Belgium

Saturday, August 1st

Brussels is a quick train ride across the English Channel on the Eurostar. The amazing thing is that you can get to a whole different country in 2 hours on the train! We still cannot get over how cheap and quick it is to travel in Europe!

The train was fairly early, but with the time change we didn't arrive in Belgium until about 11:00. We immediately hopped onto an intercity train to Bruges, another of the major towns in Belgium. Bruges is probably more famous as a tourist destination, because the shops and sites are better compacted in one area, and the town is a little more quaint. We finally arrived a little after noon, dropped our luggage in a train station locker, and hit the city.

Everything sits close to the main square in the city. The square is surrounded by historic buildings, little restaurants and food vendors. We grabbed a quick lunch of the Belgian special - French Fries. Apparently fries were actually invented here, so there are vendors all over the place. They generally eat them with mayo, but we couldn't handle that and went with the classic ketchup. We hung around the square people watching and seeing the hundreds of people waiting in line for a carriage ride through the town. Even though we didn't take a carriage ride it was nice to sit in the sun and listen to the clip-clopping of the horses.

We left the square and went walking through the town. The town is nice because it is just lined with little food shops and other "cute" shops. We meandered out to the edge of town where they had a few windmills, which were originally used to grind (or "mill") grain into flour. On the way back we stopped in a few chocolate shops (one of Belgium's other claims to fame), got some great samples, and took a box home (which we are still enjoying, even tonight as I type!).

The highlight of the day ended up being an accidental walk by a small candy shop. There were two guys cooking giant blobs gelatin, and then they started forming it, molding it, and turning it into candy. It was mesmerizing. We literally sat in the shop for about 45 minutes and watched these guys form a few giant blobs into thousands of tiny pieces of candy. It was very interesting to be able to watch the entire process and then enjoy a piece of candy at the end.

After being lured in by this display, and feeling obligated to buy a jar of the candies, we headed back to the train station and went back into Brussels. We dropped our bags at the hotel and headed off to dinner, where Aaron enjoyed the 3rd Belgian specialty, Mussels, while non-fish Jenna went with a local chicken dish. The mussels were good, and yes, there were cliche references made to mussels in Brussels.

Sunday, August 2nd

Sadly, this was a rainy day in Brussels. There is a ton to see in the city, and while we did enjoy everything we did, I'm sure it would have been a hundred times better with the sun shining.

We started out in the main square - the Grand Place, which is lined with several huge historic looking buildings. Since it was raining and was fairly early, it was completely empty. It's a famous plaza, but I think the main draw is the people watching from the cafes that line it, which were all closed, so we headed off pretty quickly.

Our next stop was the Mannekin Pis - a small statue/fountain of a naked boy peeing. Not sure why this is such a huge draw - the statue is really very small, but even in the pouring rain at 10am, the corner where it sits was packed with tourists. We of course took the opportunity for a photo like everyone else.

At this point we were pretty well soaked through (I literally had to stop and ring out my socks at one point), so we thought it was time for an indoor activity. Brussels has several museums, and while we probably wouldn't have stopped into any on a sunny day, priorities change when your feet are squishing, and your pants are wet up to your knees.

Partially for proximity, partially for uniqueness, and partially for Steve Luthye, we decided to see the Museum of Musical Instruments. We ended up being really happy that we went. It was just so different than the museums we're used to seeing. There were basically 4 floors with all sorts of instruments from all different time periods and regions. They had everything from 1000 year old flutes to bagpipes to accordions to a full Chinese orchestra. What they didn't have was explanations in English.  However, they gave you a headset, which when you stepped in front of a display, it played the tune from the instrument. It probably sounds boring or cheesy, but it was actually a lot of fun.

Before leaving the museum, we grabbed lunch in their top-floor cafe, which had a good view of the city. From here we were able to see all the people on the street start putting away their umbrellas, as the clouds started to break a bit and the rain stopped. By the time we got outside, the sun was starting to peek through a bit, which was a welcome change.

With the sun on our backs (kind of), we set off for more of the outdoor sites. We saw the other two main historic buildings - the Royal Palace and the Palace of Justice, which were both pretty magnificent, but I guess about the same as the other similar buildings we've seen across Europe.

The big highlight of the afternoon was stopping for a waffle. Of course all Americans are familiar with the Belgian Waffle, but what we found interesting is that they don't eat them for breakfast. It is just one more of the many snack items that are at your disposal. The batter is extra sweet, almost like a dessert in it self, but then they smother it with more goodness. We had one with chocolate and powdered sugar, and another with strawberries and whipped cream. Both were delicious!

By now it was mid-afternoon, and we'd seen most of the main sites of Brussels but still had a few hours to kill before our train. We decided to just head off and wander through the streets around the Grand Place, which have lots of shops and people to watch. Since the sun was out and it was later in the day, the plaza was now completely packed with people. We stopped for a drink at one of the cafes and watched the tourists for a while (including the worst hacky-sack player of all time).

By the time we had finished, it was time to go back to the hotel, grab our bags, and head for the train station.

We ended up having a great time, and between the chocolate, candy shop, and waffles I don't think there was a single moment when we weren't running on a sugar-high, which I think is a great way to spend the weekend!

Mayfair Walk

Saturday, July 18th

So we had another free Saturday and we couldn't just sit at home. We decided to go to Books for Cooks in Notting Hill for lunch, which is one of my (Jenna) favorites! It is a cookbook shop and in the back they have a test kitchen where they make lunch using recipes from the cookbooks. If you get there early enough you can eat lunch there and it is always delicious!

What made it even better was on the way there we saw an American Store! This actually means we saw a convenience store that happens to sell a few things from the States, but they have a giant American flag sign :D. We picked up some Applesauce, Milk Duds, Cream Soda, Mountain Dew, Peanut Butter M&M's, and Orange Slices (for Aaron's Grandma's Famous Orange Slice Cookies). This was a huge treat! I especially am really missing food from home, mostly candy I guess! :)

From there we had planned on doing a guided walk. We bought a London Walks book a while ago with 30 different walks in it around London. Today we were going to walk around the Mayfair area, which is a high scale part of town with large homes. This was a short 3 mile walk where walked by the Marble Arch, Hyde Park, the U.S. Embassy, Rigby and Peller, where the Queen supposedly buys her undergarments and also 2 yachts stores.

After the walk we had some extra time before meeting some friends for dinner and it was a nice day so we sat in Green Park. I love to people watch and soak up some sun so this was the perfect opportunity! (It really wasn't that sunny, there just wasn't 5 layers of clouds between me and the sun, only one small layer!)

After lazing about in the park we went and met Eric and Anne and also Kia (another girl Aaron works with) for dinner at Taqueira. They had some delicious Mexican food there. It was nothing like Mexican in the States but one of the best places that we have found! We had a great day in London seeing some things that we hadn't before and enjoying the decent weather.

The Art Project

So Jenna has been a little bored lately.

She spends a portion of each day browsing around the Internet, reading random blogs and "window shopping" for clothes and decor. Luckily, we don't have any excess money, so it generally stops at window shopping.

One of our friends, Keri Mitchell, recently had a new baby, and one day Jenna was browsing through her registry at Pottery Barn. This led to her poking around the site for her own good. She stumbled upon a $400 piece of artwork that she loved, but knew we couldn't buy even if we had the ability to ship it somewhere. Then she got to thinking..."I can do that".

A few weeks later, we had this:

It is basically a bunch of small slats of wood that we painted and nailed to a bigger piece of wood. It is huge (4ft x 4ft) and quite heavy. We won't be able to hang it anywhere, so it will end up having to sit on top of things wherever we decide to put it (at the moment, in our bedroom).

Aaron did most of the labor - measuring and cutting the wood, nailing the boards, while Jenna came up with the layout, color scheme, and did all the painting. It took us a while to complete, and our house was littered with building materials for several weeks, but we had a lot of fun doing it, and were very pleased with the finished product, which ended up costing less than $50 in supplies (take that, Pottery Barn!!).

Brighton

Saturday July 25th

Since I've been working quite a bit lately (hence no posts for quite some time), we didn't have many trips booked, and hoped to take the occasional day trip within the UK. Jenna's been dying to see some ocean and the sun, so we got lucky with a sunny Saturday and headed south to Brighton.

Brighton is a beach town on the south coast, just a 45 minute train ride from our place. It is a hot-spot for Londoners due to its easy access from the city, but it is actually a not the best beach. When they say it is pebbly, they are certainly not joking. If anything, they are understating the fact that the beach is made up completely of enormous rocks. Add to that the fact that it is usually very windy and the water is frigid even in the summer, and you don't exactly get the best combination for a day at the beach.

We were able rent some cheap beach chairs, though, and the sun was shining bright, so that was really all that we needed to enjoy ourselves. We brought a picnic lunch and enjoyed the day lounging around and reading.

In the afternoon it started to get a little cloudy, and the wind (which was gale-force most of the day) got a little nip to it, so we decided to pack up and walk down the boardwalk. It was fun to see all the crazy people and shops. It felt very much like Santa Monica, except for the fact that it was pretty chilly and everyone was wearing clothes rather than swimsuits. We also had a stroll down the pier, which is full of arcades, candy shops, and even a small amusement park with carnival rides (bumper cars and small roller coasters). We've never been to Coney Island, but this is what I imagine it is like.

Anyway, not much else to say. After sitting on the beach for a while and seeing another side of England, we hopped on a train and were back at home in time for dinner. A short trip, but a great break away from the City.