[QUOTE=bump]
Bruges/Brugge is cool, but crowded and hyper-touristy as well. I much preferred Ghent, Delft and Utrecht myself. Maybe not quite as over-the-top touristy, but not tourist traps either, and every bit as pretty.
[/QUOTE]
Really? Can’t say I’ve been to Ghent, but I have been to Bruges, Delft and Utrecht and, while Delft and Utrecht are certainly attractive, it seems to me that Bruges wins hands down, albeit in an aggressively pretty, mostly-nineteenth-century-fakery sort of way.
I would strongly agree.
Brussels’s problem is that it’s all a bit unexceptional. OK, so it’s not everywhere that has a giant model of an iron crystal and statues of pissing boys are quite a rarity. But the other main sights - including the Grand Place - can be equalled elsewhere. However, although none of them are amazing, there are actually enough sights to keep the more discerning tourist occupied for several days. Other sights to consider would be the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts, the Coudenberg excavations and the Cinquantenaire museums.
Thanks for all of the input and suggestions. It would be great to get to see Antwerp, etc. but there just isn’t enough time to see everything. I was considering while we are in Amsterdam taking a day trip to either Haarlem or Utrecht. Anyone have thoughts on that?
And any suggestions on train travel? The Thalys.com website looks pretty simple to deal with. Should we just book what we can in advance and save some money that way? I would need to book three legs apparently - Brussels to Paris, then Paris to Amsterdam and finally Amsterdam to Brussels.
From what I can tell the trip to Bruges is best done the day of travel. It looks like the only direct trip from Bruges to Paris is at 6:40 in the morning so it would be better to take the train later from Bruges to Brussels and then board a train from there to Paris. Any thoughts on that?
Antwerp is wonderful, and small enough that it seems more “approachable” than huge places like Brussels or A’Dam, but there is only so much time, so just plan on visiting the next time you are over there, as for you the glass is def. more than 1/2 full!!!
Utrecht is a lovely town, a place I try to visit whenever I am in the Netherlands, and a perfect place for just setting out for a walk in, as you are never really too far from it’s Centraal Station which serves as a point of reference.
I have only been to Haarlem once, but it was also a beautiful, smaller city with a lot of history and a quintessential Dutch charm to it.
Have a fantastic vacation, and enjoy a few glasses of Oranjeboom Pils for me…
I lived near Brussels for about two years, and before that I used to travel there from Frankfurt. The traffic is manic, but it’s a decent city. Pepper steak and frites at most any pub are a must, as are the mussels (moules provecale) in the seafood street off the Grande Place, if they’re in season. Best frites in the world. Great beer and chocolates, as well. Bruges is an easy train ride from Brussels and is a picturesque walkabout town. There are several WWII battle sites worth seeing, such as Flanders and The Ardennes. I went to Amsterdam once and was fairly unimpressed, but liked Antwerp quite a bit.
Thanks Chefguy! Pepper steak and frites,huh? That sounds tasty. And someone else mentioned it but I am more than ready to eat my weight in potatoes on that part of the trip. Plus beer beer and more beer for sure.
I was lucky enough to visit Amsterdam last year- and have a judge’s pass to the Cannabis Cup!- so most of what I remember is colored through a lens of being really stoned and constantly with the munchies. I found Amsterdam easy to get around in, and if you’re staying near Centraal Station you’ll have an incredibly easy time of it- you can walk comfortably from the station to a lot of cool shops, and the trams are convenient for anything further afield.
In Amsterdam, go to Puccini Bomboni if you like chocolate- it’s a chocolate shop with some amazingly good flavors of truffle-ish sweets like Drambuie, rhubarb, and apricot. They’re on Singel near the Grey Area, one of the more famous coffee shops.
Weirdly enough, in A-dam I had a lot of fun grocery shopping, and I recommend that you stop by any of the Albert Heijn grocery stores. I’m fond of their juices and blended fruit packs, and both the cheese and chocolate are of course delicious.
On Prinsengracht, across the canal (so same side as the Tulip Museum) and few streets south of the Anne Frank House, there’s a great geeky toy and action figure store called Space Oddity.
The times I’ve been to Belgium, it’s been to visit dear friends, who are Flemish. I realize this makes me a bit partisan, so I’ll leave the Brussels discussion to others. (Insert subliminal ANTWERP! here.)
But Amsterdam… when we were there, we stayed in De Pijp, across from Sapharti Park, which isn’t all that much closer in than Vondelpark as far as I know. We could absolutely walk into the center of town… it’s pretty easy to walk in a place as flat as Amsterdam, it’s just a matter of not getting totally lost. And when we didn’t feel like walking, the streetcar stopped a hundred meters or so from our hotel’s front door. Public transportation in Amsterdam is very efficient, and quite cheap if you get a multi-day ticket. If the hotels you’re looking at have other advantages, I wouldn’t rule them out just because they’re not extremely central.
The train station area is definitely not too far out, and the area around the station in Amsterdam isn’t bad, unlike in many other cities. (Of course, as in any part of any big city, look out for pickpockets.)
Amsterdam has a quirky little Cannabis Museum that’s worth a look. We took the train to The Hague one day and got a kick out of Madurodam, a funky little miniature village, if you’re interested in that sort of thing. (Trivia: Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands. It’s in the constitution. And yet every single function you would associate with the government or the state is located in The Hague. If anyone can figure this out, would you please get back to me?) Incidentally, trains in The Netherlands are almost like subways anywhere else. It takes no time at all to get from A to B, and the next train will be leaving in the next 15 minutes. In Brussels, Atomium is worth it just for the history and style of the place. It’s also worth it to seek out one of the chocolate shops that you haven’t heard of, and that isn’t on one of the streets directly adjacent to Grand Place. You’ll get more bang for your buck, and you’ll be able to tell people back home about this charming little place off the beaten track you discovered all by yourself
Seconded. The Atomium is unlike anything you’ve seen before. But Brussels in general doesn’t do it for me.
Bruges was worth a couple days but we ended visiting the coast because we felt like we’d run out of things to do. Plus we wanted to see the coast.
In Amsterdam, if you make it to the Vondelpark, check out the ring-necked parakeets that live there. My wife and I were quite surprised to stumble upon them last time we were there.
Another cool thing to visit is the Sloten windmill. It’s an actual working windmill, not a historic site. We stumbled upon this, too, by riding the 2 tram to the end of the line then wandering about.
Amsterdam is a pretty good city for stumbling about…
I will continue the recommendation that Brussels is a yawner. Go walk to the Grand Palace and definitely see it at night, but other than that all of Belgium is pretty much the least exciting country in Europe. Amsterdam is very nice though, I stayed at the Hilton right next to the Amsterdam Centraal Station (hooray rewards points!) which was a great place to fan out and see the city. Depending on what you’re looking to do, Jordaan district has a lot of really cool antique stores and just general small shops. The city is set up in a series of concentric U’s, one inside the other, and you can skip outward or inward on a bridge. It’s not hard to walk most of the city and see a ton of beautiful architecture, take in a couple of museums, or go on a boat ride. The boats are by far the most touristy thing to do there, but it’s a good way to see a large area of the city very quickly.
I didn’t feel like Amsterdam was any more dangerous than any other city, personally the walk from Brussels Zuid to Grand Place was way more sketchy than anywhere I saw in Amsterdam. You’re more likely to get pickpocketed anywhere in Europe but just keep that in mind and you’ll be fine.
Other than all that history, you mean? What is it that bores you: the good food, the good drink, the museums? In seven years of living and traveling in Europe, I was seldom bored, and definitely not in Brussels. To each his own, of course.
Chefguy, you and MPB in Salt Lake City have convinced me Brussels has plenty to enjoy for the brief time I will be there. Food/beer/museums. Plus, I’ve spent a fair amount of time online the last few days looking things up and have found several suggestions of things to see.
As far as pickpockets: I’m not a total newbie to traveling abroad so I know to pay attention to my surroundings, but thanks for the reminders. I raised the issue because I had seen reference online about the supposed sketchy nature of some of the areas slightly outside the center of Brussels.
That’s fine, but a lot of people in this thread have said that their opinion of Brussels was that it was boring and worth avoiding if you have somewhere, anywhere, better to go during that time. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I thought it sucked.
I can see that. It’s always different when you live somewhere, rather than visit for a few days, of course. Aside from living there, my work visits to Brussels were generally a week, sometimes less. I went often enough to where I knew where to get good food, etc. If I had a choice between Brussels or, say, Paris or Vienna, the latter cities would win hands down. In fact, a lot of cities would be preferable for me, but I liked Brussels and its surrounds. A relatively boring Euro city for me was Oslo, but I know that Norway has a lot to offer for the tourist.
I visited the Netherlands and Bruges this past April. Staying near Amsterdam Centraal Station is extremely convenient, as it’s a hub where almost all of the tram lines converge. I can HIGHLY recommend the Doubletree by Hilton at Amsterdam Centraal if you’re still considering your accommodations. Despite being at a busy location, it’s quiet and comfortable - and it has fantastic internet access (the room “TV” is an iMac).
Brussels is not a bad town-it actually has much better food than Amsterdam. Not much in the way of attractions…“Mannikin Pis” isn’t all that interesting. But take a glass of cherry kriek (beer), and a plate of mussels with frites-that is a nice lunch…and Belgian chocolates are the best. Brussels is a Dutch city where people speak French…strange but neat.
