Easter in Belgium-Germany

Friday, April 14

Easter weekend is usually a great time to make a trip, and this time the plan was a road trip to Rothenburg with Murtuz, Nafisa and Yahyah.

However, since they were free only from Saturday onwards, Geet and I decided to make the most of the Good Friday by making a day trip to Brussels in Belgium.

We started off early by hitting the Rotterdam bus stand by 7:30, only to realize that the bus tickets when purchased on the spot is ~20% higher than online. So we decided to skip the bus and find a train, only to then realize that we were spending the same amount of money as the higher bus fare, and also the same amount of time on the train. Of course, the comfort factor was the only positive, and made it to Brussels city center by 10am.

Spent the day walking around the city, first to St Micheals cathedral, then around the Codenburg palace, then the square in front of the Royal Palace, and finally to Manekkin Piss, the famous statue that is no taller than a foot.

En route Geet picked up her favourite Belgian waffle with cream, strawberries, banana and chocolate, and was zoned out eating it with the statue towards her back.

We then had lunch at a bistro called ‘The Sisters’ where there were over 50 different types of beers that were organic and served by a very pregnant lady!

I very much wanted to visit the Tintin museum, only to find that it is 30km away from Brussels, so we made do with the Comin Book museum in Brussels itself, following which we sat at the town square gorging on Belgian Frites this time with a musician crooning in the background.

Got back in a Flixbus that I booked online this time to save some money, and it was actually a comfortable ride with wifi on board that made the journey just as peaceful as the train ride in the morning.

 

Saturday, April 15

Started the day around 10am when we caught the Intercity from Rotterdam to Amsterfoot where Murtuz picked us in his hybrid Passat to begin our journey towards Rothenburg.

We made one stop at Cologne for lunch and finally hit the beautiful city of Rothenburg only by 6pm and checked in to Pension Hofmann-Schmölzer.

Now this is a fully walled city where the architecture inside have stood the test of time since the 15^th century. We took a tour around the city with the night watchman who regaled us with tales of how Rothenburg fell right at the crossing between the north-south and the east-west trade routes of ancient Europe, making it a prosperous town that eventually fell to the plague in the 17^th century, only to be resurrected for tourism in the 20^th century.

It was poverty that ensured its prosperity today.

Closed out the day with dinner at Am weissen Turm Die Wuwi which happened to be one of the few places open in this little city beyond 9pm where we thankfully got a cozy little corner table where Yahyah could spread his little wings and run around.

We ordered a Flamkuchen here among soups and burgers, which was a dish that seemed to be the German cousin to the Italian Pizza.

 

Sunday, April 16

Began the day with a heavy breakfast that was complimentary at the hotel, followed by a long winding walk around the city till we broke for lunch at a Pizzeria given a restaurant we really wanted to visit, Alter Keller, was completely occupied for lunch.

We climbed on top of the city square tower to take in a panoramic view of the old town, which was probably the bravest thing Geet's done to date, followed by a slow walk along the walls of the city.

Finally ended the day with dinner, this time at Alter Keller, where we experimented with Asparagus soup and Cheese noodle.

 

Monday, April 17

Drove north along the Romantic Strasse that Rothenburg was a part of for a while till I took over the reins of the car and drove the last 288km till we got home.

This part of the journey was unbelievable as I pretty much just used my fingers through the trip, with adaptive cruise control on board.