We left Frankfurt, after a great week in Germany, on the night bus to Brussels. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience we’ve had. The bus ride was actually only quite short, which meant that after a chilly wait to board the bus at midnight we were turfed out at the Brussels train station at 5:30am. We had not had nearly enough sleep, so we were both cold and tired.
We found a nice cafe at the train station to have a coffee to wake up before we thought we would walk into town and find a McDonald’s to sit and wait in the warm until everything opened (and use the free WIFI to find the address of our B&B). The problem with that plan was that the McDonalds in Brussels weren’t open and wouldn’t be until 8:30am! Unbelievable!
So we were forced to wander the cold streets in circles for a little while until we struck upon one lone open bakery-cafe to have a coffee and warm up a little. With still nothing open at 8.30am we decided to return to the McDonalds and continue with our original plan. But, when we arrived, their doors were still locked and there was a strange sign in Flemish on the window that we believed said something about no electricity. As we talked about what to do next a business man walked up to the McDonalds doors and gave them a forceful shake before shaking his head and rushing off down the street. In a streak of lunacy that must be put down to tiredness and hunger, we decided to stalk him certain that he was heading for another McDonalds nearby. Unfortunately, he wasn’t. After trailing this perfect stranger for 15 minutes, he eventually disappeared into a building that we assume he worked in (not McDonalds). Needless to say, we were in a big city so we eventually found another McDonalds, and because we wasted so much time following the guy it was open. It wasn’t the best start to our stay in Brussels.
Once all that drama was over, we set off to explore the European capital. Perhaps it was our auspicious start or that we’ve been on the road too long but we didn’t really love Brussels. Some of it was really nice though. We thought the Grand Place was magnificent and quite enjoyed walking down all the cobbled streets. The Royal Palace was also really beautiful.
One thing that we certainly weren’t impressed by was the diminutive ‘Mannekan Pis’. It’s a really small, strange statue of a little boy weeing in the street. It’s apparently a big deal and Belgium people enjoy making strange costumes to dress it up in. We didn’t see it’s appeal at all and quickly moved on!
One thing we did love about Brussels was the food. We started sampling some of the chocolates early on and my favourite was a caramel praline I had at a place called ‘Neuhaus’. In honour of Belgium being the home of chippies we had some lovely ‘Pommes Frites’ for lunch with Andalous sauce (not sure what it exactly was but it tasted like tomato and chili sauce mixed with mayo). And of course we tried a Belgium waffle, filled with chocolate. It was definitely the best we’d ever had. We also tried a few Belgium beers. For whatever reason, the bars in the city charge around 7 euros to have a bottle of beer on the street and none of them have anything interesting on tap. So we headed down to our local supermarket and bought six to try back in our hotel room (for around 10 euros!). My favourite was the Kriek, a cherry beer.
To the extreme disappointment of our local Belgium-loving B&B owner, we decided to leave early for our next destination in Holland, Rotterdam. We probably didn’t give Brussels a fair go really, but we enjoyed other cities so much more and were ready to move on.
The bus to Rotterdam was uninteresting except for the fact that we left a bag on it when we got off. Luckily for us, the extremely friendly lady in the Eurolines bus office put a call through to Amsterdam (where the bus terminated) and it was back to us the next day! Unbelievable, and really highlights the difference between Europe and Asia.
The reason we chose Rotterdam for our one-stop in Holland (and not Amsterdam) was to visit our friend Evert Slagter, a lovely dutchman we met almost a year ago now in Nepal (you can read about him here in our Nepal post if you like). He had been away at an annual carnival in his home town that involves dressing up in a curtain and a lampshade and drinking for five days!. Needless to say, he was pretty tired and a little unwell when we arrived. He did struggle through though and showed us an absolutely great time.
After we put our bags down (the ones Marty remembered to get off the bus) he took us for a tour of the city, which is an absolute gem. It has a really nice feel to it and the architecture is absolutely amazing. The city got completely flattened in World War 2 so it isn’t very historical but it has great modern architecture and still plenty of canals. One of my favourite things were the cube houses. They are crazy and people actually live in them. I definitely would if I lived there.
We then walked over the lovely Swan Bridge before stopping for beers and coffees at the New York Hotel, the original building of the Dutch-American line, which ran the big passenger boats that used to go from Rotterdam to New York in the old days. It was a really pretty building and we enjoyed a Dutch specialty, Bitteballen with mustard. They were little crumbed balls of meat goodness and they were delicious!
Afterwards we visited the ‘best bar in the world’ as voted by Lonely PLanet backpackers (more LP shenanigans to be honest) before going out for a really tasty pizza meal. We finished the evening meeting the Dutchman’s lovely girlfriend Jojaneka for a beer afterwards. All in all it was a great night and introduction to the city.
Those who know me, know I am a little obsessed with trying different foods and visiting different supermarkets. So I was thrilled in the morning when Evert suggested we go to his local supermarket for some typical Dutch breakfast foods. The supermarkets in the Netherlands are amazing. So much of the food was organic, there were no plastic bags and you get a refund for recycling beer bottles (there’s a little shute in the beer section).
Dutch foods are so different! For breakfast, they really enjoy a version of fairy bread! It is bread, butter and sugar sprinkles in a million different kinds, like chocolate (Hagelslag), aniseed (anijshagel) or fruit. So much better than Hundreds’n'Thousands. Being your typical Vegemite loving Aussie, I wasn’t sure how much I would like them but I adored them. I’m going to have to find somewhere that sells them back home! Besides that we also enjoyed some ‘old cheese’, famous Joppie Sauce, a few different meats, and schtoopwaffles (just as exciting as they sound!). It was all really, really good.
After that we set off to go on the Spido cruise around Rotterdam Port, the largest port in Europe and the third busiest in the world. It is absolutely huge at 40kms long and covering 105km2. Only Shanghai and Singapore are busier. I enjoyed seeing the myriads of shipyards and docks and watching the containers fly around in the air. I really wanted just to go and see what was in one of them!
We then traveled by ferry the opposite way down the Maas river to the Kinderdijk. The Kinderdijk was really cool – it is a village just outside Rotterdam and home to 19 traditional windmills. It was cold and windy but seeing all the windmills was just perfect and fulfilled every vision we had of what rural Netherlands would be like. No clogs though. The lazy Dutch souvenir shops were closed for the Winter.
We made it back into town and after a few beers headed to a Kebabery for a local creation (and new Marty favourite), the Kapsalon. It is the ultimate late night food and is made by covering hot chips with kebab meat, garlic sauce, melted cheese and salad. Yum! We finished with some Pofferjes (Dutch pancakes) before heading back to Evert’s to have a couple of drinks there with Jojaneka.
After enjoying another great Dutch breakfast (mmmmmm hagelslag!) it was time to leave for our bus back to London. We really enjoyed our visit to Rotterdam and can’t thank Evert enough for showing us around. We had an awesome time in Nepal with him and it was great to meet again and see a bit of Dutch life. If he and Jojanka come to Australia in the future they must come stay with us! We will miss both oh them until then.
Sarah
xoxo
P.S To see the Belgium pics, click here.
To see the Netherlands pics, click here.
