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Continuing in my travelogue series I went to Belgium last weekend. Its a very nice country and the people are friendly. I didn't venture into Brussles; had enough of big cities and wanted to get some quiet time in the smaller cities near the coast.

Day 1

Travelled from Stuttgart to Paris. I had to go through Paris as I had already booked rail tickets with the intention of going to Marseille through Paris. I could not find accomodation in Marseille in the last minute and decided to change destinations and go to Brugge in Belgium instead. Brussles and Brugge are close to Paris (1, 2 hours by train respectively) and there is a very convenient night train between Paris and Stuttgart.

Ended up in Brugge around 10.30 am and went to my hostel to store my bags there. Nice place, clean and comfortable, though the fecilities were a bit old and the staff non responsive. One of the first things you notice in is that a lot of Belgians can speak 3 languages (French, Dutch and English Fluently). This was a welcome change after France.

Brugge is (boastfully) called the venice of the north (not that I have been to Venice, but Brugge is pretty small). Its a beautiful and charming little city and is a pleasure to walk through. The streets are filled with the smells of Waffles and Chocolates and the weather is mild and refreshing.

The first thing I did was to take a boat tour of the canals. The guide was very helpful and pointed out thge various sites and monuments that we passed through. After the boat tour I walked to each of the monuments I had seen and went in.

The highlight of Brugge is a huge bell tower that is 3-400 years old and is very beautifully preserved. For a fee you can climb the tower and the view is supposed to be good (never found out, the queue was too long). The other monuments of Brugge are a couple of very beautiful churches.

One of them called the Church of Madonna and the Child (Actually the church is called something like Our Lady of Faith or something like that, but most people just call it Madonna and the child) is named after a famous sculpture present in the church which was done by Michaelangelo (need spellcheck). It is aparently one of the very few statues by the artist to leave italy in his lifetime and was part of an unfinished series of 12 similar statues. The statue itself is small but beautifullf crafted. Not earthshakingly beautiful, but serene and definitely worth a visit.

After that I just wandered around the city, walking into parks and aimlessly meandering among the canals. There is nothing much to see in Brugge, but it is a great place to just take a long walk and Relax.

Day 2

On Sunday I decided to go to the coast. The city of Oostend is just 15 minutes by train from Brugge and has a beautiful cathedral and some verv good beaches. Went to the cathedral first. It was built in the Gothic style (I cannot describe the styles but usually I can recognize a particular style if I see it). It was rather ordinary on the outside and not particularly grand. On the inside it was pretty normal, until you noticed the stained glass windows. The windws were spectacular. The designs, colours and motifs were beutiful and the sun was shining through them creating multicoloured images on the walls.

Excellent stained glass work seem to have been a hallmark of french and dutch church builders. The Notre Dame in Paris also has some exquisite stained glass windoes (probably more intricate than the ones in Oostend cathedral), but the colours in Oostend seemed bolder and more powerful.

After the cathedral, I wandered around the city center a bit and tried the waffles (which are very good) and longingly walked past the chocolate shops. Both Brugge and Oostend are filled with chocolate and candy shops and the variety is absolutely amazing. Its as if a Leonidas was on every street corner (On one of the corners, there was a Leonidas). The veriety and intricate work on most of these chocolates was great.

finally I decided to take a long walk on the beach. The weather was breezy and cool and the sky clear and blue. I walked for the better part of 4 hours and absolutely enjoyed it. The beach is regularly interrupted by old stone piers (now disused) which go into the sea. The view is good and the walk is lovely. There were also a fair number of yatches on the bay and they looked fantastic. I had gone sailing for a day a month or so ago and the experience is pretty much unforgettable.

At the end of a long and tired day I caught a train to Brussles and then to Paris. I had a couple of hours to kill before my train to Stuttgart and decided to go visit the Eiffel Tower once again. It looked great i the twilight and I really wanted to go up the tower, the que however was too long and I was way too tired to wait. Found a cosy cafe and spent the next couple of hours reading The Dream Merchants (Brugge has some very nice and very cheap second hand book stores) which seems promising so far. Finally I caught the night train and headed home.

Belgium is a great place to visit, if you are not looking for something to do but just relax and enjoy the cities and the casual almost lethargic way of life. Fortunately thats exactly what I needed.

Will try and put up some snaps soon.