A Scrambled Arrival to Amsterdam

​July 23

We took so many trains today to get from Bruges to Brussels to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. On our train into Amsterdam, we were all reading our books and looking at our phones when Alastair said “is this our stop?” We grabbed our bags and ran off the train, but the door is closed on Alastair and wouldn’t open so he got stuck on the train. We were laughing so hard until we realized that we had gotten off a stop early. The girls and I made our way to the hostel via a different train and Alastair walked from Amsterdam central. We all ended up getting there at the same time. Perhaps we’ve gotten too comfortable with trains and we need to start paying more attention.

We have our own room for our time in Amsterdam at a place called Stayokay Amsterdam. We went to a restaurant called Bar Basquiat for dinner and played some cards. There were a lot of bees, swarming our drinks and food so we began to trap them under our water glasses. At one point, Dagny tried to take the bees to a bush, a distance away to release them. She shook the glass to get the bees out, but it slipped out of her hand, and she ended up chucking the glass at the concrete ground. The shatter was very loud and the rest of us were laughing so hard. We ran away, having paid our bill, shortly after that.

I stayed in at the hostel tonight for a while while my siblings walked around town. I met up with them to continue walking around and they had already seen the nine bridges viewpoint. Palmer reached the halfway point of his PCT journey today. Mile 1325. I got to talk to him tonight back at the hostel!

Adelaide

Biking. Beer. Bruges.

​July 22

We all slept in this morning and then walked through a farmer’s market in the main square to get to a restaurant for breakfast. Alastair and I purchased a bottle of chocolate milk each. The restaurant lured us in with a meal deal: Belgian waffles and coffee for 6€. It was okay but the vibe of the place was a little strange.

We walked back towards our hostel to investigate bike rentals but they only had 3 available. Alastair and I ended up renting two of them while the girls went 15 minutes downtown to find a tandem bike. We spent a while cruising around town and then Alastair took us to Sint-Salvatorskathedraal which we popped inside. We kept biking around town, through crowds, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face because we were having so much fun.

Our next stop was O.L.V.-kerk Museum where we hoped to see Michelangelo‘s Madonna and child. However, they charged you to enter that part of the church which was irritating and we skipped it.

We ended up at De Halve Maan for local beers and some snacks for lunch. They pump their beer directly from the brewery, underground through the city, straight to the restaurant. We got to play more cards too.

Once we were back on our bikes, we rode all around town. At one point, we were waiting at a stop sign behind a delivery truck and he started backing up into the bikes and we had to scream at him. Alastair took us to ride around some windmills. He and I took a turn on the tandem bike too, which was really funny.

Once we all returned our bikes, we had some more beers and ciders at our hostel bar before we headed out for dinner. We ended up at a Shawarma restaurant and we all had a big plate of veggies and pita and meat. Alastair and I got Chez Albert waffles for dessert. We all decided to skip the dance party taking place downtown tonight in favor of downtime and karaoke night at our hostel bar.

After a shower and some FOB, I’m at Dagny and Alastair down at the bar to watch fellow travelers sing really poorly. Dagny accidentally ordered a 7€ beer because she thought the number was a two. We almost made a deal where she would sing a karaoke song in exchange for me buying her beer, but the waitlist for songs was so long.

Magnolia came down eventually and the three of us girls met a local Belgian man and chatted with him for a while before going to bed.

Quote of the day:

Do you guys think this is the most time we’ll spend together for the rest of our lives?

Adelaide

4th of July in Belgium??

​July 21

Today was definitely the most spontaneous and surprising day of our trip so far! We woke up incredibly early for a train out of Gare de Nord at 6:50am. We headed north and arrived in Brussels 90 minutes later. Belgium is the first new (to me) country I’ve visited this summer!

When we arrived in Brussels, it was still fairly early in the morning for a Tuesday. The city was sleepy and as we made our way towards the center of town, we started to see lots of military personnel and what looked like the beginnings of a festival? As it turned out, today is Belgian National Independence Day! We had no idea!

There were military vehicles in front of the national palace and we were allowed to climb into one of the tanks on display which was so cool and surreal! The officer explaining the weaponry to Alastair couldn’t remember the English words for “machine guns” so he mimicked the sound instead.

There was a climbing wall, a zip line, a mobile hospital, and the streets soon filled with thousands of Belgian citizens.

As we sat down for breakfast (Belgian waffles) with our bags, we decided that instead of heading straight to Bruges, as we had originally planned, we would stay for the military parade at 4pm. We found lockers for our backpacks, accidentally paid for 2 days, and made our way back towards the main square.

The buildings were beautiful and covered in gold. As we walked around town, Dagny investigated tattoo shops and we made our way to one where she could get on the wait list. While she waited for the call, we walked through the Royal Gallery of Saint Hubert.

When it was time for D’s tattoo, Mags and I went to watch and Alastair went to get a haircut. Dagny got a small seashell to commemorate the Camino!

Alastair’s haircut came out great too!

At this point, we were all hangry so we settled on a lunch of disappointing and overpriced burgers. That’s what happens when you choose a restaurant on an empty stomach. Oh well.

We made our way back towards the parade route and then found a park where we laid down in the grass and fell asleep for an hour. 

When it was time to line up for the parade, it was the heat of the day and very crowded. We saw many groups of soldiers march by, and there were fighter jets, helicopters, and larger planes that flew overhead. We honestly found the parade to be underwhelming but given that Belgium is approximately the size of Maryland, it made sense.

By the time we were ready to grab our bags and ditch town, we realized that we were on the opposite side of the parade route from our belongings. Eventually, we figured out how to use the metro to cross under the parade. Our bags were conveniently stored next to the main train station (another happy accident) so we grabbed some snacks and hopped on a train to Bruges.

Bruges is a much smaller Belgian city but it retains the charm. We checked into our hostel (St. Christopher’s Bruges) which has a bar on the first floor that’s one of the busiest in town. Alastair picked out a (Michelin recommended) restaurant for dinner: Onslow. 

It was obviously delicious and then we walked to the city center square where a large dance party was taking place to celebrate the holiday. The songs being played were an interesting mix between American pop songs from a decade ago, and funny sounding Dutch songs. Alastair and I went to bed not long after but Mags and D stayed out to dance their hearts out. Apparently, Dagny asked a local girl if they were celebrating Belgian Independence and the girl said “no it’s like the 4th of July in America, only they do it better!”

Adelaide