BRUSSELS/BRUGES 5/24
Hello everyone! As you may remember from our last post, we were on our way to Brussels. We made it in to Brussels around 10:10pm. Grace’s friend, Ben, lives in Brussels, so we made our way to his place, where we would be staying for the next two nights. Ben’s apartment is so nice! It even has a washer and dryer! Once we arrived, Ben took us out for a beer near his apartment at a neat bar. Belgians love their beer so we had the local brands. After catching up with Ben and learning about his role at the EU Parliament, we headed back to his place for a much needed shower and sleep.
Unfortunately for us, we had to get up early to walk to the train station the next morning for our day trip to Bruges. Luckily, Grace had found a free walking tour online. Both of us expected a small town, but Bruges was much larger than we expected. There was much more to see than we thought so the walking tour was a perfect way to see the city. We made it to the main square in Bruges just 15 min before the tour started. At one of the cafes around the square we split a “small breakfast” which consisted of one croissant and one roll of sourdough with jams and Nutella and a coffee.
Our tour guide was Louis; he was born in Bruges and loves his city. On the tour with us were mostly older tourists, pretty much adult couples and us. Louis had many stories and explained the history of Bruges after the 12th century:
Back in the golden age of Bruges, the city’s wealth came from making textiles while allowed them to become one of the biggest trade cities. Bruges had to rely on trade and textiles since the land could not be used due to its saltiness. So sheep were brought in to graze the land and their wool was used to make clothing. This allowed for the city to grow and become more wealthy which attracted attention from rulers in France. So, we think it was Napoleon if we remember correctly, who sent men to collect taxes and try to change the town and its people by forcing them to speak French. The city resisted for years and it wasn’t until Maximilian arrived that the French could completely control the city. Unfortunately for Bruges they lost control of their city and due to restrictions where unable to continue to grow and develop. Many had to move to other towns to make a living so the architecture is from the 15th century and it feels frozen in time. One of the reasons it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We also learned about other unique parts of the city. Like the nuns that ran one of the oldest hospitals in Europe with their own mini fortress for living and about what is known as furnace ally due to the heat caused from warming the baths in the buildings which actually became brothels where men got more than just a bath. Oh, and it was probably only 1 of the 3 baths that they took that year.
Overall, the tour was great, we definitely recommend taking a tour with Louis from Legend Tours, just keep in mind the 2 hour tour is more like 2 hours and 45 minutes and you tip at the end. Before heading back on the train to Brussels. We got some delicious Belgian chocolate from Bruges and split a pizza and Belgian (not French) fries, which is where fries originated!
We passed out on our way back to Brussels and were pretty exhausted from the last few days. We took it easy until that evening when we tried to find a restaurant. We were craving some bruschetta. Wondering out from Ben’s apartment, we searched for restaurants. They were not easy to find and when we saw some, 99% of them were just serving drinks. It was 7:30pm and everyone we saw was just drinking beer. We almost gave up hope when we finally found a place that was serving appetizers and exactly the one we were looking for! It was delicious.
Later we met up with Ben after work. He took us to a square near his office which is outside the EU Parliament. Ben told us that every Thursday from 5pm to 2am all of the young professionals from many European countries went out to this square to party. There was music and so many people! It was so much fun. We tried Ginette beer and danced to American music from the 2000s (who knew this is what plays at bars in Europe!). It was a blast. Thanks for hosting us, Ben!
While we expected the blog post to end here, we must share our absurd travel story on the way to the airport the next morning:
Unfortunately, the theme of the trip has become running through airports/train stations and barely making our scheduled transportation. We had an early flight out of Brussels to Athens. We planned to take a 20 minute uber to the airport and order it 40 minutes before we wanted to be there. That morning, Ben asks us which airport...a question that saved us. Turns out budget airlines, aka airlines like RyanAir, are at an airport that is 40 minutes outside the city. Really shouldn't even be considered a Brussels airport since it's in another city. Anyway, we're a little stressed but feeling okay because we gave ourselves a lot of leeway. The uber shows up, it's 7 am. It's like a super shuttle van, so not a quick Tesla like we were hoping. The uber driver proceeds to drive under the speed limit and keeps making wrong turns, making this drive over an hour. We finally get to the airport, and he can't find the entrance. At this point, it's 8:10 and our tickets say the gate closes at 8:30, so we have our backpacks on ready to jump out of the car. After directing him every step of the way, we tell him to go to "Departures," obviously, but for some reason we will never understand, he goes to "PARKING"! At this point we know we'll miss our flight. Instead of letting him take us to the entrance, which would take at least 10 minutes, we get out and start running. This is literally The Amazing Race, and we really should have prepared better by running miles with packs on. Apparently Emily's recent marathon was not enough. After sprinting with 25 lb backpacks on, which is really really hard, we make it to departures. After dealing with the ticket people, we cut the whole security line and sprint to the gate and make it as it's boarding. Who is watching over us and making sure we get on everything?? Even more- on the plane, Grace gets lucky with randomly being assigned the window seat of an exit row. And someone asked Emily to switch seats so instead of being far away, she moved to the row right in front of Grace. Have we been lucky or unlucky on this trip??
We are tired of almost missing all flights and trains. So even though it's 2 pm and our flight to Mykonos is tomorrow at 6 am, we have decided to not leave the airport. We will be googling pictures of the Parthenon; we're sure it'll have the same effect! Check out the next blog post for the review of our sleeping accommodation!
Grace and Ben
In Bruge
The Trading Hall in the main square in Bruges
The most picturesque spot in Bruges
Plaza in Brussels
Delicious bruschetta in Brussels!
Emily & Grace
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