On day 2 we took a trip to Ghent, and spent the morning at SMAK, the museum of contemporary art. There was an great Ensor exhibition and some installation art which I actually appreciated for once. Next up we had planned to hit the flea markets but the tram line we'd been hoping to take was having work done on it. This was a blessing in disguise because in our (cold) walk across town we happened across a flower/Christmas tree market with a cute coffee cart that did an excellent hot chocolate. We still made it to the markets before they closed and perused until we were too cold. That's when we found Simon Says, a gorgeous café run by a couple who moved to Ghent to work in theatre (Yes, Ghent is quite a happening place). After warming up we decided to tackle the various cathedrals in the centre of town and on the way checked out the design museum and its exhibition on Maarten Van Severe, a famous chair designer, although the highlight for me was a small exhibition about teapots. When we made it to St Baaf's cathedral to see Van Eyck's Adoration of the mystic lamb, we had the world's longest audioguide to explain each panel of the altarpiece. Since it was getting late and most things had started shutting we had coffee and waffles at Mokabon and chatted to a crazy old Belgium man who had learnt English, among other languages, through night classes. At this point St Niklaas was closed but the Belfry tower was still open and we thought it would be a good warm up for the slightly taller one in Bruges. After taking some pictures of the view and learning about the carillion we had an aperitif at Mariman. Annabelle and I both tried the 'Roomer', a local drink made form elderflowers. We had a massive Thai dinner and caught a drink at the bar Charlatan before heading back to Bruges and our 12 bed dorm at Snuffles.The next morning I had a cold shower, followed by copious amounts of tea to undo its effects. First stop was the Church of our Lady to see Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, then we wandered around the Begijnhof convent. Heading back to Markt, the square at the centre of Bruges, we tested out a tea house claiming "the best hot chocolate in town", and they weren't lying! We were presented with bowls of warm milk and whisks and our choice of chocolate in the form of chocolate chips in a chocolate bowl so you could add as much or as little as you wanted. Sticking with the chocolate theme we went to Choko story, the chocolate museum, and while the museum itself was pretty boring, the demonstration at the end was delicious. Before lunch we managed to cram in a visit to we the Belfry tower and we climbed its 366 stairs even though it was quite overcast and the carillion was having repairs. The came an evening of glühwein and waffles, ice skating, and more glühwein. On our last day in Bruges we hit up the huge Van Eyck exhibition at the Groening museum. All I can say is the guy really nailed perspective! After more waffles and watching an old man grove to Shania Twain at the outdoor ice skating rink, we picked up our bags and headed for the station. But we had one last thing to see: the ice sculpture festival. Although it cost an arm and a leg it was amazing. The theme was around the world and there were some very cool sculptures ... note the pun. Annabelle was even brave enough to try the 16m ice slide which was located behind the ice bar at the end of your round the world trip. And that was the end of our Bruges adventure and Annabelle and I parted ways in Brussels where I went to get a plane to Berlin. I nealry missed my flight thanks to the longest security queue I have ever seen, but cutting in with the plea "I'm going to miss my plane" while looking pathetic and running the length of the airport to get to gate A72 paid off. I even had to sit on the plane for half an hour before we took off while Easy Jet defrosted their engines (?!?) and waited for other passengers stuck at security. Isn't travel fun?
I soon forgot all about it because I was greeted in Berlin by Zoya and Melissa (Canberra friends!). I was conveniently staying in the same hostel as them: the Circus Hostel, which is one of the best I've seen in my travels. In the morning we went to see the Reichstag but the dome was closed and we quickly realised that Berlin was too cold to spend more than half an hour outside at any one time. Next best thing was a bus tour. We hopped on and saw some of the major monuments/buildings from the warmth of our bus. This brought us to the afternoon when we went on a tour of Berlin's street art organised by the hostel, and given by an Australian woman who has been studying and working as an artist in Berlin for 20 odd years. At first we saw a few small galleries but then we had to do some wandering around Kreuzberg to see the real thing. One of the stand-outs was an old hospital building which, abandoned because of its proximity to the Wall, had been overrun with squatters and eventually turned into an arts school. It was covered in all kinds of art work. Eventually we had to admit that it was too cold and dark to see any more and stopped for a gluhwein. Zoya was soo cold when we got back to the hostel that she couldn't bare the thought of going back outside to get dinner, so Melissa and I got Vietnamese take-out and we snuggled up in their room and planned our next few days. I should note that it was about -15 at this point and that night it snowed, a lot.
I'm not sure why, but we decided to do a New Europe walking tour of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp just outside Berlin. It started off OK with a longish train ride out and a small stint in the information office, but then we were outside, in the snow, for about 4 hours. It made it all the more poignant when Colin, our guide, told us of how the prisoners had been made to stand outside for roll call twice a day in nothing but their heavy cotton uniforms for as long as it took. What's insane is that the Soviets continued to use the camp after World War 2 right up until 1961. Unfortunately, by the end of the tour I could barely feel my hands or feet and we were all jumping around on the spot to try and keep warm. After the regional train failed to arrive and several half hour delays on the S-bahn, we got back to town and spent the rest of the evening in a café around the corner of our hostel filled with beautiful young Germans on their macbook pros abusing the free wifi, and we did not move for a long time. I sampled quite a few varieties of tea including apple and cinnamon, and ginger (which was actually just slices of ginger in hot water to which you can add honey).Having learnt our lesson Zoya, Melissa and I resolved to spend no more than 15 minutes outside at a time. We also had a competition to see who could fit the most amount of layers no matter how much it restricted our range of movement. First up we walked through the Holocaust memorial on the way to the Gemäldegalerie in the Kulturforum. The free audioguide came in handy when viewing the works by Rubens, Rembrandt, Watteau, Caravaggio, Raffael, Botticelli etc... Once we'd hit up the gift shop, it was on to Checkpoint Charlie and the Mauermuseum or Wall museum. I got to see all the creative ways people tried to escape East Germany after the wall went up. There were fake passports, human-sized suitcases, submarines, hang gliders, and even a hot-air balloon on display. We finished up our day of museum hopping at the Jewish museum. The upper floors about the history of judaism in Germany seemed to go on forever and seemed to be geared towards a younger audience, but the bottom floor was remarkable, with objects and letters from individuals who had for the most part been deported and murdered during World War 2. We enjoyed super cheap and hearty Italian for dinner before another evening at our favourite café. (Food in Berlin was so cheap, and their was variety, and it was vegetarian friendly! not just cheese and bread and expensive bistros).
My sneaky week off had to come to an end though, and on Saturday Melissa and I got up early and had fun at the very interactive DDR museum which is all about life in East Berlin. We strolled through some Christmas markets and met Zoya for some shopping and lunch, yet more soup. With a some time left up my sleeve I took the girls to the Deutsch Guggenheim on the recommendation of a friend in Lyon. It is a one-room gallery which hosts a couple of exhibitions each year from the Guggenheim collection. 'Colour Fields' explored a movement in American art in the 50s adn 60s which evolved from expressionism. Because the gallery is so small the works seem much more accessible, or that might have just been all the children's activities going on at the time we visited! I grabbed a take-away veggie burger and said goodbye to the girls and went to catch my City Night Line all the way back to Lyon. I had an unconfortable evening in a cabin with three-tiered bunks not unlike the ones used at Sachsenhausen before transfering to a 5 hour TGV to get me home.
This week in Lyon I will be studying for my exams, most of which are next week. Also, the festival of lights is on, so the streets will be filled with people from Wednesday until the weekend, all checking out the massive lighting installations around the city. You too can help in my efforts to procrastinate by sending emails and letters filled with news from home and holiday cheer! My email is: alice@netspeed.com.au and my address is: 3bis rue de la victoire, Lyon 69003, France.
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