.after 3 days and more than 900km is our trip to Belgium over. We're back in Saarbrucken, tired but full of new exciting experience ;). But let me start from the absolute beginning.
It all started many weeks ago, when we decided to pay a visit to our friend, co-student from Prague, who is now studying (Erasmus of course) in Hasselt, Belgium. He invited us to come to see him as well as this interesting and very expensive european country (petrol costs 1.272 euro/liter, for example in Luxembourg you can get the same for 1.005 - that is what I call a big difference...). The final date agreed upon was this weekend.
With the hope of relatively good weather and packed with good mood we arrived to Hasselt. After the meeting with Michal and hearing some of his bizarre recollections of previous night (some nice party ended with him beaten and his bicycle hanged on the traffic sign somewhere in the city ;) ) we went to local Carrefour to shop for needed supplies (you know, the liquid and other stuff...). First thing you'll notice in the grocery shop in Belgium is HUGE number of brands and types of beer. The second sight will uncover some never seen before amounts of alcohol in belgian beer (ranging from 8 to 12%!!!, in Slovakia the normal beer has 4%). So we tasted a few pints and talked about life, etc. :)
After seeing the really nasty and bad weather on Saturday morning we decided to leave our plans of visiting Amsterdam unfulfilled and visit Antwerpen instead. This was a superb decision. Not only is this city much closer but the rain stopped after leaving Hasselt and even some sun broke through the clouds. Finding a parking place relatively easily we started our exploration of the old merchant town and harbour. City (800,000 inhabitants) of long maritime and merchant history, typical architecture (like the guild houses on the picture), tradition of diamond processing and the biggest jewish community in Europe has a lot to offer for tourists. Plenty of sightseeing beauties as well as hundreds of nice little pubs and luxurious restaurants. Everyone can spend here a nice day or two... We had a relatively good weather with periods of sun and clouds accompanied by cold wind (but you can't expect better at this time of the year, can you?). After a long and exhausting tour around the city's centre we relaxed for a while in the oldest pub they have here :). Some homemade beer was drank and with this we returned back to our home for a weekend in Hasselt.
For Sunday we planned trip to a Bruxelles, the heart of European Union because we as good Europeans wanted to see where our taxes are going to ;). Again it rained in eastern Belgium, but the capital was lit with sun (good for us). Bruxelles is quite a big city (1,019,000), with absolutely confusing traffic sign system (we're unable to find our way back from the centre for some time...). Until today I thought the worst traffic signs are in Hungary (no offense meant) but this is my new favourite :). Maybe starting our tourist route directly on the central square was not such a good idea. After seeing those beauties the remaining parts (except for grandious cathedral, on the pic) were not very inviting nor interesting. Lots of churches in desolate conditions, many gay bars, some modern banks... Of course we didn't see everything, our time was running out quickly, but from what I've seen, it's not at all as beautiful as it's neighbour Antwerpen. Yes, there is one more thing worth of mentioning, we've found here cheaper famous belgian chocolate ;) (500g are awaiting it's chance to prove it's quality on my shelf right now).
And that's probably it. I'm pretty tired (after many hours of driving) as I'm writing this. But hopefully it was worth the pain and you've enjoyed my little story... Good bye Belgium!
In case you want to see some more photos, visit this link.
With the hope of relatively good weather and packed with good mood we arrived to Hasselt. After the meeting with Michal and hearing some of his bizarre recollections of previous night (some nice party ended with him beaten and his bicycle hanged on the traffic sign somewhere in the city ;) ) we went to local Carrefour to shop for needed supplies (you know, the liquid and other stuff...). First thing you'll notice in the grocery shop in Belgium is HUGE number of brands and types of beer. The second sight will uncover some never seen before amounts of alcohol in belgian beer (ranging from 8 to 12%!!!, in Slovakia the normal beer has 4%). So we tasted a few pints and talked about life, etc. :)
After seeing the really nasty and bad weather on Saturday morning we decided to leave our plans of visiting Amsterdam unfulfilled and visit Antwerpen instead. This was a superb decision. Not only is this city much closer but the rain stopped after leaving Hasselt and even some sun broke through the clouds. Finding a parking place relatively easily we started our exploration of the old merchant town and harbour. City (800,000 inhabitants) of long maritime and merchant history, typical architecture (like the guild houses on the picture), tradition of diamond processing and the biggest jewish community in Europe has a lot to offer for tourists. Plenty of sightseeing beauties as well as hundreds of nice little pubs and luxurious restaurants. Everyone can spend here a nice day or two... We had a relatively good weather with periods of sun and clouds accompanied by cold wind (but you can't expect better at this time of the year, can you?). After a long and exhausting tour around the city's centre we relaxed for a while in the oldest pub they have here :). Some homemade beer was drank and with this we returned back to our home for a weekend in Hasselt.
For Sunday we planned trip to a Bruxelles, the heart of European Union because we as good Europeans wanted to see where our taxes are going to ;). Again it rained in eastern Belgium, but the capital was lit with sun (good for us). Bruxelles is quite a big city (1,019,000), with absolutely confusing traffic sign system (we're unable to find our way back from the centre for some time...). Until today I thought the worst traffic signs are in Hungary (no offense meant) but this is my new favourite :). Maybe starting our tourist route directly on the central square was not such a good idea. After seeing those beauties the remaining parts (except for grandious cathedral, on the pic) were not very inviting nor interesting. Lots of churches in desolate conditions, many gay bars, some modern banks... Of course we didn't see everything, our time was running out quickly, but from what I've seen, it's not at all as beautiful as it's neighbour Antwerpen. Yes, there is one more thing worth of mentioning, we've found here cheaper famous belgian chocolate ;) (500g are awaiting it's chance to prove it's quality on my shelf right now).And that's probably it. I'm pretty tired (after many hours of driving) as I'm writing this. But hopefully it was worth the pain and you've enjoyed my little story... Good bye Belgium!
In case you want to see some more photos, visit this link.
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