Amsterdam to Brugge

13th August
Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Brussels - Brugge
Up bright and early - well early anyway!!! Breakfast was a rather sad affair with different ones leaving to catch planes, taxis, buses or being picked up by family in the Netherlands. And little by little our numbers dwindled. E-mail addresses were exchanged and off we went towards the train station. It was only a short walk, up one floor in an elevator and by luck we were on the correct platform and just had to wait 1 1/2 hours for the train. Our train was going through Rotterdam, Antwerp, and we had to hop off at Brussels or end up in Paris....um hard choice but no we really wanted to go to Brugge. We had got onto the train first and so Den had to dig down through a huge pile of cases to drag ours out. Great fun!!! Oh well all part of the experience and fun. We had 12 minutes to catch our train to Brugge but there were no signs (well not any we could understand), no information guy (that we had been told to look for) and so I asked one of the ticket guys from our train. He said we had to go to a platform down stairs and the train we needed was the one going to Knock Blockennoff. Well that isn't what the place is named but that was all we had to go on. We managed to push our way onto a lift. We are getting good at being pushy in crowds like the Europeans. So down along to find a departure timetable - there was a train leaving for some Knokke something like what I'd heard at the time we were told our train would leave so we took a guess and went up to that platform. Still no mention of Brugge. There was our Brussels angel - a young man with a mobile phone. I asked him if the train was going to Brugge. He said he didn't know but a few taps on his phone and he assured us it would go through Brugge. We thanked him and this time we kept our suit cases near us. Once the ticket man had come along and punched our tickets our blood pressure and pulse rates went back to normal and we sat back to enjoy the ride. After an hour we had indeed arrived at Brugge.
A taxi then whisked us at top speed through the narrow streets of the old part of town. He guessed we were from Australia but didn't really know about Tasmania and was surprised that we didn't have hot temperatures like the rest of the mainland states. He wanted to know if we had lots of land, horses and a farm manager like all of the things they see about Australia. It was a very entertaining drive. He delivered us safely to the Grand Hotel Casselbergh. It is a lovely 600 year old hotel with views over one of the many canals. We arrived at 3.30 so not bad to have travelled so far in only 4 hours. A coffee was needed and then off to have a look around. Most of the houses date back to 1700s. The Romans had built walls here too, with all sorts of countries fighting over it. Vikings, the French of course, Italians and many more. In 1089 Brugge was the capital of the county of Flanders. At it's peak it was the cross roads of Europe. Problems with the canals silting up etc. led to its decline in the 16th and 17th century until it was rediscovered in the 19th century. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site.
We had some lunch - 4pm oh well when in Europe.....- for something different Den had a waffle and I had crepe 'suzette'. It was a new experience for both of us, and a very yummy one at that. We walked and walked around so many pretty squares, bridges, canals and quaint buildings. The shops are mainly selling beautiful lace, chocolates and post cards with restaurants and bars in between.
Tea tonight was at a little cafe across the road called 'Diligence'. We wondered if this meant something in Belguim or was just an English word that sounded good. Whatever - it was a cute place with delicious healthy food and that was all we really wanted.
The wifi seems good here so I'll update the blog for the past few days.
Warm regards to all and hope this finds every one well and happy.