City of Canals, Cuisine and Cultural Heritage – Amsterdam, Belgium & Bruges

My previous blog post on chasing the northern lights did have a writeup about how Amsterdam and Belgium came fitting into my Itinerary. So, I will continue here from, once we reached Amsterdam on the 20th of December. We had plans to be in here for almost 10 days. And in these days, we wanted to explore Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruges, Zaanse Schans and of course indulge in French fries, waffles, chocolates etc. After our 3 days stay in Finland, we came back to Amsterdam on 24th evening. The next day was Christmas and most of the tourist attractions, like Museums, Christmas markets would be closed so we thought of roaming in Amsterdam along with a cruise ride.

For the 25th, we had booked the Canal Cruise ride on the previous day itself, and the ride was at 5pm. We were a total of seven of us and after having lunch, we left for Amsterdam Centraal station though the metro. We were supposed to board the cruise from Damrak, where we had our ride starting. We reached at the right time and took our hot chocolate drink (that was included in our package) before boarding the cruise. All of us settled down before the cruise started at 5.15pm. The Canal cruise package also included the Audio guide facility and along with that our captain also had a mike with him and he was educating us in between. The cruise was about to showcase us the thirteenth edition of the Amsterdam Light festival while passing under the romantic bridges of the Amstel river. The theme of this year, 2024, was Rituals. Every year the light festival just lights up the city during the winters and this year it was even more special as it coincided with Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary.

As the cruise ride began, we started witnessing some of the main cultural institutions glittering against the sky. There were around 27 innovative light sculptures and incredible art installations by artists around the world, on either side of the canals that we were passing by. Each of the bridges that we passed by were decorated in some way or the other and they were all very beautiful. The ride was for 1hr, 15mins and we reached back to Centraal station around 6.30pm.

Then we decided to walk past the street from Centraal station to Dam square. The first thing that caught our eye was a long queue that was coming from the famous Manneken Pis shop. This is the place where you get Holland’s best French fries. The fries here are thick, crispy, and soft. They serve French fries with over 20 diff sauces, and we bought the ones with garlic and mayonnaise sauce and trust me it deserves its rating. The picture below was taken in the daytime.

Then on the way we marked a few places (Primark, TK Maxx) as our next shopping pitstops reserved for some other day as they all were closed that day due to Christmas. We reached the Dam square which is basically a town square in Amsterdam located at the center of the city. It is surrounded by notable buildings around, but a white stone pillar erected in the middle (built in 1956 to honor those who died in World War II), stands out. Just opposite the stone pillar is the Royal Palace and near to that we have Madame Tussauds wax museum. I had visited the one in London so gave this a miss. You can have one stop luxury shopping experiences around Dam Square in De Bijenkorf. These are the most renowned chain of premium department stores in Netherlands.

After covering Dam Square and taking pictures around, we started walking towards the Centraal station again but this time we choose another route that happens to pass through the Red Light District. The Red Light District, also known as De Wallen (as known to locals, here) is the oldest district of Amsterdam. The streets become narrow here and there are various small windows through the street where the ladies are within. There is no entrance or exit to this area as it can be visited any time, though the window brothels are closed for 2 hours a day. You are not supposed to take any photographs in this area.
The next day we had plans of visiting the Upside Down Museum and Christmas markets (provided they were open). We left after our brunch to the Upside Down Museum, one of its kinds that gives you an immersive experience. They have optical illusions, colorful and glittering rooms, upside-down rooms and photogenic spots to click pictures. They also provide you with some famous wardrobe collections which you can wear and get your pics clicked. Every spot will twist your perspective. We took pictures in most of the places and were almost there for 2 hours. From there my friend’s family left to visit the Christmas markets and me & mom decided to call it for the day.

There were a couple of days in Amsterdam when we didn’t go out of the house at all due to unfavorable weather conditions. One of the days was only to fulfill our shopping spree. You cannot believe my mom even got some utensils from there without even giving a thought about the additional weight that we are going to have. We bought a lot of clothes for us and as well as to give them to my family.

Our next trip was to Brussels and Bruges in Belgium, and it was on the 29th of December. We had booked a day trip to these places for about 15hrs. Mom decided not to be a part of it as it included a lot of walking (around12-13kms) and moreover she had also sprained her leg the previous day, so she stayed back at home. We left to brussels at around 6.30am in the morning and had our bus at 7am. It was a 3.5hrs drive to Brussels with a quick 30min break for our morning breakfast. We reached Brussels at 10am and our first pitstop was the Atomium.

The Atomium is a steel structure in Brussels, that’s made up of nine spheres connected by tubes. It stands 102 meters (335 ft) tall, making it one of the tallest structures in Belgium. The structure for me was full of creativity and innovation. Each sphere is 18-metre in diameter (59 ft), and visitors can move between the spheres using escalators or stairs. Atomium also has an elevator that can take 22 people to the top in 23 seconds. We didn’t enter inside the Atomium but after clicking pics in front on it, we left to the Brussels city center.

Before entering the Saint Hubert galleries in the city center, there was this huge sculpture with a cat on a bike called La Chatte a Bicyclette that caught my eye.

The Royal Galleries of Saint Hubert or Galleries Royales Saint-Hubert is amongst the oldest shopping malls of Europe and comprises of three glazed shopping arcades in the heart of Brussels. It has the King’s gallery, the Queen’s gallery and the Prince’s gallery. These galleries are an architectural masterpiece (Inspired by Italian palaces), covered across its entire length by a glass roof with a metal frame, giving you a royal feel and they shelter visitors at any point of time. These galleries include jewelry shops, luxury boutiques, auditoriums, theatres, and apartments.

The galleries lead us to the Grand Place or locally called Grote Markt, that is the central square of Brussels. The Grand Place is surrounded by magnificent historic buildings that comprise of a Town Hall (the most impressive building in the square), guildhalls and a few private houses. Surrounding it and along the nearby streets, you’ll find restaurants, café, chocolateries, and confectioneries. Here you can sit, provided it’s not too crowded, rest your feet, and take in the atmosphere. In the central square, you will find a symbol (shown in the 6th pic of the slideshow below), that’s almost there after every 100m on the streets. It’s the UNESCO World Heritage Site logo.

A few hundred meters from Grand Place stands the famous Manneken Pis, a bronze sculpture of a boy urinating into a fountain’s basin. This remains one of the most iconic landmarks to visit in this charming historic city. One of the souvenirs that you could buy is a zero euro note having the image of this sculpture in return of inserting 2 euro to the machine…quite interesting! In one of the streets, there was a carpet (couple embracing each other in a meadow of flowers, third pic shown below) that was weaved based on a famous oil painting “The Kiss” by  Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. Currently, the painting is located in one of the museums of Vienna.

Just right next to the main square of Brussels, in one of those tongue twisting streets that I don’t remember, is the statue of a little girl squatting down to pee, Jeanneke Pis. Now, Jeanneke Pis, the female version of the Manneken Pis, was the initiative of local businesspeople who wanted to attract more visitors to their street. This cheeky little girl with two ponytails is less known than her older brother. The little girl is made of bronze and squats and smiles while she urinates into a grey limestone base.

We were given 1hr by our guide to spend in those streets. We bought some waffles and lots of souvenirs from surrounding shops. We also saw this guy who is disguised himself as Charlie Chaplin and stands still during his entire course of display for long hours. And to my surprise while I was taking a pic beside him, he just hugged me.

From there we left for Bruges, which was around 1hr 20mins. and reached at around 2.30pm and it was drizzling the entire way. Our first pitstop was the Minnewater which is also called lake of love. It is called so because of a local legend of a tragic romance. According to the legend, a young girl named Minne fell in love with a man named Stromberg. However, Minne’s father disapproved of their relationship and arranged for her to marry someone else. Refusing to comply, Minne fled from the arranged marriage and sought refuge by the lake. She was eventually reunited with Stromberg, but tragically, died in his arms. Minnewaterbrug, or Lovers’ Bridge, is a romantic bridge that crosses the lake and as per beliefs, walking across the bridge with your loved one will lead to eternal love…hmm.

The lover’s bridge led us to a circular brick tower known as Gunpowder tower or the Poertoren tower, part of the Medieval city wall that was built to store defensive weapons and ammunition. It had got its name because it was used to store the City’s supply of gunpowder. The park around Minnewater features winding canals, loads of greenery and Gothic style manors.
Close to the romantic Minnewater park and after walking past the bridge of the Beguinage, you can find this horse fountain. This fountain with the horseheads is specially made for the horses in Bruges. Horse-drawn carriage rides are a popular attraction in Bruges city center, drawing numerous domestic and international tourists. All tours begin and end at the Market Square, and they also pass by this fountain along the way, ensuring the horses can drink water, if needed. Then we came across De Halve Maan (Brouwerij), a Family-run brewery. Beer has been brewed at De Halve Maan’s location for approximately 500 years. In 2016, De Halve Maan constructed a 3,276-meter (2-mile) beer pipeline connecting its brewery to its bottling plant, eliminating the need for trucks to navigate the narrow, cobbled streets of Bruges. At its deepest point, the pipeline reaches 34 meters (112 feet) below the surface. Now that’s an out of box thinking that makes the family to run the business smartly.

We walked past the cobblestone streets of Bruges to reach the market square. The streets were full of chocolatiers (Bruges is also considered a chocolate hot spot) and shops with posh interiors. The market square was prominently noticed by the Belfort (a medieval bell tower), the City Hall, Old Civic Registry (the pearl of Flemish renaissance), a church and beautiful houses around. It was around 4.30pm when we reached the market square and we were dead hungry. We went inside one of the restaurants in the market square to pacify our tummies. After an hour or so, after buying souvenirs from the market, we left to witness the chocolate making process in one of the workshops across the street. Unfortunately, by the time we reached there, the workshop was closed but nevertheless we tasted and bought lot of chocolates from there. It was around 7pm when we left Bruges to travel back to Amsterdam and trust me, we had one of the best times watching beautiful, picturesque canals and medieval architecture that created a fairy tale ambience.

After a day’s rest in Amsterdam, our next destination was Zaanse Schans, a neighborhood village in the Dutch town of Zaandam. It is known for its collection of historic wooden windmills and houses. The public area and various locations of Zaanse Schans are free of charge. After having our breakfast in the morning, we left to Zaanse Schans through a cab and reached there by 12.30pm. This place is just 18mins from the Amsterdam Centraal station and it houses seven museums and a total of 8 windmills here. Except for 2 of them (preserved on their original site where they were first constructed), all others, were relocated for preservation purposes. Generally when we hear about windmills, we think that these are for generating power but here in Netherlands, these windmills were used to pump water and prevent flooding…interesting, right! Windmills were a vital part of Dutch life because the country is mostly below sea level. Windmills pumped water from low-lying areas to higher ground, preventing flooding. Windmills were used for performing tasks like grinding grains and many other industrial processes as Zaanse Schans was an industrial area earlier.

You can visit various shops lined up on either side of narrow roads while you are visiting the wooden windmills. There is a wooden shoe workshop in the beginning itself where you can watch the clog makers demonstrate their craft by transforming a block of wood into a wooden shoe. It’s home to a clog factory with a clog museum and shop. The clog, made entirely from wood, is an authentically Dutch tradition that survives to this day, with these shoes still being worn in rural areas.

At Zaanse Schans, cheese making is a traditional Dutch craft, just like woodworking, wooden shoe making etc. You can attend a cheese-making demonstration in one of the shops where the staff – in traditional Dutch costumes – will educate you on cheese: from Gouda to goat and herb cheeses. You can enter these shops free of cost. You have a wide range of delicious cheese specialties and gifts, and all cheese products can be sampled before purchasing.

Around Zaanse Schans you can take a boat trip also but the day we went, the weather conditions were unfavorable and hence boat trip was cancelled. The temperature was around 2-3°C. with a lot of wind so it felt like temperatures in negative. The entire landscape has plenty of photo spots and you can enjoy every moment of it. You can easily spend around 2-4hrs in Zaanse Schans, and we did have our lunch on the way by grabbing some veg burgers for ourselves. We bought a lot of souvenirs and some cheese (Herbs and Garlic) from Henri willing shop. We left around 4pm from here to reach “This is Holland” in Amsterdam.

This is Holland is a 5D flight experience to see the entire Amsterdam from above. The experience consists of 4 parts along with a 9min 5D flight experience. I am sure you would be enthralled by the beauty of Netherlands and fall in love with it again and again after this. It starts with enlightening tourists of the history of Netherlands and windmills. And after that it’s some fun time when the flight takes us over and above all the famous monuments, canals, windmills, airport and sea around Netherlands. The total experience takes around an hour and its truly a breath taking experience for all ages. I would recommend everyone to visit this. It was the 31st of Dec and New Year’s eve. We came back home by 7.30pm. This was our first time celebrating the New Year in some other country. We had our dinner by 9.30pm. We could see the fireworks starting from 10pm itself from the apartment windows and balcony. Me and mom were so tired that we took a nap for an hour or so before getting up at 11.30pm. We watched the fireworks by switching off all the lights in the living room. The clock stuck 12 and it was a dazzling display of light, color, and sound everywhere around. Me and mom wished everyone for having a happy and prosperous year ahead and went back to sleep.

We had our flight on the 3 rd of Jan to Norway and our stay in Amsterdam was coming to an end. My friend’s cousins had been amazing hosts throughout our stay, and we never felt that we were away from home. It was indeed home away from home. I must say both husband and wife are great cooks. I just can’t forget the taste of that sweet and sour curry prepared with mangoes (ripe ones) simmered in coconut and yogurt also called Mambazha puliserry (Kerala style mango curry). The sweetness from the mangoes and the slight sourness from the yogurt and mild spices make this curry so yummylicious! I don’t know how much food me and mom ate that day…oh so delicious.

2025 started on a good note for us with witnessing the Northern Lights as I mentioned in my earlier blog post and much gratitude for all the experiences that we had and for me to able to write these blogs after coming back, safe and sound. Much Gratitude!!!