at the "Pride of York" ferry to Hull

Now I haven't been on a ferry before, so I was surprised to see all these stuff there... You know, I'd expect cabins, a deck, a minimum restaurant and little bar. Wooooah was I wrong!

They had a shopping area! Of course you may think, duty free!

 

A small cinema! I watched a movie there... can't remeber exactly what it was, but I remeber that it was wired because you could still here the engines running and you could feel the movement of the ferry! Nothing for you if your seasick!

There was a casino, okay this was only the minimum. A table for Black Jack and one for Poker I think. And some one-armed bandits. (sorry only have this picture, No I wasn't drunk then, I guess the ship was moving) And also some gaming machines.

The restaurant was self-serving style, where you get your food from buffets, but they had personal to serve your beverages.

To be honest, the food wasn't that good. More like a better canteen, but the choice was big. At the evening we sat at the bar and were listing to the band which was playing. :)

So it was surprising, interesting and quite a sighseeing for us! Only one thing to say: Cheers!

catching the ferry in Zeebrugge

After Brussel our next step was the beach of Zeebrugge. 

 

There are a lot of hotels at the beach side, not these huge hotels you'd expect at a beach in Egypt or so. But they had some hotels.

And as we figured out walking a long the beach, also a little town. But that's actually Blankenberge and not Zeebrugge any more.

There's a restaurant out in the sea with a great view. I wondered how it would be to sit in there when it's storming.

We walked a quite long time at the beach, it's no special beach actually. But for us it was special because it was nice to be at a beach after the past days of being in cities. And it was a big gap for us until we'd be in the UK.

Before a caught the ferry we had something to eat. Ben ate noodles with sea fruits and little squids in it, but he didn't like it. I wouldn't either! I guess it's either you like them or hate them?
My meal was delicious, as you can see it was salad and fried ... fried what... I can't remember! Potatoes I think :)

Finding the ferry wasn't as easy as we expected. We were walking in the direction as the signs showed us, but we only saw containers and trucks. It was a wide industrial area, so we were wondering if we might chose the wrong ferry and end up on a container ferry!

Finally we caught a glimpse of something like a ferry and our hearts light up and we had new energy. We saw that it was a ship of "P&O" which we exactly what we were looking for and some minutes later we were on board of the "Pride of York".

And it was the right ferry indeed :) I almost thought we would end here in this industrial area ;P

tasty chips / fries / pommes

I've been told that the fires originally come from Belgium. So being there we had try some chips!

At some time we walked by a pommes shop. (wired thing, this food has so many names ey!)

And of course took the opportunity to get some original Belgium fries!

After I ate these fries I decided to quit going to a crap Mac or bloody King.

They were reeeeally delicious, fresh made, big and crisp.

Not like those day old things, boild with oil wich haven't been changed for ages. With waaay to much salt on it ... you would the that trash only if your drunk and need something to get you sober again, riiiight?

kingsize in Brussel

In the evenings we stayed at the hostel and met people from Spain. They were a group about 6 persons and we had good fun talking with them. I had a good conversation with a female lawyer, she was teaching the law in Spain. Another day we talked with some girls from switzerland, but we got bored because they were so familiar :)

Next day we started to check out others part of Brussel and found even nicer sights. The cathedral was amazing, what a great view.

 

( More infos about the cathedral ) If your in Brussel, you should check it out. It's free to go inside and as intresting as the view is great. There's a renewed part of the old cathedral below the surface.

Of course we went to the centre, the "Galler Grand'Place",

  

 which has even more astonishing buildings. I felt as if I was on a midage piazza!

There was a pastry which had a huge offer of delicious cookies, marvels bakeries and all kind of sweet stuff. Check out the movie from my digicam to get closer look:

instrument museum

In the afternoon we went to the instrument museum, which was a delicious highlight!

 

They exhibit all kind of musical instruments, from every thinkable culture, through a range of different ages. Lot of them are lovely decorated. 

See the fluts, a vuvuzela is nothing compared! :)

I wonder if this one makes underwater sounds! At least it looks like!

Looking at the different instruments is nice but hearing them would be even more interesting, right?

And that's excatly what they provide! At the entrance you grab a headphone and when you're standing near a vitrine you'll hear a track of these instruments. It's a great feature, simple to use and it gives a feeling of how the culture used the instrument and how it sounded.

 

This museum is a must see and hear for all music lovers!

first day in Belgium

Brussel is a chunck larger than Luxembourg. It was as far as our eye reached.

Arriving at the station we grabbed a map and made our way to central park, no wait that's somewhere else! 

 

We checked out the "parc de Bruxelles" next to the station. 

Green and big, actually it's a small one for Brussel, there are much bigger parks, but it has a very nice avenue.

We walked out of the park in the "Koningsstraat" which brought us to the royal palace  

 

and the "Koningsplein", it's the royal place. 

 

Don't miss these great buildings if you're there! And if you like art you definitely want to visit the Royal Museums of Fine Arts.

 

The hostel we had checked in was farer away and we were getting hungry. It didn't take me long to realise that in this area we'd pay lots of money to get something to eat. Beni didn't want to believe me so we had a look at some menucards, soon he agreed with me ;)

Being vegetarian didn't make it easier and after a hour search, Beni was that hungry that I couldn't convince him to look any further. So we ate in a crappy pub, actually the pub was allright, but obviosly not meant for eating. But I hold my tongue because my friend was soooo hungry :)


And here a little movie with an overview of Brussel... at least of parts of it ;)

meeting new people in Luxembourg

We met people from Australia, Japan, Germany, Canada and England which is great :)

Gina and Julian (from Canada) were playing chess, when we started to talk with them, we were a bit shy at the beginning... Luckily Beni often started conversations, I was mostly to holding back. Which I regret now!

Always talk to people, if they don't want to contact with you, they let you know. But it's always more fun with other people. Isn't that the amazing thing about travelling, meeting new, different people?!

In the evening we went to the pub with Gina and Julian and had good fun. It was amazing to talk with them and learn their story. (Thanks you two, I hope we met again someday!)

We were playing table tennis until 3am, in the YHA downstairs.

The next day we went to a museum with two girls from England. Sorry girls, I forgot your names. I was the UNESCO museum. A nice track leads from the YHA through a piece of forest to the museum up the hill. It has a modern part and a old, castle part. Back then the castle wasn't quite finished. (It should be now, check it out! And let we now about :) )

That's it of Luxembourg, the town has it's unique charm. It's small and green, still the city has all you need and more. I recommend it for two or three homely and nice holidays.

So we went on, next Stop Brussel!

arriving in Luxembourg

We're in the train for about six hours, which was a very long time, since we weren't used to it. In Strasbourg a mother with her child got in the train. She had cuuuute little girl, 

 

which was very curious so she was peering around. She ran around the cabin and shared her laught with everyone, simply grrreat!

As we arrived in Luxembourg at the station, 

 

the first thing we did was ask for information about sightseeing and special events.

 Loaded full with information what's going on Luxembourg (which wasn't that much ;) we hit “Downtown” and started to look around.

The city is nice, it was a bit quiet and we wondered where all the people were. But then we realized: it's Sunday! :)

So walking and looking around we explored Luxembourg and found... two Norwegian guys (couldn't find the photo yet... sry) who were on a road trip to Africa. They had funny hats on and wore shirts with the Norewgian flag.


Later on we found a some nice old ruins of former castles and a good chance to have a overview.

 

Through this overview we managed to espy our accommodation, the City YHA.

Get a speak of Luxembourg yourself, right here:

After a few minutes we're in front of it. I recommend the YHA it's in a quite area, only 10mins walk to the next pub. It's modern, TV & Internet and stuff, and comfortable. They have an in-house restaurant, which is good, once we had delicious lasagne.

But of course you can cook your own food too. You'll also get nice food in the city's restaurants and takeaways. Which we once ate at an Indian take away, which was great.