Brugges-Brussels-Amsterdam

The reason I group these three cities together is mainly out of laziness. We have seen so much it is impossible for me to tell a captivating (like each and every one of my previous blogs! (I am in an exclamation point mood of late(!))) and interesting story for every stop on our trip of dreams and wavy memories. Thus I will simply say the following (and perhaps save some of the words earned at these cities for oral retelling rather than the printed format):

(Also nothing completely crazy or cunningly compelling occured)

Have I mentioned it was cold? In Brugges it was this snow/sleet/rain/wind/torture from the moment we arrived. We walked around a bit, took a pretty cool (literally (c'mon everybody!)) brewery tour, tasted some excellent Belgian Beer, did some more walking, saw some sight, attempted to avoid the rain, went to sleep, awoke next morning, did something, and then headed in the direction of Brussels.

Brussels is a fine city with genuine and in most instances, very friendly people. The only drawback to Brussels was it was cold (bet you didn't see that coming (exclamation point)). Like Brugges, Brussels would be a lovely city if the sun was shining heavily and happily and if it was, O I don't know, warm. Full of parks and terrific architecture and art nouveau, Brussels seems like an excellent walking city. Unfortunately for us it was snowy, we had a nice hotel room and an abundance of delicious Belgian beer, and that mother of all sinners, that killer of all energy, stealer of all souls (what is it with me and souls of late?): a TV. Mix that with museums and some other outdoor activities when it wasn't raining/sleeting/spitting on us, and that nearly sums up our Brussels experience. At least to my already fading memory.

Amsterdam was...well. It is tough to describe Amsterdam from our view point. The weather was lousy, our hotel was insufferable for the astronomical price, the museums were expensive and, in my humble opinion, terribly (ok not terribly) overrated, everything was touristy or seriously sketchy, and what was that smell? Perhaps I will waste my breath in my later days with retelling some things we did in Amsterdam (like the sub-par Rijksmuseum and the ok van Gogh museum) but I will not waste time or energy here and now on this place I did not care for.

For there exists a much a better place I wish to tell you about in Holland, a much friendlier place, a much more exciting place. A place where one feels at home. A place they call Groningen.