Bruges, Belgium Trip (Day 2)

 11th November 2023, Saturday

Today we planned to visit Bruges which was like about 1 hr away from Brussels by train. My friend found that there was a weekend ticket which we could buy at 50% off while traveling within Belgium. However, we had some doubt on this ticket as we were planning to go Ghent the next day. So we decided to go to the railway station and buy from the counter instead. We got ready and left the hotel without any breakfast. When we reached the train station, we went and checked with the train staff how the weekend tickets work. Apparently, we could buy a weekend ticket to go Bruges today and stay over night there and return with the same ticket tomorrow. But we can't go with this. The other way is we could buy the same weekend ticket for a day and drop off at Bruges first and next to Ghent in a day. The train staff helped us to key in the options from the ticket machine and he had set it across 2 days. Anyway the price was still the same for 1 day or 2 days, so we paid for it. We left to the platform after we confirmed with the train staff on which platform we should go for the train. We were lucky to catch the 8:17 train.

Heading to Bruges

We got onto a double-decker train and managed to get a 4 seaters. It was also raining while we were on the train. Managed to see a double rainbow when we were about to reach Bruges station. When we reached the station, the rain had stopped. While we were figuring our direction, the rain started again but this time, it was raining hail stones instead, So we waited till it stopped before we started out on our journey. It was about 15-20 mins to the old town and it kept raining (the clouds very dark and big). We first arrived at St. Salvator's Cathedral as this was the first building we saw. So we went inside to have a peek, the stained coloured windows were decorated with different designs relating to Christianity. There were a lot of people visiting Bruges too and with different walking tours. We spent some time in the cathedral before we left to our next destination. We passed the Belfort of Bruges and it was ringing at that time. But we continued walking to find our breakfast place which was named House of Waffles. When we reached there, there was some people buying their waffles outside the shop. So we headed in for a seat so that we can rest and enjoy the food (most importantly, we could use their toilet for free...😀). The place was almost full and we were lucky to get a table. Cos as the time nearing noon, there was a waiting queue for dine-in. 

Rainbow

St. Salvator's Cathedral

House of Waffles

We ordered a hot chocolate drink, a club BLT waffles and a belgium-style waffles with bananas and cream. Interestingly, the hot chocolate drink came in hot foam milk and a block of chocolate. So i mixed the chocolate block into the milk and let it melt inside. It was quite nice and not too sweet. The waffles were nice too, though the bacon in the club BLT waffles was salty. Overall, i still think it was yummy. After that, we continued to explore the town and stumbled onto the famous beer wall at 2be bar where different beer bottles were displayed onto a very wide wall. They even had a 3-storey high shop where they were selling a lot of Tintin and Smurfs collectibles.  After that, we continued to walk out and the rain had become lighter. And the sun was finally out. Some people were taking the cruise tour and some are walking along the streets. We walked till we reached another cathedral - Church of Our Lady. It was also quite grand outside and inside of the cathedral. We just spent some time exploring inside.

BLT waffles

 Belgium-style waffles

Chocolate block with milk

After that, we kept walking further into the town and going back to see the Belford tower and the city hall. We walked till almost 3 before we ned up in a restaurant named L'Estaminet. It was quite empty when we reached there. So we took a table with view outside and started ordering a fish soup and a non-alcoholic beer (Sportzot) and a pasta with a look of cheese melted on top. And the sun started to shine on us after the clouds were cleared. The food took a while to arrive and we were glad to have some hot food on the table. The fish soup was quite delicious and there was plenty of fish meat inside. The pasta with the melted cheese was also quite nice. It was sooo filling after we finished everything. After that we paid for our meal and continued walking. We walked to the main square where we saw the city hall and Basilica of the Holy Blood - which i had listed to visit but ended up visited other churches around the town...😂

The Beerwall

We walked up to the basilica to take a look inside and there were a lot of visitors inside the church. We walked around and saw a sign indicating the "relic of the Holy Blood" placed behind a tabernacle. So we only saw the tabernacle and not the real relic itself. After seeing that, we left the place and made our way back to Brussels. The streets were already filled with a lot of visitors and getting crowded. We saw a Gong Cha branch and decided to buy a drink to share on the train. We got a large winter melon drink with milk foam and lychee popping. Later, we went and took the train back to the hotel...So tiring...

Entrance to see relic of the Holy Blood

Tabernacle

Only Gong Cha of whole trip

Hotel stayed: Bedford Hotel & Congress Centre

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Brussels, Belgium Trip (Day 1)

 10th November 2023, Friday

I had planned a weekend gateway to Belgium as it will be a public holiday next Monday for Singapore and it was quite near to Netherlands (about 2hrs plus train ride). Since I had a half day off today, so I worked from 1 am to 4:30 am (NL time) and we also had to leave the house by 5 am to catch our train. However, we only managed to leave the house by 5:05 am and then we had to walk 20 mins to the train station. The wind was blowing sooo strong and it felt so cold and dry. We were 15 mins earlier than our scheduled time but there was a 10 mins delay on our train. So we hid in the seated room to wait for our train. We managed get to leave almost to 6 am and off we go to Brussels.

Leaving early

Sunrise

There was a couple of hicups during the train journey. When we were about to reach Breda Station, the train suddenly stopped for a few minutes due to a stop in electricity providing to the train and they had to reboot the system to get the electricity back. In the end, there was a delay on the train schedule and the train conductor announced they will have to do quick stop at the upcoming stations in order to catch up the delayed time. When we reached Brussels Midi station, the conductor was walking around the train checking if anyone was going to Brussels Central station. If yes, will need to get off and transfer to another train in platform 8 to go Brussels Central station instead. Since we need to go to Brussels Central, we had to change to the other train in platform 8 instead. We managed to reach Brussels Central almost 10 am (1 hour later than our expected arrival time). When we reached there, it was also raining and my friend needed soooo badly a place for her stupid meeting. There was no place for her and she wanted to get to the hotel as fast as she could. So we kind of had a fight because of it, but we still went ahead straight to the hotel under the rain. It was a 15-20 mins walk to the hotel and i was so glad we reached there finally.  Though we can't check in yet, there was free wifi and seating place to use. 

Drawing on building

TinTin cartoon drawing

King's House at grand square

House of the Dukes of Brabant (Front)

Building names: Le Roy d'Espagne, La Brouette, Le Sac, La Louve, Le Cornet and Le Renard

Building names: L'Étoile, Le Cygne, L'Arbre d'Or, La Rose and Le Mont Thabor

So my friend stayed on for her work and i headed out to explore the town first on my own. I saw a very tall building that looked like a cathedral, so i headed walking towards it. It was situated at the centre square where there were 7 majestic looking buildings around the grand square. However, there was stuffs blocking the view as the people was preparing to setup for stalls and decorations for their Christmas markets. And there were different groups of walking tours with different languages telling stories about the buildings. There were also a lot of chocolate and waffles shops around each corner. There were also paintings of Tintin characters around the building since this was the birth place of Tintin comics. It also started to rain slightly and i just continued walking around the streets till 11: 45 am. My friend called me when i was buying some almond chocolate in a shop named La Belgique Gourmande. So i quickly paid and headed back to the hotel to meet her for lunch. We decided to go try this eating place named Baogo which was near the central. It was just opened for business so it was easy to get a table for dine -in during lunch time. It was a asian fusion restaurant but it doesn't look like it though they did sell sim dum. But reviews show they were famous for their "bao". It was actually hamburger but the buns looked like chinese bao instead. We ordered a Panko Chieken Bao (Popular choice) and a Panko Salmon Bao to try with sweet potato fries. The baos came in a large dim sum basket and the portion was big.  The fried chicken breast in the bao was cooked nicely and was yummy with the sauce. The salmon burger was also nice with avocado but it was not as good as the chicken burger. Overall, the food was nice here.

Popular waffles

Chocolates

Baos!

After lunch, we walked around for a while and we went to a cookie shop named Maison Dandoy. My friend was recommending the cookies and sweets in the shop. And we also bought a small box of 30 cookies and we got to pick the cookies. After that, we headed back to the hotel as it was almost 2 pm and my friend needed to go back to her work. Once we reached the hotel, she went back to her work and i took a rest on the sofa while waiting for check-in. At 2 plus, we tried to ask for check-in as we saw other visitors seems to get check-in before 3 pm. When it was our turn, the staff tried to check us in and got us to pay the hotel taxes. After paying, the staff told us that our room was not ready and we had to check-in after 3 pm...It was so 'funny' that he even took my friend's passport for verification and got us to pay the hotel tax first, then told us our room was not ready. So never mind, we went back to the seating area and wait for some more time. i ended up napping on the sofa while waiting. When i woke up, it already passed 3pm. So i decided to go back to the same staff to check if our room is ready. The staff said it was ready and wanted my friend's passport for registration. I was thinking 'what the hell, didn't you take the details when we first checked in?' But never mind again, i went to my friend to get her passport for the guy to key the details. And finally he passed us our room key after multiple to and fro. I was just glad to go into our room so i can sleep.

Cookies shop

Cookies

So we took our bags and went up to the room. When we walked into the room, the room felt cold and we tried to set the air-con cum heater. But the lowest temperature we can set was only 15 degrees and there seem to have cold air blowing out. In the end we gave up and continued with our stuffs. There was not even a kettle in the room and the room looked old too. I just napped again until my friend knocked off from her work. But it was already raining heavily and we still had to grab something for dinner. Before we left the hotel, we asked the reception to get their technician to check on our heater. Then we went out to get some water first from the mini store beside the hotel. We tried to head to a ramen shop we searched online by walking but we ended up stopping a chinese noodles eating place - Au bon bol along the way. The smell of the soup was attractive to me and we just went in instead as there were other customers going in and it was already pouring. My friend checked the reviews online briefly and there was some good reviews. We went upstairs to find a seat and we decided to order a bowl of soup noodles with mixed meat (included pork, chicken, duck and beef) and a mixed dim sum for sharing. After we ordered, the people started coming in and filling up the place. Soon it was full house but we slowly noticed the time taken for the food to serve was taking sooo long. We waited like 30 mins or so for our noodles to be served. The noodles and soup was nice but the fried chicken pieces were already soaked long in the soup and it was hard. Taste still not too bad though. The dim sum was not tasty at all, tasted like frozen dim sum instead, 

Hotel room

Hot noodles

Dim sum

By the time we finished dinner, it was already past 7, going to be 8 pm. So we paid for the meal and headed back to our hotel. A lot of people were still outside shopping around the stores and walking the streets. When we reached the hotel, we checked with the reception and was informed their technician had went up and looked at our heater. So we went up to our room and sure enough, the room was slightly warmer than earlier. We saw the ac control was on but the temperature was set to nothing. But it was still slightly cold, luckily the blanket was thick enough to keep us warm while we slept. And the wifi kept dropping since our room was the very very far back on the level.

Hotel stayed: Bedford Hotel & Congress Centre

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Solo Adventure in Amsterdam, Netherlands

 9th November 2023, Thursday

Today i was on leave and the weather was good, so decided to head out alone to Amsterdam (since my friend is working today). So she recommended me to head down to Dappermarkt located at Amsterdam Muidenpoort first before going to Amsterdam Central for the rest of the day. I prepared myself and made sure i am wrapped warmly (with my thermal wear and jackets), off i went. The wind was blowing strongly when i was walking to the train station. I waited for the 10:13 am train to head down to Amsterdam Muidenpoort station. It was a 15 mins ride....and luckily the sun was out today. When i reached the station, i made my way to Dappermarkt. Though the opening hours was from 10 am, there were multiple stalls not opened yet. But those opened were selling flowers, cheese, fresh veggies and fishes. Others were selling clothes, socks or toys. At the fresh fish stall (De Graaf - Roos & Zn), they were selling fried shrimps, cuttlefish, etc too. So i decided to buy some fried shrimps to try after long thought and i was getting hungry at that time.  I bought 6 shrimps for $5.50 and additional $0.50 for the sauce. It was nice and filling even for 6 shrimps though it was expensive.....😅..Afterwards, i just continued exploring the market. I decided to head down to Amsterdam Central as there was nothing much that i was interested in the market.

A day with sun

Dappermarkt Entrance

Available stalls

Fried giant shrimps

I took the 11:43 train to Amsterdam Central and it was just one station away. Luckily there was no train disruption or anything else going on. When i reached Amsterdam central, there were so many people around and i tried to walk towards the canal. But i think i just ended up on the tourists area where there were a lot of shops along the streets (like our Orchard road like that). So i just went shopping while looking at the buildings around. I walked for some time before i decided to go find one of the popular french fries shops - Fabel Friet in Amsterdam. Along the way to the fries shop, i walked into an alley where i saw a long queue to a cookies shop - Vans Stapele Koekmakerji and the chocolate smell nice. So i decided to queue for it while googling online on the items the shop is selling. I just saw people buying 1 or 2 boxes of cookies. So i decided to buy a box of 6 cookies (12.50 euro) and tried to eat one outside. The cookie was warm and soft, it was also sweet in the centre because of the white chocolate (It still tasted nice after 4 days and my friend seems to like it more after the 4 days period cos it become harder. I prefer it to be soft).

Amsterdam Train Station

Opposite view of Amsterdam Station

Houses in canal

Cheese shop

War memorial

Cooke shop

Freshly baked chocolate cookies

After that, i made my way to the fries shop - Fabel Friet and i saw a small crowd of people standing outside of the shop waiting for their orders. The shop was quite small with 2 cashiers taking orders and i went in to make mine. Then i went outside to wait for the staffs to call for my order.  I got a small fries with truffle mayo for 4.90 euro (The uniqueness of this shop was that you can add cheese for 1 euro to your fries). I found the fries nice and enjoyed it...just that it was too much... I saw people just threw their leftovers to the sea gulls and other birds. I just ate while i continued on my shopping. 

Queue outside fries shop

Freshly cooked fries

Then i walked until a flower market - Bloemenmarkt where the shops sell mostly flowers seeds for planting purposes. There were also some souvenirs and cheese shops around. From there, i walked to see the stalls and bought 2 tee-shirts from a souvenirs shop. After which, i made my way back to the train station but the sky got dark and was drizzling. As i walked back, i went to another souvenirs shop to get some souvenirs as the prices were 2 euros cheaper here. After that, i stumbled upon a mall-looking area where there were bigger shops inside. So i decided to went in 1. for toilet break and 2, to find a new pants for myself (the rubber part of one of my pants had become loose...😂.). I managed to get a Nike track pants instead for 40 euros. After that, i walked planning to go the train station but i went into the lego shop to fix a figurine instead. I spent quite a while inside the shop and by the time i was done, it was already pouring with rain. So i walked with my umbrella till McD and hide inside until the rain gets lighter (if i am lucky). 

Stall at Bloemenmarkt

Mall entrance

Ninja Lego figurine

After some time, i headed out and before i can walk to the station, i came across a waffles shop - van wonderen stroopwafels selling waffles and stroopwafels. People were queuing to buy the waffles but i chose to buy their stroopwafels (15 euro). After i bought it, i walked very quickly to the station as it was getting late and my friend waiting at home for dinner.  It was about a hour plus back to the home and before that, i headed to the supermarket nearby the house to buy a chicken wrap back for dinner. And, this was my one day adventure in Amsterdam....😀

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