What to do while in Bruges

1) The Halve Maan brewery tour was undoubtedly our favorite stop. The informative, funny, English tour through their newly renovated brewery includes one free beer and a view that trumps that of the Belfort 10 times over. €7.50, tours leave hourly. Times and information here. My full tour review here.  

2) Church of Our Lady (Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk) is currently under construction; however, you can still see Michelangelo's Madonna and Child up close in a separate section for a small fee. We watched Monuments Men the day before and appreciated the statue, and the sacrifices made to save it, even more. Church entrance is free, but €2 to enter the section with Madonna and Child (fee is currently reduced due to construction). Website with address here and opening times here. 

3) The food in this city is amazing. How can you pick between Belgian chocolates, waffles, beer, and French fries? Don't! Sample them all. Though our waffles were not as good as the ones we had in Brussels, they let me eat just the dough. Weird, I know, but delicious. I was validated to hear that I am not even close to the first person to enjoy the waffle this way.



4) We were lucky enough to visit the Basilica of the Holy Blood (Basiliek van het Heilig Bloed) on a day they were offering adoration of the Relic containing Jesus' blood. This meant we were actually able to walk up to it, place our hand on it and say a prayer. The blood was collected as Joseph of Arimathea washed the dead body of Christ. It made its way to Bruges in the 12th century after the King of Jerusalem gave it to the Count of Flanders for his heroism during the 2nd Crusade. If you're lucky enough to visit Bruges on a Ascension Day (May 14 in 2015),  you can catch the Procession of the Holy Blood (Heilig Bloedprocessie), during which the Relic is taken through the city as part of a large procession. Entrance to the church (including the relic) is free. Opening times available here. Adoration is offered every Wednesday from 10:00 - 11:00 and during the Week of Prayers (May 10-17 in 2015).

5) The Markt is the beautiful market square in the the center of Bruges, and home to the Belfry (bell tower), Provincial Court, great architecture, and boat loads of tourists. Try to make out there early to avoid the latter. Skip the long lines and €8 fee at the Belfry - we waited for an hour and regretted it after seeing the included view during the tour of the Halve Maan Brewery. The view from the Belfry is obstructed by caged in windows.

6) Walk around! The city couldn't be more perfect if I plucked it out of my imagination. The canals are beautiful, there is interesting architecture everywhere, and the food is amazing. Find a place to take some pictures, but don't feel pressured to do so at the locations recommended by the guidebooks. Those were filled with tourists and not worth the struggle. Minnewater Lake is a beautiful stop, or peruse one of the markets around the city.

Kusadasi Bazaar

What should you do in Kusadasi if you do not want to go to Ephesus? We were recently faced with this question - not only was it a rainy, cold day, but we had both been fortunate enough to see the ruins in Ephesus before. So we decided to explore the port of Kusadasi with our day in Turkey. We were both pleasantly surprised!

Evil eyes in the sidewalk

Though there were a few ruins, museums, and other traditional sights, we focused our time on the bazaar since our cruise did not stop at any other Turkish destinations. Don't be fooled by the vendors in the port building - that is not the bazaar. The real Kusadasi bazaar (complete with bazaar prices) is just a 10 minute walk from the dock. At first we were skeptical: it appeared as though the bazaar was just one short arcade of traditional Turkish vendors. But as we neared the end, we could see that there was actually a network of several bazaars linked together. Though some were nicer than the others, we found scarves, rugs, pottery, Turkish delights, jewelry, and pretty much everything else you can imagine one would find at a street market (i.e. Counterfeit products of all shapes and sizes). 

True to tradition, everything is negotiable. The vendors are pushy, yet courteous, and speak perfect English. I was focused on the gorgeous, ornate Turkish pottery pieces. I held out until the end when we stumbled upon a pottery factory with the best variety in the bazaar - the Hacivat Ceramic Shop. Needless to say, we came home with a few treasures. If you check this store out, don't miss the room in the back that contains pieces with glow-in-the-dark detailing. It was a pretty neat sight to be surrounded by intricate designs on pottery pieces from floor to ceiling. Though they said they did not negotiate, of course they did; however, either my skills are a little rusty or they are less willing to come down on the price than the other vendors.

Though the bazaar is not a reason to go to Kusadasi alone, it does offer a great alternative to the Ephesus ruins. The prices and variety were slightly poorer than the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul; however, it was a more manageable size and there were practically no other tourists around, despite the three large ships docked that day. If you have even an extra 30 minutes in port, it is absolutely worth the trip!

Bruges Spotlight: Halve Maan Brewery

Meet St. Arnold. A statue of this 6th century saint is found in breweries all over the world (ever heard of St. Arnold's Brewery in Houston??) to bless their brewery and their beer. The Halve Maan Brewery in Belgium has several, perhaps one of the reasons they are the only remaining brewery in Bruges, Belgium, a city which was once home to 28 large breweries at the turn of the 20th century.                                         I'm not sure exactly why Halve Maan flourished over the other breweries in the precious northern Belgium town of Bruges, but I do know that they do a good job of staying strong today partly due to their fantastic brewery tours. 

Living in Germany, we have been on more than our fair share of brewery tours. Though the Bruges guide books rated a trip to the Halve Maan Brewery highly, we filed it in the lower half of our to-do list when we spent the day in Bruges. After hitting many of the major sights (more to come on those later), we developed a thirst that could only be quenched by a sweet yet potent Belgian Tripel, and honestly, at €7.50 per ticket, it seemed almost like the tour was included with the beer, not the other way around!

Our 45-minute, English tour was led by a hi-larious Bruges native who really knew her stuff and had the whole group (even a hung-over bachelor party) rolling. She was hands-down the best tour guide of any tour I have ever experienced. One of the more interesting tidbits we learned from her is why the Belgian beer is so strong (the Tripel - my favorite - is 9% ABV, but the Quadrupel is a stiff 11% ABV; Budlight is 4.2%, Prosecco is 11%). Apparently when the government imposed the same tax on beer as wine, the brewers were upset: the alcohol content in wine is higher than beer, so people consume less by volume. The tax was disproportionately hurting beer prices. So what is a brewery to do?  They simply responded by brewing beers with alcohol content similar to wine. Another fun piece of Belgian beer history was our guide's account of working in the brewery in the 1950s. Employees were entitled to seven free beers a day. Clearly, it was the place to work in town. 

Another bonus of this tour is the view from the top of the brewery. Patrick and I had just waited an hour to pay €8 each for the privilege of climbing the Belfort's 366 steps for the "best view of Bruges." No one mentioned how the view was obstructed by cages covering the windows at the top. At the Halve Maan Brewery, we were treated to the below view as part of the tour - much better view at a much better price.

Fair warning: we were in Bruges at the beginning of the high season (late May), but we still bought our tickets an hour in advance. It seemed as though they filled up the tours about 15 minutes before hand. If you want to take this tour, the brewery is very close to other sights- I recommend getting your ticket ahead of time just in case! Check their English website for more information. This tour is not to be missed while in Bruges!

Port Destination: Santorini

When I woke up and peered out the window at Santorini, it looked like we were surrounded by snow-capped mountains. After waking up a little more, I realized that the "snow" was actually made up of the beautifully white-washed villages that top the island. We spent our day docked in Santorini in the village of Oia wandering the streets, shopping, and snacking on Greek frozen yogurt. Pictures do this Greek island more justice than I could ever do with words!

We happened upon a great view from a side street on our walk

Church bells overlooking the ocean

Farewell in style on a well-behaved donkey!

650 Years of Amberg Fests

In true Bavarian fashion, a city earns its stripes only when they have their own local fests. 650 years ago, elector Ruprecht I (aka "The Red") gave this right to Amberg.

Photo Credit: Amberger Congress Centrum

To give you a sense of how important these rights were, Ruprecht "The Red" had this on Elector to-do list 22 years ahead of starting the University of Heidelberg! And to put it in perspective for other Americans, the people of Amberg were celebrating the summer season with cold beers and music before Columbus even sailed the ocean blue.
So how do Amberg's 40,000+ citizens celebrate such an important anniversary? With a particularly special kick-off to the Amberg fest season, of course!
This weekend, I had the privilege of seeing the opening ceremonies for the 650th Amberg Dult (aka "carnival" or "fair" in English). Though the Dultplatz (fairground) is actually about a mile down the Vils River, the fest started early Friday evening with free beer from the local brewery, Kummert Bräu. If they were handing out free beer in the city center of any American town, there would likely be a full-fledged mob; however, the people of Amberg were sipping on the special 650-year-anniversary brew as if it were any other day. Needless to say, I was enthused.

Freibier (Free beer is easy to translate!)

After the music stopped, 60 people, eight kegs, two tubas, and a basket full of pretzels loaded on two long boats for the trip down the river. The music played as people sipped on freshly tapped beer. They unloaded at the Dultplatz and set up for the evening tapping of the first Dult keg. After several hours, the whole city enjoyed a 15-minute fireworks show signaling the start of Dult week.
If you are around Amberg, the Kummert Bräu free beer cart has been spotted since: they were playing music and handing out fresh, cold beer at 10:00 am in the marktplatz the next morning. I recommend keeping an eye out for it! More importantly, the Amberg Dult runs through June 15th at the Dultplatz on Bruno-Hofer-Straße.

For those of you who are not able to make it to the Dult fest, this is just the first of three fests that were granted to the city of Amberg 650 years ago. There is still plenty of time to catch the Mariahilfbergfest from June 28 through July 6, the Altstadtfest July 19 & 20, or the fall Dult September 26 - October 5. 

Mykonos Spotlight: Petros the Pelican

If you ask people what to do on Mykonos, you will probably receive the same answer repeatedly: "just get lost!" But what do you do when you are not a wanderer by nature? Set a moving target: find Petros. 

Petros the Pelican has been the official mascot of Mykonos since 1954. After a storm, a lone, wounded pelican made his way to the island. After the locals nursed him back to health, they named him Petros and adopted him as their mascot.

I bet you didn't know that pelicans live 60 years! That is because they do not. Sadly, Petros was eventually faced with his mortality and passed away in the 80s. The people of Mykonos had taken to him so well and were so upset with his death that they decided to continue his legacy. Of course, no one pelican was as good with the people of Mykonos as Petros, so they replaced him with three pelicans who still roam the streets today. 

Below is a photo-album of our pursuit of Petros:

First we walked up to the top of the city to try and spot him. While we had no luck (unfortunately he blends into the local architecture), we did enjoy this unobstructed lookout point right above a field of power generators.

Next, we looked around the beautiful blue-domed churches. Though he was not around them, they were pretty spectacular. Most of the churches were open to look inside at the Greek Orthodox interiors. 

After a few hours we had to stop for a break. Frozen Greek yogurt with honey seemed like the perfect bait. Unfortunately it didn't last long...

Apparently Petros doesn't hang out next to the famous five windmills. Note to future travelers: the fact that the city has windmills should be a hint that it is VERY windy in Mykonos. Skirts and dresses are an absolute no if you want to walk along the coast at any time. Also - a hair tie would have been a smart thing to bring...

Sweet success! Though Petros is actually a Great White Pelican, we were surprised to find that he is actually light pink! Just as we were told, Petros was very friendly and clearly used to tourists cozying up to him. A perfect Greek gentleman. 

Athens Spotlight: Segway Tour

View of Athens from the Pynx

Segway smooch under the Arch of Hadrian

We were recently tasked with making the most of our seven-hour stop in Athens. Though the Plaka (old town) is small, it was 90° (as it frequently is in the summer), and we were having a hard time deciding between which sights to see after the Acropolis. We wanted to see the ancient ruins: hike up Mars Hill, appreciate the Kerameikos ruins, see the remains of the Temple of Zeus, stand under the Arch of Hadrian, soak up the birthplace of democracy at the Pynx, and even peek into the remains of the first mall in Agora; but also the newer sights: shop in the Monastiraki flea market, have a snack in the main square, check out the Zappeoin (1896 is new in Athenian time).

Believe it or not, we found a way to do all of this with time leftover for some frozen Greek yogurt. How? A segway tour!

Zipping through the
Monastiraki flea market

After some research, we opted for the Athens Segway Tours company. We took the 10:00 am tour and were lucky enough to be the only ones who could make it out of bed early enough. Our own local tour guide (who spoke perfect English) was helpful and flexible. We laid out our priorities and she made sure to hit them. I had never been on a segway before but absolutely loved it. We zipped through the pedestrian areas with no problem, and saw everything we wanted to see plus some sights that were not even on our radar.

The Parthenon on two feet, no wheels (still awesome)

Segways are not (yet) allowed in the Acropolis, so we enjoyed that sans-wheels, but the two hour segway tour was perfect for perusing the large number of important ruins Athens contains in their old town. It was efficient, breezy, and most of all hilarious, and I cannot recommend it highly enough!