Chocolate in Bruges & Art in Amsterdam

We decided it was time to slow down a bit so we headed off to Belgium and the Netherlands. 

Our first stop was Bruges. Bruges was more than I expected. It was a quaint little town with an old Europe flair surrounded by canals and windmills. The people were friendly and welcoming. At one point on our walk around town we were looking at our map trying to figure out where to go next and a nice elderly man we could barely understand wandered up to help us. What started out as just directions turned into quite a long conversation about the meaning of love. I could only assume he seemed taken by us as a couple. And even though it was unexpected it kind of gave Bruges a sense of old school European romance that has been missing elsewhere. Our primary goal in Bruges was to consume as much fine Belgian chocolate, cheese, and beer as we could. We succeeded! Everything in Bruges tasted delicious! By the time we left for Amsterdam I had to loosen the belt just a bit but boy was it worth it! 

Some of the local sites: including the windmills along the canals and the Market Square.

We stumbled upon a market one day in the city center. Their produce and meats were amazing!

Most often our meals consisted of some local cheese and meats from the deli down the street, fresh bread and fruit, some pesto, and of course a fine Belgian beer. Picnics like this were best enjoyed while watching people in the town square.

One of the highlights of Bruges was crossing off #53 on my bucket list and taking a Belgian Chocolate Tour. We made sure to research some of the best little local shops to get a small sampling from each. Let me tell you…once you’ve gone Belgian you won’t ever go back!

The four shops we visited were: Neuhaus, The Chocolate Line, Verheecke Chocolates, and Dumon Chocolates

For 5-6 Euros you could get about 100 grams of chocolate of your choice, which proved to be quite the perfect sample or dessert size for two.


One of our favorite spots was Neuhaus! We went back there a couple of times.

 
Some of the samples from Neuhaus! Absolutely decedent!

Our sample box from Dumon Chocolates. They were quite delicious as well! Probably our second favorite shop!

The only downside to Bruges were the bugs! We were literally being eaten alive by mosquitoes in our room at night. After the first night both Matt and I had no less than 20 bites each. So, the next day we shut the windows and door and went on a bug hunt to rid our room of the little blood sucking monsters. It was a massacre! I think the count was up to at least 15 squashed with the spatters on the wall to prove it before we decided we must have killed them all and headed off to bed. Boy were we wrong.

We woke up at about 3 am because neither of us could bear the buzzing around our ears and we proceeded to kill 10+ more. In the process we uncovered Goliath, the biggest spider both Matt and I have ever seen! And no, he was not the helpful kind of spider helping us to rid the room of mosquitoes. So the mission changed. Our only goal at that point was to get rid of Goliath. Of course we didn’t want him getting loose after a failed attempt with a shoe and running for cover in our luggage that was neatly placed nearby. So Matt carefully and strategically moved everything in the room from that side to the other. He was going to go down with the first attempt and that was final. In the end with my flip-flop in (Matt’s) hand we were victorious. Call us what you want…we both slept a little better that night knowing Goliath wasn’t sleeping with us. 

Goliath stayed the remainder of his days semi-squished under a plastic cup with a book on top. We left him there for the cleaning lady to take care of when we left the next day. We thought the hotel staff should appreciate him just as much a we did.

THE NETHERLANDS
Next stop was Amsterdam. People rave about Amsterdam and although it does have a funky flare with the canals, the bicycles, the Red Light District, and the all too talked about “cafes,” it felt just a little mainstream to me. Besides all the canals and their acceptance with sex and marijuana it didn’t seem all that different from Portland. Don’t get me wrong, it is a fun city to visit but coming from a hipster town myself, it was just kind of another big busy city.

We made sure to see some of Amsterdam’s most noticeable sites including: the tulip market, the Rijksmuseum, the diamond museum, the skinny bridge, and of course the Red Light District (I was humming Roxanne the whole time). 

It also just so happed that the place where we were staying at was right next to the street where all the high fashion designer shops were. Little did we know that Vogue Magazine was holding their "Fashion’s Night Out 2013 Netherlands” event there. Apparently Vogue sponsors these nights in all the big cities where everyone whose anyone in the fashion industry comes to rub elbows with those in the know. They shut down the major fashion street and all the shops stay open late with “sales,” they hand out free drinks and swag, and have elite invitation-only parties and runway shows. Of course it is open to anyone to walk around and see so I dragged Matt along to see what the world of high fashion was like. Let me tell you…I have never felt so out of place, under-dressed, and short in all my life. I felt like I stepped right into an episode of Top Model Netherlands. It was fun to see but definitely not the scene for either Matt nor myself so we quickly made our way back to our cozy little room to have as much of a nice quiet evening as we could with the fashion party going on out our backdoor.

Inside the Attic Church.

One of my favorite sites was the Attic Church. After the reformation, Catholicism was banned and all the official churches had to be Protestant. So, Catholics of the time had to worship secretly. Because of this one man turned his and two others houses into a secret church. From the outside it looks just like any other house on the street but inside is a full multi-level chapel. People of the time would come and go through the back ally to Mass every Sunday and no one ever knew the difference. It was absolutely amazing!

Another one of our favorite sites in Amsterdam was the Van Gough Museum. Because this museum was devoted to one artist and had almost a complete collection of his work you could see his growth and change and emerging style as a artist. No other museum I’ve ever been too has been able to show that so well. It is definitely a must-see if you make it to Amsterdam!


Overall Bruges and Amsterdam were both fun and funky places to visit! We enjoyed our time in both cities but it was time to move on. Off to to ride a river boat down the Rhine!