My trip to Belgium, part 1: Bruges

I just returned from a wonderful trip to Belgium with my new friends Alison and Duncan. We traveled to Belgium by train. When we got on the train in London, I was surprised by how big it was: there were eighteen carriages on this train! Can you find on a map how you would take the train from London to Belgium? You actually have to go underwater in order to get to the European continent from here. The train went south to Dover, then through a tunnel which goes under the sea. (Unfortunately, there was not much to see under the sea because the tunnel was very dark.) When we emerged on the other side, the sun was shining and the landscape was very flat, occasionally dotted with tall, thin houses.

Here I am getting settled in for my trip on the train, which is called the Eurostar.

Here I am looking out the window under the water – unfortunately, it is too dark to see anything.

Now that we have come up from the tunnel, I can look out and see Calais, a town in France.

The first place we visited in Belgium was Bruges [pronounced something like "broozh"]. Bruges was a very important place in the late Middle Ages because it was a trading center, a little bit like New York is today. Here is a photo of me in the Market Square of Bruges. The huge tower on the belfry suggests how important this town once was.

Market Square in Bruges.

While in Bruges, Alison and Duncan took me to a traditional Belgian restaurant called De Vlaamsche Pot for lunch. There, we ate traditional Belgian foods, including mussels, waffles, chocolate, and fries. Even though we call them “French fries,” they are actually the national dish of Belgium, where they are called “frites” or “friets.” They are called two different things because there are two official languages in Belgium: French and Flemish, the latter of which is a similar to Dutch.

Duncan and I are eating mussels. The frites are over to the side, out of the photo.

Flemish people also have their own separate flag, which has a black lion on a yellow background. Here is a statue of the Flemish lion on the Bruges town hall.

I stand in front of the town hall in Bruges. Do you see the statue of the Flemish lion?

I have a lot more to tell you about my trip to Belgium, so I will continue soon in a separate post. I hope you're excited to hear more!