Tag Archives: UNESCO

Bruges: In Flanders Fields, the Chocolates Grow

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Clockwise: ducks and swans swim through the canals of Bruges; a hot air balloon rises above the city; the Grote Markt belfry dominates the skyline; old advertisement for Trappist-made beef chocolate using raw meat, designed to fight fatigue

Bruges is a quaint little town located in West Flanders, in a Flemish-speaking section of Belgium. The Gothic architecture of the old city center is recognized as a UNESCO Heritage site, and the town is often nicknamed the “Venice of the North,” due to the network of canals traversing the city. Like the center of Brussels, Bruges features a stunning central public square named Grote Markt, which includes the Belfort tower housing a 47-bell carillon. You can climb the 366 steps to reach the top of the 83 m tower for an aerial view of the city. It seems that the carilloneur’s repertoire is as diverse as that of Cornell chimesmasters; all afternoon, the air was filled with the tinkling of baroque and Billy Joel.
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Mussels in Brussels and Other Carbtastic Adventures

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You can get a classic moules-frites dinner with mussels, fries and a beer for about €13 in Brussels; Grand Place/Grote Markt is the central square of Brussels and recognized by UNESCO

Several weeks ago, Professor Peter Scholliers of Vrije Universiteit in Brussels stopped by to give our class some lectures on Belgian and European food history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Soon afterwards, one of my roommates noticed that Ryanair flights from Torino to Brussels were quite inexpensive, and there was a four-day weekend coming up, so we made a spontaneous decision to treat ourselves to a weekend in Belgium. After all, isn’t the point of living in Europe that you can fly off at a moment’s notice to another country? I’d like to think we were inspired by class, so this was really a didactic experience anyway.

Some logistical information: Ryanair flights from Torino land in Charleroi, a small airport about 60 km south of Brussels that serves a number of budget airlines. To get from Charleroi airport to Brussels proper, you can either take the Autocars l’Elan shuttle bus to Gare du Midi (€13/22 rt, tickets sold on board), or you can hop on a bus (€2,70) to the Charleroi train station and then take a train from there to Brussels (€8,60). The shuttle is slightly more expensive and takes less time, while the bus + train combo allows you to go to any of Brussels’ three main train stations (Midi, Centraal, Nord). This was also my first time flying Ryanair, and that is an experience in itself. Luckily, I was too tired to notice much of my surroundings, but the flight was essentially a 90-minute long informercial, as the airline attendants hawked food, credit cards, lottery tickets, something or another to save the children…At the end of the flight, they played a trumpet reveille to announce that the plane had landed on time. Thank god, because I was ready to jump out the window.
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Cruising the Mediterranean: Fortifications & Volcanoes

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The Placa, Dubrovnik’s main pedestrian promenade

Through a series of fortunate events, I ended up sailing on a Royal Caribbean cruise a couple weeks ago, departing from Venice with stops in the port cities of Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kusadasi, Turkey; Santorini and Corfu, Greece. It was the first cruise I’d ever been on, and thus, it was the worst (and best) cruise of my life. The sunsets were beautiful, the lox & bagels delicious (my first since leaving the US), and the ship rocked at a frequency of 1/10 hz for only one night (the frequency most prone to causing seasickness). The week was so fabulous, I almost stopped pining for internet access.
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Bern: Clocks, Relativity & Bears, Oh My

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Clockwise: the Aare River meanders through Bern; the flag of the Bern canton features a bear; chess players pondering in the park; the intricate astronomical dial of Bern’s largest clocktower displays the day of the week, day of the month, sunrise, sunset and zodiac signs

Bern is a city of about 350,000 people, and as the capital of Switzerland, is both the physical and legislative center of the nation. A train transfer is required here to get from Zurich to Interlaken, so we stopped and spent the day wandering Bern’s historic district, which happens to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The city was founded in 1191 by Duke Berchtold V, who according to legend, named it after a bear he had killed. In 1848, it became the capital of Switzerland. The city is centered on a peninsula formed by the Aare River, and though it has since grown past these embankments, the medieval old town is still highly compact and easily explored in an afternoon on foot. With over six km of covered shopping arcades, it is also an excellent place to spend a rainy day.
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Hiking the Männlichen Summit

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View from Männlichen into the Grindelwald valley

In German, the word for hiking is wandern, and can be expanded to mean anything from migrating, journeying and wandering. And indeed, you can do quite a lot of hiking in Switzerland simply by wandering from signpost to signpost on the country’s 50,000 km of marked trails. Even the smallest mountain outposts are easily found via an intricate system of wanderwege routes (marked by yellow signs) found between lakes, valleys and towns, higher altitude bergwege mountain paths (marked by white-red-white blazes), and rugged alpine routen trails (marked by white & blue blazes) that can include steep drop-offs and sections with cables or handholds.

Since the phrase “relaxing vacation” is not in our vocabulary, Britton and I spent our last day in Berner-Oberland hiking. The guide at Balmer’s suggested taking the train from Interlaken to Wengen (with a train transfer at Lauterbrunnen). Round-trip tickets for this cost about CHF 25. From Wengen (1,274 m), we would hike the route to In Gassen and Männlichen (2,227 m), then walk along the mountain ridge to Kleine Scheidegg (2,061 m), and finally trek downhill from Kleine Scheidegg toward Wengernalp back to Wengen.  On the Jungfraubahnen Wandern map, that would be routes 46, 33 and 41.

The morning was marked with a heavy downpour and ominously thick cloud cover, and I silently fretted about what we were going to do if the rain didn’t ease. Fortunately, the skies cleared at about 10:30 am, and we set off with backpacks full of bread, cheese, salame and light clothing. Personally, I think that hiking in sneakers is often safer than using thick-soled hiking boots because you will have a better feel for the terrain. Besides, hiking boots are heavy, and that extra weight goes a long way when you are scaling a mountain. The same goes for hiking poles; they can be helpful if you’re going downhill, but for the most part, you’re better off using your hands for balance and feet to feel the ground. I had to laugh at the hikers decked out in shiny layers of North Face and poles on flat sections of trail. Newbs.
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Infrequently Asked Questions on Cinque Terre

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Overhead view of Vernazzo, on the trail towards Monterosso

What is Cinque Terre?

Cinque Terre, or “five lands,” is a series of small seaside towns in the Italian Riviera, in the Liguria region. It is widely known for being one of the most beautiful places on earth, and is recognized as a UNESCO Heritage Site. Visitors can hike the trails between the five towns and be rewarded with gorgeous cliffside views of the sea. Unfortunately, the booming popularity of the region has turned Cinque Terre into something more akin to Disneyland, particularly during the high summer season. The influx of American tourists toting Rick Steve’s guidebooks, kitschy souvenir shops and high prices has warped the towns into a bit of a tourist trap, where more English is spoken than Italian.

Where do we get a terrible night’s sleep?

I highly recommend the apartments at 9 Via Visconti. When we were looking for rooms (about 10 days before), this was literally the last room left in town, and at a rather pricey €45 per person to boot. However, the apartment was centrally located, and we’d wanted easy beach access which is available in Vernazza. Good thing our money was going towards a friendly landlord, who told us he was “very busy” when we asked if he could replace the broken fan, and that we could leave if we didn’t like the apartment because there were “lots of other people waiting for the room.” Cramped beds and stifling heat aside, there is a dance party on the beach till 1 am on Saturday nights, so you can toss and turn to the pulsating beat of Lady Gaga. Normally, I wouldn’t have minded this (I’d be out on the beach dancing), but we had decided to go hiking the next morning at 8 am…After the DJ sent everyone home, the neighbors came trooping in. As it turns out, our central hall was also the hallway leading to two other apartments, and those doors were not storage closets after all. There’s nothing like meeting the neighbors as you lie sprawled out in bed. And for the finale, a flock of curiously nocturnal seabirds began squawking noisily at each other. This symphony continued for the rest of the night, as I dreamed about the number of ways I could roast the seagulls.
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