Belgium: Brugges, Ghent and Antwerp
After an overnight train from Berlin I had two busy days experiencing Belgium.
We checked into our Antwerp hostel quite early, surprising and confusing the manager to the point of receiving a free breakfast. After that I decided not to waste any time and basically went straight back to the main train station to make my way to Brugges for the day.
Brugges
This bustling seaside town lived up to it’s reputation. It wasn’t long before I found myself drooling on chocolate shop windows and inside cafes sampling Trappist and Abbey beers. I also found my favorite manhole cover for the trip:
Ghent
Next day I went out to Ghent. Kind of a mistake since it was a public holiday and there weren’t many people around and even less shops open for business. I managed to completely underestimate the size of the place which led to a few navigation errors (read: being completely lost). But it was nice a fairly nice day and we had most of city to ourselves.
Antwerp
With only two full days to see Belgium, I only really spent my evenings in Antwerp. I didn’t see too much to be honest but from what I spotted, it’s a decent place.
My best memory is of an excellent modern blues-jazz band that we stumbled across in a smallish bar not far from the hostel. The four-piece featured a charasmatic Dutchman on vocals and lead guitar plus a Belgian who ripped on the harmonica. They played two sets thoughout the night plus a brief encore which only just managed to appease the crowd. I just wish I wrote down their name.
