Europe Days 2&3- Brugges

Sunday morning we arrived in Paris and picked up our cute mini cooper convertable from Hertz from under the Louvre. We took a wrong turn near the Louvre and next thing I know Dustin is like- Oh no, we are at the Arc de triomphe which is horrible intersection...and before I could process what was going on, our road ends and we are just in the midst of all these cars in a roundabout with no lanes....we about get in a 3 car accident and slam on the brakes and just stopped to let some cars around us clear out....then we ignored the garmin and just got out of this roundabout as soon as we could! So there are 12 streets (and these are not small streets, but at minimum 2 lanes each way) that all end at this roundabout- and we did not know this at the time, but it is the only roundabout with the rule that cars entering have the right away!


The drive to Brugges, Belgium was pretty boring- felt like we were just driving through Illinois. We arrive at Hotel Albert- which I would HIGHLY recommend- and there is some festival right across from the hotel! We dropped off our luggage and ran over there and had our first taste of wonderful belgium beer! Then there were probably 50 or more tents, so we decide to go look at those...and it was all tents selling cheese and providing free samples! Does it get any better than being welcomed with beer and cheese?!!?


We then went to dinner at a random place we found that was wonderful- Gran Kaffee de Passage. I tried Waterzooi, which was the local specialty and basically was like a chicken stew. We finished it off with a Belgian Waffle for dessert- our first of many!




We walked around a bit after dinner and stopped for a drink at an outdoor cafe that had a lovely view of the canal and belltower. We then found down what looked like a deserted alley, the best place ever 't Beer Bruges (which I later saw that Rick Steves had recommended!). It was a cozy pub with TONS of beer-- we sat with an older couple Bill and Diane from Scotland and chatted with them all evening- very nice people. We finally headed home a little before 11pm to go to bed....so I'd say we definitely didn't have any jetlag issues cause was so much fun!

On Monday we awoke around 8:30am and had breakfast downstairs at the hotel- included in our price. It seemed like a typical European breakfast which was fresh breads, cheeses, meats, and fruits. We then got started on our Rick Steves walk of Brugges and we packed in SO much stuff!

On our way to start the tour, we stumbled across Sint Salvatorkathedraal and we were in awe as it was the first European church we had seen, which was so different and bigger than in the US. We then went to the Market Square which was the town center and just filled with beautiful old, gothic buildings and restaurants. There was a belltower (366 steps) that we climbed for a great view-- and for whatever reason Dustin became determined to climb all belforts we encountered!


We then went to Burg Square, which was just another area like a town center and went to a few things here. We visited City Hall which was built around 1400 and had some phenomenal wall paintings in there. We also went to the Basilica of the Holy Blood which was built in 1150 to house some drops of Christ's blood that someone had brought back from Jerusalem. You could have paid to see some container that the vial of blood is put in and paraded around town on certain days...but we did not do that-- and the blood was kept in some closed room, so you didn't even get to see that. This pic was from a room in City Hall:


We stopped at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and asked to go in their basement where you can see ruins from a fort to protect the flemish people from 900 A.D. and then a church from 950-- Then they also had some display cases with pieces of pottery and such that they had found.

We grabbed lunch at Casa Potata which was 8 Euro for half chicken and fries-- enough for us to share and it was DELICIOUS! I went a little overboard eating the chicken skin cause was seasoned so tasty! After lunch we did a canal ride that was beautiful and a great way to see some parts of the town we hadn't made it to yet.




Next up was Church of our Lady which has a Madonna and Child by Michelangelo- the only one of his pieces to leave Italy in his lifetime.


We then went to the Halve Maan Brewery tour which was very interesting- our tour guide was quite humorous and included a beer in their courtyard at the end of the tour, so well worth the 4.50 Euro to do this! We met a nice couple here from the states who had just been to Paris, so they kindly gave us all their metro tickets they had left so we could use!


After beer, what sounded better than chocolates! He went to Dumon, which Rick described as Bruges' creamiest and smoothest- Madame Dumon and her 2 children make them fresh each day. I only bought 4 pieces cause just figured it would taste like any other chocolate, but man oh man, THIS WAS FREAKIN FANTASTIC!!!!

We then went to a Beginhof which is where religious women live, but don't take the same vows as a nun. It was pretty and peaceful, but Dustin felt like we were invading their space and we quickly left. I think he was just wanting to get to the beer store which I promised we could do at the end of the day. This store was called Good2Be and had tons of beer...where I even found a whole line called Timmerman's, which I was very excited for despite the fact that it is spelled slightly different than my former last name. They had a few beers on draft, so we sampled one of those and sat on their patio overlooking the canal.


We changed for dinner, had a nice meal outside- stew again for Dustin and I had a chicken dish...both very tasty! We then walked around to try to find a nice place for drinks, but unfortunately it started to rain on us and we couldn't find any happening places! So we hated to go to the same place twice, but went back to our fave 'T Beer Bruges again and stayed out until Midnight!

Alphabet Art- Trial #1

So, one of the things I was going to treat myself too with wedding gift money was buying some framed photography alphabet art. If you've never seen this, I think it is pretty cool-- people find architecture or things in nature or a natural form and photograph it in a way that it looks like a letter of the alphabet. You then can spell out your name- or whatever you like. Click here to see an example of a website selling this. When all is said and done, it's pretty expensive to order online...and the more I got to thinking about it, the more I wanted to do the pictures myself and have them mean something to Dustin and I. Then we'll just pay to get them framed nicely.

So, on our anniversary when we went back to the Botanical Gardens to walk around, we took pictures of things that spelled OBRIEN. Some letters were MUCH easier than others!! For about an hours worth of work, I think we did pretty good...the N is the only thing we were really disappointed in and we had found at least 3 different shapes for N!

But now my dilemna is do I make my print with all items from the botanical gardens and reminds me of our wedding....or do I do from a bunch of different places that have some sort of meaning to us? I kinda like the latter, but dustin likes the first. I'd like to use an Eiffel Tower pic for the I to remind us or our time in Europe and I think the Arch here in St. Louis would make a good N.

So, here's what we have so far from the gardens:

We made it!

Well, we survived 1 year of marriage....now just a bunch more to go! Since we just got back from Europe, we really didn't plan anything for this weekend or today to celebrate-- we were just going to go to the Botanical Gardens later today to walk around there. I did find it amusing when I woke up this morning to rain- just brought back the memories of dealing with the rain last year and looks like we may not be going to the gardens today!

Since I was lazy with every blogging much about the actual wedding and with pics, I'll share a few more today-- good reminder of the best day of my life!

Europe Day 1- 9.4

We awoke bright and early and lugged our suitcases to the metro stop a few blocks away. It was around 7am and I noticed downtown seemed more bustling than usual. Then I realized there was an unusual amount of gold/black and some sparse blue/orange and realize that people are tailgating for the IL-Mizzou game!!!! I actually got really sad that we were missing it, but kept saying-- we are on our way to EUROPE...it will be okay!

Here's some pics waiting at the airport and playing our newest travel past-time thanks to our relative's honeymoon gift from last year. It's a scratch-off book to play Yahtzee and we are hooked on this when travelling!



We arrived in Toronto and had about an 8 hour layover. We met up with Dustin's relatives and it was great to catch up with them, especially since his cousin just had a baby this summer. He was very good, chunky, and cute...not much more you could ask for! (From left, Me, Dustin, his cousin Megan with baby Matthew, Megan's husband Shane, Aunt Wendy, cousin Tommy)


As a further bonus of our Canadian stop, I scored a Columbia coat for $25 which came in handy for the chilly, rainy days we encountered! you'll see that in many photos to come. Unfortunately I did NOT get this hat, but was in love with it and made Dustin take my picture in it....and this will remind me to drop hints closer to xmas that this would make a great gift!


Our flight left at 9pm for Europe and we had taken some Tylenol PM to help knock us out. However, we got on the plane and we had our own personal tvs with movies to pick from, so was hard to try to force ourselves to sleep over watching numerous movies! It was also free beer and wine...and we were in coach! But we each did get a few hours of sleep off and on.

We survived Europe!

Hi, we made it back from our WONDERFUL trip! I'm planning on many postings with trip details and pictures...but those will have to happen at a later time. For now, I just wanted to say that we had such a great time and it really all was perfect!

Here are some tips for any other travellers to Europe or just some odd things that I wanted to capture so I remember:
1. Know how many days to pack for (Dustin miscalculated that we would be gone 10 days instead of 16, so realized on about Day 8 that he was nearly out of clothes). So we bought some socks and just had to do some laundry!

2. The Garmin was a HUGE help-- if you are driving in Europe, do not attempt it without GPS. The road names are way too hard to pronounce, half of the time the road has 5 different names so the one on the street sign may not match your directions. It was even helpful walking around at times to try and locate an ATM, train station, etc.

3. If you are not an adventurous eater (like myself), ask before being seated at a restaurant if they have an english version. Once or twice we got up and left (After we had sat down) cause they did not have english and we couldn't make out anything.

4. Always have a good chunk of cash on you. Many places will take credit cards, but we had numerous instances where they didn't take it if less than $30, which was some of our meals or purchases. Also, because most US credit cards do not have this chip in them, many machines did not like our cards.

5. And sometimes in restaurants, they took credit cards, but once they saw Dustin had plenty of cash on him then they'd change their mind and say no, we want that cash. So then we learned to not pull out his money clip when we went to pay!

6. Water is expensive and scarce....our water bottle we brought from home was a lifesaver! We filled that up every day and was so nice to have with us as we walked around all day.

7. In France, definitely look on the menu or ask for their house wine by the carafe. It is waaaay cheaper and tasted fine. Sometimes it was hard to find on the menu, or wouldn't be on the menu and then we'd see a random sign hanging up after we had ordered.

8. The prices on a menu already include taxes and tip (unless you want to give a little extra for great service- which was hard to come by). So a meal may look fairly expensive at first, but once you get the bill at the end of the night it really was the same or cheaper than a US meal since it already accounted for that.

9. When finished with your meal, you must ask the server for your bill when ready. I think they'd let you sit there for days if you don't ask!

10. We had brought a lot of US cash with us-- our debit cards worked fine and it was MUCH easier to withdraw money that way. We only exchanged cash 1 time because the other times it was a pain to find a bank that was open and that didn't have an absurd fee.

11. TONS of people smoke and since smoking was banned indoors at restaurants, it was impossible to ever sit outside and have a nice meal because the tables are really close together and at least 6 of your nearest neighbors will be puffing away.

12. Rick Steves book was a lifesaver and HUGE help-- my biggest advice is to definitely use him for Paris and areas he has quite a bit of info for. We used it for all sorts of reference- what metro tickets do we buy? what restaurants are good in the area? what place is good for some drinks? do we tip here? what are the hours of such-and-such?

12a. My one recommendation to others using Rick Steves is that we sometimes found his maps or directions a little difficult to follow on his walks. The maps he provides just show main streets and not all the sidestreets. So I'd recommend taking the map you are using for that city (that hopefully is more detailed), highlight the route or sites on that map and use it.

13. For some trains, you need your ticket when you exit....even though you used it to go through a turny-thing to board the train with it. I had to search for 5 minutes through my pockets and purse to find what I did with mine the first time!

14. Interesting tidbit we learned-- when people rent apartments in Europe they take EVERYTHING when they move out, including all light fixtures, appliances, the sink, closet racks, etc.

In a nutshell, that sums up my overall recommendations or info we learned! I'll leave you with this pic of our cute little rental- the mini cooper convertible, which we were too stupid to ever figure out how to get the roof down :(

9.02.10

Ok, had to get one more post in cause wanted to capture this in my blog! So yesterday's date....I never would have picked up on how awesome it was had my mom not pointed it out and then I did see platered over the entertainment shows that night...and I had to look at the date like 5 times before I figured it out! Some fan I am! Anyways, still swear by this is the best show ever and it will be impossible for anything to ever top it! Of course I'm talking about Beverly Hills 90210!

Anyone remember the episode when Brenda and Kelly go to paris and order food...start eating and commenting how chewy the food is. Finally I think Brenda looks it up in her dictionary or book and realizes they are eating brains! Needless to say they immediately spit it out. Funny thing is as soon as Dustin was insistant on going to Paris-- I'm like, I'm scared of the food there cause Brenda and Kelly ate brains accidentally! Dustin- who is brenda and kelly? Amy- duh, on 90210! Dustin- roll eyes and walk away. Seriously though, I'm super skeptical of food there now.

So last weekend we were playing a trivia game and had a 90210 question (easy cause I've seen this episode no less than 10 times cause had it recorded on my trusty vcr tape!): Steve Sanders exchanges this item for the address of a party?

The answer- Egg! "I want to exchange an egg. Maybe you didn't hear me right- I...want...to....exchange....this....egg!"

I always think it's funny how dorky they all look in the beginning....hard to imagine that this was "cool" back in the day!

au revoir (aka good-bye!)

Well, I can NOT believe that our vacation is right around the corner, but hopefully we have things pretty well lined up! It's doubtful I'll do any postings over there....so will be over 2 weeks probably before I have an update and awesome pics!I've read and re-read and re-read again Rick Steves and Fodor's for our destinations. We pretty much know what we want to accomplish in each city-- must-do items vs. will do if we have time cause you never know what else you will stumble on! I've shared my lists below of what my to-do items are, so maybe these will help someone else out...

Things to do ahead of time (besides all the usual planning and research):
- Call credit card and banks to let them know you'll be overseas (otherwise they can shut off your card usage)
- Buy European map for our Garmin and input our hotels/destinations
- Download rick steves tours
- Photocopy passports and important docs
- Get any prescriptions
- Charge up all batteries
- Withdraw cash
- Check-in for airlines online 24 hrs before
- Determine if any of your hotels take cash only-- what large sums of money will you need?
- Print all email confirmations for your bookings
- Look into cell/data plans and determine if you want to pay to use your phone overseas
- Contact post office to hold your mail

Items to pack other than the obvious clothes and toiletries:
- Umbrella
- Jacket
- Water Bottle (to bring with us each day and refill)
- Headphones and mp3 player (for our audio tours)
- Cork Screw/Bottle Opener (or could try the shoe method!)
- Pack photocopies of important docs, but also leave at home
- Band-aids (hopefully won't need cause won't get blisters!)
- Medications- prescriptions, advil, chasers, etc.
- Ear plugs and sleep mask
- Inflatable pillow
- Day packback for touring
- Small container of woolite in case need to do some laundry in the sink
- Electrical outlet converter
- Garmin- w/ car plug and wall plug
- Padlock
- Small pack of tissues or wet wipes (supposedly in case toilets don't have it)
- Pocket hand sanitizer
- Shout wipes or tide-to-go

Some good rules of thumbs (per my buddy rick)-- pack dark colors cause they will not show the dirt. Do not pack something if it only can be worn with 1 other item-- you want to bring lots of interchangable options. Plan to wear each article 3 times (this I'm not really sure about-- pants or skirts are the only things I think I could wear 3 times!). If you run out of clothes, you can always buy something over there or wash a few things in the sink and hang to dry.