Onwards to Amsterdam

We're both sorry we didn't have more time to spend in Belgium.  Generally the people we've spoken to have been lovely.  I've had some very nice glasses of wine, and Matt, of course has LOVED the beer.

We spent several days staying in a lovely  apartment just off the Big Square

Our evening view

Matt thought the ceiling was a bit low...

 We took a tour with Steven from Wings and reached most of the local Trappist Breweries.  My favourite part of that was exploring the ancient ruins at Orval. 

I think we all know what Matt liked best. :-) 

Brewing Museum

 

 

We also stayed for several days in beautiful Bruges - in fact if we could have stayed an extra night we would have but our hotel was already booked out.  Once again we were right near the old part of town and we spent many hours wandering around.  The local tourist commission has an excellent ap which allowed us to plan our walk and view information about various sites off line - meaning no need to carry a map or our guide book!  There were so many sites of interest we didn't get to see that we think we'll need to plan another trip.

Our last night in Belgium was a very quick trip to Antwerp before we caught the train onwards to Amsterdam.   Our hotel room is lovely with a big shower - and the STEEPEST staircase I've ever seen!  We spent the afternoon catching up on a few essential chores and for dinner took in a rijasttafel.  Enormous amounts of food and so nice to have something spicy again!  (And no, I don't mean the Amsterdam sort of spicy, I mean the Indonesian sort!) 

Two kinds of sate, prawn curry, beef curry, chicken curry, vegies in coconut milk, gado gado, pickles, toasted coconut, tempeh, prawn crackers, steamed rice.  All this for two people?

We walked back after dinner through the red-light district which was certainly an eye opener!  And I confess I did spend several minutes wondering who I could buy the his and hers naked, 3D, anatomically correct BBQ aprons for...



We have this morning to explore independently before joining our ship for the next leg of our journey, a river cruise to Budapest.  I'm disappointed we were unable to purchase tickets for Anne Frank House (they were sold out when I tried over a month ago) so we'll see where we end up!