Brugge
We’re back on mainland Europe after taking the Eurostar from London to Brussels. The trip was less than two hours. Outstanding.
We had about nine hours to kill in Belgium before our night train to Berlin so we spent the afternoon in a small village called Brugge (pronounced Broo-sh). It’s about 50 miles or so north of Brussels and is quite possibly the most beautiful village I have ever visited. It’s a medieval city that was spared during the wars — so the buildings, castles and narrow alleys have all been preserved. There are also canals flowing through the city, so it also has a bit of an Amsterdam feel.
I kid you not, I think there was smoke coming out of my camera. Each street was nicer than the next. Really impressive place. (So impressive that Jamie asked if we could move there. That’s huge, you know.) It was a totally unexpected sidetrip (someone in Josh’s hostel in London recommended it) and it turned out to be our favorite city so far.
Anyway, after a nice hot meal (it’s nippy in these parts now) of Flemish chicken stew and a couple local brews, we took the train back to Brussels and waited (a long time) for our night train. We attempted to walk around the neighborhood outside the train station, but it was a bit sketchy. A few too many shifty Belgians out there.
So Jamie and I have a cabin to ourselves (it’s an empty train) so it should be a comfy ride. There’s a sign at the end of our car warning us to keep track of which car we’re in. Apparently certain cars will stay in Hamburg while others will go on to Berlin. Hopefully we’re in the Berlin cars. If not, Hamburg it is. It’s all German to me.
We should pull into Berlin at 8am. I’m going to sit back and let Josh be our tour guide, since he speaks the language and has been there several times. Shoot, I hope he’s not in the Hamburg cars. Let me go check ….
More later from Berleeeen.
September 21st, 2006 at 7:02 am
be sure to raise a liter of hacker pschorr or spaaten for me upon arrival in berlin, i’ll be sure to do the same here. (By the way, I have a september “replacement tom” to go to jakes with, but he beat me 4 times in a row at pool, please hurry home)