built to house a cylindrical painting of Scheveningen beaches.The painting setup gives you the illusion of actually being at the location. This form of art was popular in the 19th century, and this is one of the few surviving paintings from that time period. Dioramas of sand and beach items are placed in the foreground to enhance the atmosphere.Given that we have the Museumkaart, it’s great for a quick tour. Next we head to Gemeentemuseum, where most of Mauritshuis’s Dutch Golden Age paintings were relocated while it undergo renovation. Gemeentemuseum is a lot further away from the city centre, so we needed to take two buses to get there.The Hague’s trams are so dinky! So cute!Gemeentemuseum is a municipal museum, so their main focus is on temporary exhibitions of various modern arts.Modern art or garbage?The museum lobby reminded me of public swimming pools.We skipped most of the contemporary collections and just focused on the Mauritshuis exhibition. The captions sounded a lot more normal than Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (so it’s not a Dutch bluntness thing, just that translator was being sassy).No photos were allowed, so here are the highlights linked from wikipaintings. I wanted to visit Mauritshuis for merely three paintings.Vermeer’s “View on Delft”, which I have made a reference to.Rembrandt’s “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp”. One of my favourite paintings of all times. I am partial to paintings depicting dissection of cadaver, and the book in the right bottom corner is Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica. The expressions of the students are just priceless. Half of them (perhaps the doctors who paid commission to be included in the picture) are not even paying attention to Dr. Tulp, but at the spectator. Where was Vermeer’s “The Girl with the Pearl Earring”? She went on tour around the world for an entire year, due to the renovation at Mauritshuis. It was a huge disappointment! I can only see her vicariously through Pala when she saw her in San Francisco…;A;The regular admission to Gemeentemuseum is 14.50€, and frankly we wouldn’t have gone if not for the Museumkaart.We took the bus the same way back to the Binnenhof area, and it was about lunch time! Outside the Binnenhof is a herring stand (hut?) “Haringkraam Buitenhof” that received rave reviews online. Some reviews even go as far as claiming it to be the best herring stand in the Netherlands! Well since we are in the Netherlands, I suppose it’s obligatory to try some maatjes.Sashimi. It tasted like sashimi! Sashimi with salt and onions on bread! It’s not that much of a shocking taste for me, but I don’t love it either.Right across from Haringkraam Buitenhof is Dudok, where we planned to have their famous appeltaart. I wondered why TA had so few reviews of this place, as it was completely packed with locals. Luckily we didn’t have to wait for long to get a seat.Their menu, and me looking up words in a dictionary as we were waiting. English is quite universally spoken in the Netherlands, and at a level that I would rate as fluent, so language barrier is non-existent. The waitress here patiently explained the menu to us in English, even when they are obviously really busy. Really, once I got used to their bluntness, this country is the most tourist-friendly place I’ve been to. More examples of friendly Dutch people will be provided in the next few trip reports to come.
We ordered some salad and sandwich, but they were not particularly outstanding (good, but not memorable). The apple pie on the other hand, really lived up to its name. It’s a must-try item in the Netherlands!I had the same reaction to this apple pie as to waffle in Antwerp, and that was wailing in my head about the crap have I been eating all my life that bear the name apple pie. The crust was thin and crispy, and the apple chunks fresh. Both the pie and the vanilla ice cream have cinnamon in them so they go extremely well together. I loved the little details like the Dudok logo candy and the chocolate cup!After lunch we walked to the Escher Museum, also known as Escher in het Paleis. The name might not ring a bell, but I’m sure most people would recognize the artworks.The museum is not very big, touring everything took about 1~2 hours. This is one of the museums that’s not covered by the Museumkaart, but for 9€ it’s still worth a visit. Escher’s self-portrait.Escher traveled numerous times to Italy, which influenced much of his later works. I was taking note of these works to resonate with my last trip.His most well-known artworks are of course his impossible reality and tessellation prints. “Drawing Hands”.“Day and Night”, the piece I was referencing here.“Reptiles”.This one’s my favourite, “Encounter”.These are only a small fraction of the works on display, as this is the primary collection of Escher’s original works. On the top floor of the museum were some interactive exhibitions that involves optical illusion. For the last stop of the day, we decided to become 8 years old again and visit Madurodam, a miniature park featuring places around the Netherlands. It required a quick tram ride from the city centre.The park is a lot smaller than I expected, and most regular visits can be done within 2 hours. It’s open until 20:00, so as most things in The Hague close earlier, it’s great for filling in that latter part of day. In all honesty, I have seen much more intricate miniature models in other places, but since we became 8 years old again, that didn’t bother us too much. There were many more adults in the park than children!Miniature Alkmaar cheese market, which we would be visiting a few days later.Miniature Amsterdam!Since we won’t be able to take pictures at the actual place, miniature Red Light District window girls would have to do…Some miniature vehicles were motorized, such as this garbage boat.Miniature NS trains were moving all around the park. I also saw a miniature Thalys train, but that was moving a lot faster (bonus point for accuracy). These little things sure bring out the closet railroad enthusiasts.I am no railroad otaku, but it’s no secret that airports make me pretty darn happy! I loved the miniature Schiphol for actually including many different airlines!Interesting how Portugal was chosen to be put in this miniature stadium…Miniature Binnenhof and Hofvijver that we’ve just seen earlier today.Since we missed Kinderdijk in Rotterdam, we settled for a miniature version here. The Rotterdam port.Rotterdam’s Erasmusbrug. There’s an oddly big percentage of Rotterdam in this park.Miniature bulb field.A trip to Netherlands is not complete until I get a photo of myself in a giant clog.Madurodam is not a must-visit in my opinion, but it was a feel-good experience! This was when I realize the contrast between Dutch people’s intimidating exterior and the cuteness of things they create.Yesterday when we were searching for dinner, many places were either not opened, or too far to get to. After some last-minute searching at the hotel, we chose this Brasserie Buitenhof.What a great choice! This was one of the most memorable restaurants we visited on this trip. My impression of French food in Belgium and Netherlands are both affordable and of high quality.My friend and I shared a 3-course menu consisted of three choices of entrees (voor + tussen + hoofd). For 27,50€ split between the two of us it’s not bad of a price.First up was escargot with mushroom, thyme, onion and red wine sauce.Organic chicken salad, farmhouse egg, trufflemayonnaise and bacon.Catch of the day (scampi). All three dishes were lovely, perfectly prepared with fresh ingredients, but this one was the best. The sides were also noteworthy. One was a plate of Belgian endives, a vegetable that I’ve never seen and never ate before. It has a bitterness that takes some used to, but pleasant otherwise. It’s supposedly a very healthy vegetable.The other was of course fries. All fries we’ve had in Belgium and Netherlands were very good, but it’s not something that we want to have every meal. The fries here stood out because they were not as oily as the others, and actually comes in a reasonable portion.Tomorrow we finally head to our final stop, the very anticipated city, Amsterdam!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/e3e00ae66b4d0d82d2f4167a83bddc0b/tumblr_moirwaX0iD1qgc4tzo1_500.jpg)
“I wouldn’t go there if not for business!” said the Amsterdam B&B owner, surprised that we stopped by The Hague. Judging from the itinerary we seemed to did a lot of cute and tame activities, but we really liked the city for delivering great food - the soused herring, the best apple pie ever, and one excellent Brasserie.
Itinerary of the day: Plein (William the Silent statue) → Binnenhof → Panorama Mesdeg → Gemeentemuseum → Haringkraam Buitenhof → Dudok → Escher in het Paleis → Madurodam
PENTAX K-5
Too much colouring lately and not enough drawing, so I’m rediscovering the fun of drawing with a non-mechanical pencil (then realized I do not even own one so used a coloured pencil instead)!
My main enjoyment of this series come from amazing titan anatomy and Mikasa’s six-pack.
![[Benelux 2013 Trip Report] Day 5: RotterdamWe went to Rotterdam without going to the UNESCO site of Kinderdijk? How is that possible? An unexpectedly entertaining museum ate up our whole afternoon! In fact the entire day at Rotterdam was full of humour, we couldn’t stop smiling at this city!Itinerary of the day: Brussels-Zuid station → Rotterdam Centraal → Kijk-Kubus → Buttplug Santa → Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen → The Hague[[MORE]]“Good morning Sherry, you slept for a very long time.” This was the first sentence I heard after I woke up from the horrible food poisoning yesterday. I slept for twelve hours! I felt much, much better though, and could enjoy Sweet Brussel’s breakfast today.
The hostess of the B&B is Dutch, so we got some chocolate sprinkles (one of the things my Dutch-Canadian colleagues told me to try)! The speculoos spread was delicious, so good that my friend kept looking for it in every Albert Heijn we came across.You bet I took a few pieces of that Côte d’Or!
Eggs and toast made to order! We were sad to leave such a nice B&B…
After a slow, relaxed breakfast, we catched a train to Rotterdam.
SNCB employees! Stalk stalk stalk.
I didn’t feel if much has changed when we crossed the Belgian-Dutch border, until we got off at Rotterdam Centraal. Tall people, tall people everywhere! There’s a Chinese idiom “鶴立雞群 crane among chickens” to describe a person who stands out among the crowd (literally or figuratively), damn I feel like I am a chicken among cranes! All I could see at eye-level is one Dutch chest after another. <—not that I am complaining haha
We were not staying overnight in Rotterdam, so we put our luggages in these storage lockers at the station. Unlike lockers in Antwerp, these are credit cards only! The instructions on the doors are not very helpful, so here’s how it works:
1. put the luggages in first, and the machine will know exactly which unit was used (how? It’s a mystery…)
2. the machine will prompt to insert the credit card
3. after transaction, a receipt with barcode will be printed. Locker number is indicated on the receipt so don’t worry about forgetting which locker it was
4. scan barcode at the scanner (red stripe at the bottom) to claim luggages back
The percentage of out-of-order lockers is pretty high, we tried 3 different lockers until we got one that actually works.
We would be staying in Netherlands for quite a few days and would utilize many local public transport, so we decided to get “OV-chipkaart” at the station as well. It can be bought at the local bus (not train) company services desk.
This card was implemented fully only two years ago. There are dozens of public transport companies in Netherlands, and ticket fares cannot be used across companies. The whole point of OV-chipkaart is to unify all the companies into one form of payment. Tourists can still buy day passes or one time fare, but those tickets are usually more expensive than deducting from OV-chipkaart. For example, at the moment we wanted to take the metro from Rotterdam Centraal to Blaak, where the Kijk-Kubus are. A one-hour bus fare for Rotterdam’s RET is 3.00€, but if deducted from the OV chipcard, the fare for that distance is 1.09€.
The rules on how to use this card is confusing for a visitor…some main ones that apply to a traveller:
1. tourists can only buy “anonymous OV-chipkaart” that does not require photo or name. It can be transferred between persons but cannot be used by multiple people on the same trip (of course). The card is valid for 5 years.
2. it’s 7.50€ to buy an empty card (this makes me angry)
3. it’s 0.50€ fee to get a person to store cash in it per every transaction (this makes me angry too)
4. No fee to buy or refill the card at a machine, but machine only take coins (WHY)
5. there need to be a minimum 4€ in the card to take tram, bus, metro and ferry (ok rule 2~5 all make me rage)
6. by default it is not eligible for train (NS), it has to be activated first at a station. There needs to be a minimum 20€ left in the card to take train (exactly why we didn’t activate ours)
7. whatever money remains in the card is not refundable without a Dutch address (srsly Ned CAN YOU LEARN FROM HK’S OCTOPUS CARD 看看人家香港多麼佛心)
With these rules there will always be a few euros of money put in the card that are left unused. My suggestion is it’s only worthwhile for tourists who are taking many buses in multiple Dutch towns/cities, that the savings from the better bus fares are more than the unused money + fee to get the card. If you’re only touring in one city, then it’s a better deal to get their specific city or day pass.
Beside the annoying rules of the card it is very convenient. We were going to take the Rotterdam metro to Kijk-Kubus, and it took not time to zap the card entering in/out of the stations. No fussing around in our wallets, trying to find a vendor, or waiting in line to get tickets!Rotterdam subway is organized and clean, I really liked it. I can’t help but envy other cities’ subway when comparing to Toronto’s crap (we’re so easily impressed).
Most tourists don’t care much for Rotterdam due to the lack of historical sights, as most of them were destroyed by the Luftwaffe. In the process of rebuilding, the city council decided to encourage “daring” architecture during the 80’s. Imagine that - daring architecture in the 80’s!Modern architecture is not my thing, but these buildings are just too wacky to miss. The Blaak metro station.
The Rotterdam Public Library…no hint whatsoever from the outside that this is a library…
The most visited one, Kijk-Kubus (Cube Houses). We had hoped to stay at the youth hostels in one of these cubes, but they were full.
On our way to the next sight on the schedule, we ran into more great architecture. What is this…What is that…what are those…
At the Eendrachtsplein, about 15 minutes walk from the Cube Houses, lies Rotterdam’s best attraction, Buttplug Santa. Also known as Kabouter Buttplug, the “buttplug” he’s holding was supposed to, or not supposed to be a Christmas tree…thanks to this guy, I read the entire wiki article on buttplug. This statue was ranked #2 in Cracked.com’s The 14 Most Unintentionally Terrifying Statues in the World.
Rotterdam has an oddly high concentration of cafes/light food. We weren’t particularly hungry, so we just picked Sijf which was close by.
Tomato soup was pretty good.
Kroketten, as the waitress told us is something typically Dutch (but we know not solely), was also on my food-to-try list. Unlike the shrimp croquette I had in Brussels, this one is filled with beef-ragout. It’s very good but the bread next to it stole the show. Even if the gastronomy of this trip was not the most exciting, I can always count on Europe delivering good bread.
Even after the kroketten, we are not fully registered with the fact that we were in Netherlands. On our way to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, we finally had a chance to walk the streets, and observe the surroundings.
We did noticed that we were unable to understand anything we read or hear anymore. I can guess some French but looking at Dutch I’m just completely clueless.
Secondly, the bikes, the bikes the bikes. Sure Belgium’s got a lot of bikes but not at this scale! As someone who used to bike to work, the bike lanes are just plain luxury that I can never imagine existing.Bikes also have right of way, which takes some used to.
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, while mentioned in guidebooks, is not a very popular museum for international travelers. Although not their most famous works, this museum does hold some pieces of artists we like, so we decided to take a quick visit.
Neither of us expect this “quick visit” to turn into three hours…
After researching for this trip, I am so convinced of the penny-pincher Dutch stereotype for many reasons. In addition to the OV-chipkaart mentioned earlier, I hardly found any deals for tourists that work in our favour. The most common passes they recommend tourists to get are the “I Amsterdam Card” and “Holland Pass” which are not nearly good deals after I calculated the cost. There is one card that is though, and that is the Museumkaart. For 50€, one can visit every museum, with very few exceptions, in the country, for no additional cost. For some museums the card can even be used for entering through the “fast lane”, hence skipping the lines. The card is valid for an entire year and can be bought at most larger museums (see their website as to which ones sell the cards). Usually visiting three museums would already make up the cost of the card, not to mention we visited at least 100€ worth of museums on this trip.
While tourists are definitely allowed to get this card, all the info on their websites are in Dutch…so this doesn’t change my opinion about them not wanting foreigners to find good deals lol.
We didn’t realize this was the coat hanger for visitors until we left the museum! I thought it is an artwork on display!
Yayoi Kusama’s “The Mirrored Years”.
Goya’s “Horror of Wars”.
Van Gogh’s peasant portraits.
Monet’s “La Maison du pêcheur, Varengeville”.
Quite a few pieces of Picasso.Many Magritte as well, and this being one of his more well-known pieces “Not to be Reproduced”.Rubens “Portrait of a Woman”. Yes Rubens we get it, you loved painting women.Van Dyck’s “Saint Jerome meets an Angel” urhhhh I just love his style so much When it comes to artists and nip slip, when there’s a will there’s a way, even if boobs don’t work that way. Some very memorable sculptures I am just at a loss for words for…The museum also has an extensive contemporary design art section, but we skipped that. The main reason why we spent so much time at this museum was not because of these great artworks, but because we were reading every artwork descriptions. They were most likely not translated and written by a native English speaker, which result in the most cynical and informal museum art captions I’ve ever seen!“Dirty old man Picasso y you sex everything up”“Dutch history painters cannot transcend it’s a race fail”“This doesn’t belong here but I’m gonna put it here anyway”“Hey Ned the rest of Europe are wondering how much you spent on your hair”“Gawd who put that ugly dove in THOSE ITALIANS”Yeah the dove and the halo are pretty ugly indeed. Last but not least, for the painting I anticipated the most to see, Bruegel’s “The Tower of Babel”. “God got tired of your shit”I assume the Dutch captions sound normal? We were trying not to laugh out loud but tears were coming out of our eyes! Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is awesome!We browsed until we closing time (17:00), so there wasn’t any time left for Kinderdijk. Time to head to The Hague!Netherland’s train system, NS, is ok…The extensive network get us to all corners of the country, it’s generally punctual, and the trains are comfortable enough (sometimes class 2 gets really full). What I really don’t like is the 0.50€ fee to buy tickets at a desk. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but sometimes our ticket may only cost 4.50€ (such as this segment) and that’s a pretty large percentage of the ticket price! If they want encourage customers to use the machines, then why do the machines only accept local debit cards and cash coins (no cc, no notes)? Also, NS has no deals for tourists that I am aware of. A lot of the seasonal discounts are for locals who have IDs. As a Taiwanese though I obviously want to out-cheap the Dutch any way possible. I started to collect coins until my wallet is on the verge of bursting.After a quick half hour train ride, we reached The Hague, where the Dutch government is located in. Perhaps because of vicinity to the parliament, there are no B&Bs near Den Haag Centraal station, but mostly business hotels. In order to stay near the train station, we booked a hotel we otherwise wouldn’t consider at all.After Checking in, my friend was going to swipe her credit card to pay.Staff: “would you like to pay that in Euros? or Crowns?”
Us: “….Crowns…?”
Staff: “Canadese Crowns? You guys use Crowns right?”
Us: “……….Canadian dollars……….”
Oh great, now Canada is grouped with the Nordics.
The first room they gave us had a double bed instead of two singles, which was not what we requested, so we returned to the front desk to ask for an exchange.
Staff: “You asked for a quiet room as well, so we gave you the quieter one. There is a room with potential noise, and all other rooms are fully booked.”
Us: “We rather not share a bed so we would take the noisier room.”
Staff: “Ok~but don’t come back if you can’t sleep from the noise.”
Is this some kind of Dutch humour!? My friend found it funny but I couldn’t appreciate it???This Holiday Inn Express opened in less than six months so everything was new. It also received great reviews on TA. Other than the bedroom being small-ish, we were very happy with it. Didn’t hear any of the said noise.
Since we had a simple lunch, and missed our fancy dining in Luxembourg, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at Restaurant Alexander! It’s not ultra fancy, entrees falls in the 20~25€ range, but services were excellent. Waitresses promptly took our jacket before we asked, nicely led us to our table and explained their menu in a well-paced manner. When my friend picked her tea, she patiently waited. They even offered to take a photo of us when they saw us shamelessly taking food photos!
This is their signature dish, Poulet Noir (free range chicken stuffed with foie gras, mushrooms and truffle sauce). The description sounds good already and it tasted just as good and some more! I already emphasized how much I love truffles in Italy, and this dish utilized the truffles so well. The meat was cooked just right with the perfect distribution of fat and lean meat.
My friend’s Breast of Duck with pear and red port sauce was also amazing.
The potatoes that came with the entrees - sooooo gooood! If you’re wondering why I bothered posting photos of potatoes, that is because these potatoes are divine. I would use the word “succulent” to describe them.
After we were done, the waitress offered us two shots of limoncello on the house! Would I get grilled for saying this limoncello was way better than the cough syrup I had in Rome? Such a great meal, I highly recommend this restaurant.
Rotterdam and The Hague are a short 30 minutes away, we could have done Kinderdijk tomorrow - only that we’ve got a full day scheduled in The Hague!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/79c1f77026e59f5b74f7d86dd1db6665/tumblr_mo5in6imdP1qgc4tzo1_500.jpg)
[Benelux 2013 Trip Report] Day 5: Rotterdam
We went to Rotterdam without going to the UNESCO site of Kinderdijk? How is that possible? An unexpectedly entertaining museum ate up our whole afternoon! In fact the entire day at Rotterdam was full of humour, we couldn’t stop smiling at this city!
Itinerary of the day: Brussels-Zuid station → Rotterdam Centraal → Kijk-Kubus → Buttplug Santa → Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen → The Hague
PENTAX K-5
![[Benelux 2013 Trip Report] Day 4: LuxembourgI’ll be honest about what brought me to Luxembourg - Like San Marino, I probably wouldn’t have gone if it is not a different country. The Last Grand Duchy, an EU capital, and Gibraltar of the North…Despite high praises I’ve heard from many, I wasn’t particularly inspired by the city, and I’ve never traveled on a day and only taken 30 photos in total.
Itinerary of the day: Brussels-Zuid station → Luxembourg station → Place de la Constitution → Place d’Armes → Chemin de la Corniche → return to Brussels[[MORE]]Maybe I didn’t do Luxembourg City justice, as I was sick with food poisoning for the good part of the day. I took the ham I bought in Bruges along with me and ate it the night before. Even if I put it in the fridge as soon as I got to our B&B in Brussels, it most likely has gone bad in the process. My friend who was healthy though wasn’t too impressed by Luxembourg either, so maybe that wasn’t the reason.
Perhaps we’ll discover Luxembourg’s charm if we stayed longer, but if it did not interest us in the first few hours, there’s no incentive to spend anymore time there. We actually cut our schedule short partly because of my sickness, and partly because both of us agreed that we had seen enough.Since there are not that many photos to start with, you can expect this report to be very short. I woke up in the morning with an upset stomach, didn’t eat breakfast, and puked what little I had in the bathroom. I was hoping it’s just indigestion, and food poisoning never stops me from following through with the itinerary, so we set out for Luxembourg.Belgian rail’s ticket sales office at Brussels-Zuid. Looks fancy, but “efficiency” does not exist in their dictionary.
The office was nearly empty, but we still had to take a number that categorizes customers into domestic, Benelux, or International routes.
I swear most of the staff were not doing anything. We waited for a good ten minutes for our number to be displayed on the screens. The ticket transaction was painfully slow as well, I don’t know why it takes another five minute to punch in things on a com-pu-ter. When we finally got our tickets, they gave us an invoice for train tickets, A4 sized. WHY DOES ANYONE NEED INVOICES THIS BIG FOR A TRAIN TICKET? IT’S NOT LIKE ANYTHING IS REFUNDABLE ACCORDING TO YOUR POLICY ANYWAY. When dealing with people in Europe for any sort of services, always leave enough time to get things done…Luckily today, Belgian Rail’s price fluctuation worked in our favour, and the tickets were 10€ cheaper than planned!
Brussels and Luxembourg are not exactly close, but because they are Benelux there are a handful of IC (Intercity, non-hispeed) trains that runs between them each day. That means no seat reservation is required and the tickets are valid for any departure time of the day, on the same train class.
After three hours, we arrived in Luxembourg city.
Are we in Luxembourg? Yes we are. The flags told me so.
From the train station to the old city centre was about a 20 minutes walk. There weren’t much to look at on the way. This was taken on the Viaduc bridge, looking over the Petrusse Valley….buried in fuzzy trees.Following the path, we reached Place de la Constitution. The “Gelle Fra” monument standing in the centre is often used as a landmark of Luxembourg. It commemorates Luxembourgers who volunteered for service in the Allied Powers during World War I.
Oddly she was surrounded by an open market on a Wednesday, so the whole square was very crowded.
From here one can look over the Petrusse Valley (again) and another bridge, the Adolphe. The guidebook says “a stunning view”, but don’t hold too high of an expectation.We then head to the Place d’Armes as the tourist information centre is located there. The Info Centre is very nice, all the staff were very friendly. Reasonably priced postcards can be bought here (0.50€ each, stamps cost a bit more) and they will even mail them out with no additional cost.
After puking in a public washroom nearby I confirmed that it was food poisoning. Looked like I won’t be eating or drinking anything for the entire day! Washrooms in Luxembourg city usually cost 0.50€, whether it’s public or at an attraction.
We originally planned to have a nice Michelin lunch in Luxembourg, just to see how it feels like to be rich, but that was obviously not going to happen (no food photos in this report!). My friend was nice enough to buy herself a simple lunch instead so I didn’t have to watch her eat.
When we were researching Luxembourg, none of the city’s buildings really captured our attention. The only attraction that we were determined to make was the “Chemin de la Corniche”, a promenade that follows along the Alzette River along the old city walls.
It was nicknamed “Europe’s most beautiful balcony”, which kind of became a joke between my friend and me. Yes this is definitely the best photo I got from the Luxembourg day trip, but Europe’s most beautiful…?
The city wall was built in the 17th century. This area we were looking over is the “Grund”, a picturesque old quarter known for nightlife and fancy living.
The bridge in the back is the Passerelle (Old Bridge), and the Bock (casemates) is on the left. In the washrooms there I puked for the third time.
Originally we planned to do the Petrusse Valley walk, then make our way back to the train station. We couldn’t find lifts or stairs descending down the valley. In the end we just decided to go back the same way we came from, catch an earlier train and called it a day.
Judging from previous traveller’s trip reports, I wasn’t having high expectations for Luxembourg, so there was not a huge disappointment per se. The stroll was not exactly relaxing either, as the plazas and the streets were crowded with field trip students and retirement age seniors. How does it get so crowded on a weekday, I’ll never find out…
Glad to have came all the way here so I can tell other people that I’ve done it. On the train back I slept through the entire three hours in a fever.Believe it or not, the highlight of the day is to find a Dolfin wall at the Brussels-Zuid train station’s Carrefour. I’ve received Dolfin as gift before so I know what they taste like. For a grocery store brand, they taste high class. Their specialty is blending of spices with chocolates, and I find their chocolates way more value than they are cost. Their typical gift pack features about nine of their classic flavours (lavender, pink pepper, earl grey, milk, dark, orange, etc.) but this wall had so many more I have not seen before! I spent a good half an hour just picking out chocolates.
Back in Brussels I went to sleep around 20:00. The plan of having moules in Brussels was not going to be done, so I might as well go to sleep early. Hopefully I would be recovered tomorrow, when we say goodbye to Belgium and venture into the Netherlands!](http://24.media.tumblr.com/fdcb60f75154aa91ad9992c23abe4ab7/tumblr_mo03fviaBk1qgc4tzo1_500.jpg)
[Benelux 2013 Trip Report] Day 4: Luxembourg
I’ll be honest about what brought me to Luxembourg - Like San Marino, I probably wouldn’t have gone if it is not a different country. The Last Grand Duchy, an EU capital, and Gibraltar of the North…Despite high praises I’ve heard from many, I wasn’t particularly inspired by the city, and I’ve never traveled on a day and only taken 30 photos in total.
Itinerary of the day: Brussels-Zuid station → Luxembourg station → Place de la Constitution → Place d’Armes → Chemin de la Corniche → return to Brussels
PENTAX K-5
![[Benelux 2013 Trip Report] Day 3: BrusselsBrussels is hard to love - chaotic, indistinctive, and even quite sketchy in some parts. What we enjoyed here were the specific quirky little things that may or may not appeal to everyone. The city has so much to offer that we didn’t get to see everything we planned! Warning: This trip report contains NSFW photo.Itinerary of the day: Bruges → Brussels-Zuid station → Grand Place → Dandoy → Manneken Pis → Brüsel gallery/bookshop → Noordzee → Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée (shop only) → Vesalius Monument → Musée Magritte → Petit Sablon square/garden[[MORE]]The day started off by catching an early train to Brussels.
I am not tall enough and lack the deltoids to put my luggages on those overhead racks, so these kinds of seats are great. On this train we encountered a couple from Calgary, who made a face when they found out we were from Toronto (as a joke obviously). It’s oddly endearing to run into Canadian jokes in a foreign country.The walk between Brussels-Zuid to our B&B Sweet Brussels was kind of sketchy…washed out buildings, a lot of constructions, and quite a few wandering people around the station. The traffic was…well, the signals are just decorations. We knew it was time to apply the second set of traffic rules we learned in other parts of the world, which involve “ignore the lights, follow the locals, and walk at a constant tempo”.The B&B is wonderful though! It’s at a great location, not too close to the station but not far either. The owner Sophie is a friendly Dutch girl who gave us a warm welcome and tips on touring Brussels. Their breakfast room.There is only one thing that is a bit of a negative. We were given the top floor (5th floor) suite, and there is no elevator as this is a typical old house. We only had a small 21” luggage and already that’s a pain to carry. The suite itself is amazing though, very spacious and warmly decorated. The beds were soooooo comfy! The best sheets and blankets I’ve ever slept on in a hotel!Private kitchen with all the necessities in the drawers.Adorable bathroom, you can tell the hardwares are a bit old, but everything is functional. I would rate this place 10/10 (unless you are not good with stairs) and highly recommend it! From the B&B it was a short 15 minutes walk to the Grand Place. Brussels’ Grand Place is much bigger than Antwerp’s and Bruges’!The townhall and the guild houses. Back in the days when this was a city of powerful merchants…Maison du Roi, which houses the city museum now.At the square, we encountered a Korean girl who asked us to take her photo. After some brief exchange she asked us where we were from.Us: “We’re from Canada”Korean girl: “Huuuuuuuuh? But you look Asian!” …my friend and I were laughing for a good 10 minutes after the girl left. What year is this even, when can I stop getting stupid ass remarks like this? She makes a good story, at least. For lunch we were at a well known waffle place, Maison Dandoy. This place is recommended on every guidebook, and still receives a generally positive review on TA. In reality though, it has probably past its prime. The menu has multiple languages on it (a major red flag), and when we were there the only other customers were a group of Japanese tourists. The waffles are pricey (7.50€, and any add-ons are also extra). I tried a Liege waffle and nope, it was not nearly as good as Désiré de Lille. It tasted too sweet, oily and the cream is also unnecessarily heavy. My stomach felt a bit weird after this…For those of you who seek good waffles in Brussels, try somewhere else.Just beside Dandoy is the ultimate Brussels tourist trap, the Manneken Pis. From this photo you can get an idea of how small the statue is:I’m not even going to sugarcoat it, this thing is hideous. We only took a look at it because it was nearby, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see this. The sticker on his belly seemed to say “Nobody is illegal”, so he’s in social justice mode today!One of the things I didn’t mention in the itinerary is Brussels’ comics murals. There are dozens of them scattered all across Brussels, and together they formed a “comic route”. It’ll be difficult to visit all of them in one go, but we managed to spot a few. Near the Manneken Pis is the most visited one, the TinTin mural.I was so happy to find this one because it was featured in Season 19 of The Amazing Race, one of my favourite seasons! The teams were right here in this exact spot getting their next clue, after completing a TinTin related task.I don’t really know much about Belgian comics (or any comics for that matter), so my friend led the way to find the other ones.Even though I don’t know these comics I still liked the fun of simply finding the murals. I felt like this is one of the activities tourist can do to experience something “very Brussels”.As if murals weren’t enough, my friend then took me to Brüsel, a gallery/comic book shop. There is a wide variety of selection and many adults were also shopping here. This kind of reminds me of when I see seniors and salarymen reading manga on the subway in Japan - comics have the same status as an art form here and it’s never solely for children and teens.Some nice prints displayed on the walls.I feel bad that even when I’m in a comic store I browse the manga section. I’m happy that so many genres of manga are officially translated into French and printed so nicely!French version of Kami no Shizuku, not surprising.
French version of Thermae Romae woooooohooooo
Otoyomegatari in French, very nice.
Vagabond toooooo oh yeahhhhhh
…and this manga that I can’t seem to ever see official publishings in English or in Mandarin. The covers are so beautiful a;dkfklsdfklsfj;adklf the paper they used is like, archival quality. For French speakers who liked this manga and don’t know it has been published, please support a good series and buy it!
While we were browsing through the store, bam! Random (and badly drawn) porn. All these nsfw arts were out in the open (mind you, there were many nsfw comics on the shelves mixed in with the other genres as well). We’ve seen so many peens and boobs on this trip that we got pretty used to it after a while.
I’m really bugged by the amount of white-outs used here…
Since we only ate waffles for lunch, we stopped by Noordzee for our mid-afternoon snack. This is “street food seafood” where customers eat standing up. りっしょく Brussels style! We ordered at the front off a handwritten menu, and wait for our names to be called.
Kibbeling (cod pieces in flour) and shrimp croquettes. They tasted so much better than they looked! The croquettes were filled with a soupy filling with chunks of shrimp! Salad on the side was very fresh too.
Around us is about half locals and half tourists, and an old Belgian man sitting beside us seemed so passionate about this place, he was eager to know if we liked the food or not.
Next we head to Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, the Belgian Comic Strip Centre. My friend browsed in the shop shown on the left of this photo, and I rest and observe the entrance hall designed by Victor Horta. We simply didn’t have enough time to go into the museum.
TinTin and Hergé.
At the centre we encountered a group of highschool students on field trip, and to my surprise, the teacher gathered all the students who wanted to have a smoke outside. My friend and I found the cultural difference interesting. This isn’t a sight you would see in Canadian highschools at all (usually students get in trouble for smoking).
There was one monument in Brussels that was a must-see for us, and that is the Vesalius Monument. If you are in the medical field you might be familiar with him. Both my friend and I are medical illustrators, and Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564, born in Brussels) was pretty much the person who made this profession viable. His groundbreaking publication De Corporis Fabrica, dedicated to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, showed how important it is to include accurate visuals for the science of anatomy and medicine.
The monument is a bit further out from the historical centre, and he’s not exactly a universally known historical figure, so there weren’t anybody around. For us though Vesalius really made the day at Brussels memorable.
Across from him, there was this also very memorable architecture, which I called the “inkjet printer cartridge building”.
A few other examples of ugly buildings we saw in Brussels, the “osteoporosis building with osteocyte snowboarders”…
What is this even, it’s not only ugly but I cannot imagine this design to be practical at all.
There are many museums in Brussels and we want to make it to all of them if we could. Given the time we had we cut down to one, and that is the Musée Magritte, and we only had 45 minutes to go through it.
Even though I drew him, I am not all that familiar with his works. After browsing through this vast collection, I’m starting to like him a lot! Although missing his most famous pieces “The Son of Man” “The Treachery of Images (This is not a pipe)” and “Golconda”, the collections still is an excellent presentation of Magritte. The artworks were arranged in chronological order, and there were many of his earlier works and sketches to add context to his development as an artist.
No photos were allowed in the museum, so I could only link this picture from the museum-brussel website.
We wrapped the day up at the Petit Sablon square. Most of today’s itinerary was set out by my friend, with the exception of this one. If anything was more memorable than Vesalius it’s the monument of Egmont and Hoorn.
Count Egmont and Count Hoorn were statesmen of Habsburg Netherlands. While they were loyal to Catholicism and the Spanish King, being born and raised in the Low Countries they naturally wanted to fight for the rights of the people living there. Together with William of Orange, they negotiate with Habsburg Spain regarding their oppression and inquisition of the Low Countries. Despite their loyalty and peaceful attempts, their resonance with the increasing discontent of Spanish rule in the Low Countries led to their execution. Egmont and Hoorn were executed in Brussels in 1568, while William fled and lived on to carry on their objectives. Their death were considered to be a prelude of the Eighty Year’s War, and their integrity won them high praises in centuries to come.
Can someone tell me which one is Egmont and which one is Hoorn?
The back of the statue is too cute for word, the bromance, the BROMANCE!!
I was doing my historical fangirl undulation, but had to stop when a guy in the garden gave me a look. This is just my way of showing affection to your country’s historical figures just let me undulate in peace k thanks.Behind them are a row of other historical figures not necessarily related to the Eighty Years’ War. I don’t know all of them but this one I do for sure. Gerardus Mercator, Belgian cartographer who developed the Mercator Projection. He also worked with Ortelius on the first modern world atlas (and the first person to use the word “atlas” to refer to a collection of maps).
Surrounding the garden are 48 small statues that represent different unions. It would be fun to try to guess all the professions, but it started to rain so we had to dash.
This square is so awesome though, totally highlight of the day!
For Dinner I was thinking of trying out Belgium’s world renowned moules, but after walking all over Brussels our feet were all red and swollen. Instead we went to Houtsiplou, a burger/sandwich place close to our B&B.
I’ve had better burgers back home but it’s still good nonetheless. The fries in a pot are very good also. Good enough as a delicious meal but not distinct enough to make us remember it…
I really tried to keep this day’s report concise but couldn’t because we did a lot in a day! Tomorrow for the Luxembourg day trip the report will be very short, as we will be spending 6 hours on the train.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/4032d9c86890478faeb3788f02be736d/tumblr_mny10xyszK1qgc4tzo1_500.jpg)
Brussels is hard to love - chaotic, indistinctive, and even quite sketchy in some parts. What we enjoyed here were the specific quirky little things that may or may not appeal to everyone. The city has so much to offer that we didn’t get to see everything we planned!
Warning: This trip report contains NSFW photo.
Itinerary of the day: Bruges → Brussels-Zuid station → Grand Place → Dandoy → Manneken Pis → Brüsel gallery/bookshop → Noordzee → Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée (shop only) → Vesalius Monument → Musée Magritte → Petit Sablon square/garden
PENTAX K-5
Brave New World haven’t even been released yet and I’m already getting a jump on Portugal! I really enjoyed playing Portugal in CIV IV so I was excited, only to find out the leader Firaxis chose was Maria I?? After reading her biography multiple times I still don’t understand why? Some major events happened during her reign, like moving the court to Brazil during the Napoleonic Wars, which eventually contributed to Brazil’s independence, and she was an ok ruler before that…but she was mentally ill for most of the 40 year reign?? Even her intro narration is so short because Firaxis can’t find enough reasons to praise her…
An excuse to draw Portugal and to take a break from colouring never needs to be logical though!
![[Benelux 2013 Trip Report] Day 2: Bruges “The entire historical centre is an open-air museum” this is how Bruges is described in my guidebook. The best way to enjoy it is to forget about attractions, wander, and soak in the atmosphere. Free of schedules, I did all-day chocolate shopping, post-card writing, tower-climbing, canal-cruising, while accompanied by a lovely French lady!Itinerary of the day: Béguinage → Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk → The Old Chocolate House → Mary Chocolatier → 2b Beer Wall → Chocolatier Van Oost → Galler → Grote Markt → Belfry → canal cruise[[MORE]]What I’ve known about Bruges was entirely from Age of Discoveries (lol no shame), and it being a former major trading port. It was part of Hanseatic League and functioned as its major connection point to the south (lace was one of the iconic trading items). Before this golden age, it traded with England and Scandinavia. Since the 16th century its major functioning channel, Zwin, started to silt, The city’s importance as a commercial centre soon got replaced by Antwerp.
Couple hundred years later, Bruges was revamped to become a popular tourist destination. It’s great in a way that the historical center has been preserved to be the same layout as it was in the 16th century. Breakfast in our hotel is self-serve, so after comfortably sleeping till 9:00, I headed to Carrefour Express to pick up some food items.Immediately saw a wall of Galler. Of course I have done my research regarding what brands of chocolates to buy in Belgium, and Galler is one brand claimed to be made from “natural ingredients” and yet reasonably priced.Another brand that can easily be bought at a supermarket is the Côte d’Or. This is the chocolate for stingy backpackers who wants good chocolates for cheap. Having tasted both by now, Galler tastes better, has more interesting flavours to choose from and probably make a nicer gift for others, but both are great to hoard for yourself!Self-serve breakfast can be pretty awesome, though at this time I had no idea that ham was going to cause me a tragedy later on…Today I have arranged to meet up with an old friend from the Hetalia fandom, whose username was “Weirdpika” when I first met her on Livejournal. Even though we don’t talk about the fandom anymore, we kept in touch and she’s like a sister I have in France. If it means anything, she was the first person to send me a screaming message when Hetalia Netherlands first made an appearance. Time flies! This will be the first time we meet in person after three years, and in a country not our own!We met up at the tourist information center and she “recognize me right away because of my big camera”.We first visited Béguinage, a UNESCO heritage site. These complex of buildings are scattered throughout the Flemish cultural region. They were initiated by women in the 13th century who wanted to practice their religion but do no want to entirely withdrawn from society as traditional catholic nuns do. They had formed a community that functions to meet their spiritual and basic living needs. These women, many unmarried or widowed, devoted time to prayers and charity, but still work and had their own wealth possessions.My friend who went off to explore Bruges on her own for the day, said she spotted nuns still living here.It was breeding season for birds, so a horde of giant swans were building their nests outside of Béguinage. Think they’re cute? I know how vicious swans can be…Next we check out Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady - yeah the names just keep repeating themselves), mainly for Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child. This is the only work by him that left Italy. When we got there though, the church was under renovation and free to enter, and we couldn’t find the sculpture. We left thinking that it was not available for viewing at this time.Later in the day my friend revealed that you have to pay 2 Euros to see the section of the church with the sculpture. It’s a little bit disappointing to miss Mike’s work, but here’s a photo of it taken by my friend.We had lunch at The Old Chocolate House as per Weirdpika’s recommendation. She said the hot-chocolate here is very good, and the chocolate house itself seemed to agree:Unlike the cheap powdered version of what I’ve known hot chocolates to be, here you get the proper chocolate pellets to dissolve in hot milk. I’ve never had white hot chocolate before so I was excited to try it! The cup was the size of my head and I couldn’t finish it! The hot chocolate was really rich and sweet, which I’m not a big fan of, but perhaps people with a sweet tooth might like this.We also ordered waffle (more like a pancake…) which I wasn’t too impressed with either, and they charged extra for sharing. The food didn’t blow me away, but it was a great time spent with good company and writing postcards to loved ones.In most resources I’ve read, Brussels is the place to shop for chocolates, but I figured I should do it in Bruges since we got a busy day planned in Brussels. Our first stop was Mary Chocolatier.(Photo posted with permission)In all the brands I’ve bought on this trip, this is definitely the best. Make sure you get something from them if you ever go to Brussels or Bruges! Don’t be intimidated by the fancy decor, the lady storekeeper was so friendly and even gave us free samples. The chocolates are delicate, refined and sophisticated, with a hint of sweetness but full of artisanal merit. Packaging is minimalist with a splash of femininity, and I would recommend this to be a gift for moms, significant others and best friends (+hoarding for yourself). I especially recommend their Earl Grey flavour, I don’t even like the tea but looooove the chocolate!A trip to Belgium is not complete until you pay some homage to beer. Weirdpika brought me to a “beer wall” at 2b that she visited when she was in Bruges two year ago. There are two more walls outside of the frame, but look at all that Belgian beer and their corresponding glasses/cups!Next chocolate shop was chocolatier Van Oost. This is not a very widely discussed chocolatier, and I only walked in because I remember someone on TA highly recommended it. This jiji in the photo however, was not willing to communicate in English XD. Good thing I have a French person with me to help me pick out multiple flavours to fill up a 500g box. I brought this box to my coworkers and it was gone within a few hours…I only got to try one, and it was really good! They seemed to do pralines really well.More Galler! Even though I already bought some bars at Carrefour this morning, The boutique has assorted batons and tablets in fancier packaging.Bruges’ Grote Markt has some very cute and colourful facades, but I find it hard to enjoy from this angle with all the tourist buses passing by. The best view of the Grote Markt is actually to be seen from Belfry. The photo at the beginning of this trip report is the Grote Markt seen from about two-thirds of the way to the top.366 steps later we got a nice view over Bruges. These photos are a bit deceiving because there are webbed wires at the top, and these are taken through the wires with a t lens.
We then mailed out the postcards at the post office on Grote Markt. Weirdpika helped me buy stamps with the selfpost machine, and it only takes credit cards. What is with Belgium and Netherlands and their limited paying options? Why are you making life difficult for tourists, don’t you want our money?
Their postal system is hella efficient though - recipients of these cards told me they got the cards in as short as two days! Before Weirdpika heads back to France, we decided to squeeze in a 30-minutes canal cruise ride.This is of course, a very touristy activity, but if the weather is nice it’s very enjoyable. For 7.50 Euros it’s not bad either. The tour guide will explain notable buildings along the way but I was too busy concentrating on taking photos while standing up and not fall into the canals.
Thank you sooooo much Weirdpika for driving all the way up here, and teaching me how to properly do faire la bise (bisoux bisoux <3). It’s so great to have a local (sort of) to translate things and give me a different point of view, which is a luxury that I don’t always get when I’m traveling. It was a such a great day!
and thanks for recommending Jules Destrooper! All these sweets I bought goes extremely well with Mariage Frères tea you gave me.This is the result of my 100€ worth of chocolate shopping spree.After trying out all these brands (I also bought Neuhaus and Dolfin later on), the conclusion is that you can’t really go wrong with buying chocolates in Belgium…it all comes to down to personal taste as to which one is “the best”. For example I really dislike Godiva, so even though a bunch of people recommended it, I’m not even going to bother. Especially if you grow up with overly sweetened and oiled-up North American chocolate bars, or Asian chocolates that are filled with gel-like chemical additives, you will most likely be very impressed by Belgian chocolates!After reuniting my friend, who also had a great day wandering about Bruges on her own, we headed out to Gran Kaffee de Passage for dinner.We’re not leaving Belgium without trying flavoured beer! Even my friend who doesn’t drink ordered a glass. Hers is the Framboise and mine is the typical Kriek. I really liked the kriek, it doesn’t have the bitter aftertaste that most beers have, and tasted more like some kind of soda. Her strawberry beer is gross though…tasted like cough syrup.My friend ordered spare ribs, which is the restaurant specialty and also a common item in Belgian cuisine (can someone confirm this?)? I’ll be honest, it tasted very Chinese to me. The house sauce is so very sweet and sour soy sauce! The ribs were good but it felt odd to fly all the way here and have food that tasted Chinese. Reminded me of that time when I ordered Lomo saltado in Peru…I ordered Filet Americaine, which is a Belgian version of steak tartare. Beef tartare can be found in many cuisines, so the Belgian part of this are the fries, and the herbs and onions mixed in the meat. It was really good, but I’m still finding it difficult to pinpoint what Belgian food (that’s not desserts) is…Tomorrow we leave the adorable Bruges and head to Brussels!](http://24.media.tumblr.com/b52c025f37937668be95f6c229184ab2/tumblr_mnr12mXFQO1qgc4tzo1_500.jpg)
[Benelux 2013 Trip Report] Day 2: Bruges
“The entire historical centre is an open-air museum” this is how Bruges is described in my guidebook. The best way to enjoy it is to forget about attractions, wander, and soak in the atmosphere. Free of schedules, I did all-day chocolate shopping, post-card writing, tower-climbing, canal-cruising, while accompanied by a lovely French lady!
Itinerary of the day: Béguinage → Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk → The Old Chocolate House → Mary Chocolatier → 2b Beer Wall → Chocolatier Van Oost → Galler → Grote Markt → Belfry → canal cruise
PENTAX K-5
![[Benelux 2013 Trip Report] Day 1: AntwerpWhat does it feel like to travel on three hours of sleep? In the last trip report I told myself to never do such stupid thing, and I did it again. This turned out to be a painful but wonderfully unforgettable first day. We also had the undisputed best food of the trip!Itinerary of the day: Toronto → Amsterdam Schiphol → Antwerp → Grote Markt → Vlaeykensgang → Museum Plantin-Moretus → Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal → Sint-Anna Tunnel → Bruges[[MORE]]The Itinerary might not look so hardcore on paper, but hitting four cities on the first day of travel with jetlag and luggages is never, never a good idea. I really should just admit that I am too old for this.This trip I was with the same friend who went to Peru with me, whom I will generally refer to as “my friend”. Some of the photos used in this trip report are contributed by her and her lovely new Rebel, and will be watermarked differently.We were very excited to board KLM, unfortunately it gave us a very bad first impression. We had ~*~technical difficulties~*~ starting as early as trying to buy tickets from their website. At the airport, the self-serve check-in kiosk gave my friend’s seat away. The staff at the counter was completely unwilling to help, even if it was merely a ~*~technical difficulty~*~ claiming the plane is full and there’s nothing she can do. We only got the seat issue sorted out after we firmly demanded.The same staff gave us the same shitty attitude at the boarding gate for expecting basic customer service, when it was obviously their own fault.The personal entertainment screen with the smiling KLM lady who would be haunting me for the entire flight.Their cups are so cute though, with icons of bikes and clogs and tulips imprinted.The food was…average. I have a feeling that KLM departing from North America get the worst food and service, compared to their European or Asian routes.After eight hours, we arrived at my dream airport, Amsterdam Schiphol. It was smaller than I expected, with great shopping. However, signage was not good, which is one major complaint we would be making all throughout Netherlands.Passport control was a little bit more thorough than Italy. The officer at least asked the basic questions and stamped the pages, and in a very friendly manner.Albert Heijn supermarket, which I became really attached to on this trip. The first order of business when you land in Netherlands is to get yourself a bag of stroopwafels.Right after the flight, we transfer immediately to train, as we had pre-purchased French-operated Thalys tickets online to get us to Antwerp. Originally we planned to take the cheaper Dutch-Belgian Fyra, but due to ~*~technical difficulties~*~ they stopped operating indefinitely. The railway system is fairly easy…I don’t care if I get grilled again for liking Trenitalia, but I prefer it over Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS - more reasons behind that to be revealed). One of the things NS do better though, is that more stops are indicated under each departure.Thalys was pretty horrible. For a ridiculously high price you get cramped seats, limited luggage storage space and no service. We almost cannot make it on the train because there were just too many luggages. They must have monopoly over the route to be able to charge a premium for this.After a quick one hour train ride, we arrived in Antwerp. Antwerp is one of those cities that I have an unexplained fondness for, mostly out of historical reasons. Antwerp Centraal is claimed to be “Europe’s most beautiful train station”. (guidebook’s words not mine, but it is indeed a very pretty station). As planned, we store our luggages at the station lockers (coins only) and started touring the city.We only had 2~3 hours of sleep on the plane, so the fact that we were in Belgium didn’t sink in right away? At least not until we got close to the Antwerp’s historical centre.On a Sunday morning, nothing was open and the city looked deserted. Van Dyck, Flemish painter who later made his name as English court painter. His art style is pretty amazing and we would be seeing some of his work in later parts of the trip.Antwerp’s name meant “hand throw”, in which a young hero name Brobo slayed a giant (Gallo-Roman Shingeki no Kyojin?) and threw the giant’s hand into the nearby River Scheldt. Being a famous artist who died in this city, it only made sense that Rubens’ statue to be erected at Groenplaats, with Our Lady’s Cathedral (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal) in the background. I always found him to be such a character, being one of the few rare artists to possess outstanding business management and social skills. He was a prolific artist, and a stud with attitude. The sculptor captured his sass fairly successfully. Vlaeykensgang is a small alley near the city hall that preserved the living environment of a typical working class in the 16th century. Without the address it’s not easy to spot for the spontaneous kind of traveller, but very worth a quick detour.After patiently waited for a group of Viking River Cruise seniors to leave, the alley became idyllic and photogenic.Near the Grote Markt, this sassy statue completely caught our attention. After looking it up, it’s a “memorial to dock labourers”. Work it dock labourer work it.At the Grote Markt, we saw Brobo and his attack on Antigoon, the giant, in more detail. The fountain is completely open concept, not confined in a pond or fence. The architecture behind is beautiful (my favourite Grote Markt compared to Brussels and Bruges), but we were completely drawn to the fountain!We were so amused by this water (blood) shooting out from radial artery.Detail of water/blood coming out from the severed neck of the giant. The anatomy is not accurate at all, but I loved it! Probably one of the most memorable fountains I’ve came across around the world.Next we head to Museum Plantin-Moretus, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The building was a printing company found in the 16th century, now it houses world’s oldest surviving printing presses. It also exhibits some old books published around that time and some Rubens paintings. As fascinating as the museum was, we were hit by jetlag and needed to sit down and eat…but very few restaurants are open on Sunday. I assumed Antwerp is a big enough town to have shops at least open after noon, but apparently not.What is this even, Restaurant Nose…Nose?? Apparently it’s an expression for “face-to-face”, but the logo is terrifying.After trying out two different restaurants with no luck, we decided to just have a meal at our planned dessert place - Désiré de Lille.We ordered omelette as a main course, but that was not worth talking about. The waffle however was AMAZING! What crap have I been eating all this life that bear the unjustified name “Belgian waffle”!?This screencap is very understandable now:When vanilla ice cream is light brown with visible vanilla bean granules, you know it’s good. This rectangular, lighter Brussels waffle is fluffy yet crisp, not overly sweet and baked just right. The sugar adds texture, the cream is light and fresh, topped with roasted and sugar-coated hazelnut. After lunch, Our Lady’s Cathedral was done with their morning service and opened to public. After visiting Italy’s churches, it’s hard to be impressed by anything else. I was hardly paying attention to the building itself, but dashed straight for Rubens’ most spectacular works, “The Raising of the Cross” and “The Descent from the Cross”.
OMG I’m gonna cry someone pls hold meeeeeeee. These two paintings were done after Rubens himself visited Italy and heavily influenced by the Italian Renaissance. Before we leave Antwerp, I was determined to see its skyline as I’ve drawn in this picture (arh old art cringe but still, lots of feelings). To get to the other side of Scheldt, we had to cross an underwater pedestrian tunnel called Sint-Annatunnel. One can either take the elevator down……or take these wooden escalators that were there since the tunnel was built in 1933. They were a novelty back then and still are now for tourists like us.The tunnel is only 750m long, but we were sleep deprived to such a delirious state that my friend described her intention of killing me along the way.From the park on the other side of the tunnel, the Antwerp skyline was exactly as I imagined - unassuming yet beautiful, with Cathedral of Our Lady being the most prominent landmark.Around 16:00, we were ready to head to Bruges. Belgian’s national railway, NMBS/SNCB, I am somewhat neutral about…the trains are very comfortable, with ample seat and luggage space, and very nice washrooms. The price and schedule however seemed to fluctuates a lot? Sometimes the duration of the train and ticket price is not the same as what I’ve looked up on their website only a day prior.Also come on now, no cash for automatic vending machines?On the train, this gentleman from Oostende saw our ticket and started chatting with us. He is very proud of his hometown Bruges and wanted to share his pride of “Belgium’s most beautiful city”. For some reason though he thought we were American (because if we are Canadians we should be fluent en français…? lol).After two hours of train and some dragging of luggage on cobblestones we finally reached our lodging in Bruges, Bonobo Apart Hotel. For a very reasonable price we got a huge apartment unit with a living room and self-serve kitchen.Kitchen is well-equiped with stove, microwave, kettle, utensils, dishes and some basic cooking necessities like olive oil, salt and pepper. Extra blankets in the closet, hair dryer and basic toiletries are made available.It is at an excellent location, 15 minutes walk from the train station, close to a Carrefour Express but hidden in a quiet street. We were very happy with the hotel and would recommend this to anyone visiting Bruges.Being a tourist destination Bruges has many dining options available, but for some reason I was drawn to Malesherbes. According to reviews on Tripadvisor (TA), it’s a small kitchen operated by one lady, and always put out fresh seasonal menu.Within the short time period of us walking in Bruges, I was already enjoying this city immensely. It’s often compared to Venice for its picturesque streets and canals, and like Venice, it’s usually overran by day-trippers during the day. The crowd dies down as the sun sets and the town becomes much more pleasant.Sign in a small alleyway pointing to Malesherbes.The tables you see in this photo is pretty much all of them. TA reviews also suggested to make reservations, but we were lucky that someone else no-showed and got a table! Not just lucky, but extremely so! The food is the best we’ve had on this trip. Menu was only in French, but at least we can read a few words. We ordered a foie gras salad that was on special. This salad might not look like much, but components included sliced cured duck leg, chunks of foie gras, apples, pine nuts and a mysterious vinaigrette-based dressing. It has so much flavour that we savoured each and every bite! Who would have thought one day I would crave salad?For entree I ordered fish soup. I’m not sure if this is the renowned Bruges style fish soup, but it was exploding with satisfying fishy flavour. Sides include shredded cheese and an unforgettable cup of homemade mayo and bread to dip it in. My asian palate preferred the soup without cheese, but the mayo is unlike anything else I’ve had before! So fresh! Licked the glass clean without any shame whatsoever.Perhaps the taste of the food was enhanced by great service as well. The owner/chef lady was so nice, not only she gave us smiles all the way, she even suggested we can put our camera equipments on another table! We wanted to make reservations for tomorrow night, but bad news from her - they are not open on Monday and Tuesday! Shame, because we don’t even want to search for another place to eat, as this place is pure perfection already!After all that great food we regained a little bit of energy to push our limit some more. We headed back to the hotel, grabbed my tripod and walked to the historical centre for night photos.Bruge’s Grote Markt is not so charming at night, as the plaza is filled with delivery trucks and you can’t appreciate the vibrant colours under all that yellow lamps. Just one short walk south of it though, is the popular night photo spot, the Rozenhoedkaai. The canals and bridges nearby are all great photo-ops.That concludes our very long first day in Belgium. Thank goodness we get to sleep-in tomorrow and enjoy a full day at Bruges at a very leisurely pace.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/fefa54e893ee31f7a06895bdd1334b82/tumblr_mnl8qxtSZI1qgc4tzo1_500.jpg)
[Benelux 2013 Trip Report] Day 1: Antwerp
What does it feel like to travel on three hours of sleep? In the last trip report I told myself to never do such stupid thing, and I did it again. This turned out to be a painful but wonderfully unforgettable first day. We also had the undisputed best food of the trip!
Itinerary of the day: Toronto → Amsterdam Schiphol → Antwerp → Grote Markt → Vlaeykensgang → Museum Plantin-Moretus → Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal → Sint-Anna Tunnel → Bruges
PENTAX K-5
Uniforms of NMBS/SNCB and NS. One of the ticket inspector lady I encountered had a flower incorporated into her cap (so cute), so I included that in.
She will charge your fare based on how she feels on the day, and it’s €0.50 to get the privilege to talk to him!
Hetalia Air Austral by ~Vassantha
This is a lovely picture said to be stemmed from my Airlines of the World fanart! I love the OC, and the uniform and the background…and she figured out all the fonts! I was really surprised and flattered when the artist sent me this on dA, as I took it as the most sincerest form of flattery. Totally made my day!
ROFL though I don’t mind answering this, it’s a bit rude to ask about someone whom you don’t know personally about their finances.
I work full-time and manage my money…and luckily 1. I do not have dependents and 2. I work in a country with relatively higher GDP.
As some of you already know I am departing to my Benelux trip tomorrow, until the end of the month! Finally crossing a bunch of things off my Age of Discoveries ports bucket list! There will be massive historical fangirl dancing happening, most definitely, and a load of museums until I drop. After I come back parents are visiting, so I’m not going to be on tumblr much, or at all. Wish me luck, as I am going to need a lot of them regarding weather!
Sorry for late replies! Finally doing so as I’m going to be away from the internet for some time.
Yes I think most Taiwanese people (at least the young ones) knows Wanwan, she is rather well known in the country. I’m not too crazy about that kind of style and humour, but some works from her I really enjoyed.
Guess who has been watching travel shows on Mongolia
CanoScan 4400F
Um yeah, about that…because of a certain post going around, I’ve been getting quite a few of these so I’m just going to publish this and say no, so hopefully I won’t get anymore. Here’s the deal, I don’t take pitchings of ideas out of the blue, to me they are not that different from requests (since I’m not obligated to take requests either). It’s not a big deal but each adds a little bit of stress to me, even if I say no, because I can’t help but feel like I’m disappointing someone? Please consider that.
Besides, a lot of the historical figures pitched didn’t even appear in CIV? At least not in IV or V? How are they even related to the ones I already drawn?
