16 Dec 08 – Day 5 (Ghent & Bruges)

Took breakfast in Hotel Gresham Belson and departed for Ghent at 9am on a 3+hr journey. We did a city tour, visited Cathedral St Baaf and walked through the town square. We saw the Winter Market in Ghent and ice-skating rink but unfortunately, the stalls were not opened coz we were too early. Most of the shops in Ghent were not opened too for the same reason.

The Saint Bavo Cathedral (also known as Sint-Baafs Cathedral, or the Dutch Sint Baafskathedraal) is the seat of the diocese of Ghent. It is named for Saint Bavo of Ghent.

We then continued to Bruges and had a brief tour around the old town. Saw the canal where people called it “The Venice of the North” and also saw The Chapel of the Holy Blood. We were given free & easy time and so Kim and I explore the Winter Market and we saw the ice-skating rink, lots of food stalls and stalls selling Christmas stuff. In the end, instead of eating proper lunch, we ended up snacking around the winter market where we had tartiflette, grilled prawns and fruit fritties.

The Chapel of the Holy Blood

The Venice of the North

Trtiflette

Grlled prawns

Fuit fritties

Found The Chocolate Line where I was told they sell very good chocolate and so bought some chocolate from them. Checked into Hotel Park at 2.30pm and after that we walked around the old town on our own from 3.15pm – 6.30pm. Found the TinTin shop but unfortunately they didn’t have stock for the TinTin mug and so bought a postcard for a colleague instead. Passed by The Chocolate Line and couldn’t resist the temptation to buy more chocolate from them.

Bruges Markt Square

Ate dinner with the rest at Le Panier D' Or and then wandered around the old town some more where we saw the shop that sells beer glass from each Belgian brewery before heading back to the hotel around 9pm. Bruges is a very nice old town and had very strong Christmas spirit so I won't mind going back to Bruges during the Christmas season again coz I like the festive spirit. Also there are lots of chocolate shops, sweet shops and pastry shops that I didn't get to visit. I won't mind going back to Ghent too coz I didn't really get to see much of it during this trip.

15 Dec 08 – Day 4 (Brussels)

Had breakfast in hotel Die Port Van Cleve and then departed at 9am from Amsterdam to Brussels on a 3hr journey. We did a photostop at Atomium around 12+pm and passed by the Chinese Pavilion and Japanese Pagoda. Then lunched at Restaurant Chauchow City (HK Restaurant), which was near Grand Place around 1pm.

Atomium

Eva brought us to walk around Grand Place and showed us Manneken-Pis where we took turns to take pictures. She then brought us to hunt for Jeanneke-Pis before showing us her favorite shop “Moeder Babelutte” for purchase of chocolate where I bought Liquor Truffles and Seashells Chocolates. Went to another shop to get some souvenirs before heading to Dandoy, which is famous for their waffles. There were a few outlets of Dandoy along the street and I didn’t get to eat the waffles coz my friend didn’t want to share with me. So instead I bought a packet of speculoos, Belgian tradition biscuits.

Manneken-Pis

Jeanneke-Pis

"Moeder Babelutte" Chocolate Shop

We were given free & easy time for the rest of the day till 7pm and so we explored the Winter Market. It was my first time to a Winter Market and there were a lot of interesting things and food to see and eat. However, we only managed to covered part of the Winter Market near the Bourse and Grand Place, so didn’t get to see the ice-skating rink, the Ferris wheel and carrousel which were further away.

Grand Place

There were a lot of restaurants selling seafood and mussels but I was told that Chez Leon served the best and freshest mussles. So ate there and even Kim who doesn’t like mussels commented that they were good. The service was good too and staffs were friendly. When one of them saw us taking photos of our food, he even offered to take a photo of Kim and me with our food. After we were done, we went to see the Electrabel show and it was breathtaking. Finally we checked into Hotel Gresham Belson around 7+pm and ended our day.

Our dinner at Chez Leon

Electrabel show

Electrabel show