Contents
- Preface
- San Francisco
- Amsterdam
- Amsterdam, Helmond
- Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem
- Amsterdam, Bruges
- Bruges, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin
- Berlin
- Berlin, Potsdam
- Berlin, Wansee
- Berlin, Prague
- Prague
- Prague, Karlstejn, Vienna
- Vienna
- Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen
- Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
- Munich, Innsbruck
- Innsbruck
- Innsbruck, Zürich, Lauterbrunnen
- Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch
- Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
- Lauterbrunnen, Spiez, Zermatt
- Zermatt
- Zermatt, Martigny, Chamonix
- Chamonix, Mont Blanc
- Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Courmayeur, Aosta, Turin
- Barcelona
- Barcelona, Sitges
- Barcelona
- Milan, Venice
- Venice
- Venice
- Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre
- Cinque Terre, La Spezia
- Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence
- Florence
- Florence
- Florence, Siena
- Siena, San Gimignano, Rome
- Rome
- Rome
- Rome, Sorrento
- Sorrento, Vesuvius, Pompeii
- Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello
- Sorrento, Capri, Naples
- Naples, Bari
- Patras, Athens, Mykonos
- Mykonos
- Mykonos
- Mykonos, Paros, Santorini
- Santorini
- Santorini, Athens
- Athens
- Athens, Amsterdam, San Francisco
Prev :: Tuesday, 6 September 2005 :: Next
5. Amsterdam, Bruges
Photo Gallery
Morning train to Bruges, Belgium, taking about 3.5 hours and arriving around noon. I spent one night at the Hotel Jacobs, which is lovely and only a short walk northeast of the center, €70 for a room with bath, much more spacious than the one in Amsterdam. This is a remarkable town because it has been so well preserved since medieval times — basically because it was forgotten after its river silted up centuries ago! Today was the first day I saw any rain, but this was only a very brief afternoon shower and otherwise it wasn't bad at all, if a bit hazy. First thing to do is to climb the many, many stairs of the Belfort for a fantastic view over the city. There's also an incredible large clockwork at the top, plus what looks like a giant gold player-piano roll. The cathedral here was the first of the many great European cathedrals I entered on this trip, and being the first I think it had more of a goosebump-producing effect than any other. It's amazing to be in such a vast, beautiful, spiritual space (and I'm no fan of Christianity in general, but these cathedrals are so fascinating that I do almost find them seductive). One basilica contains a phial of Holy Blood — supposedly that of Jesus brought back from Jerusalem — and when I was there it was possible to get a very close look at the phial (not sure whether this was the real thing or merely symbolic).
The earthly delights of Bruges are its food. I followed Rick Steves' web site to a shop called Dumon off the Markt, and this was easily the best chocolate of the entire trip. You get half a kilo (about 15 chocolates) in the flavors of your choice for only €5! This is much cheaper than if you went to, say, Godiva in the US (which I will never buy if only because they keep sending me spam which my Bayesian filter is oddly unwilling to classify as such). So I'm sitting on the square eating them when I notice someone vaguely familiar walk buy... and it's that gang of four from the Bay Area again! So I followed them around for a while. We had waffles from a shop, but they seemed a little heavy and doughy, so I can't say Belgian waffles were one of the highlights of the trip. My friends didn't stay overnight, however, and they really missed out! After seeing them off, I walked east past a line of nice big boxy windmills.
Surprisingly, Bruges is also where I had the best dinner of my entire trip, at De Vlaamsche Pot (recommended by the Rough Guide). It's a lovely cute place, where you get this gigantic black pot of what must be a hundred mussels, served with French fries! But, the mussels are good. Really, really good! No other mussels I've ever had come close. And I even found a nice open wireless network here and was able to surf the web and write some e-mail with my Zaurus PDA (also very useful for storing photos and travel information as it has a 4 GB hard drive). Wireless gets harder and harder to find as you go south, and even in the north sometimes I only found expensive networks (€5 for 30 minutes being outrageous but typical). And Bruges is lovely for a walk at night.