Belgium Bound

Euro coins

As we walked around Trier, the clouds became heavy and, sure enough, it started pouring. As much as we wanted to stick around and snap more photos, none of us were wearing waterproof clothing (Fashion trumps practicality when you're in Europe! At least for me). We bolted for the car, wanting to make a quick getaway before driving became a nightmare on slippery, unfamiliar roads; thus our journey to Belgium began!

On our way, we stopped at a gas station/rest area. The front of the building was like any other convenience store or gift shop, but the pay-only toilets were downstairs (something slightly frustrating about Europe... the fact that you have to pay to use the bathroom). My dad and I decided to explore the building more, and we discovered what looked like a five-star restaurant, a banquet hall and a small market/food court tucked away in the back. So quaint!

Creative Coke bottles

Saxophone statue in Dinnant

As we continued on, we were all becoming hungry and sleepy. We unanimously decided to stop somewhere to stretch our legs and fill our stomachs. We happened upon this awesome little city called Dinnant, Belgium (home of the inventor of the saxophone!). This little city lies on the banks of the River Meuse, and is green and flourishing because of it. A beautiful cathedral overlooks the city and river on one side. On the other side towers a massive and well-preserved 11th century citadel. To get to the citadel, one must climb countless stairs or take a gondola up the hill. We opted for the gondola. While the trip was a bit pricey, it was the first touristy thing we had done that cost money. And we could not pass up the chance to get a bird's eye view of the city!

Notre Dame Dinnant

Bird's eye view of Dinnant

After exploring the hilltop citadel, we decided it would be a good idea to grab some hamburgers et des frites (burgers and fries). BIG MISTAKE. We went to this little restaurant which may or may not have been called "Bicky Burger" (because there were wall decals all over the place that said that, but the restaurant was called something uninformative like "Hamburgers" or something. I can't remember.) Initially I was excited because I got to order food in French, a great feat for not remembering a single thing from French class! But when the actual food came, I was pretty disappointed. The patty on my hamburger had weird things mixed in it like meatloaf, as well as horseradish and really spicy mustard on it. I definitely could not eat the whole thing and I think I finished my can of Coke in record time. I am officially not a fan of Bicky Burgers.

Getting to Bruges was a bit challenging. Upon entering the city, we discovered we didn't actually have the address of the vacation home we were staying in. We had the reservation from the website printed out... but the actual address was not written down! Yikes!
After driving around for a few minutes, we decided to split up and search on foot. Two of us went to scour one part of the city, and two of us scoured the other.
My mom and I wanted to ask a local if they knew of the house, but since it was after 5:00pm most businesses were closed. Eventually we found one store that was open, a little shop for children's clothes. Thankfully the store owner spoke English and was a very kind woman. She allowed us to use her laptop to look up the website for the vacation home. Somehow, by an act of God probably, we found the address. It turns out the name of the home is Flemish, and we were asking for a different place (the English translation, naturally).

Once we got into the house, all of the stress and anxiety of not being able to find it evaporated instantly. The house was as welcoming and fabulous in person as in the pictures. The owner of the vacation home, a delightful lady named Charlotte, had tucked some food in the fridge for us and we made dinner out of eggs and salami. We went to bed that night with fed appetites, and slept perfectly soundly in what would be our home for the next 4 days.

Keep posted for my next post about Bruges!