My hastily drawn up plan from the night before was to take the train to the city of Brugge (Bruges, depends on which language you speak). While one of the US employees was in the office last week he said there was an ice carving exhibit that was very good in Brugge. It sounded like a good idea to me and a quick glance at Bruges as a tourist destination didn't seem like a bad idea. So I packed up my camera bag and headed to the train station for an 8:38 departure from Brussels-Luxembourg. That train was on time, however the second train, the intercity train to Brugge was about 15 minutes late arriving and turned out to be about 25 minutes late for our destination in Bruges. From hotel to Brugge took about an hour and forty-five minutes and cost 9.50 Euros for the round trip ticket.
I got there at about 10:20 and that was ok because things were just beginning to open up. The Ice & Snow Festival, as the exhibit was called, was just outside the train station and was just beginning to line up people. I had to buy a ticket at an office and then could enter the exhibit. The lines were still relatively short and the wait wasn't terribly long to get inside though not long after the lines were piling up through the multiple switchbacks they had to contain everyone. I am glad I got in that early. Inside the exhibit was -6C to keep the carvings from melting. I did not bring a winter jacket with me to Belgium and standing through the slow moving lines without being able to keep my typical brisk pace made it all the more obvious how cold it was. I kept my gloves on while I operated the camera, which I normally do not do. There were supposed to be 30 major carvings. I didn't really count but there were certainly quite a few. They ranged in quality from reasonable to really good. I know I could not do better than the worst one there but still, some were not up to the same standards as the best. I think it took about an hour and ten minutes or so to get the ticket, wait through the lines and see the entire exhibit. It cost 11 Euros to get in. The ticket included a mirror hall somewhere but I don't think it was open. In any event I was in for the ice and not the mirrors. I will say that it being about 2C when I got outside felt like summer. I should also point out that they had an ice bar at the end of the exhibit by I skipped on that.
After the exhibit I tried to find my way into town. Brugge is a canal city. The canal is carved in a spiral like circle that goes around the center. Not long into getting inside I found a restaurant called t. Walnuntje. I assume it means The Walnut but what do I know? I saw the sign said pizza but when I saw the menu I realized I wasn't going to have pizza. I had a set menu of a cheese croquet and beef stew with fries. Both were very good. The stew was not served in a bowl and the fries got soaked in the brown sauce. I accompanied that with a Brugse Zot Blonde beer which was the best yellow beer I have had here to point. The set menu also came with a vanilla pudding which was nice. The place was small but I liked it a lot. The stairs to the bathroom upstairs were a bit treacherous, especially on the way down where the steps had room for less than half my foot it felt.
After lunch it was my basic march around town with no basic rhyme or reason. I just started off towards the center and wandered around a lot to see what I could see. In all I spent another 3 hours and more just moving around the city and hitting souvenir shops and I bought a waffle in a concession booth in the center of the town. It was not really anything to write home about but I figured I should do the waffle thing at least once in Belgium. Overall I really liked Bruges. I had a couple small spats of rain that hit at various times during the trek and I got lost a bit once but really it was a matter of orientation rather than anything severe. As I said, the city is a circle and it was easy to find my way back.
I got to the train station a little after 4 and it was already starting to get dark. I was able to take a 4:35 train back to Brussels-Central. The train was pretty much full the whole way. When I got out I had intentions of getting something to eat but I really didn't feel like doing the walk down restaurant row, nor did I want fast food, so I chose to just head back towards the hotel and hope the market was open this time. Fortunately it was and a bought a couple sundries to supplement what I already had in the room. I got back and cooked pasta with arrabiata sauce and had a piece of bread and some of the wine from the night before to round it out. After dinner I watched another video and then prepared to get some sleep to be prepared for class the following day.
The pictures from day 9 are located here.
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