Acrophobia, shmacrophobia! Just do it!

Whichever way you spell it, Brugge or Bruges, and whether you see it from ground level or from a bird's-eye view, this little Medieval town in the northwest of Belgium is so picturesque and pretty that it should be on every traveller's schedule. It's only small, almost circular in area, surrounded by water and it's a bit like Venice in that there are lots of little bridges to cross the waterways as you explore the rows of quaint little red-roofed brick houses one after the other, as charming and romantic as a fairytale from a children's picture book.

Like many people I didn't know Bruges existed until In Bruges, (Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes) but after seeing it in the movie I knew I absolutely had to see it in real life. It has not disappointed - the opposite has happened, actually - I've fallen head over heels in love with it.

I'm scared of heights. Nevertheless, when I heard it's possible to go hot air ballooning over Bruges, I knew I needed to bite the bullet - we had to do it. The heights thing turned out to be completely irrelevant. There's a scientific reason for it not mattering, something to do with the way the brain registers altitude or distance or something, but the main thing is that you shouldn't let fear get in the way of doing something that's guaranteed to be awesome.

Last night the weather forecast was not favourable and we'd resigned ourselves to the flight (which we booked 6 months ago) being cancelled but we woke early this morning to find that we were going ahead and would be collected at 7:30am from our hotel to take the short drive out of town to where we would set up the balloon and take off. As it turned out the weather was ideal and we had the most brilliant morning! We flew across 30 kilometres and landed next to an onion field in Holland - yes, really! Champagne and pastries as a picnic breakfast were a bonus.

Helping to set up.

Onions! Recently harvested and awaiting collection.

D1

Leaving Brussels...take two

The bags were packed and the taxi was waiting to take us to Brussels Midi station for our journey to Brugge. At the station tickets were purchased and directions sought as to departure times and platforms. "Go now to platform 16, the train is leaving in four minutes" says the guy in the ticket office. So off we go, get on board the waiting train and settle in for the one hour trip. The train leaves on time at 11.26 am and heads out of town through a collection of stations within the Brussels environs, and out into the countryside. After 10 minutes I begin to wonder why the train is heading north instead of west, and soon discover at the next station that we are on the train to Antwerp. So, when we get to the station after that, we get off with our luggage, find the right platform for the next train back to Brussels Midi so we can start all over again.

Sometimes it's hard to leave a place that you like. We did eventually get to Brugge about an hour later than planned.

D2

Bruxelles - Brussels Minus the Sprouts

We've been really lucky with the weather up to now, and have been crossing fingers and toes about Belgium because it has notoriously wet weather and that would make things a bit trickier to manage, though I've told myself several times before coming away that you can't travel thousands of kilometres to Europe and sit inside your accommodation - that would be insane.

In my mind Belgium is known for the following: chocolate, the cartoon character Tintin, lacework, waffles, the surrealist artist Magritte, the Manneken Pis statue, the "actor" Jean-Clade Van Damme, the tennis player Kim Clijsters and beer. Those things are all in evidence as you walk about, but Brussels has lots of great surprises as well. It has a great deal of beautiful old architecture, while at the same time being very modern.

Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert at 7:00am - the only time it's not crowded!

Manneken Pis dressed up - at any time of the day, the little statue's costume can either change or disappear altogether.

Inside one of a billion chocolate shops.

The dome of the Palace of Justice

Wall art is a very big thing in Brussels and its great fun to walk about and suddenly come upon a gigantic cartoon painted in a hidden, awkward spot that's only a metre wide but four storeys tall. On a similar theme, many streets have alternate names - although there are enamel signs with the street name in French and Flemish, some also have a reference to a Belgian cartoon character.

We ate waffles, of course, though some of the optional toppings were surplus to requirements, as the below picture shows. You're supposed to choose which one you want and hold up the number of fingers to represent how many you want. Umm... none please, just wrap one in a serviette for me please. Au naturale.

We went to the Magritte Museum, which houses around 200 works of the artist; we also enjoyed a great little pub where Magritte and his buddies actually used to hang out - it's now covered by all sorts of protection orders which forbid it from being renovated or changed in any way. The walls are covered in photos, sketches and bits and pieces of framed memorabilia from the artists' circle.

Het Goud Blommeke in Papier - Magritte's hangout pub

All in all, Brussels was great and I highly recommend it for a visit.

D1

Oslo Undressed

If Bergen is uncovered, Oslo is positively naked. If you're going to visit Oslo, the must-see, standout attraction has to be the Vigeland Park Sculpture Gardens. Gustav Vigeland, after whom the park is named, designed the 45 hectare park itself and is also responsible for the 200 or so wonderful pieces featured in the park which is lush and green, with fountains, a rose garden and beautiful picnic areas. We're glad we went early in the morning before the busloads of tourists arrived, because it was cool and serene and we could really enjoy it alone.

Enough said - here are some photos. The theme throughout is The Human Condition and many of the pieces represent mothers and fathers with children, or just people on their own.

We also visited Aker Brygge in Oslo, which is a shipyard turned into a shopping centre with cafes and restaurants, similar to Docklands or Southbank in Melbourne.

The next post will be about Brussels, in Belgium, where we arrived last night.

D1

Bergen to Oslo

10.28 am and the train pulls out of Bergen station exactly on time.

This story actually started six months ago, late one night at home in Melbourne when I decided to book and pay for the train tickets online. I was issued with a confirmation number and the dollars were deducted from my bank account. On our arrival in Bergen we went to the rail station, found a ticket machine, keyed in the confirmation number, and out came the tickets for our journey...Vogn 1, Komfort seats 33 & 34. We have a lot to learn about public transport in Oz, and about how to make it easy for passengers.

We gather speed and very soon seem to be far from the city, the ribbons of morning cloud are suspended only meters above the steep sided rocky walls of the numerous fjords that rush by. The water is black, reflecting the cloud cover, and all along the way there are small timber houses that cling to the mountain sides, most painted in the favourite Norwegian colour of rusty brown. The forests are a mix of autumn colours and evergreens, with fast flowing streams flowing between the broader expanses of water in the fjords. At some turns the valleys open up and the snow is visible on the higher peaks and rock faces. Sheep graze on lush green pasture and the sun comes out as we climb higher into the mountains.

The train speeds on, and it's time to eat the lunch that has been carefully purloined from the breakfast bar at our hotel in Bergen...worth a small fortune based on everything we have learned so far about the cost of living in Norway.

The train is now entering and leaving tunnels every few minutes, and the views out the window, when they are available, reveal that the snow is now all around us, and it looks very, very cold. The trees have also disappeared due to the altitude and the cold conditions, and all around is the cold, hard, snow covered rock that surrounds the still numerous lakes and rivers. The views are breathtaking.

The sun comes out, the snow glistens and the water in the myriad small lakes turns a brilliant blue. The birch trees have re-appeared and the rich tapestry of autumn tones is everywhere. Small wooden houses still dot the hillsides - no rhyme or reason as to why they are where they are...there are few towns and the countryside doesn't seem to lend itself to farming or grazing.

Towns appear in the most unlikely places, houses all facing the same way...always towards the water with their backs to the mountains, and all looking much the same...rusty brown. We seem to be at a lower altitude now and the tree cover on the sides of the mountains is quite dense and rich in colour. There is no sign of the earlier snow, just rich green countryside with the ever present lakes and mountains as a back drop and rapidly flowing, rock strewn rivers and streams.

The sun is on the right hand side of the train now as we continue south west towards Oslo. The shadows are deepening and the light is fading. This journey has been remarkable for the fact that we have been travelling beside water nearly all day, and must surely be rated as one of the most scenic rail journeys in the world and could only be made better by more snow. I liked the snow!

It's 5.26 pm and the train pulls into Oslo Central Station precisely on time. I would rather spend seven hours on a train any day rather than fly for the same amount of time...much more relaxing.

D2

Bergen Uncovered

So anyway, we arrived in Bergen, Norway, yesterday afternoon and have already decided that it is one of the most beautifully located towns in the world and probably one of the most expensive to live in.

Examples:

• two cups of coffee plus two buns = AUD$20
• half a pizza (four slices) = AUD$16
• one small children's book = AUD$40
• one litre of milk = AUD$6
• one Big Mac = AUD$13.80 (and no, we didn't buy one)
• one serve of fish and chips = AUD$23 (and yes, we had two serves - it was on paper plates at a makeshift trestle table)

It's beautiful though.

We had some fun last night, thinking we would just step out for a bite to eat - a pizza would suffice if we couldn't find anything better/quicker as we were only a little bit hungry after devouring a huge Norwegian waffle each, with jam and cream, at the hotel for afternoon tea (turns out that every afternoon from 4pm to 6pm guests at our hotel are invited to the lounge for free coffee and waffles). So we found a little bar nearby which served pizza and beer and we thought that would be good enough - and it was, especially considering the entertainment. About 10 minutes after we arrived, a 60-something year old lady at the next table stood up to leave arm in arm with her male companion and just metres from our table she fell down (apparently) drunk at our feet, taking her friend with her. It seemed to happen in slow motion but when we snapped out of our initial shock, D2 and I jumped up and leapt to their assistance, helping them up. When all the fun was over and the couple had righted themselves and left, we sat down again and reflected on the fact that not ONE other person had left their seat to do anything to help. No-one had uttered the words, "Are you OK?" and in fact within seconds, those who had turned to look had turned back to their beer. We didn't know whether to laugh or be alarmed at their seeming indifference to the plight of this poor couple.

We headed out into the night, later on, reflecting on human nature and wondering whether we could expect the same lack of response if it had happened to us (falling down publicly, not necessarily falling down drunk publicly).

I was very excited this morning to be going to the famous Bergen Fish Market. I'd heard about it and I have been looking forward to it for months. Whenever we travel overseas, the fresh food markets are our must-see attractions and we have seen some beauts! The one in Singapore will live long in my memory, but this is not the place for stories about that. It was disappointing though, with only a few little stalls set up and not much activity at all. We moved on to take a funicular ride on the Fløibanen, which takes travellers up to 320 metres above sea level and spectacular panoramic views of Bergen and the magnificent surrounding landscape of mountains and fjords. When you get to the top, there are beautiful forest walking paths and little streams to follow, making it a magical experience not to be missed.

In the afternoon we walked along the Bryggen wharf area where the building façades are from another era (and the prices of items in the shops are from another planet). The little laneways of Bergen are so sweet, the shops so enticing and if you have lots of NOKs (Norwegian Kroner) you can buy the most stunning Scandinavian homewares. I don't know what the wages are like here, but the price of living seems sky-high.

Tomorrow we take a long train ride (about 7 hours) to Oslo.

D1