Amsterdam and Bruges – Two Great Canal Towns

There’s a major difference in the way Amsterdam and Bruges handle their respective canals. In Amsterdam, streets run alongside the canals, so its’ fabulous canal houses are usually separated from the canals by a row of parked cars. Bruges, on the other hand, is much more like Venice, with buildings right up to the edge of the canal. Either way, canal boat rides are great fun in both cities. March, 2009 brought me to these two fascinating towns, in addition to stops in Brussels and Groningen in northern Holland, where I spent a night after visiting the tiny nearby hamlet of Endhoven, from which my Beukema family relatives came. I took many differing forms of Amsterdam canal rides, and my favorite, by far, was an evening dinner cruise. It was truly special silently gliding along the canals in the dark, able to glimpse inside the spectacular canal-house mansions lining the waterways. I was also greatly moved by visiting the attic hiding place of Anne Frank, and savored my time with Van Gogh and Rembrandt masterpieces in the major museums across from each other on the Museumplein on the southern edge of the city. While much of the Rijksmuseum is currently closed for renovation, its Rembrandts and Vermeers are still impressively displayed in a portion of the museum still open. After five days in Amsterdam, I picked up my rental car, and drove immediately south to the Aalsmeer Flower Auction near the airport. Each morning, 90% of the world’s flowers are flown in/out of Amsterdam, and transported through this building for its fascinating wholesale auctions. Visitors are able to view all of the action from a ceiling catwalk with windows into the large auction rooms. I was simply stunned by the millions of blooms being carted around the floor below. Then it was just another short drive south to Keukenhof Gardens with its impressive displays of gorgeous spring bulbs. I was about ten days early for most of the tulips, but the crocuses and other early blooms were still impressive. I next drove south to Belgium, for two nights each in the towns of Bruges and Brussels. My favorite is Bruges – a still intact medieval town surrounding an impressive town market square and network of canals. Today it’s been restored to one of Europe’s most stunning and unique cities, and I stayed in a particularly pleasant townhouse B&B with a pretty canalside garden behind. Belgium is very famous for its hundreds of varieties of beer, and I grew especially fond of Lindemans Framboise Raspberry Lambic Beer – a delicious fruity alternative to traditional beers. I enjoyed some at every meal I ate in both Bruges and Brussels. I was disconcerted to find that downtown Brussels is built on a hill, and all the streets and sidewalks are paved in cobblestones. This makes for slippery walking – especially when wet. I was also surprised to find that Manneken Pis, the world-famous fountain that’s become a Brussels’ icon, is actually a very small statue on a fairly non-descript street corner not far from the city’s very impressive Grand Place town square. This ended up being a trip filled with amazing surprises at every turn.