The food is ridiculously good - Bruges, Gent and Brussels, Belgium

First stop in Belgium was Bruges. Being a bit of a fan of the black comedy movie "In Bruges" starring Colin Farrell meant this city was a must see.  Bruges had an amazing range of interesting old buildings. The food was also disgustingly delicious - Belgium waffles, fries with mayo, chocolate, garlic mussels and of course the beer!  

Mussels in Bruges

Bruges town square

Belgian chocolate shop

Bruges canals

Time for a beer...

A showcase/beercase of Belgiums finest

Bruges town square

Bruges canals at night

More canals

Canals in Ghent

We moved on to Brussels where the TomTom directed us to the middle of the city to a "campground" that didn't exist.  It did mean that we got to see a lot of the city sights by car and after navigating our way out of the CBD we ended up camping in a little village nearby called Grimbergen.  Conveniently, we stumbled across a garden music festival in Brussels in the Palace Gardens where a local band belted out a good range of covers we all know.  The park had big sculptures of all the famous Belgian foods - waffles, mussels, beer, chocolate,  brussel sprouts, fries with mayo - I didn't realise there were so many!

Waffles with 101 different toppings

Mannequin Pis - one of the big tourist attractions apparently?? (a statue of a little boy having a pee)

 Church and gardens in Brussels

Street Art - Pommes frites in the park

 Chocolate!

Brussel sprouts -Yuk (kat), yum (JJ)

The final of EURO 2012 between Spain and Italy was played live when we were in Brussels.  After Spain smashed Italy 4-0 we quickly left the Italian pizzeria we were watching the game in and found Spain supporters flooding the streets.  In the chaos we ended up heading the wrong way to our bus home (the last bus) and missed it...  (Despite a local bar owner being a good samaritan grabbing the keys to his 2012 mini and driving us towards the bus station until the swarm of Spaniards celebrating their win blocked the road).  So we ended up having to hail a taxi to get back to our campground out of town.  

The end of a long day - possibly too casual hence missing the last bus.

Potheads and Bicycles - Amsterdam, The Netherlands

We met up with Fresha and Kirsty (mates from Uni) at Camping Zeeburg on the outskirts of Amsterdam.  It was tent city here and easily the most "young people" we had come across on our trip so far. Most of the visitors appeared to be students, either glazed over or giggling. Amsterdam aye.  

The first night Fresha and I popped out to the nearest supermarket for some beer and food for dinner.  The tomtom directed us into central Amsterdam where we were harassed by swarms of cyclists, one-way streets and a severe lack of parking. After half an hour (tomtom said 7mins) we had collected beer and food and made our way back.  Unfortunately pea-bladder Lisle (Fresha) was about to explode and we were racing against time to make it back to the loo.  Our route back was hilariously stopped by canal bridges lifting to allow a ship under (blocking traffic over the canal), there was also a bit of a jam up on the way. Made it in the end, an entertaining ride for some. 

After wandering the streets for a bit, we hired a paddleboat and cruised around the city canals. The main rule of the paddleboat was to give way to everyone and stay on the right. It was a great way to see the city from a different angle.  After this we visited the famous Anne Frank house and walked though the rooms where she hid out with her family for two years until they were captured by the nazis and taken to Auswitz.  Later that evening, we had a walk through the red-light district, seeing woman "advertising" their services in the windows of shops. 

It was awesome to catch up with old mates along the way and have a few beers - in Amsterdam of all places.

The oneway street we drove up in search of beer.  The tomtom had a kiwi guy reading directions "lets pull a you-ee and go get a mince and cheese pie!!"

Beers at Camping Zeeburg

Weed growing in a boat

Innercity

"The Menu"

Tulip bulbs market

Friendly little starter kit

Cheese tasting

On the canal in a paddleboat

Kirst and Kat in the engine room

View from the water

Post collision with wall

Housing in Amsterdam - each house was taxed on the width of the house

Autobahn gridlock - Hindeloopen and Alkmaar, Netherlands

After dropping off Liz and Paul at the airport, we headed west towards the Netherlands.  After driving for a couple of hours we tried to find a campground to stop for the night.  As it was quite late, we were lucky to stumble on a tiny campground not far from the motorway.   The next morning, we hit gridlock at Hannover.  For two hours we sat waiting on the autobahn in the pouring rain, while an accident was cleaned up.

In the end it took us 6 hours to drive accross to Hindeloopen in the Netherlands.  Once we arrived we discovered that we were in the Friesland provence, the home of Holstein-Friesian cows.  We stayed on a farm/campground and wandered round the tiny village of Hindeloopen.  It was freezing being right on the coast so after a quick stop for Friesland cake (gingerbread and orange cake, yum!) we moved on to Alkmaar.

Friesian cows

Hindeloopen

The main street of Hindeloopen

Wandering the streets

Hindeloopen

Canals

Croquettes in Alkmaar town square

The old town of Alkmaar

Windmill!

The Dutch love their bikes!

Jagermeister shots for EURO2012 & WWII history - Berlin, Germany

From Prague we stopped in at a small town called Meissen (internationally known for Meissen porcelain) for a couple of hours.  The town had a great little town square; we picked up a couple of bratwurst from a streetside stall and had a good wander round.

Meissen town square

Meissen 

Sewer cap - each town has their name on the cap with city emblem

Old town castle entrance in distance

We then travelled north to Berlin to meet up with our friends Liz and Paul.  The night before we picked them up from the airport we stayed at a campground in Grunewald. The town was tiny (3000 people) located half an hour out of Berlin.  The night we stayed Germany was playing Greece in the Euro2012 soccer competition - a great opportunity to slink down to the local beer garden and sample some German beer and footy atmosphere.  It was a great game - especially with the beergarden having a rule that every time Germany scores a goal, Jagermeister shots are on the house!! (Final score 4-2 to Germany.)  There were high fives from drunk locals and some were even buying us beers towards the end of the game.  We were also informed that we were the first kiwis to EVER visit the town (this was decided between the campground owners son and Thurston - a local guy who we got chatting to).  

Arrived at the airport the next morning a bit dusty but on time to pick up Paul and Liz coming from London.  Found that they had missed their flight, so set off for a day of sightseeing (and water and coffee), most of which involved the wall and history of the nazi regime.  It was interesting to understand the reasons for the wall - basically the Soviets wanted to stop people crossing over into the American, French and English sections of Berlin after WWII.  So they constructed a wall preventing anyone crossing over from east to west and vise versa.  This resulted in a number of families being separated with some living on opposite sides of the street and not being able to reach each other.

We found that Berlin had a real edgy feel to it.  Plenty of people dressed up in crazy punk outfits, quite a diverse population but no real city centre.  Most of the restaurants and public spaces were spread out with the metro providing the main connection.

Berlin - TV tower

Weisbeers

Brandenburg gate

Reichstag (Parliament)

Berlin wall - section remaining that has art works

Berlin artwork

The interior wall

The thickness of the main wall

Memorial 

Liz and Kat next to the wall memorial

Permit for a limited stay over the wall

Paul, Liz and Kat inside the footprint of an old church 

A remaining section of the wall

View of main and interior wall with guard tower and lighting

Checkpoint Charlie - The asian guy in this photo pulled the nazi salute (cue gasps of shock from the crowd) moments after I took this photo... idiot.  The actor posing as an American soldier smacked his arm down. Unbelievable.

Sections of the wall used as a canvas for art

Pork knuckle and sauerkraut

Lunch with Paul and Liz