European Adventure Days Eight and Nine - Bruges and Brussels

Day eight was a Friday and since Nirvi was back at work Hemu took me via tram to the train station Brussels Midi to help me find the train to Bruges. My only reference to the place is Colin Farrel's movie In Bruges, which I actually hated, but not for it's location. Hemu went to great lengths to help be get my bearings. I now knew that when I return to Brussels and get off the train, there will be stores, dark floors, dark benches, huge screens with travel info, and escalators with signs telling me which trams they go to. Got it.

I made my train and enjoyed an hour long ride through beautiful countryside. Bruges was wonderful with it's cobblestone streets and old homes. I loved the variety that existed between the numbers on the homes. They were modern, antique, classic, painted, every version you could think of.

I meandered to a restaurant I'd read had high compliments online. It took a while because of my cell plan. I paid for extra data but am trying to use it sparingly. So navigating was sometimes a bit tricky.

Once I got the The Belgian Pigeon House, a very nice bloke with a strong British accent (or was it Scottish? I don't remember now) let me know with much regret that they were closing. It was 2:30 at this point (or 14:30 if you wanna be European about it) and they'd had so little traffic that the coal they use to cook with had gone out. Ah well.

I wandered from there and stumbled on a pizza joint. Fine. Not really what I was hoping for, but the longer I wandered looking for a place the less time I'd have to explore.

People seemed to like it when I asked if I could photograph their dogs.

After lunch I meandered aimlessly and it was perfect. There was super people-watching to be done and oh, look! A river! I'd forgotten one existed here. And bicycles. They're everywhere. With people on them, of course. And it was funny to spot the visitors because they wiggled and wobbled their way down the cobblestone streets. Not like the locals, people of all ages who hauled ass through the crowds. It was so fun to see and I loved taking on the challenge of capturing them with my camera.

Kids getting out of school.

Every other store was a chocolate shop. I don't know how they stay open but, I guess they do! Must be that exceptional product they're pushing.

Chocolate boobs!

I hopped the train back to Brussels Midi after my leisurely day, but when I got off an hour later at the station, it bore no resemblance to the location Hemu had dropped me at earlier in the day. Bright and gray and only steps leading to trains, there were no shops, train schedules or escalators. I walked toward the exit and called an Uber which never came. Across the narrow street where I waited was a tram stop heading to Montgomery. I had typed into my phone something Hemu said "You can also take the Montgomery tram to the Janson stop" So that's what I did!

train ride back to Brussels Midi

Boarding the tram was a bit of a mystery since there was no place to put the ticket I'd spent over 9 euros to buy. Why 9 Euro, you ask? Well, the ticket machines here only take ATM cards and when I use my ATM card for anything I get charged $6 for every transaction and a 3% fee on top of that. So my 2+euro ride was actually way more, annoyingly.
I heard a familiar ding as the tram left stations, signifying that people have hit some type of button to indicate they want to exit at the next stop. I watched to see if I could spot which button people were pushing. There were two to choose from on the sliding doors; a blue one, and a red one with the word STOP above it. The STOP seemed a bit threatening. Is it only pressed in an emergency? I just wasn't sure. The tram stopped at Janson on it's own and on a whim, I pushed the blue button to find that it opened the door I stood in front of. Delightful!

Saturday, day nine, we slept in a bit and Nirvi took me out on a quick tour of the city on foot. We covered about four miles in a very short time, saw some of the beautiful buildings in the main square of the city, and visited the Manneken Pis, a small but somehow still famous statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain.

Menneken Pis!

Not sure what he was dressed up for today

First waffle IN Belgium!

After scurrying back to the apartment quickly, we walked down the street to attend a chocolate making class which was really fun and we got to bring home out work.

Yummy dinner of traditional Belgian meatballs! And frites, of course!

a visit to a bar with a really interested interior. We wondered what it was before it was a bar