Back to Belgium

Even though we just went to Berlin last weekend, Josh and I had agreed to travel again this past weekend. Josh had the weekend off, including Labor Day. I feel we need to take advantage of the extra days when we can. Originally, we had planned to drive east into the Bavarian part of German to tour around the town of Rothenburg (it's high on my to-do list). We were going to stay at a near-by army base. Josh had called the base hotel a few weeks ago and was told they do not take advanced reservations. We would have to call the day-of to reserve a room. On Friday morning I called the base hotel and was told it was full with no openings all weekend long. Aw hell. I looked online to try and find a hotel in the surrounding area, but everything was either booked up, or more money than I was willing to pay. I really wasn't sure what to do. I waited until Josh got home from work to ask him what he wanted to do. Do we throw in the towel and stay home for the weekend? Where else could we go? We decided to search for hotels and just see what was available... and wherever there was a good hotel deal is where we would go. I played around online looking for hotels... and finally found a great price on a hotel in Antwerp, Belgium. Off we went.

Antwerp is north and east of Brussels. In all honesty, I had never heard of it until I started researching our trip to Brussels. We learned right away Antwerp has a historic center which is as beautiful as the one in Brussels. Multiple picture perfect public squares, and a towering cathedral. We spent most of Friday afternoon wandering around the center enjoying the sights.

We were going to catch the tram back to our hotel when some old military vehicles drove across the street. We followed them, and found one of the town squares was full of people dancing in front of a stage. We looked around and saw a bunch of flyers for Liberation Day. Liberation Day is a celebration of when the port of Antwerp was liberated in 1944 by British and Canadian troops. I had no idea. Multiple bands performed on the center stage - lots of "big band" music. I was in heaven. There were tons of people dancing. Josh and I didn't dance (I'm sure it wouldn't have been a pretty picture) but we spent plenty of time watching everyone else. Most people were dressed up in retro 1940s outfits - some great hair-dos! There was a beer stand and many food stands surrounding the festivities. We ordered a few beers to further enjoy our people watching. We would have stayed longer, but their kegs ran out. In Montana that is a criminal offense. It was still neat to stumble upon.

The next day we went down to the diamond district of Antwerp. Antwerp is the world capital of diamond trading/selling. Again, something I didn't know. We went to the Diamond Museum and saw a lot of amazing pieces of jewelry. Sadly, they don't allow you to take pictures. In the diamond district surrounding the museum there was easily 50+ jewelry stores. I had a lot of fun window shopping as we walked along.

Our hotel in Antwerp was a bit of an adventure. I had found it as a "flash deal" through booking.com. We were paid a discounted rate of 44 euro a night, which is about $62. Our hotel was a Ramada highrise, and I was excited thinking I'd gotten a steal on a nice chain hotel which got great reviews online. I was wrong. The bathroom was dirty and was in desperate need of a facelift. The room was suppose to have air conditioning, but ours wasn't working. We told the front desk about the problem, and they sent someone up to our room who basically told us he thought our room was cool enough and they couldn't do anything to make it cooler (even though it was very clear the a/c wasn't running or working). The hallway was much cooler than our stuffy room. More than once we debated sleeping out in the hall. Our room was suppose to have an electric kettle and a coffee maker. We discovered the electric kettle was to work AS a coffee maker. The first morning we were there I put water in the kettle, added coffee grounds, and turned the kettle on. In less than two minutes water and coffee grounds boiled out of the kettle and all over the counter top. I grabbed the kettle and ran with it into the bathroom - which was a stupid idea because boiling hot coffee ground mess splashed all over the carpet and bathroom floor. It was a huge mess to clean up. After that I left the coffee making up to Josh... who was smart enough to heat up the water before adding coffee grounds. I've always been of the opinion that in most cases a hotel is just a place to sleep and keep your stuff (unless you're actually planning to hang out at the hotel). In that respect, our hotel was fine and was still a steal at the price. However, there is plenty to complain about. I can't wait to go online and write the hotel a crappy review.

On Sunday we took the train to the town of Ghent. I had read about Ghent back when I was researching our trip to Brussels. It sounded like a neat place to go see. Taking the train to Ghent was a breeze. It took less than an hour, and two round trip tickets were less than 20 euro. It was more the type of European train travel I had expected. Ghent was fantastic. I loved it. It was much more quaint and less modernized than Antwerp. It does have a historical center like Antwerp, but the historical center seems to stretch further out. It is a whole town full of picture perfectness.

There are many canals that wind through the city, and there are boat tours where you can take a ride through the canals. On Saturday morning in Antwerp Josh and I helped a foreign couple figure out the electronic ticket machine for the tram system (we were mainly able to help them because we had struggled in the same way the day before). Although there was a major communication barrier between us, we were able to help them out, and they seemed grateful. We talked about building up good karma for ourselves - in a joking type of way. As we were walking along the canals of Ghent a couple approached us and offered us a free boat ride. They had bought their tickets online and had two too many. Our good karma paid off. It may sound silly, but I really enjoyed our boat ride. It was a great way to see more of the town.

We discovered during our boat ride a flea market. I've been told by many people that Belgium is the place to go for flea and antique markets. We wandered around the flea market for quite a while. It snaked along multiple streets, and just when we thought we had gotten to the end of the market it would take a turn down another street and keep going. In the "middle" of the flea market area there was a beer garden with food. We took a break and enjoyed a beer before walking around some more. Josh found two beer glasses at the market to take home as treasures. Like one big fantastic garage sale.

Although we hadn't planned to go to Belgium, it was a fun trip. I believe if we were to do it again, I would spend only one day in Antwerp, one day in Ghent, and then spend one day in Bruges. Bruges is north of Ghent, and it is said to be the "Venice of the North." I've enjoyed the time we've spent in Belgium, and I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't been.