Europe June 2016 Part 1 of 3 Belgium and Netherlands

Brugge City Market

This was our first trip to Belgium and Netherlands. We flew AerLingus from Dulles to Brussels, and then took a train to Brugge. Brugge turned out to be our favorite city. We took a canal boat ride, climbed to the top of the Bell Tower, followed a local guide around town, ate a lot of Belgium chocolate and drank plenty of Belgium beer. From Brugge we took a day trip to the WWI battle site, Flanders Field. Here ANZAC forces battled German forces for four years. The first full scale deployment of chemical weapons (chlorine gas) occurred here April 22, 1915.

Brugge Canal

Enjoying a chocolate covered Belgian Waffle

Windmills

WWI Trench

Belfry and Cloth Hall in Ghent

After Brugge, we took the train to Ghent. Unlike Brugge, Ghent had many modern buildings along with its historical ones. We took another canal boat ride, but found that a tour given in four languages just didn’t work for us. From Ghent we took a day trip to Brussels. While there was an historical square, many of the sites were spread out through a busy modern city. We enjoyed the Musical Instrument Museum, but after a full day we tired of the hassle of finding our way around town and headed back to a more peaceful Ghent.

Gravensteen Castle in Ghent

Canal and Towers of Ghent

Brussels' Grand Place

Fancy Eclair

Brussels' Pissing Boy

Enkhrizen Folk Museum

From Ghent we moved on to Amsterdam. Our biggest shock was the number of people on bikes. In Amsterdam, bikes rule, they have their own lanes and yield to no one. You cross a bike lane at your own risk. After visiting Brugge and Ghent, Amsterdam took quite an adjustment. Hordes of tourist everywhere; tour busses dumping more visitors out, faster than the chocolates on Lucy’s conveyor belt. Amsterdam has an excellent public transportation system, so getting around town was no problem. We toured the Anne Frank House; fortunately we had reservations and avoided the 2 hour wait to enter. We took a day trip to Enkhrizen to tour the Folk Museum. On the train we met a guy travelling out to see his parents. After several hours at the museum, we got back on the return train, and he was there also! He shared his local knowledge with us. We planned to meet up with him and his wife in Amsterdam, but we just ran out of time.

Mounted Outside Doctors' Office

Ann Frank House

Leaning Houses in Amsterdam

After a couple of days in Amsterdam, we meet up with the Vantage Travel group at a local hotel. Since Vantage had very little planned, we continued to explore on our own. On our last night in Amsterdam, they did take us on a walking tour of the Red Light District. That was fun, but no pictures allowed. On our fifth day in Amsterdam, we got on a tour bus and headed for our river boat in Bonn, Germany.

Beer on Wheels