Amsterdam

Writing you from Amsterdam. My few days in Brussells were great despite consistent rain. On Sunday I made my way out to the local comic museum. It was in a deserted part of town, amongst an odd mix of very big shiny government skyscrapers and dilapidated brick buildings. I didn't have high expections. But it was actually fantastic, particularly for a Tintin fan (he is worshipped as a God in Belgium). There were lots of other typically bizarre European comics, hundreds of pages of original artwork from 1960s adventure comics, and a whole floor dedicated to adult material. The kids loved it. From the comic museum I went to the fine art museum, which was also surprisingly fun. There's a comic quality to a lot of the old Flemish art and I've discovered a love for the Flemish Primitives. That evening I stopped at the Delirium Taphouse, home to the very nice musky blonde Delirium Tremens, which I only bought because it has a funny name and a pink elephant as its logo. They had 19 other beers on tap and the beerguide gave a detailed blurb for each of them (my new favourite term is mouthfeel). I only had two standard glasses but Belgian beers are damn strong (up to 9.5%). I made my merry way back to the hostel. Yesterday I caught the train out to Antwerp, Belgium's second biggest city. Whereas Brussells is determinedly diplomatic (every street has a Flemish and a French name - although most of the people seem to speak French), Antwerp is a thoroughly Flemish city. I had the most excellent lunch. A Belgian speciality that wasn't on the menu - beef simmered for hours in (obviously) beer. Otherwise Anwerp is very picturesque... it has great museums apparently but they're all closed on Mondays. I was there for a couple of hours and then headed back to Brussells and back to the Taphouse. I could live in Brussells despite its flaws. It's frustratingly inefficient. They have a small but strangely confusing public transport system. Their public spaces are unfriendly, no seating, no toilets. Grey. They have two languages that they can't decide between. But I think they have their priorities in the right place, and it's got a lovable loser kind of appeal. Feeling pale and humourless after three weeks travelling through a European Winter, I decided to go to Germany. Alas, Easyjet only runs extremely inconvenient services as a rule, so I came to Amsterdam and I'll probably be heading to the UK after this. By pure coincidence my hostel is right next door to what is surely the greatest comic shop in Europe, Lambiek. I walked all over the city this afternoon and I'm thinking I might hire a bike tomorrow. I visited the Rijks Museum which has some amazing Rembrandts but is otherwise full of typical aristocratic, imperialist art (lots of paintings of boats and guns, etc). It's funny to see the other side of the story after seeing all the evidence of Dutch activity in Indonesia (they were basically well-organised pirates). Right now I'm inside a "coffee shop". Many of them have internet access. They're all so dark and this particular one is deliberately made out to look like an opium den. I'm not buying anything but there's enough ambient smoke in here to slow me down a bit... I should leave while it's not raining.