Belgium - Antwerp, Oudenaarde, Gent, Brugge - August 2011

I spent four days in Belgium.  I visited Antwerp, Oudenaarde, Gent and Brugge.  The easiest way around Europe is train, so I started with a two hour train ride from Amsterdam to Antwerp.  The reason I selected Antwerp was the train station.

Here's the outside of the train station as I started my afternoon walk through the city.

It was very easy to find the sights, since everything is clearly marked by directional signs.

Most European cities are centered around the cathedral.  This was true in all four cities I visited in Belgium.

The City Hall in Antwerp was one of the prettiest, covered with flags of the European countries.

As I walked around it was amazing to see architecture that was 100s of years old.

Buy my favorite building in every city was the chocolate shop.  I'm afraid it will be too hot to bring any home.  I'll buy some, but will probably have to eat it all the first warm day.

On Wednesday I took a train from Antwerp to Gent, to visit my two friends there - Dirk and Kristof.  I had met them a few months ago when they visited Orlando.

Dirk and I went to Oudenaarde, the home of the cycling museum to try to buy a Belgium cycling jersey.  We found a few, but they were the wrong size.  But we walked around the town anyway.  Above is the city hall.

Here's a collection of cycling jerseys that were on display in the museum cafe.

The next day I was on my own in the morning in Gent.

The cathedral and many other medieval buildings covered the city center.  The architecture was very varied.

I probably took 100 pictures of the buildings and cafes.

The canals through the town were also beautiful.

Many of the canals were lined with flowers like the one above.

This is the only European Castle in the City Center.

This was an old market converted to a cafe.

Our final stop in Gent was the officially designated graffiti street.  For those who haven't been to the Netherlands or Belgium, graffiti is a major problem.  Here the artists have a place for their street art. 

On Wednesday night I took Dirk and Kristof to a nice restaurant in the city center on a canal.

On Thursday, Dirk and I went to Brugge, about a 20 minute train ride from Gent.  Here I am in the main square.

This is the belfry in the main square.  We opted not to climb the 300+ stairs to the top.

We then took a nice canal boat ride.  The weather was perfect, sunny and 23 degrees.

Here's a view from the canal.

The cathedral from the canal.  I must tell you how much trouble I'm having using the keyboard in Belgium.  There are a number of keys in different positions, including the a, z, w, q, and m.  I'm constantly correcting ,istqkes (the way mistakes comes out using the qwerty keyboard strokes).

Here I am overlooking the canal.

For lunch we had Belgium waffles - I had chocolate ice cream and whipped cream, and Dirk had strawberries and whipped cream.

I thought these signs were cute.  You'll have to google the meaning.

For dinner on my last night in Belgium we drove back to the Netherlands to a restaurant that specializes in mussels.  We were rewarded with two huge buckets of mussels prepared in the family's secret recipe.

 Here are my friends Dirk and Kristof after our very satisfying meal.

Today I travel back to Amsterdam to meet my good friends from London, Ann and Norman.  We will be taking a river cruise from Amsterdam to Basel.  I do not know if I will be able to update my blog during this portion of my journey.

Amsterdam Gay Pride - August 2011

The primary reason for this trip was to attend my third international gay pride parade.  This year I chose Amsterdam, the gay capital of Europe.

Here's the greeting all visitors get when the arrive at the Amsterdam Centraal train station.

My hotel with the Dutch and Gay Pride flags.  I must have seen 5000 pride flags around the city.

The first event I attended was the Drag Queen Olympics.  The drag queens in Amsterdam were very ugly - not like the ones in Berlin a few years ago.  There were four events, including the stiletto sprint, the hangbag toss, a tug o love and finally........

the dressage, where three drag queens had to mount, ride and dismount a horse.  This lady won the event.

Here's the site of one of the many street parties, before and after the parade.

This crowd is small compared to the crowd after the parade.

Here's the start of the parade, which took place in one of the many canals.

You can serve in the military openly in the Netherlands.  Above is the gay military boat.

And of course we have the gay pirates.  Pink is the theme color for Amsterdam Gay Pride.

Here are our gay super heros.

There were many drag queens riding the boats.  These were even somewhat attractive.

It was interesting that probably 90% of those viewing the parade were straight.  The USA is so backwards when it comes to supporting and accepting gays.

The balloons on this boat had to be deflated to go under the many bridges.  See the following picture.

And all that was left after the parade were the trashed beer cans and wine bottles.  Not nearly as much as during New Orleans Mardi Gras.  But the cleaning crew was out and in an hour most signs of the parade were gone.