Belgium!

 Belgium in a nutshell… 

 

In all seriousness, it was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I realize I’ve said that numerous times throughout this blog, but this stop was one that I was not expecting to appreciate so much. I knew very little about Belgium and all that it had to offer. It was also the first port where Semester at Sea students were permitted to travel to other countries. Germany, France, the Netherlands, Greece, and Luxembourg were on the itineraries of quite a few friends of mine. A group of us decided to just travel around Belgium. It was the best decision we could have ever made.

On the first day, a group of us headed to Brussels via train from Antwerp. We spent a pretty long while just wandering around, taking it all in, and finding our hostel.  We ate the first waffles we saw, and they were AMAZING. The Grand Place was ridiculously beautiful with all the big, old buildings. Belgium residents make a huge deal out of the Mannekin Pis so clearly we had to go see that. I was expecting something much larger. It was cute but definitely not worthy of all of the publicity. He may or may not have peed on the fire and saved the city of Brussels but still.

The next day rained, and it was absolutely miserable. I spent the best 3 euros of life on a poncho. We walked around some more, saw the beautiful king’s palace, and took refuge in a restaurant for mussels. I don’t know much more about mussels than their deliciousness, but Belgium’s were fantastic. If I had eaten one more, I may have turned into one.

Later we headed back to Antwerp for the night. The next day a number of my friends and I had a SAS trip to the German concentration camp, Fort of Breendock. It put a damper on all of our days, but it was an amazing experience. It’s one of the most well kept camps in that it hasn’t been used for anything else since. We walked around for hours with our little audio things, and I just can’t even begin to fathom all that happened within those walls. We got to see every inch of the place; from the showers to the triple bunks and the work yards, it was a great trip.

The next day, Brugge, surely my favorite Belgium city. It was just so beautiful and so quaint and so easy to navigate. The cathedrals, restaurants, canals, and museums were just awesome. We did tons more walking, had a picnic lunch in the town square, and eventually went on this awesome canal boat ride all around the city. Dinner was, of course, more mussels and beer. We just couldn’t get enough.

Before heading to Gent the following day, we visited this awesome Flemish art museum. I had never ever thought Survey of Western Art would come in handy, but it did! I had a much greater appreciation for what I was looking at and was even able to interpret some of the symbolism in the pieces. There were a number of Van Eyck and Jans works on display. We also made pit stops for more waffles and fries.

Gent was just as beautiful as all the rest, just a bit smaller. There were more castles and more canals and more astonishing buildings. We walked around a lot more, tried ‘Flemish coffee’ for the first time, and eventually hopped on the train back to Antwerp. It was the perfect place to just wander and take it all in.

Our last day in Belgium was really great; slow paced and relaxing. We visited the Antwerp zoo, one of the oldest in the world. It was a really cool place. You were SO CLOSE to the animals you could touch them if you wanted. (You shouldn’t, but you could.) They had two 5 month-old elephants; they were my favorite. Before walking back to the ship, we had yet more mussels and Belgian beer. I’m just realizing that never once did I feel hunger in Belgium…

Antwerp, Belgium was one of the ports I thought I wasn’t too too excited for. I ended up having the best time, and I definitely plan on returning someday. Just the sheer beauty and history of the cities I visited and the numerous buildings I walked through or around, astound me. People’s hands are responsible for all of it. The U.S. has nothing of the sort.