One of the Best Museums I’ve Been To

My hotel in Antwep is in the Zuid, the southern part of town. It’s a more residential area, but is an easy tram ride to the center of town. One of the nice things about the hotel, however, is that it’s very close to the Royal Art Museum. The museum has been closed for 10 […]

In Which I Planned Poorly

I checked three sources before deciding to go to the Groeningemuseum today. Had I checked a fourth source perhaps I would have found that they were closed on Wednesday, not Monday (as the other sources had all indicated). It was a bit confusing, and then disappointing, to get to the gate of the museum and […]

In Which I Whine About the Rain

As I stepped out of Ghent Sint-Pieters Station, I pulled my rain jacket close about me and the hood down low over my head. The rain wasn’t coming down heavily and the wind wasn’t gusty, just a steady light drizzle and a light breeze, but I wanted to try and stay warm and dry. I […]

Walking Around Chocolate

There’s something about the air here. It’s not the golden light (when the sun comes out) and it’s not the rain (it did that all morning today). It the sound of Bruges – the bells that chime all day here, whose music echos through the streets in peals of little bells with high-pitched rings, and […]

Back in Time to Bruges

I stepped off of the train in Bruges and began the walk to my hotel. I had no sense of direction, but followed the crowds across the street from the train station, and my phone confirmed my routing. Here, the road bent gently to the left, and my path ahead was speckled with the brilliant […]

In Which I Know Nothing About Belgium

When I’ve thought about visiting Belgium … well, I guess that’s the problem with this trip. Until this year I’ve never thought about visiting Belgium. Truthfully it’s not a country that has caught my imagination or even entered my consciousness much beyond its mere existence. Yes I knew it was its own country but wasn’t […]