In the beginning of December, I decided I wanted to get a
trip in before the holidays. I found
this, “Christmas Market,” themed trip for 3 days that went to Belgium and
Germany, so I booked it! Kelsey’s already
been, so it’s a solo trip for Courtney!
It’s kind of scary when you book trips because you just have
to have faith that it works out! I got
up really early in the morning and waited outside this random bus stop in hopes
that a coach would pick me up at the arranged time. Sure enough, this guy comes out and is like,
“Courtney?” A sigh a relief for a
minute, and then you get on this pretty full coach, find a seat, and just go with
it!
We make our way east, to Dover, England. This town is known for its famous white
cliffs. They sure did not
disappoint.
We then make our way to the ferry and it’s crazy how all the
cars and coaches line up and then board the ferry. Once aboard, we leave the coach and I
wandered around the ferry for a bit. I
decided to have a little breakfast for the day ahead so I found this cafeteria,
had a quick muffin with OJ and then read, “The Book Thief,” for the hour and a
half ferry.
The group of us, about 30, mostly students made our way back
to the coach and we’re now in Calais, France.
We drive through France on our way to Belgium. We arrive in Belgium and check into our hotel
in Brussels. I had a room to myself,
which was nice.
That night, we all met up in the lobby and our tour guide,
Rob, took us to the Christmas markets.
Christmas markets are basically lots of little street shops
selling Christmas gifts. They are a big
deal over in Germany and Belgium. At the
market in Brussels there are over 240 little “stalls.”
We got to the market and Rob gave us a quick overview of
where things were and then we were on our own.
I first went to the light show they had at Grand Place, which is kind of
a big open square. The light show, set
to music was awesome! There were tons of
lights that lit up the Hotel de Ville.
I then wandered around and checked out the shops a little
bit. I came across a cute ice-skating
rink, which I always like to sit and watch the people skate around. I don’t know why I find it so funny when
people wipe out? Karma will come around
to me on this one I’m afraid.
There were a few things I really wanted to get in Belgium:
Stella Artois, fries, waffles and chocolate.
At the market, I got a cone shape filled with fries. They do their fries well! Check!
The shops were really nice. They had everything from Christmas decorations, to booze, to clothes, etc. There were lots of people out with their friends having a drink. The drink of choice seemed to be mulled wine. It was delicious!
The shops were closing down and since it was Friday night, I wasn’t ready for bed yet! I made my way to O’Reilly’s Irish pub (it’s a famous chain around here) and decided that I had to have a pint of Stella Artois. Check! After my nightcap, I made my way back to the hotel and went to bed.
The next day I woke up for a breakfast buffet in the
hotel. The served: croissants, yogurt, eggs, sausage, bacon, (their bacon is what we call, “Canadian bacon”).
Our group met in the lobby and we were off to Aachen, Germany
for out next Christmas market. We arrive
in Germany to lots of rain! Again, Rob
tells us where to do and then we go out separate ways. My first stop was to find new shoes and socks
as my feet were already drenched from the walk their! I found this shoe store and found some boots,
and found my first experience with people not speaking English.
It’s a really weird feeling when you say something to
someone and get a blank look back. Its
kind of like, “what do we do now?” You
have no clue what I’m saying. A lot of
pointing occurred at this store. I found
a pair, but they were too big. It was
then I decided to just screw it and get the boots because I had no clue how to
get a smaller size, plus I wanted to get back to the markets! I found some socks and I was good as new!
Before the markets, I thought I get some fuel first. I usually like to try the local restaurants
but after my shoe experience I was too scared to try and order lunch. I found a McDonald’s and thought, “I’ll get
the local promotional meal.” I ordered
my meal by more pointing, and enjoyed my bacon (Canadian) hamburger with mayo
and mustard. I’ve noticed that over here
people use mayo as we use ketchup.
To the markets in the rain I go! I bought a few things here and there. This market was a little smaller but still
fun to see what they are all selling. To
get out of the rain I checked out a few churches as well.
The markets were closing down and I wasn’t ready to head
back with Brian so I found myself a casino that I wanted to try. I sit down at a 10 Euro minimum table and
start playing! Again with the language
barrier, it was difficult to communicate with my fellow players, but it was
also very interesting. It was a weird
camaraderie, without words, that we had against the dealer.
The next morning we had some time to explore other parts of
Brussels. We first saw Mannekin
Pis. He’s a famous statue of a little
boy peeing. He was nicely dressed up for
the holidays. It was also time to get a
freshly made Belgian waffle. Check!
A major sight that I wanted to see was the Atomium. As a huge fan of the, Amazing Race, the
Atomium was a pit stop in a recent season.
It’s basically a monument of iron crystal magnified 165 billion
times. We got off at this stop and went
to the top to get a great view of the city.
It was time to leave Brussels but we had one more stop on our coach to make. We stopped at a chocolate outlet. I loaded up on some goodies and gifts for Christmas!
We made our way back to France to catch the ferry back to Dover and then back home.
Overall, I had a really great trip to Belgium and Germany and it really got me in the Christmas spirit. I learned a lot and look forward to more short trips like this one!
No comments:
Post a Comment