THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: Bebpo on July 20, 2019, 01:18:35 AM
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Thinking about going to Amsterdam/Brussels/Bruge in September over like 12 days, Does a week in Amsterdam exploring Holland, week in Brussels exploring Belgium make sense for some sightseeing, eating good food, etc..? Also I'm reading mixed things about getting around Brussels in English, like that a lot of restaurant menus are in French only. Am I gonna be fucked only knowing English?
Alternatively was looking at doing 10 days in Ireland, which could be cool but I feel that's less a solo trip and more going with someone and renting a car to go around the country-side/coast.
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In the Netherlands, you'll probably have little to no problem in any major cities, from my experience people in the service industry (hotels, most restaurants, museums) speaks good English.
Bruges is touristy to the max (beautiful city center though), I'm sure it won't be an issue.
Bruxelles is harder to judge from that perspective for me but some of the popular districts for restaurants (Bourse / Beurs / The Stock Exchange, Grand Place or Sainte-Catherine) will have plenty of English menus / staff speaking english. Same for all the museums. I mean the city houses some UE and NATO institutions, it's fairly cosmopolitan. Maybe less so around Schaerbeek or something but it's probably not the part you're likely to go see. I don't think Brussel is noticeably worse for that than Paris, frankly. People are pretty chill too.
The biggest language barrier, according to the people there, is when you're a Wallon and you start entering the Flemish part surrounding the capital. Wallons are convinced a lot of Flemish speakers will stonewall you and refuse to acknowledge them in French or English even in train stations and such. Possibly overblown and a result of the longstanding tension.
In the Netherlands you can consider La Haye, it's a pleasant city even if for a couple of day. Go see the deers right outside the railway station. You can go swing by the beach if you want to. Same in Brugge, you're not too far from Ostende.
Amsterdam and La Haye have great museums too, and they must be out of renovation now. Bruges has good local beer (Zot and the rest of what their brewery do), decent museums, and a Madonna by Michelangelo in one of the churches.
The Thalys high speed train does connect Amsterdam to Bruxelles, and also goes to Bruges (though after a fork IIRC) but you can probably manage with just standard trains in most cases.
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Thanks! That’s all really helpful info.
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In the Netherlands, if a guy with a MAGA hat shouting "The absolute madman !" or playacting some US Congress fanfiction approaches you : ignore.
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I just wanted to add that Leuven,Ghent and Antwerp are all beautiful cities that you should visit as well. A day for each one is sufficient though.
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Heard of Ghent & Antwerp. Will look up Leuven and see what’s there.
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Brussel specialities can be a bit elusive (it's not super sophisticated) but if you want some good meat / giblets Belgian dishes you can try the following :
http://www.vivamboma.be/index.php?lang=en (http://www.vivamboma.be/index.php?lang=en)
It's fancy but not too much so (same for prices).
I know a decent one for Mussels-Fries but it's a bit off center (not that BXL is a huge city by itself) and pricey.
Avoid restaurants at the Grand Place (and in all the pedestrian streets around, rue des Bouchers & all), too much of a tourist trap, too busy and loud. Plenty of good places to drink there though.
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And maybe you'll be able to discover Netherlands gastronomy because I sorta struggled with that (except when on the North Sea). I love kroketten, don't get me wrong, but it's not mind blowing and I didn't really identify the uniqueness. Same for beers, it's a bit shocking coming from Belgium. The beer is fine enough but not the amount of fetishistic variety you'll get everywhere in Germany or Belgium.
Amsterdam should have good Indonesian and Carribbean adresses tho.
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If you want a less tourist oriented Amsterdam, give Utrecht a try.
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Antwerp was awesome when I went a while back, worth it even just for a day. The printing press museum is really fascinating.
Brussells was ok, there's a few cool places around the Grand Place like the Mannekan Pis and the Tintin shop. Autoworld in Parc du Cinquantenaire was fantastic, if you have any interest in cars it's worth a trip. The other two museums there were pretty good too but nothing outstanding. You'll be perfectly fine knowing only English. We only went to one restaurant that struggled with English, which was in Wolluwe Saint Lambert about 20 mins east of the centre of Brussels.
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Recommended places to visit:
- Amsterdam (obviously, be sure to hit the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum if you have the time. The Nachtwacht is a sight to behold)
- Maastricht (right next to both Belgium and Germany so you get influences from both an entirely different vibe from Amsterdam)
- Leiden (lot of nice architecture and a rich history here if that is your thing)
- Noordwijk (if you plan to head to the beach go here. We have great food (go to a place called: "Iets Anders" and be sure to pick the "Crepes Suzette" for desert) and a lovely beach, town and other stuff. Much better than Scheveningen)
- Delft (an alternative to Leiden, also really nice)
- The Hague (not everyone's cup of tea but there's some prime real estate)
Public transportation (trains/buses/metro) is well organized and our country is small.
Outside of Maastricht all of the above takes about an hour tops to travel to from Amsterdam.
Keep in might that we are a very tolerant people but we also speak our minds.
A lot of people speak English here so that should be no problem, although in some cases people think they speak English but they actually don't and you get a weird literal translation of what they want to say in Dutch that makes no sense.
Be sure to try out Stroopwafels when you visit and any visit of the Netherlands also involves solving the puzzle of what "Gezellig!" means.
Enjoy your trip! 8)