England - London and Bath

Earl grey and scones baby!  Now is it sc-own or sc-on?...ah who cares they’re amazing and they’re everywhere in England.  There needs to be scone vendors out on street corners just like hot-dog vendors.  I can see myself smashing back a 6-pack of scones after a late night at a bar.  I wouldn't be the coolest looking guy eating scones, so maybe they could man them up a bit by adding meat or something.  Yea like a meat-lover scone...someone make this happen right now.

Anyways I opted to save some coin and take a 10 hour bus from Amsterdam to London, which included passage under the English Channel via the channel tunnel.  It was a pretty cool experience as our coach bus drove into a large train which ferried cars, busses and people.  I figured it was like every other tunnel where you just drive through yourself but I guess not.  It was tight quarters for that bus let me tell you, he may have had 2 feet of room on each side as he parked the thing inside the train.

Arrived in London after an exhausting day of travel at what may be the best hostel I’ve stayed at yet.  St. Christopher’s Village is part of the legendary chain of St. Christopher hostels.  This thing was massive and run like a well-oiled machine.  Included was a full bar called Belushi’s which had something going on every night (10% discount when you stay at the hostel), several lounges for hanging out, a movie theatre and roof-top terrace/bar!  I definitely recommend staying here to anybody going to London anytime soon.

London is big, expensive and touristy, but I still enjoyed it.  There’s a landmark on every corner so it’s easy to hop from one to another.

Parliament and Big Ben

Big Ben

London Eye in the background

View from the London Eye

Some idiot in a telephone booth

Buckingham guards

Buckingham Palace

Yellow on the flag above Buckingham means the Queen is in....neat

"Hmm what's that?  I'm sorry I can't hear you over how AWESOME MY LION IS"

Too much ale for this guy

My daily post-lunch nap in a park

Clock in Trafalgar Square counting down the time until the Olympics come to town

London Tower and the crown jewels

London Bridge caught in action

It was a pretty typical London experience I guess.  But I didn’t want to leave England just yet so I headed to the town of Bath which is a few hours west of London.

Bath is famous for its Roman Bath’s which date back to 60-70AD and have been modified and built up over the years.   Don’t bother brining your swim suit though, no actual bathing is allowed (I learned this after doing a cannonball off the 2^nd story balcony....nailed the landing obviously).

The main bath house

One of many statues overlooking the bath...I believe he doubles as a lifeguard

Where the hot springs enter the baths....you can even see the gases bubbling to the surface

Excess water run off from the springs...a million litres per day goes through the Bath houses.

Bath is small town but very nice, albeit very touristy.

Bath Abbey Church

These townhouses overlooking Royal Victoria Park are sought after and often stayed in by visiting celebrities.

Royal Victoria Park

Ireland is on deck baby!

Netherlands – Amsterdam and the Dutch countryside

Usually as I write these entries I flip through my pictures in chronological order so I can freshen my memory of the last week or so.  As I write this I am flipping through my recent 6 days in Amsterdam and noticing there isn't a single shot of me out on the town at night.  There’s a reason for this, I assure you.  I don’t bring my camera out to bars or pubs or any place where I may have a few drinks for one reason alone.  I will lose it.  If it’s not attached to my body when I have a few drinks, I will forget it behind (this includes jackets, hats, capes etc).  I've met several people who have lost their camera and with it weeks (sometimes months) of pictures and videos.  I’m not too concerned much about losing those as I back them up almost daily to my computer as well as online.  I’m more concerned of just losing a moderately expensive camera.  The odd "night out" picture that pops up on here or on Facebook are from other people that I've kept in touch with.

So anyways I took a 3 hour train from Bruges to Amsterdam...the city filled with green and red.  Like Vegas, Amsterdam is one of those cities that seems to never sleep, and is always partying.  During the day it resembles other 'medieval' type cities in Europe.  The locals are making their ways to work, the tourists of varying ages are taking canal tours or city walks.  People are generally going about their day and the city is relatively tame (even in the red light district).

Dam Square

However when it starts to get dark out, the gloves come off and the city comes alive.  Smoke fills the air, red lights draw your attention and the streets are filled with stag parties, pub crawlers and absolute chaos.  It’s best to just give in and join the madness; otherwise it’s like a salmon trying to swim up stream....a stream filled with hookers and drugs.

Best not to go in there right?..... *wink*

There are ways to avoid the madness by staying outside of the downtown core, but you’d miss out on a cultural phenomenon that much like Vegas, I think everybody needs to experience at least once in their lifetime.

They have these amazing vending machines around the city that serve "warm" burgers and hot dogs 24/7.  

Seems like a terrible idea during the day, but right around 4am they are the voice of reason.  I was out one night and challenged another guy to see who could eat an entire column of food (Ry I think you'd appreciate that challenge).  Neither of us had enough change on us or else it probably would have gone down....I am now glad it did not.

Rembrandtplein – big party spot during the week:

Dam Square – unofficial middle of downtown Amsterdam:

Statue in the middle of Dam Square remembering both World Wars

Street performers are all over Dam Square

I have to mention how bicycle-centric Amsterdam is.  Bikes are EVERYWHERE, it’s crazy! 

Outside Amsterdam Central train station

Also bikes have a right-away over cars and even pedestrians it seems.  Much like taxi drivers in Toronto or New York they won’t stop for you, they will run your ass over without skipping a beat.  You’re constantly on the lookout while walking to see where the next bike is coming from.  I had a few close calls when I first got there and wasn’t used to how many there are

So if you can’t beat them, join them right?  So after back to back pub crawl nights I needed a break from the chaos (as did my liver, wallet, dignity etc) so I grabbed a rental bike and decided to get out of Amsterdam for a day and see the Dutch countryside.  With such a high population of bikers, there are lots of well marked paths in and out of the city that make it easy. 

I opted for a modest 30km trek just north of Amsterdam that bounces around small towns, windmills and waterfront.  Once out of the city limits I was treated to some nice views.

Dedicated bike paths are everywhere

The Red Dragon....she's a beaut!

I forgot my tripod so I had to opt for the "balance on something flat and try to look cool" self picture

As you can see there were many small towns with no real infrastructure other than a corner store and gas station if that.  Perfect for a leisurely bike ride through the countryside.....unless

!@#%*&

Completely flat front tire about 2/3 through my trip ...still 10km to go, awesome.  I asked around a town nearby if anybody had a pump or spare tire or what not, but couldn’t find anything.  The bike was still rideable however so I opted to finish the journey back to Amsterdam instead of hitching a ride.  Those last 10km weren’t fun but I managed to power through them.  The bike shop gave me half off when I told them of my ordeal, so it wasn’t a total loss...not to mention the awesome quad workout I got!

Fun city....so fun I even bought a t-shirt.  As I'm posting this I await a 9:30am bus to Bath which I'm staying at for the day, then catching a train to Bristol Airport and a evening flight to Dublin.  I can't wait to see Ireland.  Leprechauns and Guinness baby!

Belgium - Brussels and Bruges

Belgium beer is the best in the world.  German and Czech beer are right up there, don’t get me wrong they are excellent.  But Belgium takes beer to a whole new level, much like they do chocolate.  For example, I went out on Canada day to a pub called Delerium Cafe in downtown Brussels and they offered over 2000 beers.  I tried to sample each one but fell short by a few.  Each one was better than the last, and many of them were 7-10% in comparison to the standard 5%.  Don’t ask me to remember any of the beer names that I had that night, but they were all amazing and vastly different.  Some dark and rich, others very bitter and hoppy (my favourite) and some lighter with a flowery finish.  Even the bar at my hostel had 25 varieties of beer, and you better believe they had their own unique glass that it was served in.  It was blasphemous if you served x beer in y glass.

Anyways, I arrived in Brussels via RyanAir who is a major budget airline throughout Europe.  They offer drastically reduced rates because they don’t fly into major airports and thus avoid the heavy airport taxes.  Much of these airports are an hour or two out of the cities, but bus shuttles run often and are relatively cheap.  So I arrived in Brussels and got lost (pretty much standard) but luckily found a doorman (who is from Brampton!!) who helped me out.   We chatted about Canadian politics, cracked a few jokes about Brampton, chest bumped, shared a waffle and I’m now his son’s godfather (not all true). 

Brussels is known more as a business hub and not so much a backpacker destination, but never the less it still has some cheap attractions and plenty to see over a few days.

Park with Brussels Town Hall soaring into the sky in the background

Brussels Town Hall

Statue made of chocolate wrapped in gold foil....well probably not, but nice regardless

Ok so one of the “major attractions” in Brussels is the Manneken Pis. There are several legends and myths as to the origin and meaning of the statue, if you want to read up on them just check out this link.  They vary widely from a child peeing on a fire to save the city to a father losing his child in the city, and then being found peeing in a garden by locals so the father then donated the statue to the city as a thank you gift.

What’s the big deal about it?  Great question

The city often dresses the boy up in different outfits

The statue was unimpressive...I had to wade through 500 tourists shoveling waffles and chocolate down their throats to get here (yes I realize I'm one of them)

Moving on...had to do a brewery tour in Belgrium right?  Right.  This brewery is unique as it’s one of the only remaining that brew Lambic beer exclusively.  Lambic beer goes through a different fermentation process then normal beers and is then stored in wooden casks much like wine from 1-3 years giving it a unique taste. 

No brewery tour is complete without a tasting at the end, and this one was no different.  So how this beer stand-up compared to some of Belgium finest?  Well it was described to us as “sour, dry and oaky”.  Doesn’t that sound appetising?  If you’re shaking your head right now, you’re right...it doesn’t sound appetising.  This beer was awful tasting, just awful.  I know why nobody brews Lambic beer anymore, it’s atrocious.  It was like a nightmare in my mouth.  I would have drunk gasoline to get rid of the taste.  I don’t know on what planet this beer tastes good, but it's not Earth.  There was a few others sampling the beer at the same time and I asked them if they liked it and they have similar responses so it wasn't just me.  But whatever, you can’t pick a winner everytime...

Next item on the culinary agenda....the Belgian waffle.

Winning

That’s right baby, the waffle itself was delicious but I decided to step it up a bit with putting banana and chocolate sauce on top.  Damnit that thing was amazing....I forgave the city for the Lambic disaster after finishing it.

Random Brussels pics:

I didn't read into the significance of the statue, but I'm pretty certain it's because Leo had the best beard in the country (below)

Apparently under his beard....there's another beard

Belgium is a small country, and they have a very extensive rail system so grabbing a train to Bruges was a snap.  Why did I find myself In Bruges (ooooh so clever), well a few people had told me it's like Brussels' quaint, more picturesque cousin...so I had to check it out.  Also it's on the way to Amsterdam, so why not.

Bruges is one of those cities where you can see pretty much everything in a day.  It's home to a chocolate museum, Belgian Frites (fries) museum as well as the Belfry tower among other things.

Oooohhhh...

Ahhhhhh....

BelfryTower

The lineup to get into Belfry tower was pretty big, it took an hour or so to get in since only 70 people can be 'in the tower' at once.  It's a long, steep climb to the top (366 stairs) with a few stops along the way to admire the scenery as well as the extensive system that controls the clock.

I stuck around for the hourly chiming of the bell as well to see how it all worked....pretty cool and very loud.

View from the top of Belfry

Church of Our Lady rising high over the city

I also checked out the Basiliek van het Heilig Bloed (Basilica of the Holy Blood) where a few coagulated drops of Christ's blood are kept and cherished.

At the bottom, in the middle of the picture you can see two metal doors....behind that is the blood apparently

Oh and the quaintness of the city can be captured in this short clip I shot in the middle of town on a sunny Sunday afternoon.  Some older couples showing me a thing or two about dancing.  The couple in front was the clear-cut winner.  I saw one couple doing the Charleston shuffle I swear...

The hostel I was at had happy hour that night with 1 Euro pints....so that kept me busy in the evening to say the least.  

Hey, that's Belgium peeps....onto Amsterdam!