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| Life is good at Hotel Asiris |
After another expansive breakfast at the Hotel Asiris in Bruges, it was time to get on with our travels. Next stop was Brussels. But first about those breakfasts... the portly proprietors put out a spread of hard boiled eggs, cold cuts and cheeses, homemade pies, milk, chocolate milk, breads, pastries, containers of chocolate spread, cereals, orange juice and most importantly coffee! I'm sure I've missed an item or two, but the food was good and a lot of it. With the breakfast included in the price of the room, this was quite the hotel, and your VFH team recommends staying there.
A big window at one end of the overly decorated, somewhat tacky, breakfast room allowed views of the street. Breakfast debris was placed in a plastic hard boiled egg that sat on each of the tables. A husband and wife couple ran the hotel and she periodically lumbered in to replace items, but largely the breakfast room was quiet with voices of the guests muted. We ate our fill, and then some, and then checked out of the hotel. The tall, burly, gruff looking husband with a wire brush of a moustache said northing to us as we paid our tab, but then again, he hardly said anything to us throughout our stay. The decor and the rooms of the Asiris Hotel were the complete opposite of the owner. Asiris offers clean rooms and a cheery, playful decorative touch in the lobby with Teddy Bears sitting astride pumpkins, etc., it was obvioiusly his wife's influence. But, he was helpful with maps and information so his abruptness was a part of the charm. We were happy to have stayed here and sad to leave this beautiful city. With the wheels of our luggage clattering down the cobblestoned streets, echoing off the canals, we made our way to the train station to get our asses to Brussels.
On the way we tried to avoid the crowds of the Markt; it was a Saturday morning and figured the crowds would make walking through it a difficult task. We consulted the map to take a somewhat circuitous route to the train station. Winding streets followed the canal. It was quiet and pleasant and we had none of the commotion had we tried to cross through the Markt. But, once we stopped at an intersectionto get our bearings a bicycler stopped and offfered us directions and told us we had to go through the Markt to the get to the station. We thanked him and continued on our own way. Serendipty eventually led us to 't Zand square where the Saturday morning farmer's market was in full swing. Families, couples, elderly and young locals, and tourists like us milled about the rows and rows of food and non food stands. We bought coffee and stood like all the rest at little tables and pondered a double plus sized pooch waiting patiently for food to drop. We bought some bread and a half kilo of St. Bernardus Trappist cheese for our train ride to Brussels. We oohed over a stand of olives and smiled warmly at children playing in the sunshine, their parents nodding approvingly. It was a lovely end to our visit to this beautiful town.
We caught the next train to Brussels and were there in just over an hour. The trains were cheap, about 13 Euros, cheaper during the week. Once in Brussels we walked two blocks to our hotel. Janet had found a good price for an expensive hotel just around the block from the main tourist attractions like the Grand Place or Grote Markt in the Old Town. After freshining up we headed out into Brussels and discovered how it was completely different place than Bruges... but that's another blog entry...
Stay tuned... I'll get to them.. Sorry that we're a bit behind in our recollections.... Thanks for reading.
greg
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