The Postcard Cities

If you’re looking for the most accurate depiction of cities in Belgium, dig through your pile of Christmas postcards you’ve stashed away in the corner, pick the most traditional-looking one of the old cobblestone streets with a house and a fire burning through a glossy window at dusk, and there you have it.

I had taken a trip to Brussels before when I studied abroad two years ago, so I already knew I loved it. Brussels, a bit more of the international, bustling city-type, is beautiful in its own way. One minute you’re walking down a street that almost reminds you of a big city like London and the next you’ve turned down a small cobblestone alleyway full of ethnic restaurants and people bustling about. Follow down that alleyway and you’ve wound up in Crowne Plaza, the most beautiful plaza I’ve seen in Europe: a 360 panorama of illuminating buildings against the weirdly-pretty gray skies. The gold details on the buildings almost seem like they’re electrically lit they are so bright. Whether it’s a 5-star hotel, a church or simply a building with restaurants, they all stand side-by-side, so breathtaking. And at this time of year there’s a pretty Christmas tree in the middle.

Here you're walking down an open, busy street...(you can see a Christmas market on the corner)

You turn down an alleyway...

And find yourself here, the plaza. See how that works? This photo was obviously taken at night, which makes it even more breathtaking.

It’s pretty much a sin if you don’t have your fair share of waffles in Brussels, so after doing that, we worked our way to a Christmas market. There, we decided to play a little Christmas gift scavenger hunt. Each of us had to find one thing that you wear, one thing that’s red and sparkly, one thing that makes a noise and one thing that starts with the letter of the name of the gift receiver. We ran around the market finding two of each (one for each person) and decided we’d open the gifts from each other on Christmas day.

Mmmmmm

Not spending too much time in Brussels so as to fit in other cities, Kate, Camden and I hopped on a quick train to Ghent where we would base ourselves the rest of the trip, with day trips to Bruges. At first, Ghent confused us a bit. While the Airbnb we stayed in was very nice, Ghent seemed a little lack luster. What was its personality? What was there to it? It wasn’t until on one of our last days when we finally ventured into its city center that we really discovered the city. In the center, there are three popular towers of Ghent that you can see all at once standing tall over the city. This with a small river running through and a fun plaza with a Christmas market (where I tried my first mulled wine) and restaurants made up a very cool city. I wish we had ventured into it earlier!

One of my favorite parts about Ghent was laying eyes on the Ghent Altarpiece, which they keep in Saint Bavo Cathedral. It’s a 15the century panel painting, or altarpiece, constructed of 12 panels and officially titled, Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. I’ll admit that not having a lot of artistic knowledge, it takes a lot to really amaze or interest me, but the altarpiece was very impressive and I loved the symbolism and stories behind it. No pictures allowed, sorry :(

On Christmas Eve, Kate, Camden and I decided to make a nice Christmas dinner at home. We had chicken, pork chop, green beans, salad and potatoes, topped with champagne and of course a Christmas cider we found on the Internet. For dessert, we bought a famous “Belgian Log” at a grocery store, which was pretty much just a cake in the shape of a log—still not really sure where that tradition comes from.

Aren't we cute?

The Belgian Log

CHRISTMAS IN A LIVING POSTCARD: Bruges

Now is the time to take out that postcard again and picture something 50 times more painteresque, quaint and to simply put it, perfect. Bruges was such a great choice of a town to spend Christmas day. All you needed was a soundtrack of Christmas songs being played as you walk down the charming streets and it would be perfect—oh wait, there literally was Christmas music playing on speakers throughout the streets. So yes, it was perfect.

But I’m getting ahead of myself a bit. On Christmas day, we took the 20 minute train from Ghent to Bruges, carrying nothing but our cameras, wallets and a bottle of Champage, carton of orange juice and plastic cups. Of course you have to start the Christmas festivities with mimosas on the train! Chugging the last sip of our mimosas as we hopped off the train, we headed straight to lunch so we wouldn’t miss our reservation.

Christmas mimosas on a train

Our Christmas lunch was at a Michelen restaurant that was very good (and pricey, but worth it on Christmas!) The restaurant was located right next to the cutest family-owned chocolate shop where we of course bought homemade chocolates.

We also visited a chocolate museum (disappointingly more about the history of chocolate rather than free-for-all chocolate fountains), had beers at the last functioning brewery in Bruges and walked through a Christmas market where I bought my first nutcracker.

We loved Bruges so much that the next day we jumped back on the train and returned to Bruges for a second day. Just a simple walk through that town can make your day. Just take a look at the pics and you'll see why.

On our last day leaving Belgium out of Ghent, it snowed: a perfect way to end our holidays in such a beautiful country.

It was not until later that the snow betrayed me and delayed my flight to London by two hours…

And (eventually) onto the next: London

#travel