Europe Day 4 (Part 2)- Antwerp

Unfortunately we hit horrendous traffic outside of Antwerp, so what should have taken like 30-45 minutes took us over 2 hours! We arrived at Hotel Matelote around 5:00 and it was a great modern hotel in the heart of everything-- we just dropped off our stuff and hurried out to try and do whatever activites were still open. One thing about Europe is a lot of the smaller hotels do not have elevators (aka Lifts), and the staircases were usually pretty narrow. This one was real interesting cause was narrow and a spiral! Our room was very modern and our shower was enormous and had 2 shower heads in it.


Unfortunately everything was closing, but we just walked a bunch of streets to see the city. I really didn't care overall for the city and I didn't really have anything on our "to-do" list here either. It was much more modernized than the previous cities-- walking around I felt like I was in Chicago on Michigan Ave. It was all stores like H&M, Urban Outfitters, etc....and they were all closing up at 6pm despite the fact the streets were packed were tourists. You can see in this pic the buildings in the background are built in a much more modern style like we see in the US, compared to a more gothic style from the previous cities.


Antwerp is known as the Diamond Capitol, but we just window shipped in what appeared to be all just sleazy stores. I guess I was expecting it to be a bunch of upscale stores like Tiffany's and such.


We finally just stopped in at a bar where dustin ordered a Duvel, which we've had here in the states before and always pronouce it as doo-VELLE. The bartender couldn't understand what Dustin was saying, so then he points and they are like- oh, that is called DOO-vil. So now we are educated on how to pronounce Duvel!

We then went back to the hotel to change clothes for dinner. We headed over to Kulminator which was recommended by Rick-- it was a teeny, tiny bar with an awesome beer selection and cozy atmosphere...so it was a great find....until I sit down and notice a black cat roaming around the place (INSIDE!). Then I notice another cat....and another.....there were 5 cats total! Then people come inside and bring their dog and sit right next to us. I told dustin- finish that beer immediately and we need to leave! The place was so small, there were only like 3 tables in this little area we were sitting and there was no room for all these animals to be roaming too!


So we walked and decided on El Toro for dinner-- it was a steakhouse-type place. We had our rudest waiter of the whole trip here, but the atmosphere was good and food was decent. We then went to a bar we had seen earlier that had a pretty outdoor courtyard area. It was only us and 1 other couple in the whole place and we couldn't understand why more people wouldn't want to sit in something so nice! People would walk in, look around, and leave....I guess cause it wasn't happening enough for them!


Then it was off to bed so we could get up early and do a few things here before heading off to Brussels!

Europe Day 4- Gent

We were so sad to leave Brugges cause it was sooooooooooo beautiful and there were still fun things left to do and see there, but we forced ourselves to move on to Gent. It was about 45 minutes away and on our way to Antwerp and I am SO glad we stopped here. This was the next most beautiful place next to Brugges, but unfortunately they are doing a lot of construction around the city which takes away from some of the charm.

We went in a few churches and walked around the town. I was happy to see that they had a McDonald's!


We then headed down by the canals to do a boatride. It was really pretty and we saw lots of restaurants right along the canal that we wished we could stay and visit.




After that we went to Gravensteen- a medievil castle built in 1180 and it was destroyed in many parts, but was still cool to walk through it. In parts of it, they had it set up more as a museum where you could see weapons and armor they wore....and in another section were torture items they used.





After this we just grabbed some pizza, sandwich, and what else but a waffle and sat on a bench to quickly chow down before hitting the road around 2pm to move on to Antwerp!

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!