We left Brussels around 11 am and it took us about 2 hours to get to Koln in Germany. Mark enjoyed driving at 170KM hour, and people were still passing us!

We said goodbye to Chris, Trevor (cheese bagel) and Dave (better than a bag), they had to catch the early flight. We took the hostel shuttle to the airport later in the day so we could pickup our car for the next leg our journey.

Brussels was only a 2 hour trip away, and we had a relaxing trip watching the country side go by. We found our hostel through the twisty turns of Brussels. I am glad we have the GPS! While we waited for the hostel to open up, Ben drove up in a taxi. Ben took the train to Brussels, and got off at the Centrum station. The hostel is clean and seems to be newly renovated. We dropped off our stuff and went looking for the venue. On our way we found Chi-Chi’s restaurant. It was a surprise to see it since they don’t exist in North America anymore. I used to work at one when I was 16 back in the eighties. The food was OK for Belgium style Mexican, not the same type of menu but it was an enjoyable meal with friends. We had a few beers then headed back to the hostel.

We woke up at around 9 and started organizing our recording gear and charging batteries for the show tonight. We looked at the tourist map and planned our adventure in Brussels. Wow what a city with history. All I could say was wow when we entered into the grand market square. The statues and the architecture was just amazing and pictures do not do it justice.

We had lunch at a quaint little restaurant and Ben and Matt had the specialty of the house, mussels that came with a bottle of wine. The mussels were fantastic, they just melted in your mouth.

We continued our journey walking around Brussels and seeing all the chocolate stores and walking the cobble streets. We started heading back to the hostel so we could rest before the show. With the lose of sleep catching up to us we all fell asleep.

We woke up about an hour before the show, so we collected our gear and made our way to the venue. The venue was fantastic and had 3 levels. It was a typical show, except that they skipped playing escape which was supposed to be the first song of the encore. Ben was a little ticked at that because this was his last show of EuroHip and he was really hoping to hear that song.

We ended up running into Paul (the biggest hip fan in Europe) after the show and went for a donar and beer. The beer in Brussels is fantastic, I had a cherry beer that went down very nice. I could drink these all day!

Brussels Photos

I have not had good internet connections so I have had to save up a few things. Hopefully I remember them all

We had a hectic journey from Groningen to Amsterdam. It started out to be a nice sunny day, and we got to the train station early and caught the 11 AM train. We had to make one train switch on this trip and ended up on a train to now where. There was an announcement over the pa, but we did not understand it. We found out that there was an accident on the line we were on and that we would have to go back to the previous station and switch to a train going to Utrech, and then catch a train to Amsterdam. It started to rain and the closer we go to the city, the more congested it got with people. We finally made it to Amsterdam about 1 hour later than expected.

It cleared up so out tram trip to the hostel was dry. We booked a private room at the hostel for the 6 of us. Not a 5 star hotel, and the guys not prepared had to buy a towel and lock. We dropped of our gear and headed over the the Wok to Walk for some food we had been craving since our last visit to Amsterdam.

With our bellies full we decided to take a walk and check out the venue. They are doing some restorations to the building so most of it was covered in scaffolding. As we walked by the venue, Paul the ‘biggest ‘Hip fan in Europe came by. He just got off work and wanted to go for a beer.

Amsterdam Photos

Photos - Groningen Day 2

What a long day, but we made it by plane and train to Groningen.

We caught our flight at an early 5:45 AM with no sleep on my part. We arrived in Amsterdam airport at 8 AM local time. We were hungry and ate at the airport before we caught the train to Groningen.

We had a very exciting trip on the trains, and because of construction we had to change train 3 times. The only problem with this is that we had only 4 minutes or less to drag all our stuff from one train to the next. If you are going to travel by train, make sure you travel light. We chatted with some locals on the trains and they were just as frustrated with the weekend schedules of the trains.

We made it to Groningen at about 1 pm and started the walk to the hotel. The Garmin 360 NAVI was an indispensable resource in helping us locate the hotel and navigate the surrounding area.

We all checked in and found that the 2 of use that paid via Travelocity.ca, ended up paying more because of the commissions they have to pay. Dave booked via the hotels website and save about 50 euros. As soon as we all hit our hotel rooms we crashed for a few hours before we ventured out for diner.

Groningen is a very peaceful feeling town, and it is going to be a pleasure to be here for 2 days. The venue that the Hip will be playing at is just across the canal from the hotel, so no more needing the GPS for the next 2 days. There is a local brewery that our friendly waiter told us about last night during diner, and we will be exploring that today. Sunday’s is the big day for shopping in the Netherlands and I will also be on the hunt for souvenirs.

We had a great diner in the main square of the town, nice to be able to have a decent meal after the last couple of days. After diner we moved into the main part of the pub, and what a labyrinth we found. The buildings on the outside looked separate, but they are all connected inside with a total of 20 bars. We also found that we had to pay 50 cents to use the washroom, but they had a all you can pee price of 2 euros. Lets just say we got our moneys worth that night.

We left the pub at abut midnight, and the boys found a donair and pizza shop. Everyone grabbed their goodies and we headed back to our hotel. Sleep came quickly and we are looking forward to tomorrow.

Groningen Day 1 photos