Brügge

Brugge is in Belgium and is known as the Venice of the North, mostly I think by those who want to attract tourists there. A group of us FZJ people took a bus there for the day a couple of weekends ago.

Our first (real) view of Brugge.

The group (sans me) by the canals. Will, Akash, Rehan, John.

Wide-angle seeming view of the canals.

In a restaurant’s upstairs window, just outside of an (austere, pretty) convent. I really like the expression on the nun’s face.

Yep, Brugge was touristy. And yet, who wouldn’t want boat rides through canals and carriage rides? I suppose.

More canal pictures. Yep, I liked the canals.

Tourists on the canals. Throughout the day, we got sporadic, intense rainstorms, which would start without warning and last anywhere from 5 – 45 minutes, after which the sun would come out again almost instantly. Quite bizarre. Anyways, I was pretty amused by all of the canal tourists with their matching umbrellas. Either they were tour groups or the boats came armed with their own umbrellas for this very reason.

Pretty canals. Maroon umbrellas this time.

Trolling the streets of Brugge, with my trolls. Just kidding.

In the city square.

We had fries. The braver ones of us had fries with mayonnaise, a Belgian specialty.

Mmm, fries and dip, a balanced diet. Don’t worry, we had chocolate too. And… beer.

We went and saw the ruins of an old church, which are located underneath a ritzy hotel today. Will had acquired an insiders knowledge of Brugge before we went there (probably to get his money’s worth :-P); this was the only reason we knew that the ruins were there, or accessible in such a swanky hotel. Anyways, they had this painting they had unearthed that I quite liked.

Rehan: “Do something crazy!”

The canals again.

We found a cannon! (again, inside know-how). Noone knows how this cannon got upended and embedded in the sidewalk; the challenge is to spot it on this corner (apparently hardly anyone notices it). John and I saw it right away, and we had a fun 10 minutes watching the others try and spot it. “Warmer! No, colder. Colder.”

We visited the oldest bar in Brugge (est. 1515). There I had a Leffe beer (I asked the bartender what she recommended), which was pretty much the most delicious thing ever, and in fact blew most of my expectations about Belgian beer right out of the water. They still have an old stove and kettle in the bar, and lots of paintings of famous people (think: royalty and the like) who have visited. Fun.

Inside a candy shop that Will had heard about run by a 80-something year old woman. Discipline + Respect!!!

Would a tour of any Belgium town be replete without a windmill picture? I think not.

Cologne, Köln, Köln, Cologne

Yes, I’m finally posting about this! Two weekends ago Rehan, Will, and I visited Cologne for the day. We essentially had to drag Will there, in part I think because he didn’t want to spend any money, and in part because it “looked like rain”, but I think once he was there, he enjoyed it. It’s difficult to say.

Here’s us in the train station in Cologne, having conquered the German train system. I think it would have been easy had I been able to decipher the German on the (automatic) ticket dispenser, but once the words pass a certain critical mass (Gepäckaufbewahrungsschein, etc) I have difficulty deciphering them. Most words on the ticket dispenser were thus.
Luckily, a nice German woman helped us out in getting to Düren, and from Düren to Cologne.

Once you leave the train station in Cologne, you look up and see this:


Oh yeah, and this:
That’s the Cologne Cathedral. I can't describe how fantastic it was to walk out and have this imposing over half of the horizon. The bells were going as we arrived, as well. We went inside later, but in the morning we wandered around to see what (other) sights Cologne had to offer.

A rather cool looking church:


One of the old city gates:


The Rhein river. Rehan took this picture, and swore up and down that dark pictures could be easily fixed using Microsoft Picture and such. I rather suspect he’s been watching too much CSI, because in my experience once you lose information in the form of completely black pixels, it’s pretty hard to get it back. I fixed this picture a bit, anyways, so it is viewable.


Some crazy English people. Cold windy mornings on the river are the best!!


We eventually crossed the bridge you can see in the photo before, to see if there was anything interesting on the other side.


From the bridge.


After 15 more minutes of walking and lots of grumbling from the cheap seats (3 hours on your feet is kind of a lot) we stumbled on this park, which was a perfect break.


Nice gardens, eh?


Also, they had one of the most excellent playgrounds I have seen in a while, which included all the normal New Zealand playground accoutrements and also a flying fox:
I’m jealous. Laurie, you should be too.

We were pretty tired at this point.


We eventually dragged ourselves back into the center of Cologne and got lunch at a cheap Turkish döner shop. Thank goodness for cheap Turkish food. We walked around a bit more in search of ice cream (there’s excellent gelato in Germany) and eventually returned to the Cologne Cathedral. In front there were all manner of people performing – people dressed as angels, as jack sparrow, people doing art on the concrete with chalk, etc. This guy was my favorite.


Not a statue!


Inside the Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral)


We all paid the one Euro it took to be able to climb the South Tower of the cathedral. Essentially you’re paying for a half an hour workout – the tower is over 150 m high (157m) and climbing it entailed about 15 minutes of constant climbing up a steep, narrow winding stone staircase. There were interesting views going up and from the top, but this is my favorite picture.


From the top, looking out over the Rhein River.


Will looking out from the top – he looks like he wants to escape.


Later we had dinner at the Löwenbräu (the Lion's Roar), an (expensive) pub on the Rhein river. We also watched part of the first game of the Euro soccer cup, which was pretty interesting.
Will decided he needed to get the litre of beer that was on the menu. Rehan got a Malzbier – nonalcoholic, mind you. Rehan doesn’t drink, but he’s very much like the pirate who’s missing his leg about the whole thing – any time someone asks him why, you get a different story.

After we ate, we raced back to try and catch an early train (in part so I could come to the Forshungszentrum and talk to the graduate, mind you). I took this picture quickly on the way back to the train. I assure you, this place really does exist.


And a bonus picture from the pub we visited a few days before that. This is all 4 people that live in the suite I’m in – that’s Torston, from Frankfurt, on the left, then Will, me, and Rehan.

Day One and Two

Here are some pictures from our first couple of days here. I am not allowed to take pictures at work (without special permission via form, German-style) so there will probably only be picture spikes at the beginning of each week, after the weekend.

This one’s for Jamelle and Andrea (taken in the Düsseldorf airport). They do exist!!!! I never knew.


On Friday, our day was marked by such significant events as getting gelatos and visiting the Zitadelle, which you can see on this map. The Zitadelle is on the top right and the Hexenturm is the wall that (used to) surround the rest of Jülich. Jülich was actually the most heavily bombed city in WWII, and 99% of what was standing was destroyed. They thought about leaving the city as it was, as a monument to the war, but eventually built it up again (quite unattractively, at least 3 residents have already told me). So only one small section of the Hexenturm wall remains. I don’t actually have any good pictures of inside the Zitadelle, but they’ve converted it into a high school inside, which was very interesting (and a very interesting way of keeping your kids in school, as well).


Here’s Julie, Rehan, and Will, from right to left, in front of the Zitadelle. Julie very unobligingly turned away just as I was taking this photo.


The Zitadelle (citadel). Sorry, bad picture, I know.


On the night of our arrival they had fireworks to welcome us. Just kidding, these weren’t for us. What we got was much better.
Rehan convinced me to try taking pictures of them, and some of them actually turned out pretty well, somewhat to my surprise.


We were standing on the banks of the Rur River when this was taken. The fireworks took place in the park, but it cost 11 euros to get in, which was a bit steep for everyone just for a fireworks display.


Boom.


The grand finale – here I think you can see the river clearly.

The GuestHouse (Gaestehaus)

Finally, pictures of my abode. I’m sure you’ve all been on the edges of your seats throughout.

Here’s my room moving in. I was expecting the other wall to be about where the left edge of that little desk is.


But no… it turns out I actually have a huge amount of space, far more than I know what to do with. Cool!


Now here’s my room after I’ve actually gotten a bit moved in.


I also have a pretty amazing desk set up, but I prefer to use the little desk by my bed when I’m not doing actual work, because I like looking out the window.


Here’s my desk set up. Some good pictures accompanied me here.


We also have a kitchen…


and a dining room, for all four of us.


Here’s the guesthouse from the outside. I’m on the second floor from the top, the small window that’s one of the two left-staggered windows. We get a pretty awesome view from up there, as well – I’m glad we’re not down a few floors because then we’d see nothing but trees.
All four rooms in the suite are different, too, and have different furnishings – Rehan’s room is next door to me, the one with the balcony to the left of mine in this picture. As I may have mentioned, he has a balcony, and a really nice panoramic view. I’m a little jealous.

The view out of my window is really nice, too. I’m not complaining.


This is for Jess – you like?


But there’s also this, out of the kitchen window. I’ve been told that it’s a coal plant, and also that it’s a nuclear plant, so I’m not really sure what to believe.


Maybe this picture will mitigate that last one.


One last windmill picture for good luck.