Train Game

Ok, time to move on from Amsterdam! We had a great time!

Today, we said good-bye to my parents and polished off the last of the homemade cookies my mom baked just for us back in Colorado the morning they left. We're catching an early train to Belgium. I booked our tickets in advance online and found a killer deal through NS International for both of us to travel all the way to Bruges for only 38 euros. The morning of our trip, however, we received a notification that one of the legs was canceled.

Originally, the plan ways Amsterdam > Rotterdam > Antwerp > Ghent > Bruges. Now there was a problem with the train tracks from Rotterdam to Antwerp, so we'd need to be re-routed. No big deal.

We get to the train station and walk through the open gates without scanning our tickets - because we don't know we have them. Our tickets are on the NS International App, and they're separate from our schedule. They're also a QR code instead of a chip card, which everyone else is using, so we figure we'll be checked on the train...

We got on our train, leaving right on time, unable to sort out the issue with the second leg before our departure. Once in Rotterdam, we had to scan our tickets (which we've now located in the app) to get out to the service center, and when I scanned mine, Derek quickly ran behind me, not realizing he had a separate ticket to scan. We're hot messes, for sure.

So a nice lady asks us if we want to wait for 2 hours for them to finish fixing the tracks, or if we want to change trains a few times to leave now - we opt for the latter, because waiting around doesn't work for either of us. So, she sends us next to a tiny place called Breda. In Breda, we see we're supposed to wait for the 12:10 train to Roosendaal, according to our schedule, but here's one now, 30 minutes earlier. Do we get on it? Yep. Now we're on the "wrong" train going to the right place - we wonder if that will be a problem for anyone checking our tickets, then we realize it's a disaster already, so what harm could it do?

Roosendaal is confusing, and it takes us a bit to find the right platform. Our schedule hadn't listed a number as it had for the other stations, and the one we found on the board was different than the one we eventually got from a conductor (and consequently we have to lug our bags to the other side of the platform again to get there). Brilliantly, we're early on this one (thanks to our jump ahead on the last train) and we have time to go to the bathroom before we take off. The bathrooms are majestic, large and clean with the neatest door I've seen. I don't know what they mean by "second class" - this is first class enough for me! You want REAL second class? Take a train in India.

They DID check our tickets on the train, finally. I was beginning to wonder why I paid at all ;-)

We have only 4 minutes to make our connection once we arrive in Noord Brussels, but we are behind slow people with tons of luggage, and have to run with our bags down and up stairs to get to the right platform. We get to the train just as the doors closed, and bless the Dutch, they wouldn't open them for anything. I've been pretty cool til now, but missing a connection by 15 seconds is one of those under-your-skin irritants that's hard to ignore.

You know the best travel advice anyone has ever given me? Keep your expectations low. Not, like, I know Applebees isn't great but I'm going anyway low. Through the floorboards low. If you always expect things to fail and be frustrating, and then suddenly they do (and they will, I don't care where you travel), you can't be disappointed, because you genuinely never expected it to work out. Bottom line - when we travel, we're in someone else's space. Don't go putting your expectations on them and then be pissed off when they don't meet them - you'll spend your vacation yelling at your companions and sulking. No thanks.

So, I checked my expectations, took a breath, and got over it. Now instead of catching a train that went through Ghent on to Bruges, we'd have to make yet another connection. A nice man pointed us to the right platform, and onward to Ghent. They checked our tickets on this train too. A smiling man in a little conductor hat and a striped tie (all coordinated in orange and red colors) came with his QR scanner. Thankfully, no one ever asked how we got so off from our original itinerary...they probably took one look at us and thought, "No wonder!"

That one track problem = Amsterdam > Rotterdam > Breda > Roosendaal > Noord Brussels > Ghent > Bruges.

Train change in Ghent to Bruges, no issues. We arrive in Bruges, and this part always sucks...getting oriented, finding the bus, understanding where the heck you're going and how to do it cheaply. We bought bus tickets at a little shack that looked like a construction temporary housing unit because we read they'd be cheaper than buying them on the bus. The bus numbers we planned to use never came, but another bus, the 12, showed up with an indication that it was going to the center, so we get on, but have no idea where to get off. We guess, and hop off at the gigantic market square. Then, we finally realize that frickin' Google maps had us take a bus when we could have walked 5 minutes to our hotel instead, and now we're on the other side of town. It has no imagination, and apparently doesn't recognize walking bridges as able to get you to your destination. Just great. Did I mention it's 90 degrees? And that we haven't eaten since 8 am? Lower. My. Expectations.

Neither of us can make up our damned minds - do we get back on the bus going the other way to avoid more walking? Do we sit to eat? But if we do that, our hour-long bus pass will expire...ugh. We decide to avoid the coordination and just suck it up and walk. Our hotel, Hotel Academie, is lovely. It's like stepping into a cool, dark lounge with little mints and chairs and promises of rest. We crash in our rooms, shower, change, and head out to eat.

We find what my mother-in-law would call a "darling" restaurant nearby, Gruuthuse Hoff, with outdoor seating with one of the best views ever, and we order a three course tourist special, with minestrone soup and bread, salmon and dessert - I opt for the cream-filled profiteroles (because I'm sophisticated), and Derek went for the ice cream (because duh!). We had beer too, choosing a local brewer called De Halve Man. Their Brugze Zot is wonderful, and as usual, I chose the blond and Derek went for the brown. I say "as usual" casually, since we're not beer drinkers, but we've dabbled from time to time and know generally what we like, and both of us believe strongly that you should do as the locals do if it won't cause you actual physical harm.

We wandered down the streets, my mouth hanging open with the coming dusk, marveling at the sunlight on the incredible church steeples, quiet homes and quaint canals. I must have taken a hundred photos. We were reveling in the beauty of the main Markt when we heard a free night walking tour starting right where we sat and spontaneously decided to join them. For the next hour and a half, we wandered the streets, listening to legends of the city and learning its history. Derek soaked up so many facts that at the end when we were quizzed, he earned himself a free beer (and slipped me an answer so that I could "earn" one too). We tipped the guide, who dropped us at the Bauhaus, where we enjoyed our beer, this time trying the Jupiler lager.

We wandered back in the dark, picking our way through the unfamiliar streets (but feeling extraordinarily safe) to our cozy hotel, where we hopped online and booked ourselves another night. It took about 5 minutes to figure out that leaving here too early would be a big mistake. We'll stay 3 nights.