Hello friends. Jenny and I just got back last night from our trip to Belgium this weekend. It was an awesome trip. Belgium along with the Netherlands (which we'll be seeing next weekend) and Luxembourg make up the Low Countries and separate France and Germany. The two cities that we saw in Belgium were Brussels (the capital) and Bruge.
Jenny got off of work really early on Friday. Apparently no one does anything on Fridays here. In France it's also illegal (actually against the law) to work more than 42 hours in one week. So most people work around 36. This is completely ridiculous to me. Americans work till they die. These people cry and cry and threaten to riot when they try to raise the retirement age 1 year. Just one more reason why the US is cool and everywhere else is not. Anyways, Jenny got off of work early and came home and we finished packing for the trip. I grabbed our laundry from the overcharging asian ladies who didn't even fold the clothes (remember I paid 15 euros for this service). We got all our stuff together and headed for the train station. We packed surprisingly light which would be a good thing for our return journey. We rode the metro to the train station Gare de Nord. This is where many of the TGV trains start from. The TGV trains are the super high speed trains like the one we rode to London. This was a similar train to Brussels. It's called the Thalys. The trains are very nice and comfortable. We brought some beers on board and cruised the 1hr and 30min to Brussels. By this point it was getting a little late because even though Jenny got off of work early it would have been expensive to change our tickets to an earlier time. When we got to Brussels we checked into our hotel. This hotel was very nice and it was actually purdy cheap on Hotels.com. It even had an air-conditioner which was a welcome surprise after a week of constant sweating in Paris. It would become apparent that U.S. and European standards for air conditioning are very different. We got settled in and then when out on the town. We ate at a falafel joint along the street which was very delicious. They have about a billion of these places in Brussels. Europe has a lot of Middle Eastern/Northern African people. This is probably because they were once colonies so they speak the language anyways so they come to Europe. We really didn't do much the rest of the night. We stopped and grabbed some awesome Belgian beer on the way back to the hotel. We also purchased Belgiums strongest beer made, it was 13% alcohol. Nice.
Saturday we did a bunch of strolling around. Brussels doesn't have as many of the famous sites like London or Paris. Actually I believe the most famous thing in Brussels is a little statue called the Manneken Pis. It's a statue/fountain of a little naked boy holding his peep and peeing. Very classy we bought a bottle opener in its likeness. We didn't actually find the statue but we did find a really cool Cathedral and the town square was really cool. The architecture in Europe is amazing and I'm really impressed with it. We strolled through the rain to find the Cantillon Brewery. This is the only brewery left in Brussels "county". It was a self guided tour and then we got two free sips. We took a lot of pictures and ended up buying a few things. It was way cool they brew things old school for the most part. The coolest part of the day was when we found The Bier Temple. This store was awesome. They had hundreds of amazing beers, T-shirts, posters, special beer glasses with the beer names on them. It was so cool. The also make like 5 L bottles of beer but those were like 50 bucks apiece. We bought a ton of stuff. Jenny bought 2 Delirium glasses. It has little pink elephants all over it. This beer kicks ass. The sell it in the United States but you'll most likely have to find a specialty beer store to get it. There is one in Iowa City and it is awesome.
We grabbed some pasta and pizza from this little italian place and headed back to the hotel to take a nap. I think the beer was getting to us already haha. We didn't really do much the rest of the night except watch a little bit of the soccer game between Paraguay and Spain. We grabbed a bite to eat which included Belgian Croquettes which are fried cheese balls. Then we called it a night early because we were getting up early to go to Bruge in the morning.
We got up and checked out of the hotel but left our stuff in the luggage closet so we didn't have to pack it around all day which was handy. We walked to the train station and after speaking with the ticket guy who spoke silly english we got on a train just in time. The train ride was about an hour. Bruge is such a cool city. It isn't very big and the architecture is all in old style. I didn't really see any modern buildings. The train station was about as modern as it got but it was outside the city just a little bit. We walked through a legit garage/yard/flee market on our way from the train station. There was so much stuff. One guy had an awesome record collection with mostly american music. There were a ton of sweet things to grab but we do have to bring stuff on the plane back. So I just bought a deck of Chimay playing cards (Chimay is a very good beer). We walked around and found a nice little place to eat. We had about a liter of beer to wash everything down with which then made me have to pee the rest of the day. Bruge had an awesome town center as well. It was the same kind of open square type of place. Really cool. After we walked through that we went to the De Halve Maan Brewery (de halve maan is the half moon). It was a 45min tour but the tour guide was so awesome. She was hilarious. The Belgians are very passionate about their beer. They refer to lagers (like budweiser and such) as table beer or children's beer. The views from the top of the brewery were purdy cool. You could see the whole town from up there. After the tour we met a couple from Minnesota that were living in London. We talked with them for awhile until we realized we had to catch the train. We ran through Bruge stopping only to get an ice cream bar and a waffle with chocolate and banana on it. We were in such a hurry that I forgot to share my waffle with Jenny!! I felt bad because we went all the way through Belgium and Jenny didn't get to have a Belgian Waffle.
We made it to the train but had to stand/sit in the space between the cars since the train was so packed. We got back to Brussels and had a little bit of time to walk around grab our stuff and head to the train station. Then it was another 1hr 30min followed by another Metro ride until we finally made it back to the apartment.
It was an awesome trip and I'm now heading off to Normandy today!
Hello friends. Jenny and I just got back last night from our trip to Belgium this weekend. It was an awesome trip. Belgium along with the Netherlands (which we'll be seeing next weekend) and Luxembourg make up the Low Countries and separate France and Germany. The two cities that we saw in Belgium were Brussels (the capital) and Bruge.
Jenny got off of work really early on Friday. Apparently no one does anything on Fridays here. In France it's also illegal (actually against the law) to work more than 42 hours in one week. So most people work around 36. This is completely ridiculous to me. Americans work till they die. These people cry and cry and threaten to riot when they try to raise the retirement age 1 year. Just one more reason why the US is cool and everywhere else is not. Anyways, Jenny got off of work early and came home and we finished packing for the trip. I grabbed our laundry from the overcharging asian ladies who didn't even fold the clothes (remember I paid 15 euros for this service). We got all our stuff together and headed for the train station. We packed surprisingly light which would be a good thing for our return journey. We rode the metro to the train station Gare de Nord. This is where many of the TGV trains start from. The TGV trains are the super high speed trains like the one we rode to London. This was a similar train to Brussels. It's called the Thalys. The trains are very nice and comfortable. We brought some beers on board and cruised the 1hr and 30min to Brussels. By this point it was getting a little late because even though Jenny got off of work early it would have been expensive to change our tickets to an earlier time. When we got to Brussels we checked into our hotel. This hotel was very nice and it was actually purdy cheap on Hotels.com. It even had an air-conditioner which was a welcome surprise after a week of constant sweating in Paris. It would become apparent that U.S. and European standards for air conditioning are very different. We got settled in and then when out on the town. We ate at a falafel joint along the street which was very delicious. They have about a billion of these places in Brussels. Europe has a lot of Middle Eastern/Northern African people. This is probably because they were once colonies so they speak the language anyways so they come to Europe. We really didn't do much the rest of the night. We stopped and grabbed some awesome Belgian beer on the way back to the hotel. We also purchased Belgiums strongest beer made, it was 13% alcohol. Nice.
Saturday we did a bunch of strolling around. Brussels doesn't have as many of the famous sites like London or Paris. Actually I believe the most famous thing in Brussels is a little statue called the Manneken Pis. It's a statue/fountain of a little naked boy holding his peep and peeing. Very classy we bought a bottle opener in its likeness. We didn't actually find the statue but we did find a really cool Cathedral and the town square was really cool. The architecture in Europe is amazing and I'm really impressed with it. We strolled through the rain to find the Cantillon Brewery. This is the only brewery left in Brussels "county". It was a self guided tour and then we got two free sips. We took a lot of pictures and ended up buying a few things. It was way cool they brew things old school for the most part. The coolest part of the day was when we found The Bier Temple. This store was awesome. They had hundreds of amazing beers, T-shirts, posters, special beer glasses with the beer names on them. It was so cool. The also make like 5 L bottles of beer but those were like 50 bucks apiece. We bought a ton of stuff. Jenny bought 2 Delirium glasses. It has little pink elephants all over it. This beer kicks ass. The sell it in the United States but you'll most likely have to find a specialty beer store to get it. There is one in Iowa City and it is awesome.
We grabbed some pasta and pizza from this little italian place and headed back to the hotel to take a nap. I think the beer was getting to us already haha. We didn't really do much the rest of the night except watch a little bit of the soccer game between Paraguay and Spain. We grabbed a bite to eat which included Belgian Croquettes which are fried cheese balls. Then we called it a night early because we were getting up early to go to Bruge in the morning.
We got up and checked out of the hotel but left our stuff in the luggage closet so we didn't have to pack it around all day which was handy. We walked to the train station and after speaking with the ticket guy who spoke silly english we got on a train just in time. The train ride was about an hour. Bruge is such a cool city. It isn't very big and the architecture is all in old style. I didn't really see any modern buildings. The train station was about as modern as it got but it was outside the city just a little bit. We walked through a legit garage/yard/flee market on our way from the train station. There was so much stuff. One guy had an awesome record collection with mostly american music. There were a ton of sweet things to grab but we do have to bring stuff on the plane back. So I just bought a deck of Chimay playing cards (Chimay is a very good beer). We walked around and found a nice little place to eat. We had about a liter of beer to wash everything down with which then made me have to pee the rest of the day. Bruge had an awesome town center as well. It was the same kind of open square type of place. Really cool. After we walked through that we went to the De Halve Maan Brewery (de halve maan is the half moon). It was a 45min tour but the tour guide was so awesome. She was hilarious. The Belgians are very passionate about their beer. They refer to lagers (like budweiser and such) as table beer or children's beer. The views from the top of the brewery were purdy cool. You could see the whole town from up there. After the tour we met a couple from Minnesota that were living in London. We talked with them for awhile until we realized we had to catch the train. We ran through Bruge stopping only to get an ice cream bar and a waffle with chocolate and banana on it. We were in such a hurry that I forgot to share my waffle with Jenny!! I felt bad because we went all the way through Belgium and Jenny didn't get to have a Belgian Waffle.
We made it to the train but had to stand/sit in the space between the cars since the train was so packed. We got back to Brussels and had a little bit of time to walk around grab our stuff and head to the train station. Then it was another 1hr 30min followed by another Metro ride until we finally made it back to the apartment.
It was an awesome trip and I'm now heading off to Normandy today!
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