We were back from Ireland only just over a week before we ended up leaving again. We decided once we were back to book a trip to Belgium and Berlin! During the week we were home, we both got quite sick and so that week was a write-off. Finally healed we were off for our trip...
We were able to see a lot of Belgium for the week we were there. First off we headed to Brugge for two days. Brugge is a super cute, old town that has a ton of chocolate shops! The place pretty much smells like chocolate everywhere you go because every second store sells and makes chocolate, yummy! We visited the chocolate museum that they had there, which was both informative and tasty;) It was quite cold while we were in Brugge and so we spent a lot of time hopping between cafes, shops and old buildings. Apparently everything is closed on Monday in Brugge and so unfortunately for our second day there we braved the cold more than I would have liked because all the museums, buildings and even lots of stores were closed.
Next we went just for the day to Ypres (aka Flanders Fields), this was a cool trip because we ended up being there only a few days after Remembrance Day so there were a bunch of fresh memorials set up around the town, which was neat. Again we had bad timing and the Flanders Fields museum had been closed down just a few short days before to be renovated over a 8 month period. But we were able to see the memorial for the British Empire for soldiers whose bodies were never found and a grave site.
The same day we left Ypres and went to Antwerp. Antwerp is a cool city! It is bigger than Brugge and a bit more modern, but it had a really great vibe. We lucked out and our hostel/hotel was right next to the gorgeous cathedral in old Antwerp, absolutely beautiful! The museums in Antwerp were also super cheap and so we went to the fashion museum and Ruben's house (famous painter from Antwerp). We walked a lot and saw some sweet buildings, castles and monuments to WWII.
After Antwerp we were of to Brussels to end our time in Belgium. In Brussels we went to an underground museum that showcases the ruins of the old city of Brussels, saw how belgian students party (in massive semi trucks with the sides cut out and dance parties going on!), walked a LOT, went to a cafe/pub that had 2040+ beer selection (it was unreal, and so hard to choose!), saw manneken pis (he is smaller then one would expect) and ate yummy sugar waffles! Those are some of the highlights at least.
We tried lots of Belgian beer and chocolate in all the places we visited and saw a ton! Joel has actually started a list now of all the new beers he has tried, its hard to remember them all since we got here, but we got to try all kinds in Belgium:)
From Brussels we flew to Berlin, where we got on the plane and into the country without showing our passports once! It was kinda crazy, because even though Europe has open borders most places will still look at your passport when you enter the country...it was a weird feeling haha. Anyways, we loved Berlin! It was a bit of a last minute decision to book a flight to Berlin and I am so glad we did. It is a city with so much history and it was really cool to see where so many events we have studied in history occurred. Our hostel was right next to the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. It is now called the East Side Gallery and was painted on by artists from 21 different countries, very, very cool! We walked down the wall and along the way found a bier haus, in complete bavarian style that had a happy hour 1L of beer for 5 euro (can you see the smile on Joel's face?) so we had some pretzels and beer (yup me too, took me awhile but I was pretty proud of myself), it was great! Some other highlights from Berlin:
The German History Museum (massive! but sweet)
The Television Tower (we went up at night, awesome view!)
The Museum District (super old buildings that you can still see the bullet holes in...)
Christmas Markets!! Complete with yummy German food, drinks (mulled wine for instance), a skating rink, lights, trees, music, it really got us in the spirit:)
Potsdam Palace (Alicia met up with us the 4th day we were there and we went to Potsdam and it was cold!)
We had an awesome time, but were also ready to have some time at home after all that travelling around.
I will post some pictures below, but there are just too many to put them all up so check my facebook as well where I have posted them all:)
Now we are back and Alicia has joined us for this Christmas season as well:) We have had a ton of fun starting the decorate our place for Christmas and relaxing around Scheveningen. Today Alicia and I cut out over 40 snowflakes, we are going to have one festive home! We are really looking forward to spending Christmas here. There are so many fun things going on already and Sinterklaas is just around the corner (Dec 5)! Also for Christmas there is an olibollen cart set up right on our main street by our place!! (deadly...but also so yummy!!) My parents are coming in a couple weeks as well and so we are very excited for that. It will be wonderful to have family around for Christmas and to spend it here is going to be awesome!
We feel so blessed to be having this experience it has been amazing so far. We have also found an international church in english that we have gone to a few times now and we really like it. It is nice to be getting more involved in the community here as well, even though we are not always here.
We would love to hear from you as well, please send us updates on your lives:) Even though we are far away it is nice to still feel connected to everyone back home and keep up with you as well. We hope that everyone is doing well!
Brugge
Joel and a Chocolate Obama
Ypres
Antwerp
Brussels
Berlin
Yay Markets!!
Love,
Megan&Joel
