Leapfrog

Leaving Amsterdam was very smooth and not very difficult, I had really gotten a sense of the city and was ready to move on. I just woke up, walked to the Central Station and hopped on my train. The train ride was lovely, I saw amazingly bright yellow daffodil farms and the Antwerpen skyline.

Hello Brussels! I had a little bit of a mix-up on the train and I went to Brussels-Midi instead of Brussels-Central. I walked around a little bit outside of Midi, but the lack of other women walking around made me uncomfortable so I headed back inside and caught the train to Central. I spent some time exploring that area and then made my way back underground to catch the metro to Isabelle’s place. I had dinner with her and her family and then went to bed a little bit early to prepare for my one whole day in Brussels.

I spent my whole day in Brussels in museums. I started in the Coudenberg, a lovely museum that was once a palace and is now an archeological site and ruins that visitors can explore. I was alone there and the acoustics were fantastic so I spent some time just making funny noises and waiting for them to bounce back. I then walked over to The Musical Instrument Museum, which was fascinating. The had traditional instruments from all over the world and you could listen to samples of them being played you could dial on the little device pictured above. I particularly liked looking at and listening to the bass viols and the violas de gambas, as they are my cello’s great-grandparents. From there I entered the intimidating and underground complex that is The Fin-de-Siecle Museum, The Old Masters Museum, The Modern Art Museum, and The Magritte Museum. These museums were great, especially because they were also totally empty. It was a little creepy underground and alone, but the art was great and it was nice to be able to sketch and write in peace.

I also walked through The Galeries Royales, which was pretty but also seemed overly wealthy and touristy. I liked the rainbow gloves though.

After the exploring I took the metro back to Isabelle’s for dinner. I took a little bit of a detour and wandered around my gracious host’s neighborhood, there is a beautiful park nearby, with this giant gate.

I woke up the next morning and went to the market and bakery with Isabelle and Anouk before taking the tram to the station and getting on the train to Paris.