FIRST TOUR BY EUROPE II PART: BRUGGE

BRUGGES

Brugges is a city of fairy tale, very romantic and very nice. The best way of know it, is lost yourself through the streets, the channels and the squares. The rythm of the city is quiet, pacely and you can eat an ice-cream, a creppe or fried chips (typical Belgian and very good) or drink a coke while you see the people walking and you breath and smile. All the entire city is like a dream.

Is not expensive. You find prices of all kinds, you can choose if eat cheap or more expensive, without need that it's too expensive. Yo can eat very good with a not bad price. The belgian gastronomy is very good and you can find all tipes of food: seafood like mussels, fried chips, meat, salmon, salads,...And of course the desserts and the chocolate. The Swiss chocolate is very good, but for me, the Belgian one is the best.

The city is very good prepared for the tourism, and you won't have any problem to find the Tourism Office, where they will attend you of the best way and they will give you a map for that your visit and the tour across the streets be easier.

How to move by Brugges?? of course walking, but also a good way is in carriage, which you will can rent in many places. I ignore the prices because we didn't do it. Another way to see the city is by a little ship. The trip takes a half hour more or less and the price is 6 € by person. Is very romantic. If you are far from the old town, I suposse the best way to arrive is by bus or tramcar, but it's better you get information because our hotel was in the old town.

A very curious thing is that there is a lot of people, specially in the shops and restaurants that speak Spanish and there are a lot of posters where it's written it.

What you can not miss when you visit Brugges: all. Really all the city is fantastic. Breath it, smell it, taste it, savor it and enjoy it.

If you are thinking in visit Brugges in a few time, I recommend you see the film "In Brugges", led by Collin Farrell. For me the film was well, maybe you don't like it but only to see the city it's worth while, because it's filmed entire there and you'll can have a good vision of what will you find when you go there.

 

 

Enjoy it.

8TH AUGUST 2007

We start our way towards Brugges. We change of city and of country; this time Belgium. I rains and Paris disappears in the distance. It seems that the city cries because it doesn’t want that we leave.  It rains cat and dogs during all the time. In less than three hours we are in Brugge. It doesn’t rain but is cloudy. We go directly to the Ibis hotel that is just at the begining of the old town, as says our book of the Accord Hotels. We park in a public parking next to the hotel and we ask in the hotel if is there any room for us. We have luck. We installed ourselves, eat something and we sleep for one houre, since the city is little and you can see it in only an evening.

We start to walk by Katelijnestraat, the street where is the hotel. Through this street there is a lot of little shops and candy stores, the speciality of Belgium. The Belgian chocolate is one of the bests of the world, if not the best. There are a lot of posters in which we can read that they speak Spanish. We buy some delicious candies and souvenirs: of course, I buy some postal cards for my collection, and Javi the Brugges team’s scarg, also for his collection. We do the firsts photos.

We go to the Tourism Office so they give us a map and they tell us what to see. There are some museums, the Halles bell tower, which you can go up and  some churches. We decided to lose yourselves through the city. In fact is the best way to know the city. The sun starts to shine. A while after we arrive to the Markt Platz, the principal square , with some oficial buildings, is possible to visit some one of them. I see a sandwichs stand very a very good face and I buy one of salmon. I eat it quietly in the square, enjoing the moment and the precious place while Javi does more and more photos. 

We keep walking and we find a little pier with little boats to make a trip by the channels. The cost is 6 €, are we to waste the chance of  sail through the channels of this magic city?? No way, so we make the little queue and wait for the next little board, that comes quickly. There is a recording with some explanations in several languaes but Spanish. It’s anecdothic bearing in mind that a lot of people speaks Spanish, but anyway it doesn’t matter because of the noise of the engine is impossible to listening something.

In that moment we have already fall in love in Brugge. It’s amazing, beautiful, we are without breath. We look the ancient houses, some of them are from 1600 and we do a lot of photos, millions, which will be perfect for our screen fund. After 30 minutes more or less, the trip is over, but not our trip through the city. We arrive to a park which is the Beatary Church, framed in a nice place. 

After walking a lot and cover the visit of the entire Brugge, it becomes night. We can’t miss the city at night, with the channels and the illuminated buildings. We have a shower in the hotel and we go out to have dinner. After 4 days eating in Quick, McDonald’s, Turkish fast food and bread with sausages, it’s time to have a good meal.Después de mucho caminar y unas cuantos miles de fotos después, se hace de noche. We get into a very nice and romantic restaurant and we have a very beautiful and special dinner with the light of the candles and the night in Brugge. To drink, we see in the menu that there is sangria and we taste it; is not bad but it’s very different off the sangrias here in Spain. Then, we take a round and we do the lasts photos.

We come back to the hotel to sleep. Our next destination is Amsterdam, where we stay the next two days. We put the Ibis in Amsterdam adress in our XXI century compass and we start to dream. 

In fact we haven’t stop dreaming since we departured from home but we must keep doing. We love this charming city and we hope to come back some day.

PHOTOS OF PARIS

EIFFEL TOWER

 THE INVALIDES

                                                                   

                                                                                                               Napoleon's Tomb

                                                                   

VERSAILLES PALACE

                                                                    

THE FIRST TOUR BY EUROPE FIRST PART: PARIS

On may 2007 we thought in make a tour by Europe by car. A dream come true. It was not too many complicated: we were saving some money during two months. Our total budget was 3.000 €, yes maybe is expensive, but you have to think that in this price is all included: the oil for the car, the hotels, the meals, the souvenirs we bought, the tickets for the places that we visited, the food we bought to save money,… And the time we were travelling were two weeks, so is not too much. We spent 2.600 € and this is, more or less, what spend the people who goes to The Caribbean in the flight and the hotel (without the trips) only in a week.
We bought a little refrigerator which you can plug in the wall or in the car, that it going to be very good to save the food we were going to buy to don’t have to eat always in a restaurant and save money. It cost 70 € and it was perfect. We used it in several times all of these years.


I was reading a lot of blogs of people who was in many places in Europe, some advices, … Also we bought a GPS, a very good investment that we amortized fully, since it was a very big help to don’t miss ourselves and to don’t spend our time. We thought in different tours but at the end we decided this one: Paris-Brugges-Brussels-Amsterdam-Luxembourg-Berlin-Munich- Milan- Coute d’Azur (Monaco, Nice, …)


My mother made a collection of some guidebooks Lonely Planet which were given with the newspaper, so I had the Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam guidebook; I bought a guidebook of Belgium and Luxembourg. We only booked the first hotel in Paris, the rest we will book them when we arrive to the cities. As we were to going to hotels of the chain Accord, we decided to get the card of the group to have discounts. We get a little book in a Ibis with all the Ibis hotels in the World and it was very good for us.


In fact we decided first to go until Berlin. Then, in Luxembourg we decided to go to Munich and Milan; so that, we didn’t have any guidebook of these cities.


Before to explain every city, I will give you a little introduction with the most important and some advices.


PARIS

Paris is a great city, so romantic and very very nice. It’s true that is very expensive, but if you know how, you can enjoy your visit spending not too much money. For example, eating in fast foods, or Turkish’; the souvenirs and the tickets to get into the places to visit are not very expensive. Of course, if you eat in the Elysian Fields it will be very expensive or if you do in a ship sailing through the Senna River, but it depends on you.
 

The traffic is horrible, so is much better to move on public transport. Is more expensive than in Barcelona, but better, and all the places are very good communicated too. The best is get a card for three days that you can use to all the public transport: buses, train, trams and Subway.

The prices for the hotels are very varied. We booked an Ibis Hotel in the quarter of Montparnase, quite centric but not next to any atraction which cost 65 € per night without breakfast. It was very near of the Subway stop. The first day, that was a Sunday, we could park on the street because we didn’t have to pay. The others two days we moved the car into a garage and we spent 20 € day.

The parisian people are characterized by being unfriendly but the truth is that we didn’t have any problema and when we asked for something to someone, they were very kind.

What you can not miss when you travel to Paris is: the Eiffel Tower, the Paris’ symbol; the Louvre Museum, the Toulleries Park, the Elysian Fields, the most glamourous street of the city; The Invalides, where is the Napoleon’s tomb; the Sacred Heart; the Latin Quarter, Notre Damme, the Mouline Rouge and the impresive Versailles Palace.


5th AUGUST. FIRST DAY IN PARIS: TOULLERIES PARK, ELYSIAN FIELDS, THE ARCH OF THE VICTORY AND THE EIFFEL TOWER
 
The adventure starts. We stat our travel at 3.00 a.m. towards Paris, charged of illusions. We arrive at 12:30 p.m., after more than 9 hours travelling and to stop three times to rest and walk a little, we arrive to Paris. And the first thing we find is a very big tailback! Like is august we think we were find the city empty, but not. But it doesn’t matter: we breath, smile and we relax. We are on holidays and in Paris, so we are happy. Fortunately, the tailback don’t takes a long time. Thanks to our GPS, we find the hotel Emily. We install our selves and we rest one hour and a half; we need to sleep something. Then, we take our guidebook, our camera and our things and we start our visit by Paris. 

 

At 3:00 pm we take the Subway, we buy the card for three days to use all the public transport (15 € aprox.) and we stop where the Louvre Museum is, because is where is the nearest Tourist Office. In the office I try to speak with my notions of French, but lucky, the girl is Spanish and she explain us which are the best itineraries to do through the city and the best things to see in the two days and a half we are going to stay in Paris.

 
With a very hot sun and 33 degrees, we go out to the Paris surface and we are astonished of the outsider of the Louvre Museum and the big queue of people waiting to enter. The visit to this Museum will be in another occasion. We walk through the Toulleries Gardes, that are very nice with a lot of people sunbathing, walking, doing sport, etc, althoug with this temperature is impossible to do anything. We take the firsts photos.

Way dehydrated we arrive to the Concord Square with its amazing streetlights and its nice fountain y then we found the Elysian Fields. For someone who have been in Barcelona is very similar as Paseo de Gracia, because there are all the most elegants shops in the city and is a very big street. We get into some souvenirs shops and we buy somethings and we come across with one of the symbols of Paris: The Victory’s Arch. We observe it for a minutes and we rest a bit in the shadow because we are so tired and is very very hot. We see some soldiers forming below. We don’t know why and if is very usual. So, we surround it, we do more photos and we go across one side to the other.


 Suddenly, between the buildings that are on the left, we see a metal top which is very familiar for us: the Eiffel Tower. It looks like is near, so we decide to go by foot and to enjoy the streets of the city. But the tower is not as near as we thougt, and we walk a lot. At the end we arrive to the Senna river with all of their bridges and we see it. We are atonished by its stateliness and the times we dreamed of with this momento. There is a very pleasant breeze that manages to pacify a little the heat. Many photos after, we see the enormous queue to go up the tower. We are so tired and we decided to come tomorrow early because maybe there are not so many people. So, we walk pacely, we eat an ice-cream, we seat in a park and we take the Subway to come back to the hotel. It’s 8:00 o’clock in the evening and we are hungry.

We have dinner with the things we have in our little refrigerator that we buy the day before to go, we have a shower and we are so, so tired, so we go to bed. We’d like to see Paris at night. It has to be very nice, quite illuminated, in special the Eiffel Tower, but is impossible, maybe tomorrow, if we are not very tired,…

6TH AUGUST. SECOND DAY IN PARIS: THE EIFFEL TOWER, THE INVALIDES, THE PANTHEON, THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS, THE NOTRE DAMME AND THE LATIN QUARTER

 We get up tired and is because the firsts days are hard, after to walk a lot. The weather have changed completely: is raining and is not hot. In fact we need a jacket. In one hand is better because that way is not hot. In the other hand the views from the Eiffel Tower will be not as nice as when is sunny and to be the whole day with the umbrella is one it gnawed. We have breakfast with our food and we start the day. 

We arrive to the tower at 9:00 a.m. andi s very pleasant to see that the queue, if we compare with yesterday, is a joke. It’s raining cats and dogs. We buy the tickets to go up in lift that cost 7 € per person. We can only go up until the second floor because the third is closed. From there high the views are maravellous; we see the Mars Field, a park which is below, Trocadero, the Senna, and a half of Paris. Fortunately, is no training now but the sky is gray and the weather will be that way the whole day. After doing some photos, we leave the tower going down the stairs. During the way, you see the people who are going up very tired, but we are allright, although when you arrive down you are a little Dizzy, but the experience has been worth it.

Our next stop is The Invalides. Formerly it was a Hospital that was built in the time of Napoleon for the injured in the Wars, but today is a museum of the history of the war of France, since the ancient times until the Second World War, and where is the Napoleon’s tomb. I don’t like much the war and the uppons but I have to reconize that is very interesting to see all the objects. In the II WW there are gas masks and a tank. Also there is a room where there are som videos in French and in English. We ate something in the snack bar and we go towards the Luxembourg Gardens, a very nice and romantic park where to walk through and do some photos.

Almost 7:00 in the evening we arrive at the Notre Damme, the most famous church of the city where the famous story of the humpback passes. Architectonically is a nice church and I’m not very believer but… The inside is veeeery big, one of the most bigs that I’ve never seen and in the centre there is a mock-up. I’m surprissed for not having to pay an Entrance, but is totaly free. If you pay one € you can go up the stairs to the tower and to see the views. Also, for 1 € too, you can go the cripte and the museum, but we are not interested. We rather walking through the sorroundings, the Latin Quarter and the square where are the painters, so typicall Parisian. Is all very beautiful. It’s 9:00 in the evening and we are in the other side of the city, so we come back to the hotel to have dinner. Again we decide to not go out at night.

7TH AUGUST. LAST DAY IN PARIS: THE VERSAILLES PALACE- THE MOULIN ROUGE-THE SACRED HEART AND TROCADERO. Today is my birthday. Could anyone have a better pressent that being in Paris? Today is sunny again and the sky is blue. Javi congratulates me affectionately and I receive several messages to my Mobile. We have breakfast and we start the day, but this time more quietly.

Today is our last day in Paris and we are dedicated to the Versailles Palace. To arrive to the palace, that is in the town with the same name, you can do it by to ways: by Subway and train or by car, because it’s to a few kilometers away. We think that perhaps by car, the parking is expensive or there are not many places, so we decided once again to go by public transport. It s comfortable and there are not many people. Of course, when we come, is fulled of people and the queue is very long. Also is a little late: it’s 11 o’clock. If we had come a pair of hours earlier… but it doen’s care, we are on holidays, so no stress.

The ticket cost 18 € and some time of queue, but at the end, after get a map with the itinerary and my essential audioguide, we start the visit. We are absolutely hypnotized. All is very luxurius, with an incalculable value and all the fourniture like king Louis XIV were living in that momento, all in its own place, bearing impassively the passage of time. Is a visit you can not miss. We see the corridors, the mirrors room, all the rooms, … We take three hours to see the palace, but then there are the Gardens, so big that you need a little train to cover them, with some stops to see some things, for example the place of the Maria Antonieta’s place. The Gardens are very nice, and to see all the rest you need two hours or maybe three hours more. We were five hours visiting the Palace and we are a little saturated but it has been worth it.

After the Versailles Palace, we return to Paris. When we arrive the sky is gray again and every minute is more and more black. We were afraid it will be raining again, but after all it doesn’t rain. We go directly to Montmatre quarter, where is the Mouline Rouge and the Sacred Heart Church. Just going out of the Subway stop we come across with the most famous theatre of Paris. The street is fulled of sexshops, X cinemas and premises with X performance alive. We eat a creppe with nutella and we get into the Erothic Museum, where you can find many things, photos, etc. Really is very curious and funny and is not expensive. It cost 6 € by person. For example, you can find pictures like this one.

 

After to rest, we go to the Sacred Heart. To arrive there from the Mouline Rouge you have to pass a pedestrian area and after, you can choose taking a funicular to go up until the church or go up the stairs. We, so brave as always, decide to go by foot, but we arrive without breath. The stairs never end. In the sorroundings of the church there are a lot of man selling a lot of things, quiet bore, but we achieve to avoid them. The inside of the church is not very special, is better its outsider. The best thing you can do is to seat in one of the steps and to contemplate the beautiful views of the whole city that from there are seen.

Our last stop is Trocadero, from which you obtain a beatiful perspective of the Eiffel Tower. We do more photos and we take the Subway to go to the tower for the last time. We see, in a bridge, near of it, a Statue of Liberty, like you can see in New York, but little. As I can read on my guidebook, the American gave this statue as a pressent for the French.

 That night we couldn’t go out again. So we didn’t see the Parisin night, but walking the whole day it’s impossible. But I’m sure the next time we come back to Paris, we will live the nightlife.