Mini-Travel Blog: Kortrijk
Confessions of a City Tripper
In what may very well be the last day of the year that the temperature exceeds 20°C in this part of Europe, I got on the train to Kortrijk in Belgium on Friday the 13th of October. I booked the trip, which has two connections, with connection times of over twenty minutes, as trains run rarely exactly on time, and I once missed a five-minute connection (meaning I had to take the train an hour later), even if the travel tool thought that short connection time was fine. I’ve learned from experience.
The Friday afternoon was good. A very nice temperature that even a dash of rain couldn’t spoil. A nice part to sit and write in. A nice coffee shop—Izy Coffee—even if they serve their cappuccino in paper cups.
On Friday night, I had dinner at an Italian restaurant called La Dolce Vita. The starter—name—was quite good, the Cicciolina pizza was alright and the Dame Blanche dessert was fine. Still, a total bill of 68 euros tells me eating out has also become much more expensive in Belgium, as well. Quality for money? Barely, I’d say and I get the feeling that the hospitality sector is waiting until their customers (those that remain) are getting used to the higher prices. If wages don’t follow accordingly, I suspect many restaurants will go bankrupt.
Saturday noon I had lunch in a brasserie called Thommy’s. Ordered a ham-and-cheese omelette only to find that this included said omelette, a small salad but no bread. In The Netherlands, we are used to getting bread underneath our fried egg orders. After an enquiry, I did get some white toast with a little bit of butter. Customs differ, even in our closest neighbour.
Somehow, settings seemed to conspire against me in Kortrijk. The WiFi in the hotel didn’t work—I couldn’t connect to it, the first time this happened this year anywhere—and the chair before the table in the hotel room was just too high. Later on, as if to compensate, in the coffee shop ‘Tarterie’ there was only ‘een laag tafeltje’—a low table, meaning its flat surface was below knee length—was available.
There are many other coffeeshops in Kortrijk, but this Saturday afternoon each and every one of them was filled to overflowing. If I come back—a big if, indeed—I might try going on the weekdays, as I did in Gent (which did work out quite well).
One minute after I’ve taken my order outside another coffee shop—Izy—the nearby church determines it’s time to ring its bells for about half an hour, starting at 16.23 hours or so, inviting—successfully—the rain to fall. It’s almost as if Kortrijk is trying to tell me something.
Dinner at Chez Koen brought other surprises. A starter of artisanal salami got me a wooden chopping board, a knife, and, indeed, a whole salami sausage. It worked, and the salami tasted fine, although I’m used to getting a tasting board with the salami (or other meats or cheeses) pre-cut.
The steak was big rather than very good and the fries rather average. What happened to the excellent steak frites that Flanders is so renowned for? I suppose I visited the wrong restaurants. Not that it was bad, but rather average, and in Belgium you expect better. And at 72 euros it wasn’t exactly cheap, either.
I had a digestif in the hotel bar where I watched Ireland’s rugby dreams being shattered by the All Blacks (they’re ruthless). Went home on Sunday in sunny, yet cold weather. Autumn really has begun.
Maybe it’s because it was the weekend and everything was busy (also a weekend in which the weather turned for the worse), but I wasn’t particularly impressed by Kortrijk, while I quite liked Gent ten weeks before. It’s how it goes: you win some, lose some. In Belgium, I try to avoid Brussels and only go to Antwerp when there is a band that’s already sold out in The Netherlands. Brugge is beautiful but way too touristy and Luik is a huge old industrial city.
Not sure which city in Belgium to check out next, and instead will, most probably, opt to spend a long weekend at home to save some money.
Author’s note: a few more day trips to come before the glorious return of the Top Ten Best Metal Videos and more essays. Welcome to the new subscribers and thanks for reading!