In Bruges

Bruges is crazy looking medieval city in Belgium.  If you haven't seen the movie In Bruges you should watch it because it's awesome.  Fair warning, it has a lot of violence and swearing.

Chrissy and I tried to recreate a scene from the movie at the statue of Jan Van Eyck.  Here's the the shot from the movie:

Here's us:

Not too bad, if I do say so myself.  I'm not sure I would necessarily be Brendan Gleeson and Chrissy would be Colin Farrell but that's cool.

Anyway, we tried to strike up a balance of culture and fun when we were here.  Climbing the 366 steps to the top of the belfry is a bit of work, but worth it for the view.  It is all windy, narrow steps and the fat guy in the movie would not have made it up there.

Also, this is not news but Belgian beer (and glassware, we only bought 3 which was us holding back) is great.  This Belgian triple was 9% and delightful:

I had it with a wicked tasty Flemish beef stew.  We actually had less success with the waffles though.  Since they are everywhere and pretty touristy, it's easy to get ones that are not great, but we did eventually find ones that were good.  Surprisingly (or maybe not, I don't know) Waffle Cabin back in the States (they are at a lot of ski resorts and do the waffles for Waffles and Puppets at Ommegang) makes them just as good.  The fries, however, are great.  You get them with mayonnaise, but it's better than any mayonnaise from home and really really good.

All in all, I really enjoyed Bruges.  Great beer, food, and surroundings.

The Hague

Our day trip to The Hague included the Escher museum, Mauritishuis,  and good beer.

Escher selfies

Reubens and Rembrandt and Van Eykes oh my!

A walk through the Tweed Kamer

Panorama Mesdag, beach scene 360

Delirium Tremens

Delft

Since it was nearby and easily accessible by bus, we took a day trip to Delft. 

As if parallel parking wasn't hard enough, people of the Netherlands also get to enjoy this water hazard.

Just in case you thought they were just joking about that whole "bikes are popular in the Netherlands" thing

Delft is the home of the well known blue and white porcelain.  The Dutch  were originally inspired to make this after trading with the Chinese. These are hand painted tiles.

In addition to the traditional blue and white China and tableware, the Royal Delft was also known for its architectural tile, which you can see here on display in the inner courtyard.

Delftie #1

Delftie #2

The Prinsenhof museum, documenting the history of William of Orange,  rebel founder of the Netherlands. He was assasinated here on the steps of this museum. They've preserved the bullet holes for posterity.

Coffees and hazelnut  cake on a canal boat

Local Delft brew

Gouda and Kinderdijk

Yes, that Gouda.  Those are plastic cheeses, and that's us, standing on a giant medieval cheese scale. In addition to at one time being the wealthiest city in the Netherlands, Gouda is also known for clay pipes and candles.

The GPS gave us a back roads route from Gouda to the Kinderdijk.  It included this surprise ferry. 40 percent of the country is below sea level after all.

Kinderdijk, Unesco world heritage site. Debates on where the name comes from, child labor, small dike, man with many children as one of the head millers... you pick.

Originally 20 dikes from the mid 1600's all working to elevate water over 1 meter to maintain farmland from being claimed by the sea. The windmill's energy is used to turn and Archimedes screw that moves the water. The tops of these windmill's can be rotated to best position the sails. Families used to live in these things.

There was no wind on our visit, so I had to push.

Too many days in Holland for you all to have to wait for the required wooden clogs photo

Look, National Geographic thinks my visit is cover-worthy!

Thoughts on the Netherlands

Bikes are everywhere.  It takes longer to cross the bike lane than it does the actual street because the cars will stop for you but the bikes won't.  Also, it's pretty easy to end up in the bike lane accidentally because it often feels like an extension of the sidewalk.  Haven't been hit yet though so that's good.

You don't ever really pronounce the letter g in Dutch.  It either goes soft and turns into an h sound or you pronounce it like you are disgusted with something like CCHHH.  Lots of streets end in "weg" which is pronounced "vecchhh" so that's fun but after a bit it makes you kind of thirsty.

Rotterdam

Frite and Frickendel (with mayo and curry ketchup)

View of Rotterdam harbor during World Port days from the Euromast (185 meters). The elevator ride to the top was sound tracked by Lenny Kravitz.

Light and boat "water ballet" for World Port Day festivities.

World Port Days fire works show, sound tracked with Cydia Lauper's True Colors and MJ's Thriller

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