Monza, Milano, and Bruges!

So on the 1st, Jess departed for home in the morning, while I waited around in the airport for my flight to Milan. It was hard saying bye, but like I said in the last post, 5 weeks is very manageable now. Anyways, I knew it would be interesting traveling own my own for 8 nights. With two nights still to go, it's been a fun week, but short of expectations.

After a short flight to Milan, I spent that night catching up with all that went on during the week Jess was here. Friday, though, was the real beginning of the events. The night before it had hailed and a small thunderstorm rolled through, yet Friday was perfect weather! After a train and taxi ride, I finally made it from my hotel to the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza! Oh man was that awesome! At first it was super quiet, although I heard some noise. I figured it was just an engine of some construction equipment but next thing I knew, I heard the engine rev up and hit the track. I sprinted towards the nearest fence and climbed up in the stands to see Audi's newest sportscar prototype, the R15 Plus carve through the Ascari Curves. I was not expecting that at all! The R15 plus hasn't even raced yet, only select testing, so that was the coolest surprise to see that on the track. It only did a dozen or so laps, though. Either Audi had a problem or they took an extended lunch break because by the time I left the track around 2.30 or so, it hadn't run any more laps.




Either way, it was so awesome to see Monza. That track has such an incredible history so to see it and climb up the old banking was awesome. In two spots, I climbed over the fence (obviously done many a time before) to step onto the old banking. Thinking, though, that wasn't allowed, I was nervous to make a full attempt to climb up to the top so I never made it more than 2/3s of the way because it's so steep. One time, I was trying to take a timed shot, so I could be in it, when a service truck started coming my way. I scrambled, grabbed my jacket and camera, and tried clammering up the dirt banking to get back on the other side of the fence. When the truck passed me, the guy gave me the weirdest look. Later, I found a perfectly open entrance to the old curve, no fence climbing needed, so I guess it was ok to be on the old banking. This time, I knew I was in allowed territory so I made a real attempt to climb the banking, 80 degrees steep at the top, and finally succeeded! It was awesome!











I left the track and wandered towards the train station, through the town of Monza. It is such a pretty town and felt a bit more like home than Roma, although still very European. I discovered some hidden treasures and saw the perfect example of how much Italians love their signs!






Eventually, I arrived at the Monza train station and headed back to Milano to see the huge cathedral my roommate Eddie had told me about. Eddie had said it was more impressive than any other he has seen in Italy and boy was he right! Done in a Gothic style, the Duomo (official Italian name for the main church of a city) is huge! Such an imposing sight to see! Easily the coolest one I've seen, just ahead of the Basilica di San Marco in Venezia.





All in all, I have to say that I much prefer Milano over Roma. Milano is more modern with much more green spaces, yet still has the feel of having a history. I feel like it's a place many people have heard of yet few would ever visit. I wish I had spent at least another day there. So much to see!






From Milano I flew into Brussels and took the train to Bruges, which is in Belgium. I first heard of Bruges from the movie "In Bruges" and it is a very touristy place, but very cool nonetheless. I wandered some the first day but didn't do too much. The next day, as it was Easter Sunday, I originally planned to find a service to attend, but saw a few helicopters flying overhead so I went to the city center to find out why. It was a bike race! All the big name riders like Armstrong, Hincapie, Cancellara, etc. were there. Since I was late getting to the square, I didn't get a great spot to see the riders, but it was still cool to experience. After all of those festivities, the stage started (I was on the wrong side of the square to see the start). Once everyone began filing away, I went back to my hostel to catch the end of the Formula 1 race. When that ended, I explored in Bruges for several hours, seeing many of the churches scattered throughout the city. Eventually, I ended up at the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Here, I touched Jesus' blood! Ok, so legend has it that the Crusaders brought it back from Jerusalem in the 12th Century. It's a piece of cloth with dried blood on it, said to be Jesus' blood, and one day it was said to have turned back into liquid. So, who knows if it really is Christ's blood or not, but it was still cool to touch the vile, and say a prayer, thanking Christ for replacing me on the cross, dying for my sins, and doing that on Easter! After that I explored some more, but then had a low key evening back at the hostel.

The next day, though, before traveling to Spa, I did the two main tourist attractions in Bruges: climbing the bell tower and taking a boat ride. Unfortunately, the bell tower is being renovated so the view was extremely limited but it was still awesome to see! The boat ride was very fun, and Bruges, as advertised, is the Venice of the North. The boat ride lasted about 30 minutes and covered 5 km of water. The water level of Bruges is even controlled, unlike in Venezia, which I thought was pretty cool. Bruges was a very awesome stop that I'm very glad I made it, too. And being in Belgium, I ate so much meat! Such a nice change from the pasta and pizza of Italia!

Anyways, here are pictures! For those of you on Facebook, I've tried many different times to upload all of my Bruges pictures, but have had problems. All 300 or so of those will follow soon, hopefully.