Tourists in Belgium
May 8th, 2008 Posted in After Arrival, NewsSince mondaynoon I am back in Denmark. As you know I went to Belgium with Gintare for one week, so here is a little report of how it was 
We left at 3Am on tuesdaymorning, and arrived home around 13:00. The weather was nice for driving, only some rain in Denmark in the beginning and at home also some rain. First noticable difference in Belgium was the spring. All trees were covered in green leaves, the grass was growing fast again, bushes were full of leaves and flowers. Whilst in Denmark the spring still had to come, all trees still naked….
So the first day we met some of my friends in a bar in my town (Dendermonde). We went to bed early that evening, cos we were all really tired. The next day, wednesday, we went to Ghent. This was the only city that I knew myself, I studied there for 3 years, so i knew where to be. But apart from shops, I didn’t visit any of the touristic buildings in this city. So for me it was a tourist feeling as well as for Gintare. First we visited school since i could park my car there for free. then we took the tram into the city. We visited the Cathedral, the Belfry, Graslei and the Gravensteen . Gravensteen is a castle of the middle ages, in the middle of the city. Actually when i list these things here, i realise what a boring country Denmark can be for this kind of things. 
We had a great time in Ghent and the weather was good. It rained several times but only for like 5 minutes. Later we had sun again so that was perfect. On top of the Belfry was one of the best moments. In the middle of the city at a high tower you really had a nice view. After a belgian waffle, we could go home pleased (and tired).
Thursday: Party Day. We were still quite tired of our trip, and we got up quite late this day. This day we went to Antwerp. In Antwerp is a 572m long tunnel under the river. And this tunnel is only for pedestrians.Once we were our of the tunnel we were in the city center. Because we were running out of time we only visited the market place and the cathedral, after we ran around a lil bit in the city center. Then around 19 we went to collect a dutch friend of me, who was comming to Antwep by train for the party of the evening: A State Of Trance 350! The doors opened at 19 and the DJ’s started at 20, which is very very early. There was a limit of 2000 people. We were guessing it would be easy to get in so early. At 19:45 we arrived and oh fuck, there was a serious line of people waiting!. Around 20:30 we got in, and the place was already packed. Never seen such a big crowd so early at a party! (Armin has the secret recipe). In the end the party was for free so it was ok. The music was good but a bit to hard for me, not like the usual A State of Trance episodes. I was trying to save myself, cos if you start dancing at 20, you never make it till 2. After some great names and good music, Nic Chagall came up. And Damn he was good! After an hour of good party, It was Armins turn. He was also playing harder than usual but still good tunes. The party was a success. Still I got tired early, so before Markus Schulz turned up, we left the party. We got home around 3:30.
Friday, we needed some sleep, so again we got up quite late. So late that the big trips we still had planned would be not so usefull to do this day. So on friday we went shopping to a Beer Shop and a “normal” supermarket. This took more time than normal, and I discovered we have our own beer brand of our City. I had no idea… In the evening we walked around in my city, because i figured it would be stupid to see all the big cities and not attend my own city, although mine isnt so big, its just nice to show it.
Some sleep later it was Saturday. This day we went to Brussels. We got up early, jumped on the train and went to Brussels. Because we wanted to see alot we were there at 9:30. We started with the Cathedral, then we ran around a bit in brussels streets, went to the market square to get some map of brussels and the metro system. Brussels, just like antwerp, is a city I never really visited before. I did once, when i was a child… but thats not the same :). Once we got ourselves informed, and saw about 4 marriages on the marked square we went to see Manneke Pis. This tiny statue (58cm) is probably the most known symbol of Brussels. He is being dressed up all the time and had almost 1000 costumes. When we attended him he had a golf suit on, and the golfers who were celebrating a birthday I think, were handing out free beers. After our beer we went to a church close to Manneke pis. Nice but small. After this it was time to go visit “the real thing”. The Atomium is like the Eifel tower. One high building to have a nice view on the city. Although the Atomium is quite out of the center, its nice to be up there. There were really alot of people there and the sun was converting the waiting hall into an oven. 2 hours later we were back. Next up: The kings Castle and the Court House. After a nice walk around the kings castle, with a nice garden, we went to the court house From where we had a great view on the city because it is like you are on the balcony above the city. the court house itself was being restaurated so it wasnt so interesting to see it like this. After a dinner in Quick, we had not so much time left. We would have liked to visit the kings garden. It opened at day until 16 and opened again in the evening from 20 till 22. It was 20:40 when we left Quick and took the metro to the closest station. When we arrived there it was already 21:30. And we discovered there was a 30min walk to this garden, so we decided to take the metro to the Atomium once more (which was only 2 stops anymore) to see it by night. We had to be back in the station at 22:40 cos then was our last train home. The atomium by night was very very nice. My camera ran out of batteries so i dont have any picture of it, so you’ll have to trust me on this one. We got back in the station at 22:30, happy, tired, and it was clear you need 2 or 3 more days to see the most important things in Brussels. Once at home around 23:30 we went directly to bed.
The last day was there: Sunday. We planned to do not much on Sunday but since we did the shoppings on friday, we had to visit the beach and Bruges on sunday. We went to Bruges by car, and for 2.5eur we could park the car next to the station and get a free bus for me and all my passengers to the city center. That was very well organised. Once at the marked square it was already 13:00. There we went to the Belfry. In this one there was no elevator like in Ghent. So we had to do the 366 steps ourselves. I must say it was nice to do, because once at the top the interesting things come, like the clockwork, the bells and the view from the top ofcourse. After running down and taking some pictures, some person started playing on the belfry, so we ran back up to watch it from the tower itself. In the end we did about 600 stairs. It was a good training :P. After the belfry we visited some church nearby, and the nearby town square. After this we went to the beach in Blankenberge. Apart from laying in the sand we didnt realy do alot there. But it was nice to be there because the weather was realy perfect for the second day on a row. At 18:30 we left and headed home. Big trouble on the roads. A few million people at the beach, and they all wanted to get home. The highway was blocked, and we had to drive on the smaller roads to get home. Even the smaller roads were full of Dutch people, following their GPS. I don’t know why whe have so much dutch peole at our beach, they have alot more beach themselves, but ok. In the end we were home at 21:30 in stead of 19:30. Actually we planned to make it an easy day, and be home around 18:00. So at 21:30 i visited my grandmother, because we were leaving very soon. when we got home from here, we went to visit my other grandparents, again to say goodbye. In the end we were at home and ready to start packing at 22:30. Originally we planned to leave around 3. but I guessed if we started packing at 22:30, it would be very late to go to bed for just 1 or 2 hours. So we decided to pack and just leave without sleep. Packing, and arranging everything in the car a lot of time. We were ready to go at 0:30. Finally! Once at jagos place, tossed him in the car and left, off to denmark. During the trip I was very tired. we pulled over 3 times for a little nap. In the end we were in denmark at 11 in the morning. I still had Belgian seasand in my shoes and hair, but it was ok. In the end it was a very busy trip. The busiest week in my life I think. but it was a great trip. I was glad to be back in Denmark as well, back “home”.