May 15 Monday train(s) to Rotterdam

More on this logo .. later.   It played a role on our arrival to .. Rotterdam.

Started the day with a good breakfast after both of us with our colds didn't get much sleep.   But .. hot showers and a cappuccino and black coffee helped kick-start this travel day.   We downloaded the Ghent tram app and bought the 2.50euro tickets to get to the train station knowing that the ticket kiosk was still 'out of order'.

Ghent train station, it was built in 1912 south of the old town, in preparation for the 1913 world's fair.

We joined a bunch of school children on their way to Antwerp.   They were packed into two passenger rail cars.    They were as excited as we were!    We walked from platform-2 to platform-22 to wait for our next train to Rotterdam via Breda.    But Joe got excited when the next train showed up at our stop.   Even though Jan was saying wait and pointing to the screen, Joe said 'let's go'.   Suspiciously there were many empty seats .. ahaa!   Sure enough .. Joe jumped the gun.   We got off at the next stop, Luchtbal, and caught the next train back to Antwerp.

We arrived in Rotterdam .. and into a wild celebration going on to celebrate the Feyenoord soccer (futball) club's victory yesterday in their league championship.   Our taxi driver had to drive twice the distance to get around the celebrations!

As we walked to our hotel, the celebration was also going on in the waterfront cafes.    Loud singing and fireworks!!   We checked in to this very modern, digital hotel.    Our room's lighting, blinds, air conditioning, and TV is controlled by the room's tablet.    Here's a pic of our room :

After a brief rest we ventured out to see the neighborhood.   We were glad to see that we're not far from a major tram stop.   Across from the tram stop was their Market Hall and apartment complex whose arched ceiling bears the largest artwork in the Netherlands.

We stopped inside for a lunch of .. fish & chips and shrimp & chips.

Interesting architecture was on the periphery of this area.

This is .. The Ode to Marten Toonder, an important Dutch comics artist  ..  it's a  Baroque bench where four well-known figures from the Toonder comics are enthroned: marquis De Cantecler, mayor Dickerdack, professor Sickbock and the painter Terpen Tijn. Above this towers a large obelisk, illuminated on four sides with reliefs full of symbols of philosophy, politics, economics and science. 

Rotterdam was the only city to be blitzed by the German Luftwaffe.   They had a very progressive attitude to post-war construction.   We had originally planned to do a harbor cruise to marvel at Europe's largest deep-water port .. but .. it started raining ..and.. it became colder and colder and the winds started blowing at 15-20 mph!   

Brrrr ..      do we look warm ?    This just means that we'll have to return, maybe on a cruise ship, to see this monstrous harbor and the surrounding architecture.

You're baking in the Pacific NW and we're ... freezing!    Can you believe that this will be the only picture of a church today?

This St.Lawrence Church, the only remnant of Rotterdam's medieval city center.  The first stone was laid in 1412 and the tower was started in 1449.

Another fun day!   Interesting train travels, fun people watching, watching a city celebrate their soccer championship, and wandering around being tourists.   After dinner we tested again for Covid just to be sure and we remain negative!   Yay!   Just bad colds!    Tomorrow we'll catch the tram to the train station and then the train to the Amsterdam airport.   I think I can admit that I'll be snoozing a lot on the plane and will probably be sleeping a lot when returning home.   We estimated that we walked over a hundred miles on this ambitious itinerary ... what were we thinking?   Oh, but the sights we've seen!!  We hope you've enjoyed our daily posts.

Take care,

Jan & Joe

May 14 Sunday .. Bruges (a wow factor!)

 We felt like bandits as we climbed onboard the tram to the train station.   The ticket machine was 'out of order'.    Here's the Ghent rail station, known as Gent-Sint-Pieters :

Short ride to Bruges.

We followed the crowd into the town center.

It was a cold morning!   Everyone was bundled up, those that weren't bought sweatshirts in town.

We stopped and entered 'Sint-Salvatorskathedraal' (Saint Saviour's Cathedral).   The Roman Catholic service had just started.   We stood in the back for the remaining parts.    And took a few pics when most had filed out.

Construction was started in 1250.    Hats off to those stone masons!!

We left with a mission to find the market square.    On the way, their best-known landmark, the Belfry of Bruges, a 13th century belfry housing a municipal carillon comprising 47 bells, was performing a concert for all of the Sunday visitors!   The first tune we heard was 'Under the Sea' from the cartoon 'The Little Mermaid'.

The sun was trying to brighten our day ..

What a wonderful market square!   More and more people were flooding Bruges!

The next pics are of the .. Chapel of the Holy Blood .. 14th-16th centuries .. which contains the Chapel of St.Basil (1150) and a gold casket that is reputed to hold a few drops of Christ's blood brought from the holy land in 1150.   See the crusaders?

We continued to walk around the canals and small streets admiring these old buildings.

The sun was out in force and many were enjoying canal boat cruises.

After a very delicious real Italian pizza, we continued our meandering.   Joe wanted to find the .. Gentpoort, one of the remaining medieval gates, but .. along this discovery route we found the .. Holy Magdalena Church, built between 1850-1853.  It is now part of the 'Open Churches Foundation'.  The church has been converted into a hospitable space where there is room for diverse life questions from a broad group of people.   'We offer you contemplation, coffee, and a good story'.

Here's the medieval gate and a water tower.

We continued to walk along the perimeter of the town on our way to the train station.     The following pic shows one of the canal control stations and the houses for the water regulators.

Our last view before walking across to the train station.

We're ready to train back to our hotel in Ghent.   What a fun day!   What a beautiful historical town!    I'm glad the sun came out and warmed all of us tourists!

As a side note .. we've both been fighting bad colds for the last several days.    We take an entire backpack of kleenex's for our excursions.    Jan was sick first and she tested negative for Covid.    Her portable pharmacy helped mollify our symptoms.  

After dinner tonight, we bought our train tickets for Rotterdam.    Hopefully we'll make our short connection in Breda!

Take care,

Jan & Joe

May 13 Saturday train(s) ..to.. Ghent,Belgium

Time to say good-bye to very picturesque Delft.   On our walk to the train station we noticed that it was Saturday's flea market day with stalls all around The Old Church.

When buying our tickets at the train station we helped a couple from Arkansas at the machine.  This was the first leg :   onto to Breda to transfer to Antwerp..

We had a very tight window of 5-minutes to make the transfer at Breda.   But at our next stop, a lot of people including train staff helped a wheelchair-bound person get on the train at Rotterdam .. taking about 4-minutes.    As we were running and pulling suitcases down the platform .. we said good-bye to our connection.   On the bright side it gave us an hour to cool our jets.   And help another couple from the U.S. determine the route to get to the Brussels airport.   On the next leg to Antwerp it was such a busy train that many, including us, had to stand for 41-minutes.

Antwerp .. what a beautiful, large train station!   Like a large airport to navigate through.   We had seats this time for the 42-minute ride to Ghent.   For the first time on this long trip, we decided to take a taxi to the hotel.   We chose this for its location but had NO idea how prime a spot it was!!   These were the views outside our window :

AND .. right outside the hotel's front door !! :    St.Bavo's Cathedral

and ..

These sights injected us with new energy!   We hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was around 3:30 .. but we were awestruck and had to continue discovering ..

The weather was gorgeous and many many people were enjoying the old part of Ghent.   Outdoor cafes were filled, lots soaking up the sun with a beer or wine.

Like many Netherlands and Belgium towns and cities, canals were everywhere.

Like in Nuremberg, I saw the edge of a castle ..and.. we had to go explore!

It's Gravensteen, a castle dating from 1180 and was the residence of the Counts of Flanders until 1353.   It was re-purposed as a court, prison, mint, and a cotton factory.

We ate our late lunch / early dinner here in its shadow.

We were running on empty at this time and headed back to the hotel to call it a day but just had to get in a few more sights, and you know us, if the door to a church is open .. then we need to marvel at its interior!

This is St.Bavo's Cathedral (also known as St.Baaf's).  Construction of the gothic church started in 1274.    A Catholic church.

Ghent became one of Northern Europe's largest and richest cities, with some 50,000 people in 1300.    Even though we researched Ghent before we planned our itinerary we didn't expect this volume of well-preserved buildings!

It's almost 8-pm .. and we're dragging after a busy train travel day.   Hopefully a good rest and a super-charged breakfast will give us the energy to travel to Bruges and enjoy another beautiful medieval city.   We'll be adventurous and take the No.1 tram to the train station for a fun day of travel and sight-seeing!

Take care,   .. only a few more days til we see and talk to you!

Jan & Joe