Category: Travel

It’s late here in Amsterdam on our last night. Getting up early tomorrow morning to fly home. Had a great time in Amsterdam.

Yesterday we visited a few churches, the former location of a nunnery, and went to Rembrandt Huis, the former home of Rembrandt for many years here in Amsterdam. The weather was odd, starting off rainy, and after a short afternoon nap at the hotel, ended up sunny and beautiful.

Today we went to the Rijksmuseum, where we got to see paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer among other Dutch artists. It’s an amazing museum, and had been remodeled since our visit in 2001. Afterwards we walked through Vondelpark for a bit, before sitting at a restaurant in Leidseplein for some lunch. After a brief stop at the hotel in the afternoon we ventured out for dinner, and later ended up at this great pub called In de Wildeman, which was a beer cafe on the site of a former distillery that operated for over 250 years, and had been a beer cafe for the past 23 years. There were 17 beers on tap (from all over the world, though mostly focusing on northern Europe) and 200 bottled beers. While there we met a really funny and quirky expat Englishman who’d been living in Amsterdam for the past 12 years. We had a lot of fun chatting with him until we just had to get back to the hotel. We need to get up at 6:30am here, get packed, get breakfast, and be at the airport at 8:30am. It’s been a really good trip, and while I’m not looking forward to going home, at the same time, I am. You probably know the feeling.

Might blog before the flight, but probably not. Might when I get home, if I’m up to it and if there’s anything to say. In the meantime, there’s loads of photos in the gallery (and some being uploaded as I write this). Enjoy!

Two and a half hours on the train and we’re now in our hotel in Amsterdam. It’s a bit rainy today, which kinda sucks, but it’s just as charming as I remember it, and we’re in a decent hotel that’s only about a 10 minute walk from the train station (and right along a canal, though we don’t have a direct canal view, sadly). Just got done unpacking and now we’ll probably head out to brave the elements and explore the area around our hotel. Yay for Amsterdam! I already have a feeling that it will be a welcome rest after Brussels. Oh, the front desk of our hotel are very friendly, and lightheartedly poked fun after learning we’re not Dutch, even though we have a Dutch last name (saying how they were about to throw flowers and sing praises that a Dutch person was staying in their hotel). 🙂

It’s been an interesting few days here in Brussels. A couple days ago we took the metro out and visited the amazing Atomium. It was very impressive to see (and go inside of). Looking at it from a distance makes it look like it couldn’t possibly be real, and that it’s some kind of special effect. But it’s not, it’s big. And shiny. Yesterday we went to two museums, the Musical Instrument Museum (which is in a great old building, the ‘Old England’) where we wandered around 5 different floors with big headphones that would key into radio frequency spots in front of different instruments from around the globe. Some of my favorites to hear were from India, Turkey, and Eastern Europe. After that, we visited the Musee d’Art Ancien, where we got to see loads of old Flemmish paintings (including Bosch, one of my favorites). Last night we went out for a nice dinner near the crazy chaos of the Jazz Festival at the Grande Place, and then went back towards the area near our hotel. We got a spot under some table umbrellas at just the right time, as it started pouring down rain last night (first rain on the trip). Hope it doesn’t stick around. We’re off to Amsterdam today (like, in a couple hours). We’ve had fun in Brussels, but I’m looking forward to a change of pace.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Brussels, and what a shocker it was. Bruges was so picturesque and charming, and Brussels… well… isn’t. At least, when we first arrived and walked from the train station to our hotel, my reaction was “hmm, perhaps we should have stayed in Bruges”. Being a big city, there is graffiti everywhere, traffic noise, and hurried people everywhere. A pretty big change after coming from calm and relaxing Bruges. My mood worsened when we rounded the corner to our hotel to find that there was massive street construction underway right in front of it. Ugh.

Our hotel however is very nice, and our room is very large and comfortable (and we were given a room as far away from the construction noise as possible). After spending an hour or two unpacking and settling in,  we set out to explore our neighborhood (in a shopping and cafe-filled area known as le Sablon) and found that it was nicer than it looked at first. The large church nearby was under renovation (in a big way, most of it was blocked off with a plywood wall) but we continued to walk around and found a great view over the city. Later at night we walked to both the Manneken Pis (funny little statue, I’ve nicknamed him ‘pee boy’) and Grande Place. The latter quite a few of the historic buildings covered in scaffolding and tarps for renovation work. The Grande Place has one additional eyesore marring it’s historic beauty… a temporary stage has been erected for some Jazz Festival happening here for the next 3 days. Hrmph!

One additional note about Brussels: Know some French (or bring a phrase book). All of the guide books and travel documentaries on the city has said that English is widely spoken here, and it is fine to speak English to everyone you meet. So far we’ve run into several servers, bartenders and shopkeepers (even some of the staff at our hotel) who don’t speak much (if any) English. We’ve found our limited grasp of the French language invaluable here, and without it getting by could be a bigger challenge. Oui!