A Thursday evening impromptu decision led to a Friday
afternoon train down through Germany and into Belgium. After finding a cheap
return ticket from Brussels for Tuesday morning (so Mackenzie could make it
back for her quiz), we scrapped our plans for a relaxed weekend exploring the
smaller cities of Denmark in favor of a Belgian tour. Equipped only with a
couple hastily-downloaded PDFs on Belgian attractions and some last-minute sleeping
reservations, we disembarked from Copenhagen around 1:00 PM Friday for a
10-hour journey to Cologne, our German home for the night before the final four-hour
train to Bruges in the morning.
Cologne
On the train down, during the period from Fredericia,
Denmark to Hamburg, Germany, we were lucky enough to have some unexpected friends
join us. We were sitting in two seats across from each other with a table in
between and 6 vacant adjacent seats. At the Fredericia stop, on hopped three Danish
middle-aged couples who sat right next to us, prepped and ready for an exciting
2-hours. With them they brought bottles of champagne, homemade
crackers with prosciutto, Danish candies, and even plastic champagne flutes and
a full coffee pot. Never have we seen more prepared train riders. Needless to
say, the couples were ready for an exciting weekend getaway in Hamburg, and
were generous enough to share some of the supplies and fun with us. It was a
couple of the fastest hours we’ve had on the rails!
Despite only a few waking hours in Cologne, we still managed
to make a mini-visit of it. Mackenzie settled in for bed upon arrival, as she
wasn’t feeling well, but I decided to befriend some like-aged guys in the
hostel’s social room from Canada, the US, and Finland, and even ended up
walking around the midnight streets of Cologne with them for a couple hours in search of something
to do. We ended up finding nothing, but it was still a fun
little adventure with some new friends.
Dense wall of love locks in Cologne; this stretched for
the entire half-kilometer length of the bridge
Our train left around 9:30 the next morning, giving
Mackenzie and I time to check out Cologne’s greatest attraction before heading
out: the monumental Cologne Cathedral, usually just referred to as the “Dom”.
Located right next to Central Station, the Dom was 515 feet tall (and was even
the tallest building in the world for a four-year stint at the end of the 19th
century!) and took 632 years to complete. It was a masterpiece of classic
Gothic architecture, with a vast and opulent inside.
Massive Cologne Cathedral; standing inside
felt like being in an airplane hangar.
Bruges
After a quick tour, we hopped on our train to Bruges, the
“Venice of the North”, an old port city that, despite now being a popular
tourist destination, has the ability to transport you back into olden times.
It’s crisscrossing streets are clad with cobblestones and lined with medieval
churches, chocolatiers, and waffle-makers. After arriving at 2 PM, we casually
walked across town to our hostel, taking our time and strolling into churches
along the way. The most notable was the Basilica of the Holy Blood, a 12th
century church famous for purportedly housing some of Christ’s literal blood in
a vial at its front. We toured the church and stood in line briefly to view the
vial, which did indeed contain some cloth with dried blood in it. Legend has it
that Thierry of Alsace brought it from Jerusalem from a store of Jesus’ blood
kept by Joseph of Arimathea, the man responsible for cleaning Christ’s body
after the crucifixion. We continued onwards, passing through the Main Square, a
secondary square, and countless canals (which used to be moats before being
converted to the more aesthetic and tourist-friendly canals!) before arriving
at our hostel.
Equipped with all our gear on our walk across town to our hostel,
we stopped to take a quick photo at a canal crossing
Once at the hostel, we took our time to relax after the full
day of travel, ate some dinner, and settled in before our 8 PM “Bruges by
Night” tour of the city. Possibly my favorite free tour we’ve gone on (out of
the four that we have now done), the tour was packed with fun anecdotes and
interesting trivia about the city’s history, from ghost stories about murderous
monks, to the origins of the term “hungover”, to a still-operating British pub
originally founded in 1515. The tour conveniently ended right at our hostel,
where we stayed for the remainder of the nights and were able to sample a
couple of Belgium’s finest beers (Delirium Tremens was my personal favorite,
and Mack loved the Hoegaarden). We’ve now visited Europe’s three greatest
brewers – Germany, Czech Republic, and Belgium – so if the last couple posts
have seemed a little beer-heavy, rest assured that beer-land is now behind us,
and (to Mackenzie’s delight and my despair), the wine country of Mediterranean
Europe is next to be explored.
Walking along the dimly lit canals during our
"Bruges by Night" tour
Following a poor sleep in a noisy hostel, Mackenzie and I
groggily awoke on Sunday, had some breakfast, and set out again to continue
exploring the city. Unlike many of the larger cities we’ve visited, Bruges is
not dense with attractions, and is better enjoyed by relaxing in one of the
main squares or side streets and taking in the quiet charm of the village
atmosphere. We did just that, and spent much of our morning on the main square.
I grabbed a classic Belgian waffle from a street vendor (who we were told made
the best waffles in Bruges), and we settled down in the square to listen to the
professional playing of the carillon, a medieval instrument that somewhat
resembles a piano, but instead of lightly tapping on the keys with your fingers
to produce sound, you bang on large rods with your fists. It’s as fascinating
as it sounds. The carillon is played from the top of Belfort, Bruges’ clock
tower, and can be heard across the town.
Bruges Main Square
We ended our time in Bruges with another leisurely walk
towards its most famous church: the Church of our Lady, known for housing the
only Michelangelo sculpture outside of Italy. Unfortunately though, we didn’t
think our timing through and arrived during Sunday mass, so were not able to
enter, but the church was still beautiful from the outside and we enjoyed the
walk there. We left Bruges around 1:00 and headed towards Belgium’s capital
city, arriving a couple hours later.
Brussels
Brussels
Brussels was everything that Bruges was not, and in the best
way possible. The cities are incredibly different, with Bruges being the
northern, Flemish-speaking quaint town, while Brussels was the central, French-speaking multicultural EU epicenter. From the train station,
we had a long 30-minute walk across town to our Airbnb, but we made quick work
of it, only stopping along the way to check out a church, an architecturally
beautiful shopping center, and to get some classic Belgian frites. We arrived
at our Airbnb exhausted and took a nap before heading back into the city for
the evening.
We ate at a popular fish and chips restaurants for dinner
and then checked out the Grand Place, Brussels’ shockingly beautiful main
square. Framed on one side by the massive Brussels Court House, a second side
by the City Museum, and the remaining two sides by a variety of smaller
buildings, the square lived up to its status as Europe’s most beautiful. Words
cannot describe the breathtaking classical architecture and gold-trimmed
buildings. After the square, we headed back to the Airbnb for a much-needed
full night of rest.
Grand Place by night. Here it is the next day!
Notice the blue skies -- the first we've seen in over a month!
We awoke revitalized Monday morning with two main areas to
visit: the remainder of the downtown that we did not see the night before, and
the EU district. We began the day by making the hike back into downtown,
catching a church and back-alley along the way, and ending up back in the
center of the Grand Place, experiencing it like new in the daylight. We
strolled through the streets of downtown some more and took the time to stop at
a popular café and relax as we made our way to the subway to take towards
Schuman, the station directly under the European Parliament.
In front of the "triumphal arch", built in 1880 to celebrate
the 50th anniversary of Belgium's independence
From the park, we continued to walk around Schuman, and made sure to stop at the famous Maison Antoine, a humble kiosk known for frying up some of Belgium’s best pommes frites (they definitely lived up to the reputation!). We finished our time in Schuman by visiting a couple more parks (Brussels is Europe’s greenest capital), and took the metro back into the city center around 5:30 PM.
Average scene for one of many of Brussels' public parks
After some more strolling around, we ate dinner at a nice
Irish pub, as we were both in need of some good ole’ burgers and, you guessed
it, french fries (Mackenzie couldn’t get enough of the delicious Belgian
specialty). I was also able to pick up some Belgian chocolates while we looked
for dinner, polishing off the Belgian quadfecta of waffles, fries, beer, and chocolate!
Following dinner, we headed back to the Airbnb to prepare for a very early morning wake-up.
We woke up at 3 AM on Tuesday morning and walked to the
train station, arriving around 3:40, where a bus was waiting to take Mackenzie
to Charleroi Airport. Knowing that Mackenzie had to be back in Copenhagen for
an 11 AM quiz, we booked an early 6:50 AM flight with a budget airline,
thinking that the airport would be close to the city. Unfortunately, this was a
poor assumption, and the airport ended up being an hour away by bus!
Additionally, while we both originally intended to head home together, only one
ticket remained for the budget flight, Mackenzie took it, as I had no class Wednesday and was excited for the opportunity of an extra day of
travel.
I dropped Mackenzie off, she made it to the airport plenty
early, and was back in Copenhagen and ready for her quiz within a few hours.
During this time, I walked back to the Airbnb, went back to sleep, and re-awoke at a normal hour to gather my things and head out. I found a set of
trains that I could take overnight to get back to Copenhagen slightly after 2
PM on Wednesday, but the trains left me with a free day to do whatever I
wanted, so I decided to do a quick solo day trip to Luxembourg!
Luxembourg
After arriving in Luxembourg, I had about 7 hours to fill before I had to be back to the station. With no research whatsoever, I spent my time wandering around, diving into random cafes to grab Wifi whenever possible, and keeping myself busy. Luxembourg City was fascinating. Like Brussels, there was a huge juxtaposition of the old and the new, but it was so much more evident in Luxembourg. Not only was there a huge contrast between the architecture, with modern glass buildings interspersed with centuries-old churches and merchant guilds, but even the residents were wildly different. The elderly locals wore fancy business suits and expensive brogue shoes, while the young were covered in Gucci and Yeezy. Not only this, but the locals spoke either German or French, and it seemed to be evenly split down the middle. Every sign in the city had to be written in both languages, and whenever I spoke to someone, whether it be on the train or in a store, if they noticed I was having trouble understanding them, they immediately switched to the opposite language, before I informed them that I actually only spoke English. Every element of the city had an equally prevalent counter element.
View from Luxembourg's medieval city walls over the Old Town;
the city was originally constructed atop of plateau, and expanded from there
Beyond the intrigue of the dual culture, Luxembourg has a
lot of similar aspects to the other European cities that I have visited (other than the fact that it was completely devoid of tourists). I
spent the day walking through the city and beyond, spending lots of time both
on the designer-brand covered main streets and the quiet back alleyways. I
visited the city’s main Notre Dame Cathedral, took a short hike to the remains
of the ancient city walls to overlook the old town, saw a beautiful sunset, and even took some time to relax in a cozy café. At the end of the day, with nothing
else to do and the cold of darkness setting in, I spent the last hour reading
and relaxing in a fast food joint by the train station. While there wasn’t too
much to do in Luxembourg, it was the perfect way to spend an unexpected extra
day.
The entrance to the beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral.
It had an unexpected quirk that wowed me!
And now I have arrived at the present! I am in the home
stretch of my 16-hour train journey home. While it may sound awful, I love the
time to catch up on my to-do list, read, walk around the train, and type this
up. With no Wifi on these trips, I have to plenty of time to “disconnect”
myself and not worry about social media, politics, or anything else that
could cloud up my head. I’ve grown to not only appreciate but look forward to the solitude and time to recharge.
Mackenzie and I intend to take next weekend off to catch up
on our school work and sleep before a very long trip down to the Balkans to
explore an area of the world that I’ve always wanted to. Lots of research
to do over the next couple weeks in preparation for this adventure!
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