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We went on a boat tour through the Amsterdam canals. The tour focused on an art series that implemented lights. The theme was friendship and freedom and the tour explained what each art piece meant which was very helpful. Without the explanations it would have just been some funky, artsy light decorations.

My last stop of the trip was Amsterdam. I met up with one of my good friends from high school, Tim.

Here is some more photos of Rotterdam. Again, the architecture is very unique.

Here is the Market Hall in downtown Rotterdam. This architecture was super cool. The inside was a large boutique marketplace with a full array of food products and restaurants from around the world. The market shops and restaurants are slightly upscale and hipster. Its a nice place to look around. The shopping continued underground with a few more shops and a grocery store. The outer portion of the hall was apartments and it looked like they had windows facing the inside of the hall.

My next stop was Rotterdam, Netherlands. My focus while stopping here was to admire the architecture. Rotterdam is a city that has been rebuilt many times and the result is very modern and radical designs. One of my favorites works that I’ve ever seen are these cube houses. These are houses/apartments in downtown Rotterdam that will catch anyone's attention. There had to be at least twenty cubes and my pictures don’t quite capture the array they were presented in. Every way you looked at the cubes brought new perspective. I would love to go inside one and see the layout and feel what it would be like to look out of slanted windows and walls. It’s hard to imagine what it is like inside but I bet it’s cool!

My next journey:

This is the Kinderdijk in The Netherlands. It is the largest collection of old windmills in all of The Netherlands. That is quite a feat because one stumbles upon windmills quite frequently throughout the country. This was a remarkable place that was peaceful and very well preserved. The windmills were built around the 1740s to pump out and drain the water from the area. Today, a few of the 20 or so windmills still function but most of the drainage work is now done by the two corkscrew diesel pumps in the bottom picture.

One thing I was surprised to learn about when I was there was that people lived inside the windmills. They function as full homes for families. Today, however, I think most are no longer inhabited and are now used for tourism.

Kinderdijk means Children’s Dike. The name comes from a story about a cradle seen floating down the river area one day after a big storm. A cat was seen inside the cradle trying to keep it balanced on the water by jumping back and fourth inside. The cat was keeping water out of the cradle. When the cradle and cat reached the side of the river where it was close enough to be retrieved, a baby was also found inside sleeping and dry. This story is known as the Cat and the Cradle and I remember hearing it as a kid. I never knew it came from here! In the second picture from the bottom, you can see a cradle floating in the water as tribute to the folk tale.

This is the Basilica of the Holy Blood. There was some great history in here including a Michelangelo sculpture. I did not get close enough for a photo of that.

Here are some more photos in Bruges. The canals are very impressive and numerous. There are definitely way more canals in Venice, but for a city with cars, Bruges does well with the canals.

The beer wall is part of a bar and all the walls looked like that. They had hundreds of belgian beers and their matching glasses on display. Belgian brewers often create a uniquely shaped glass for each beer which they believe showcases their beer the best. They range in all shapes and sizes including horn shaped and many hand crafted works of art. Just the thought of there being hundreds of types of glassware to drink beer out of is overwhelmingly impressive.

I have no idea who makes that funky car but they had a Pope action figure on the dashboard and it definitely reminded me on some of the pope-mobiles that have been created for past popes.

Here is the video of the man playing!

One attraction I was pleasantly surprised about was the Belfry tower in Bruges. Belfry towers are basically giant bell towers that affluent cities in Belgian had for city hall events, bell usage and as a status symbol. I climbed to the top of the tower, they said it was 360ish steps, but I counted a little less.

The view was amazing! There were little history tidbits along the way. For example, they had a chest in the tower surrounded my numerous gates which had 8-11 locks on it. The chest held important city documents and things inside. The keys to all the locks were distributed among notable people in the town so the chest could never be opened unless everyone with a key was there. Usually when it was opened, they held some sort of city rally event for the occasion.

My favorite part about the Belfry tower was the bell system. They had an intricate web-like mechanical system that controlled all the bells in the tower which was subsequently connected to a piano-like instrument that a man plays. This older man climbs the tower and plays songs using the bells every day throughout the day! I never would have guessed the bell songs which I could hear throughout the city was played by a man all day. Since I visited in December, He was playing Christmas songs. I will try to attach a video.

Here are some spots I explored around Bruges. The place is sometimes called “Venice of the North”. It was never dull exploring the streets.

This is Bruges! It was a very pretty city. The first night after the ice sculptures, I found my hostel which was probably the best I’ve stayed in, and dropped my stuff off. The beds had lockers underneath them for all your things, privacy curtains, a light inside your personal pod so you don’t disturb people sleeping, and outlets to charge things. This was very convenient.

I walked past a Belgian Bottle shop with a lot of people in it and saw them playing a coin toss game that looked fun. I joined in and played for a while. Later I realized I crashed a woman’s 51st birthday party but she was very welcoming of me and I stayed for a couple hours talking with Bruges locals. I also got free cake and played trivia.

My next stop was Bruges, Belgium. I stayed in Bruges for 2 nights before continuing my travels.

After I parked in an overnight parking area, I went to the Ice Sculpture event that happens every year in Bruges. Unfortunately my pictures did not do so well with all the ice but I hope you get the general idea. It was -5 degrees Celsius inside this massive tent where all the ice sculptures were. There was a cartoon theme this year but I don’t know what the cartoon is. Regardless, the craftwork of all the ice was awesome! They even had two ice slides that I slid down inside. That was fun! Additionally they had a bar at the end where they mostly served warm drinks.

I was definitely glad I decided to see the ice sculptures. I was something I’ve never seen at that scale before.

My next stop was Oostvleteren, the east side of vleteren, or the other end of town from the trappist brewery. This brewery is called De Struise Brouwers and they make extremely good beer that is also extremely hard to find in America or for cheap in Belgium. The brewery used to be a school, which they converted into what it is now. You can see they left up an old chalk board where they actually do brew lessons for people every so often.

This brewery specializes in barrel aged big stouts and barleywines and some sours and IPAs too. Basically the types of beers I like. They also have an appreciation for great beers from around the world (You can see Pliny in their brewer only fridge). I got to try a couple really good beers for a euro a piece. They were exceptional and the brewer that was working there that day was very nice and knowledgeable. This brewery has four brewers and the brewer there that day specializes in wine and barrels so I’m sure he had a large role in the barrel aging of the beers.

This past weekend I did a lot of travelling. My first stop was the very small town of Westvleteren, Belgium. This is literally in the middle of nowhere and the main reason for going, was to check out the famous Trappist brewery for myself. A trappist brewery is a brewery that is owned and operated by monks, and all the beer is brewed inside the walls of their monastery. There are 6 trappist breweries in Belgium and they all produce very good beer. This one, however, is known to produce not only the best trappist beer, but the best beer in the world. As voted by many notable sources, Trappist Westvleteren XII (Their Belgian Quad beer) is #1 in the world.

Additionally, it is also one of the hardest beers to get. This is because you have to go to the brewery to buy it. They do not distribute any beer which makes it very hard to find outside of the monastery or the cafe across the street (The cafe is the only other legal place to buy it). Some bottle shops and people sell the beer outside of these two locations, like in Brussels for example, for 300-1000% mark up price. On top of no distribution, you have to call the monks and reserve a crate of the beer to buy. If you don’t make a reservation, you cannot buy the beer. And since this beer is highly sought after, it is sold out week after week.

The monks open the telephone line for only a couple hours per week and because of the high number of callers, I was never actually able to get through an make a reservation. Its almost like a lottery system because so many people call every week. So if you cant make a reservation, you can go to the cafe across the street and drink their beer there. (I still tried to buy some from the monks without a reservation) If you are lucky, the cafe will sell you a six-pack or two for you to take home.

I went and drank a XII while I was at the cafe, and bought some of blonde and VIII to take home because they did not have any XII to take home that day. It was a very good beer and a fun visit to the monastery.

I also took some time exploring the Rathaus (City Hall Building). There was even more Charlemagne history in here! (I feel like I kind of look like him.) The Rathaus had a lot of history and some very cool artifacts including the most important and accurate paintings of the 8th century, Charlemagne and the history of his reign.

This is the Aachen Cathedral! At over 1200 years old, it’s the oldest cathedral in Northern Europe. It was commissioned to be built by Charlemagne and he was eventually buried here. You can see part of his tomb is the second from the bottom picture, its a gold container surrounded by glass. As many of my relatives are already aware, my family and I are ancestors of Charlemagne. There was tons of history inside the church including Charlemagne’s throne where dozens of Kings were crowned. The cathedral was very cool and has a funny story about its deal of completion.

The Devil’s Thumb: According to legend (read on the internet) When Aachen ran out of funds to finish the Cathedral, the devil offered more funds to finish the cathedral. However, in return, the devil demanded the soul of the first mortal to enter the cathedral after its dedication. The devil underestimated the cunning Aacheners because they chased a wolf into the cathedral before them. The devil grabbed it without looking and ripped its soul out. Once he realized he was tricked, he threw a fit and slammed the cathedral door so hard his thumb was torn off. To this day, his thumb remains inside the right lions’ head which decorates the door of the cathedral.

I felt the thumb! Or what feels like the cast of a thumb inside the lion’s mouth. Also there was a statue of the wolf inside the cathedral.

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