Firenze 2006-2007

Thanksgiving in Belgium and the Netherlands

This last week or so, we had a break for Thanksgiving so we got to spend some extra time traveling. We only had class on Monday and Tuesday, then the rest of the week was off so everyone took advantage of that and went to some places that are a bit hard to get to on regular weekends.
Monday night we had our Thanksgiving dinner in the villa. We all gathered in the student center and had a “family time” where everyone talked and then we prayed before digging into our traditional Thanksgiving meal. We had turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pretty much everything else you can think of. We even had pumpkin and pecan pies for desert! It made such nice change to be able to eat American style food and not have pasta for a meal.
I spent most of Tuesday getting ready to leave as we had to catch a flight out of Pisa at 9, which meant we had to leave Florence at about 6. I got everything done, barely, and then Kelly, Myles, and me headed out. We made our train fine, although the walk to the station in the rain wasn’t fun. We made it to Pisa, and we were a bit nervous about our flight taking off as it had been raining and was supposed to throughout the night. We checked in, got some dinner and then got on the plane which took off without any trouble or delays. About an hour and a half later, we were in Charleroi, a town about an hour south of Brussels. After a bus into Brussels we searched for our hostel. We ended up in a taxi as it was 1am and we were exhausted. After that, we checked into the hostel and took a walk around the block to get our bearings before heading back to bed.
The next morning, we had a toast breakfast at the hostel and then headed to the North Station to get a train to Brugge. After getting a quick snack at the station we were on the hour or so train ride to the fairly small city of Brugge. We got there at about 11, and immediately walked through the park from the station to the center of town.
(The park between the station and center of Brugge)
Brugge is basically one main street with a bunch of side streets leading to different sights. We walked down the main street, looking at all the chocolate stores, souvenir shops, and other stores until we reached the church. We went inside, but were kicked out within five minutes as the church was closing for the lunch hour. We then headed to the main square where we walked around the city hall area and the tourist filled main square of the town. We got fries and waffles from a street vendor for lunch and then started wandering around the town a bit more. We headed back off the main square and found a fresh food market as well as some buildings with gorgeous facades.
(The main square in Brugge, they are setting up for a Christmas market in the center)
(The market off the main square)
(A view down one of Brugge's many canals)
We then headed back down other side streets to the main square and wandered off in the opposite direction with no real destination except to explore. We walked around most of the day, eventually finding another church, the one that holds Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child- one of his few works housed outside Italy. From there we tried to track down our hostel which we eventually succeeded in doing. From there we set out to find some dinner and decided on the Northern European fast food burger chain- Quick. We ate a burger and some more fries and then walked around the town a bit more to see the town by night. After walking around for a while, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed fairly early.
(The sheet music for playing nothing- from the concert where the composed got on stage and played nothing for 4+ minutes)
(Michelangelo's Madonna and Child)
(Another Canal in Brugge)
The next morning, Thanksgiving day, we got up pretty early, got our stuff together and headed for the station to catch a train to Amsterdam. We got a train to Antwerp Central, but saw that the trains for Amsterdam left from another station in Antwerp, so we headed to that station on another train. There we got lunch at a small supermarket in the station and waited for our train to Amsterdam. After finally getting on that train, it was only another two hours before we were in the city. It was mid-afternoon but it was starting to get dark, so we walked around a bit and then tried to decide what to do for our Thanksgiving dinner. We saw a sign for the Hard Rock Café and set out to find that, thinking that would be about as good as we could do in the Netherlands for Thanksgiving. We made it there and ate a relatively early dinner that consisted of a huge burger, fries, and free refills on soda. The restaurant was fairly crowded with Americans all eating together to celebrate the holiday. After stuffing ourselves, we headed to the hostel to drop off our stuff before heading out to wander the city a bit before bed. We found the hostel, although it did take a while and we were a bit confused on the directions we received along the way. We finally found it, dropped the luggage off and headed back out. We walked along the piazza with all the museums in the city (or so it seemed like) on it. We saw the Van Gogh and Rembrandt museums as well as the concert hall. From there we walked back towards the canals and the center of the city. We saw the cathedral and several other landmarks before heading towards the shopping district, the only place that seemed to be crowded. While walking along it, we saw the “coffee shops” that make Amsterdam famous and laughed at some of the ads and signs that we saw, which included bars that allowed marijuana, but nothing “harder or more dangerous.” The city was littered with random ads and signs like that, most of them seemed serious, but were funny to observe nonetheless. After walking for a while, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed.
(The main square in Amsterdam)
(A look down a street with the Red Light District in the distance)
(The Rembrandt museum as seen from the Museumsplein)
(The Conecert Hall from the Museumsplein)
We got up the next morning, had a hostel breakfast of toast and coffee and then made it to the Van Gogh museum as it was opening. We got in and saw the whole of the museum before it got very crowded at all. The museum holds most of his famous works including Wheatfield with Crows, the Potato Eaters, the Sunflowers, and the Bedroom in Arles. Apart from seeing those which was neat, we got to see about 200 other works by Van Gogh, most of which I’d never seen before, as well as several works by Monet and Manet. After spending several hours in the museum we headed to the Anne Frank house, but couldn’t go inside because of our luggage. From there we walked back to the center of town and looked around the churches in the center of the city before stumbling across a carry out Asian food place that smelled amazing so we decided to have a lunch that consisted of teriyaki chicken and noodles with a Dr. Pepper. The food was great, especially since I hadn’t had Asian food in several months. From there, we walked around the shopping center of the city wondering what we should do next. We walked around more and saw several more canals and sections of the city we hadn’t seen before.
(The canal infront of the Anne Frank house)
At about 3, I headed back to the train station to get a train back to Brussels to meet up with Alex and West. Myles and Kelly stayed in Amsterdam to meet Bobbie Jo and John, so for the train ride I was by myself. It was a 3 hour ride, and I slept for most of it. Alex and West met my train and from there we found our hostel and headed out in search of some dinner. We ended up eating waffles and fries which seemed to be the meal of choice for the trip. We then saw the Bourse, the Grand Palace, and the Mannikin Pis statue before finding a bar and trying several Belgian beers. The most unique one we tried was probably the chocolate beer, while the best was the berry beer, which didn’t taste like alcohol at all. We then headed back to the hostel, and played several games of pool there before going to bed. When we got up the next morning, we did the church tour of Brussels, seeing the Cathedral and St. Anne’s before heading back to the Grand Palace and a Tex-Mex restaurant named Chi Chi’s that we’d seen the day before. We ate an early lunch there, which turned out to be amazing, mostly because we had not had Mexican food of any kind in several months as well.
(The Mannekin Pis Statue)
(The Grand Palace)
(More of the Grand Palace)
(Alex, Me, and West in the Grand Palace)
After our lunch, we met Kelly and Myles in front of the Bourse and took them around the main sights in the area, as well as getting some lunch for them before setting off to see something else. We wandered around in the area of the central station, and thought about going to see the EU main building when we saw a sign that had the Guinness book of world records logo on it. We followed it and saw that it led to a bar named Delirium that got the record for most types of beer available at a single location. We went in and looked over their menu that looked like a text book before making a choice and getting the beer that they recommended to us- the beer the bar was named for- Delirium. We all tried different kinds of beer and after having a few each, we still had not even scratched the surface of what the bar offered. We left the bar and got a baguette dinner before looking for more waffles before heading to the station to pick up our bags and get on a train to Charleroi, the city where we would be spending the night. We got on the train, and an hour later we were in Charleroi. We then got a taxi to our hotel and went to bed very early as we would have to be up at 4:30am the next morning to catch our flight.
(Alex, Me, West, and Myles at Delirum)
(A shot of the bar at Delirum)
We all made it out of the hotel on time the next morning and made it to the airport with only a few minutes to spare for our flight. The flight went smooth enough and before we knew it we were in Pisa and on the train back to Florence. We made it back in time to eat at Café Liberta right before it closed for us, and then went to the villa and took a nice long nap followed by a shower and then I worked for the better part of the day, taking frequent breaks to stop and hear about people’s weekends as they trickled back in from all corners of Europe.
We started the last week of classes today, and I only have one more Italian and Religion class and two more Humanities classes not counting the finals before the semester is done.

posted by Daniel Williams @ 00:59