March 22nd, 2014

So today I went to Brugge, a city in Northern Belgium (in Flanders specifically), nicknamed "The Venice of the North". I went with my friend Franny (Toronto), Elene (Flanders), Alice (Paris), and Emil (Sweden). We took the 11 am train to Brugge. When we arrived we grabbed a couple maps at the Visitor Info booth in the train station, and we got information about the boat tours.

Then we decided to walk towards the city centre (closer to where the boat tours started) and to grab some lunch at a cafe somewhere. I say cafe lightly, we stopped at what looked like a nice cafe, but when we went in and looked at the menu, it was overly fancy. The cheap meal was a three course dinner. Starting with soup, then a choice of chicken, steak, salmon, or pork chops, and either ice cream of cream puffs for dessert. I had the chicken, and boy it was amazing!

After lunch, we bought tickets for the boat tours. It was so cool! We got to see the entire downtown from the vantage point of the rivers, streams, and locks that run through the city. It's almost impossible to describe.

We walked around the city, stopping to shop in some of the stores, looking at the brewery and the convent as well. We ran into Elene's brother as well! She's from Leuven on Erasmus to Liege (so not too far) and it was nice to meet some of her family. We also stopped to see a free harp concert.

(The Brewery)

Brugge is a beautiful city. It definitely lives up to its name of Venice of the North.

March 9th, 2014

So today I went to Luxembourg!! It was amazing! I went with Franny and Elena (Franny and I met her on the ESN Lille trip). We met at the train station at 6:45 to take the 7:15 train from Liege to Luxembourg city. I bought a GoPass, which is a train pass good for 10 rides in Belgium. It was cheaper to do it this way, take a train to the border and buy an in-country ticket for Luxembourg. So the trip cost 10 euros (there & back) instead of 60, so I think it was a very good idea!

We had a direct train from Liege to Luxembourg and we arrived a little after 9 am. It was a Sunday so all the stores were closed, which is ok because the tourist spots and the museums were all open. From the train station, we walked 15 minutes to the Visitor Information Centre in downtown Luxembourg. The city is absolutely gorgeous!

The Visitor Information Centre gave us a walking tour guide for all the historic and interesting spots in the city centre. I bought a set of Luxembourg Euros at the VIC. In one of the more tourist areas, I stopped to buy postcards and other souvenirs. We did the first part of the walking tour and ended up in front of the Duke's palace. Luxembourg is ruled by a monarchy led by a Duke (instead of a King). Facing his residence was The Chocolate House, a small cafe & chocolatier, famous for their hot chocolate drinks. It was right around lunch time so we stopped for lunch. We had quiche and salad. For dessert, we had to try some of their famous hot chocolate and we shared a piece of cake. Their hot chocolate is famous because it arrives separately. They give you a large mug of hot milk, and  a lump of chocolate (with the flavour you chose) on a wooden spoon. You lower the spoon into the milk and stir until the chocolate all melts. There was over 20 flavours to choose from, plus alcoholic and childrens flavours. I have Almost Raspberry and Franny had Hot Chili Orange.

After lunch, we continued the walking tour, seeing the entire city centre of Luxembourg. I can't believe how stunning this city is! Everything in the main part of the city is ancient, like they built the new city in and on old castle walls. It's stunning.

Our next big stop was the Bock Casemates and Acheological Crypt, and underground defence works, built in the Spanish era. It houses the origins of the city. There were tunnels and crypts that zig zagged forever. It was a little scary being underground with the traffic rolling over,  but the scariest part was the spiral staircase on the tour the steps were maybe four inches wide at their widest, and you could tell they were well used because they were all slanted downwards, there were several occasions I thought I was going to fall. It was terrifying but I'm really glad I got to see it. The Casemates are a Unesco World Heritage Site.

We then finished the walking tour, through the valley and back up to the Visitor Information Centre. We were all getting really tired so we stopped at a cafe for something to drink, and stopped back at the Chocolate House to buy some souvenir chocolates.

We then headed back to the train station to see when the next train for Liege left. We had two options, one that left in a half hour and took 3 hours to Liege, with a transfer in Nemur, arriving at 9:15 pm in Liege. Or a train that left an hour and a half, took 2 1/2 hours, straight shot, arriving in Liege at 9:40 pm. We decided to wait for the second train and have supper before leaving Luxembourg. Across from the train station was a small restaurant in a Best Western, so we had supper there. I had an amazing lasagna and we had plenty of time to get to the train.

March 4th, 2014

So today I went to Carnaval with Franny and a bunch of other Erasmus students. We all met at the train station at 9:30 to go to Binche; the Carnaval there is recognized by UNESCO even! I wore jeans and a button up shirt in an attempt to be a cowgirl. Binche is two hours away by train so we all visited on the way.

The town was so cute! We followed the crowd down to the main street where all the action was. Everyone was milling around, eating, drinking, listening to music! It was a really great atmosphere. We walked through the crowds, stopping to buy souvenirs (I bought a cowboy hat to go with my costume) and lunch (pizza at a local baker). Franny, Alice, and I broke away from the rest of the group to wander around the town. The weather couldn't decide what it wanted to do, going from sunshine to rain and back to sunshine. 

We made our way to the main street where the parade was. We got really good spots against the guard rail. We stood and chatted and waited for the parade to start. And waited, and waited, and waited... Finally, an hour and a half late, the parade finally started. Lead by police on horses, there was a group of children in costumes throwing oranges into the crowd. No word of a lie, they were throwing oranges, blood oranges to be specific. They were followed by what I assume were their parents carrying backpacks full of oranges to refill the childrens' backpacks. Each group went like this, the groups getting progressively older. These were the costumes of the adults. They also had fluffly, plummed hats made of ostrich feathers. 

The origins of the Carnival of Binche are still unclear. The costumes of the men in the picture with Franny and I are called "Gille". The Gille's costume can only be worn for this special day (Carnaval goes over 4 days in total). It is also forbidden to leave the city with this costume, from the saying "a Gille never leaves". 

Click here if you would like more information on the Binche Carnaval

March 1st, 2014

Today was absolutely incredible. Today, my friend Camille and I went to the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, in Groesbeek, The Netherlands, to see it and to fulfill my promise to Auntie Jean and Uncle Les about going to see the grave of Peter Schneider, a family member who fell during the war.

It started off well, woke up early to catch the train to Maastricht. When we arrived, we misread the train schedule. We thought our next train was leaving at 10:30 so we walked around Maastricht to kill time. Everything was decorated for Carnaval, which is basically a combination of Halloween and Mardi Gras, spanning the course of 4 days. Every city and town in Belgium and the southern Netherlands celebrates Carnaval, but each celebrates it on different days.

For example, Liege has Carnaval starting Monday this week. Anyways, when we got back to the train station we realized our mistake. Our train was arriving at its destination at 10:30, not leaving Maastricht... Luckily, trains in Europe are pretty flexible. As long as you have a ticket, it doesn't matter what time you get on the trains, as long as its on the same day. So we just took the next train.

We had to change trains in s'-hertogenbosch (yes that's actually its name) before we arrived in Nijmegen. We bought sandwiches there as it was just after noon, before catching bus number 5 to Groesbeek. Everyone in the Netherlands was very helpful. The bus driver told us which stop to get off at and he gave us directions from the bus stop to walk to the cemetery.

It was a beautiful walk, about 1 km along a country road with a gorgeous forest on one side of the road and a golf course on the other. The road was lined with stunning trees that curved in an arch over the road. The cemetery itself was sitting on top of a hill, with forest all around. Beautiful countryside. There were a few cars in the parking lot, but no visitors in the cemetery when we arrived.

I was a little stunned at first, walking into the cemetery. Thousands of white headstones sitting in rows in the green grass. It was a humbling experience. All those brave men who gave their lives for our freedom. I, of course, started crying. It was a heartbreaking experience, but I did feel a surge of pride for my countrymen.

With the ID and location number Auntie Jean gave me, I found Peter Schneider with no problem. He was tucked on the far left of the cemetery under the shade of a tree. It's still considered winter here so even though there's green grass, there aren't any flowers, and it slipped my mind to bring some. But in the spring his grave will be beautiful, under the shade of a tree, with a rose bush growing beside the stone.

After paying my respects to Peter, Camille and I walked around the rest of the cemetery. Looking at each of the headstones in turn, reading the quotes at the bottom, seeing the vary of the ages. The youngest we saw was 17. There were so many 18 and 19 year olds... Peter Schneider was only 19 when he fell.

More people started to arrive before we left. It started to rain and get cold at 3pm so we walked back to the bus, and took it back to the train station. Back in Nijmegen, everyone was wearing costumes! And I do mean everyone, from the stroller to the walker. It didn't matter what age you were, you dressed up for Carnaval. We didn't really feel like going back to Liege just yet so we  walked around Nijmegen for a while. We even stumbled onto a street market and fair. Games, concerts, vendors, it was really cool to see.

At 5:30, our legs were starting to ache so we decided to take an earlier train back to Liege, and it's a good thing we did too! Our first train was from Nijmegen to s'-hertogenbosch, with one stop in Oss. When we arrived in Oss, the conductor made an announcement over the intercom, in Dutch, obviously. Suddenly, everyone got up and exited the train. A young woman seated across from us leaned over and told us that there had been an accident on the tracks ahead and this train would no be going any further. She had heard us talking in English and assumed we wouldn't understand the Dutch! We followed her off the train and across the street where she told us the Train company had arranged for a shuttle bus to take us the rest of the way to s'-hertogenbosch. Like I said before, it's a good thing we took the earlier train because  we didn't miss the last trains back to Maastricht and Liege.

The rest of the night was uneventful, and we both arrived safely back in Liege by 10 pm!