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Friday, June 10, 2011

Day 7, 8, 9: Brussels & Amsterdam - Red Lights and Tulips

Early in the morning the group wandered to the bus and prepared to leave France for the Netherlands. It would be a long day of traveling, but thankfully the tour included a quick stop for lunch in the Belgian city of Brussels. We spent a solid 4 hours floating in and out of sleep before stopping near a cathedral for our short visit. It was a gray rainy day in the city, but we wanted to make the most of the two hours we had.

Brussels, like all of our previous stops, offered some impressive relics of history. The city square is composed of several gold and marble adorned  buildings representing the workers' guilds from 14th century Belgium. Masons, carpenters, fishermen and the like all had an elaborately decorated "house", each built to trump the previous. The square also contained the  world's first indoor shopping mall - the Galeries Royales St. Hubert. The Galeries' glass roof served as a quick oasis from the rain while we sorted out lunch plans. We had to try the Mussels from Brussels, which went quite well with a stout Belgian ale. After paying the slightly overpriced check, we went across the square again to see the famous Mannekin Pis. We heard several conflicting stories about the meaning of the little peeing boy, and created some of our own while we enjoyed Belgian waffles. I know there is a lot of hype surrounding these little treats - all of it is well deserved. We returned to the bus with a sugar high and stomach full of seafood to sleep another 3 hours before Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was a welcomed break from the hectic pace of London and Paris. The city has a population of about 400,000 markedly tall Dutch citizens who all love to speak English (even tho it is with quite a funny accent) and have a soft spot for Americans. It's full of old churches and markets, and actually boasts more canals than Venice, Italy. Although it is a bit smaller, it's quite an interesting city with plenty to see.

We fit a lot of sight seeing into our three days there. The Netherlands are the world's leading producer of tulips, so we spent part of an afternoon wandering through a canal-side market of several shops. The Anne Frank house is also in Amsterdam. It's pretty chilling to walk through the rooms where 8 people stayed in hiding for 2 years. Later on that day we visited the Vincent Van Gogh Museum and saw some of his most famous works, along with some other Impressionist style paintings from Monet, Manet, and others. After another group photo on the famous 'I AMsterdam' sign, we headed back to the hotel in order to get ready for a pub crawl that most of our EF trip group was going on later that night.

After a late start to our last day after a great night out on the cold and wet streets of Amsterdam, we headed to a microbrewery located in a windmill in the city limits. After a short tram ride we were drinking the cheapest beer we had encountered on the trip do far. Surprisingly the best one we had, a beer called Columbus, had an alcohol content of 9%!  A far cry from the Bud and Coors Lights we have back home. On our last night we had some Wok to Walk and our last taste of Febo, this disgusting looking, but extremely delicious tube of hot food like veal or beef that you get out of vending machine type system. After our bellies were full of 'near food', we strolled the canals one last time and bid adieu to the Dutch capital and got ready for another all day bus ride into the heart of Deutschland.

Until tomorrow,

Russell
Josh

 The main square in Brussels, Grand Place
Had to try the mussels in Brussels
 the famous Mannekin Pis
 The Royal Palace in Dam Square, Amsterdam
 The Old Church built in the 13th Century, 20 feet away from the windows of the Red Light District
 the canals by night, they get pretty confusing since everything looks the same
 Visiting Anne Frank's House and Museum
 the Westerkerk, which contains the church bells that Anne Frank wrote about in her diary hearing everyday
 the floating flower market on the right
 enjoying some FEBO, looks like cat-sick, but tastes like Heaven
 group photo on the "I Amsterdam" sign
 inside of a FEBO, like a vending machine that serves hot food
 our first pub crawl night, flames got a little close
 another group shot
 a brewery under a windmill, awesome

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