Well, hi there! It's been while. I took a little hiatus from blogging since my last update. I guess for a while I didn't really feel like we were doing anything that spectacular. But things are picking up quickly! I just got a manicure for the first time since we moved to Germany..woohoo! After five months of emotional highs and lows while trying to let the dust settle and fully accept that I am living in a foreign country, I decided I had earned myself a little pampering. I found out about a British lady who works out of her house and came highly recommended for nail treatments. The fact that she is a native English speaker was obviously a bonus for me. I quickly discovered that Yorkshire accents can almost sound like a foreign language to an American who has only been to London, but I highly enjoyed the experience and walked away with a set of some pretty rad looking nails. On my way home I rolled the windows down, blasted some Lady Gaga, and cruised through the old German towns feeling a little bit like my normal self again (other than the fact that I was haphazardly dodging parked cars and oncoming traffic on the ridiculously narrow roads here). In between towns, driving is fine, but I still cringe when I drive down a narrow road in a town and the oncoming German or Dutch car passes within what feels like only a couple inches from me. They're all nonchalant about it while I am just waiting to hear the sound of scraping metal. The Dutch are especially fearless. I can't even tell you how many times I have been passed by a vehicle behind me with Dutch plates because apparently driving barely under the speed limit through these treacherous and convoluted roads is unacceptable.
The past month and a half we have pretty much stayed within the local area (which just happens to include various areas of Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium these days). Most of our Dutch adventures revolved around my quest for an antique "farmhouse style" hutch that we could use as a bar. The storage in our kitchen is just laughable, which we quickly learned is standard for Europe--as is tiny ovens, tiny refrigerators, tiny kitchen sinks, and tiny dishwashers (but hey, at least we have one so I don't complain too much about that.) I actually had to buy a new muffin pan because my old one was too large for our oven. I was expecting to have issues with our American appliances, but not baking pans. So my old muffin pan sits next to our Keurig and Kitchen Aid in the attic until we move back to the land of spacious kitchens and 120 voltage power outlets. Ah, what a sweet reunion it will be (pun not intended!). But until then I will take comfort in devouring all the Belgian waffles and Nutella croissants that cross my path.
See what I mean? Who can resist a waffle drenched in melted white chocolate? And the fact that you can buy these off the streets in Belgium for less than the cost of a bottle of water is just another great excuse to indulge.
Up until recently most of our weekend nights were spent sitting on our patio, enjoying the evening weather and slowly but surely putting a dent in our giant Belgian beer stock (another perk of living close to Belgium). However we did take a break from all the abbey triples and blondes to share some Bitburgers with some of our German townsfolk one night. We were taking a walk with the dog through the town before the ominous clouds in the distance rolled our way, enjoying the breeze that would soon bring forth a rainstorm while accepting the fact that weekends in our new hometown were nice but pretty uneventful. Just as we were about to turn around and head back to the house though, we spotted our landlord and her daughter alongside a marching band preparing for their round through the town. Curious what all the hubbub was about, we approached them and struck up a conversation. (Fortunately they speak English very well!) They informed us there was yet another festival going on this weekend to celebrate the village royalty, which are elected each year. They had a parade earlier in the summer where the prince and princesses of each village marched through all the surrounding villages. They appeared to be high school age, so I imagine this is their equivalent of prom king and queen. From what I understood from our conversation, the king is selected by way of some type of shooting competition, and the queen is the winner's wife by default. But anyway, our landlord invited us to share some beers with her and her friends in the tent by the town clubhouse that night, which was of course walking distance from our house because everything in the town is. Luckily when the rainstorm hit it was short-lived, so after we had dinner we decided maybe a little socializing would be good for us. When we approached the beer tent, we settled into a couple spots at a table next to our landlord and we were swiftly greeted with two plastic cups of Bitburger beer. At first no one really talked to us other than our landlord and her daughter. And, well, the others were all speaking in German so we didn't have much to add to their conversations. But as the beers kept appearing and the night progressed, a few of them became a little more confident to speak in English with us. We actually ended up hanging out with our new friends until the wee hours of the morning. So there are some party animals living in this small town after all! They also informed us about the town's serious commitment to partying during Carnival. They already have a committee making plans for next year's celebration. So we have that to look forward to in February!
Two weekends ago I found a great excuse to get out of town and explore another nearby city--Brussels! As if I needed another excuse to go to Belgium, I stumbled upon a picture of "Tapis de Fleurs", which means "carpet of flowers" in English. The picture looked like a giant magic carpet bordered on all sides by centuries-old palatial buildings. Sounds like a fairytale right? The Flower Carpet is made of around 600,000 artistically-placed begonias, and is only constructed in the Grand Place of Brussels for one weekend every two years. So, naturally, I had to see it. And, unlike our frigid adventure to see the tulips at Keukenhoff, the weather was predicted to be sunny and beautiful all weekend. (I made sure to actually check the for myself weather myself this time). So we booked one night in a hotel and off we went!
We arrived and checked into our hotel, which was not far from the Grand Place, right around 11:30 and set off to see the Flower Carpet first thing. The walk led us through a cobblestone street lined with tempting clothing stores, shoe stores, and waffle shops, but I kept my focus on the mission at hand.
As the crowds thickened we spotted the tower of the Town Hall, in all its opulence, rising above the buildings that surrounded us. We were almost there! About a minute later the street opened up into the square. Alas, here it was. The Flower Carpet.
Even in absence of this spectacular floral display, I can imagine the Grand Place would be almost just as striking. I don't claim to be any type of architectural aficionado, but even I could tell that the square consisted of a very eclectic collection of architectural styles from different periods of time. There are actually three eras of architecture represented here: Gothic, Baroque, and King Louis XIV. Basically what I have gleaned from my research is that the original market square was composed of wooden buildings in the Middle Ages, but as the city became more wealthy they decided to update the buildings with more elaborate stonework. The Town Hall was built in the 1405 and the King's House which faces the Town Hall (pictured above) was built from 1515 to 1536. Both were built in Gothic style. The other buildings are representative of the Baroque and King Louis XIV styles, and were built by wealthy merchants and guilds.
After capturing lots of pictures from different angles, it was a little past noon. So we thought, "Lunchtime, right?" Good food and drink are just as essential as all the sightseeing stops. You've got to embrace the culture with all senses. That's my motto anyway. So of course I had done my research prior to leaving for Brussels. I had hovered over my computer screen for hours, searching for the best places to savor waffles, the best places to buy chocolate, pubs with the best selection of Belgian beers, and the best "frites" stands in all of Belgian. But really the only restaurant that I absolutely wanted to eat at was called Chez Leon, where I could not wait to order the famed Brussels dish--moules and frites (mussels and fries). The restaurant was located on the well-known touristy Rue des Bouchers, and as we made our way there I was expected to be greeted by a lively street, densely packed with restaurants and tourists craving a taste of Brussels. To my surprise though, we discovered an empty street. You would have thought it was 7:00 in the morning. Only a couple of tables were taken on the patio at Chez Leon and the inside looked empty. "Hmm that's strange. I thought this place was pretty famous. Well maybe I'm not that hungry right now anyway," I thought to myself. I'd later come to regret that thought. But, seeing as it takes me several times to learn some lessons, we decided to take a walk and explore the city a little more.
A walk through the Galeries Royale St. Hubert is like a walk back in time. This shopping arcade was built in the 1800's and the shops look like they have managed to keep much of their original charm. Here you can find antique hats, gloves, fans, and all the chocolate your heart desires. This was such a fun experience, but there was no air conditioning and it was very crowded, so we were content with a quick walk-through. But we had to make one stop at a very fancy chocolate shop that originated in Brussels named Pierre Marcolini. They certainly had some awe-inspiring masterpieces in there, but I guess I am more into waffles than overpriced artsy chocolate because we left without buying anything. But I highly enjoyed just strolling through the arcade and window shopping.
As we exited St. Hubert and welcomed the fresh air, we continued our walk to Mont des Arts Garden. Here we snapped a nice shot of the Town Hall from a distance, and then proceeded to the Royal Palace for some more photos and architectural gawking.
Well, nothing says royalty like golden gates. Fun fact: The Royal Palace of Brussels is twice as long as the Buckingham Palace.
We decided to go to the Parliamentarian next because we were already about halfway there, and it was was a free museum about the history of the European Union. With Brussels being the capital of the EU, we thought it would be a worthwhile stop. At this point we were getting hungry, but we charged on in hopes to find a restaurant we could both agree on before we reached the museum. Well, to our demise, we found ourselves walking through a business district, where the restaurants were inconveniently only open Monday-Friday. We found one square that did have a few, but nothing really sparked our interest. Long story short, we accidentally walked by the dang Parliamentarian about three times because I was so flustered and I had now escalated from hungry to "hangry". When we finally got into the museum and got our English audiovisual guides I couldn't figure out how to work the tricky little devices. Since both of our glucose-deprived brains had very little patience for troubleshooting, and all the captions were only in Dutch and French, we gave up and left after about 15 minutes. So I can't say I learned too much that I didn't already know about the EU, but at least we didn't waste any money.
When we finally made it back to Chez Leon around 2:00, we found the restaurant was absolutely overflowing with people. After our long walk back and my increasingly ravenous state, we were worried we would now have to wait for a table. Luckily the host found us a small table in a very crowded section at the back of the restaurant. At this point ambiance was the last thing on my mind so we happily accepted the table and ordered quickly. The food did not disappoint, and we didn't let a single mussel or fry go to waste. Lesson learned: People in Europe eat really late lunches.
After lunch, we wandered the streets a little more and found the Manneken Pis. You've probably seen pictures of him before. Lots of interesting legends revolve around him, but no one seems to really know why they decided a bronze sculpture of a little boy peeing would make for a great fountain piece. Regardless, this mischievous little guy certainly attracts a large crowd!
See, I was not exaggerating. I never imagined I would find myself waiting my turn amongst a crowd of strangers for a chance to get an unobstructed view of a peeing statue. There's even a nearby chocolate shop named Chocolatiere Mannekin Pis. We didn't go in, but I wonder if they have little chocolate molds of him. I'll have to check that out next time. Friends, now you all know what you are getting for Christmas!
After getting our obligatory Mannekin Pis pictures, we got in touch with our inner hipsters and discovered some vintage shops, art galleries, record stores, and old bookstores.
The building on the left that reads "1881" is Halles de Saint-Gery. As stated, it was built in 1881 and was originally a meat market, but has since been converted into a trendy pub and restaurant. It was definitely worthwhile to pop inside for a bit and check it out.
But we decided the weather was just too nice to linger for very long. So we stepped back outside and wandered the surrounding area until we finally found an open table outside, and each enjoyed a deliciously refreshing Belgian beer. This was probably my favorite area of Brussels. We almost felt like we were mingling amongst the locals. And after a lot of walking, it was incredibly refreshing to just sit down, relax, and take it all in.
After finishing our beers, we conceded to fact that we needed to head back to the hotel to rest and recuperate before we headed out for the evening. But we did take the time for one last photo op when we passed by this beautiful building, which we learned houses the Brussels Stock Exchange.
After we recharged, we set out on the town again and started our night at Le Cirio, where we had pre-dinner drinks and a snack. I had read that this place has a great patio, and is also known for their drink they call the "half and half". There wasn't anything particularly genius about the drink. It was just half white wine and half champagne. But it was refreshing, and easily the most generous pour I have ever seen...
Talk about getting the most bang for your buck! Can you imagine trying to "cheers" with that thing? I literally had to lean over and sip it from the table before I even attempted to pick up. Not exactly good table manners, but it wasn't nearly as big of a scene as I would have caused if I attempted to pick that glass up straightaway. After I managed a clean finish, we ventured to Moeder Lambic for dinner. I honestly had never heard of or tried a lambic beer until we moved to Europe. The lambic ones we bought at the beer store a few weeks earlier were pretty sweet, so I wasn't sure about ordering one to eat with dinner. But they had an extensive menu, and our waiter was well-versed on the specific flavors of each beer. He recommended one that he described as a sour-tasting beer only brewed to be sold in their restaurant. Since I had never heard of any of beers on the menu, I decided to go with that one and it was pretty tasty. The food menu was not extensive, but this is almost always a good thing for me and my indecisiveness, especially when I have to ask waiters to translate the menu. We decided you really can't go wrong with meat and cheese, so we went with this plate of deliciousness. All in all, the staff was great, the atmosphere was wonderful, and the food was great quality. I would highly recommend this place if you ever find yourself in Brussels.
We finished off the night at Delirium Cafe, an establishment that boasts a place in Guinness Book of World Records for their massive beer list, and currently claims to possess over 3,000 different types of beers. But we were boring and just ordered Delirium beers. Obviously 3,000 beers was way too many choices for me anyway. We perused the whole menu after we ordered though, and we were highly amused to discover that a Budweiser costed 6 euros--almost double the price of the higher quality, and alcohol content, of the beers we were drinking. One Belgian beer goes a long way. We were definitely ready for bed after this.
On our last day in Brussels we took to the streets again, this time by bikes! We wanted to cover more ground in less time so we could make it to a couple of museums before we headed out. I love that so many cities offer bike rental stations because, while public transport is affordable and time-efficient, bicycling is just a much more enjoyable way to sightsee in my opinion. Plus it's eco-friedly and you get a little exercise while you're at it. There was one point when we were going up a huge hill and I momentarily thought my burning legs were about to give out and I was going to lose all my forward momentum and just start rolling backward into oblivion. But thankfully I did not. We even managed to grab a view (very) quick street shots while we pedaled away.
We totally redeemed ourselves from our failed museum attempt the day before with our visits to Autoworld and the Royal Museum of Armed Forces and Military History Museum. The museums were right across from each other on the other side of these giant arches in Parc du Cinquanteraire. Though they weren't free, they were completely worth it. I don't think I have ever seen such a massive collection of cars and airplanes in one place.
So Thomas was in heaven, obviously. I felt he was deserving of a day dedicated to his interests since I might have dragged him through several clothing and shoe stores on the way back to our hotel the day before...but I really enjoyed the exhibits too! Until I got hungry. Then it was time to go. We had one last thing on our to-do list, and that was to wait in line at the famous Maison Antoine for frites. So let me just go ahead and emphasize that frites are not the same thing as Americanized French fries, though they may look the same. Frites done the right way are perfectly and ridiculously crisp on the outside--because they are fried not once, but twice. Apparently both Belgium and France take credit for the invention of fried potato strips, but the Belgian side of the story argues that when American troops came through Belgium during World War I they mistakenly began calling them "French fries" because of their prevalence in the French-speaking Belgian region of Wallonia. Well, whoever invented it, THANK YOU.
These Maison Antoine frites were out of this world. And we dipped them in what was called Andalouse sauce, which was basically mayo mixed with red pepper. Just incredible.
So that's what we've been up to these past few weeks! On to the next adventure. This time it's a big one! Hasta la vista! (Hint, hint).