Day 5: Netherlands - Belgium (Brussels)

21 Dec 2007, Fri

Temperature: -3C

I woke up at 4.30 am, the weather so cold, so I practised yoga in my room :)

0900 After breakfast, we proceed to enjoy a Canal Cruise for an orientation of the city. Enjoy the many beautiful gabled Dutch Renaissance houses and boat house along the cruise and low bridges.

1000 The end of the cruise, we reached GASSAN DIAMOND, an established diamond factory for an educational tour famous for its 121 cutfacets diamonds. Amterdams does not have diamonds, they just process diamonds. Some of our tour members bought diamond rings for their daughter, but we didn't buy any. I made myself a 5 cent souvenir there.

1100 Tour guide brought us to a famous fishing village, Volendam. It is a popular tourist attraction well-known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents. The women's costume of Volendam, with its high, pointed bonnet, is one of the most recognizable of the Dutch traditional costumes, and is often featured on tourist postcards and posters (although there are believed to be fewer than 50 women now wearing the costume as part of their daily lives, most of them elderly). There is a regular ferry connection to Marken, a peninsula close by. Volendam also features a small museum about its history and clothing style.

1300 We had bad experience during our lunch - children throwing snow ball at the restaurant we having lunch. After our lunch, they followed us and throwing snow ball at our coach. So annoying, I guess they look down on Asian.

1800 Entered to Brussels (capital city of Belgium), Belgian chocolate is worlds renown well known, so we also grab some and the next thing was to take photo with the cheeky Manneken Pis. When we taking photo, the local people tried to make fun with us. Standing with us like want to take photo, but we were told that not to close to them because they might be pick pocket.

Next wehanged around at the Chritsmas market nearby. Brussels is not a safe place, we heard ambulance, police and fire engine passed by within an hour.

2045 Checked in Holiday Inn Hotel

About Belgium:

Belgium's sluggish surface hides cultural cachet and a passion for pleasure.
If Belgium's spotlight on the European stage is a little dim, it's only because its people are rarely boastful. This slow-burning country has more history, art, food and architecture packed into its tiny self than many of its bigger, louder neighbours.

A rich and bubbling vat of beer, chocolate, oil paint and bureaucrats, Belgium gives off the heady pong of the bourgeoisie. But stir the pot a little and you'll find an 'artificial state' roughly made up of two parts Germanic Flemings to one part Celtic-Latin Walloons.

Fast facts about Belgium:

• Country Full Name: Kingdom of Belgium


• Population: 10,400,000


• Currency Name: Euro Code: EUR Symbol: €


• Languages Spoken - Official: Dutch, French, German

About Brussel:
Chocolate moulded by surrealists and beer poured by old masters.
The city of choice for Eurocrats, Brussels is sumptuous, historic and luxuriously cosy. With artistry richer than chocolate, architecture as graceful as its cuisine and diversity frothier than the beer, Brussels is an heirloom of northern culture at its best.

What makes Brussels special? Seafood in great restaurants, the smell of hot waffles on a cold winter's day, cafes and pubs that never close, the cosmopolitan but neighbourly feel, forests practically on the doorstep, pheasant and truffles in autumn, comic strips, designer shops