The Benelux Countries

Hola a todos, hi everyone. It´s been a long time since my last entry but I think its safe to say that the holiday season keep me a little busy. I spent Christmas in Madrid and for the rest of the break I went up north with my friend Erika to the Benelux, an area of Europe that is made up of The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Believe it or not, these countries have historic ties to Spain as this area was once part of the Spanish Empire during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

Antwerp, Belgium was our first real stop in the Benelux and it was beautiful despite the rain and cold weather. Everything about the riverfront -the park, the riverwalk, the old adjacent buildings- reminded me of Wilmington´s. The city center had a similar air as well, but its was obviously more ornate with beautiful Flemish architecture. The Cathedral of Our Lady was impressive and we were lucky to come across several beautiful altarpieces by the artist Peter Paul Rubens. My favorite dish was called Vol-au-vent; a hollowed out pastry filled with, in this case, veal and mushroomed cream...yummmm. A train ride away, in Ghent, (where Spain´s Carlos I was born in 1500) I tasted the most savory beer to date, Bourgogne de Flandres (Burgundy of Flanders). It was a dark beer with the perfect combination of sweet and bitter. I also visited one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever been to, the Saint Bavo Cathedral. A mixture of architectural styles in white marble and black onyx (I think) was what did it for me. Dank u fur dat, Ghent.

Before we knew it, we were in Bruges which seemed as if it had come out of a fairytale. Canals ran through the city and Belgian chocolate called our names as we walked her streets. My favorite part was probably the Belfry, the famous tower that I first discovered in the movie, In Bruges. While we were waiting in line we meet this interesting frenchwoman who amused us with her mélange of French, Spanish and English until it was time to go up the Belfry. It was like a never-ending staircase that got narrower the further up we went. I think I lost 10 pounds going up and down that thing. Anyways, at the top, the view was breathtaking.

-Many thanks to Kelly, our host in Flanders (North Belgium) who intrigued me with her obsession for everything related to Flamenco dance and music. Qué bonito, una flamenca aficionada al flamenco (In Spanish, Flamenco can either refer to the genre of music and dance or to someone from Flanders).

We spent New Year´s Eve in Luxembourg in the company of an incredibly nice Spanish girl who we had met her on on our flight from Madrid to Brussels. I happened to be sitting next her on the plane when I asked if she had been to Brussels before and she said that she had studied their but was now living in Luxembourg. No way, I said. We are going there for New Year´s Eve! Next thing I knew, she invited us to hangout with her on Noche Vieja. When the night finally arrived we were consumed in animated conversation with our new friend and her italian buddies who ended up cooking lentils for us (apparently its tradition to eat lentils for New Year´s in Italy). We all went outside at midnight to watch the fireworks which lasted about twenty mintues. Well, damn I told myself. Then again, it was Luxembourg and that city, to be honest, is loaded (it happens to be a huge financial and administrative hub). Anyways, Luxembourg is a beautiful city, but there wasn´t much life there (many people who live there are from outside Luxembourg), so we were lucky to have met our Spanish friend.

Our next stop was Amsterdam which bills itself as the city of freedom because of its tolerance for cannabis consumption in cannabis coffeeshops and its tolerance of prostitution in the famous red-light district which, interestingly, is a tourist attraction for its architecture alone. Anyway, during our stay we were mostly preoccupied with the Anne Frank House, The Vincent Van Gogh Museum, the food, the architecture, and the world famous canals that criss-cross the city.

To be continued...