Belgium

This past weekend I took my first excursion outside of the Netherlands! Along with four fellow SPICE students, we traveled to Belgium. We arrived in Brussels at about 9 pm, and as it was our first traveling experience, there was sure to be some miscommunications. We were supposed to contact the man leasing his apartment to us for the night when we got there, but couldn't get his number to go through on our track phone. Instead, we took a taxi and hoped he'd be at the apartment since we told him to expect us around 9 pm. When arrived to our apartment, no one was waiting. After ringing the doorbell of several of the neighbors, one man let us into the apartment building and offered us his WiFi so we could get ahold of the apartment owner. Within 10 minutes we were in our apartment and so relieved. Looking back now, I see how naive we were in our planning, thankfully it worked out!

The next morning we took the tram to the city center on a mission to find the famous Belgium Waffles for breakfast! The whole city smelled like these waffles (I'm being completely serious) and there were street vendors and cafes lining the streets selling them. They were delicious and definitely deserve their reputation!

We were walking through narrow streets lined with cafes and souvenir shops when suddenly we turned a corner and I saw an extravagant, towering building with intricate sculpting and gold enhancements right in front of me. My eyes traced the building from the ground upwards, while chills begin to spread through my body. Once my eyes reached the lining between the building and the sky my eyes scanned to the right where even more majestic buildings stood and a feeling of awe took my breath away. This is appropriately called the Great Place, and although I took several pictures none could do it justice! It's so very beautiful, especially at night! We spent the rest of the day walking through Brussels, visiting the impressive St. Michael's Cathedral, and sampling delicious chocolate. We ended the night eating out and getting one last glimpse of The Grand Place!

These photos are from the "Grand Place"...they don't begin to reveal the splendor of the architecture 

St. Michael's Cathedral 

The famous Manneken Pis

Beautiful hallway of tourist shops and chocolateiers

The Grand Place at Night

Chocolate Model of the Grand Place

The next morning we set off for Brugge, Belgium. This city is nicknamed, the Venice of Belgium and an outdoor museum, both of which are true. There are several canals going through the city as well as several courtyards, with sculptures and beautiful architecture from monasteries and cathedrals during the medieval time period. We walked through the whole town and could sense the fairy-tale feeling others had described.

Finding Starbucks at the train station made this day a success from the start! 

The canals in Brugge made the scenery even more beautiful 

Brugge had several medieval monasteries and courtyards we walked through (above and below)

On the train ride back to Zwolle, (trains are the way to go, btw: no delays, normally free WiFi, more comfortable than a plane ride, and we all can sit across from each other and talk and play games during the ride!) anyway on this ride back, I was reflecting on my trip and wanted so much to sit by our kitchen counter at home and tell my mom and sisters every detail! I'm so happy to be here, but wish I could share these moments and experiences with family and close friends. This blog and Skype will suffice :) 

I saw so many beautiful, interesting things this weekend in Belgium; it just makes me want to see and know more about Europe and it's history. Since being back I've researched a little about the history of the buildings and cities and hope to prepare background info for my next travels!

This week I have three excursions to different cities in The Netherlands and thankfully a more normal college class schedule of only two or three hours of class a day outside the of day trips! Hopefully I'll be posting about those trips at the end of the week!