I'm back from Belgium! It was nice, and chocolately and beautiful. The country is bilingual because it is sandwiched between Netherlands and France and has been occupied by both countries. Every single person speaks fluent Dutch, French and English--hardly 3 sister languages. That is amazingly impressive to me.
Photos here, aren't I prompt? :)
Also the architecture is powerfully beautiful. I wouldn't really be a huge fan of architecture and building design, but this country really demands even the casual onlooker's attention. Huge medieval buildings with towering spires dominate the landscape, punctuated by ancient Flemish guildhouses, Rennaisance castles and art nouveaux (the home of art nouveaux, in fact) ironwork structures. In Ghent the city was packed to the gills with ancient cathedrals. You could stand in one point and look at 5 cathedrals dating back 800-900 years. Add to this the quality of the street food--Belgian chcolate and twice-fried french fries--and it's easy to see why Belgium has the perfect cities for walking around and taking in the sites.
I stayed in Brussels the first day and walked around and saw the Grand Place (central square) and a lot of architecture. We went to the MIM, Museum of Musical Instruments, which was particularly cool. You wore headphones and as you walked around the instruments from across the ages and around the world, infrared sensors picked up your location and played music from that instrument in your headphones. But the downside was that the headphones were over the top goofy, so be sure to skip those pics when you're looking through the album. :)
Sunday I went to Bruges, a medieval city built on canals like Venice. It was really beautiful to tour, though in the afternoon it got pretty rainy. We ended up sitting on a heated terrace in the middle of town and having a few Belgian beers and people watching which was really fun.
Monday was a day trip to Ghent, another major city in Belgium. It too is built on canals but is much bigger than Bruges. The cathedrals in Ghent were unlike anything else I've seen, even Notre Dame or Sagrada Familia. I wasn't able to take photos inside, but you can see pics from outside showing the scale and quantity of the cathedrals.
It was a fantastic weekend, and now that I'm back it is officially winter in Ireland! 37 degrees at the moment, which, to my horror, means that if it rained, it could be flurries instead. Yikes!!!!
Have a great Wednesday! Enjoy the Belgium photos!
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