Week 71 August 22-28

To close out our summer adventures, we had three awesome guests come to visit: Amy, Brendan and Amy's dad, Glenn.  They had started their adventure in London before taking the train to Brussels.  Molly met them in Brussels on Thursday afternoon for a peek around the capital.  We started at the Delirium Cafe so that everyone could have their first taste of Belgian brews before exploring the city park and getting free entry into the Palace.  After wandering around the city a bit, we decided to head back to Antwerp so we could meet up with Tyler for dinner.  To experience authentic Belgian Mussels and Frites, we took our guests to the Elfde Gebod for dinner.  We have posted about this strange gastropub before with its large collection of religious icons, and we have taken several guests there for a drink.  But this was our first time trying the food.  Its hard to say if they live up to their claim of "Best Mussels in Town," but we were all pretty pleased with our meals.  To finish the evening, we enjoyed a night cap on the Grote Markt to take in the beauty of Antwerp after dark.  On Friday, we started our day the Belgian way with waffles and coffee.  Then we began our typical Antwerp tour with a stop at the grocery to buy beer and chocolate as souvenirs.  In the afternoon, we all headed to the De Koninck city brewery to take the tour and sip on samples in the tasting room.  De Koninck is the local Antwerp brewery that has been around for nearly 200 years, but just recently renovated and opened for tours.  It was a engaging self-guided tour, and we were able to sample three of their beers at the end.  We closed out their time in Belgium with dinner at a typical Belgian brasserie (Mampoco - probably our favorite spot in Antwerp) and a drink on a terrace.

The brewery

The tasting room

Beer samples from De Koninck

Early Saturday morning, we all piled in the car for our drive to Disneyland Paris!   We arrived at our hotel around lunch and after checking in and eating, we went to the station to take the train to Paris for the rest of the day.  At this point Glenn took over as tour guide, and he showed us around like a pro (5/5 on Trip Advisor).  We popped out of the metro station right at the Arc de Triomphe.  We are sure that this comment gets made quite frequently, but the size of this monument took us off guard.  Seeing it on TV just doesn't prepare you for the scale.  After staring in awe for a while, we decided to mosey down the Champs-Élysées.  We popped in a few shops and ate some ice cream as we strolled the famous, crowded street.  The weather was the warmest it had been all summer, so the heat was starting to wear us down.  We weren't sure what we were looking for, but The Petit Palaise called to us.  It turns out that with a free entry you can see the entire art collection there and enjoy the lovely air conditioning.  After about an hour of appreciating the art, we were ready to go back out into the heat.  We strolled along the Seine just enjoying being in the city.  Eventually, our stroll started to take purpose, and we directed ourselves towards the Eiffel Tower.  Seeing as it was late afternoon, we also thought it would be a good idea to get a snack.  All the bars along the river seemed truly over-priced, so we opted for stopping at a grocery on the way to the Tower.  We picked up the essentials (baguettes, cheese, wine) and sat happily in the shade of the Tower to relax and replenish.  After our snack break, we approached the Tower.  The long lines and prices deterred us from making the ascent, but we had fun taking pictures and appreciating the monument.  From there, a quick metro ride took us to The Louvre.  We did not go in, but enjoyed the sites in the waning hours of sunlight.  By this point, we all had sore feet and were hungry for dinner.  After days of Belgian and French cuisine, we decided to go ethnic with a nice Thai spot in the Latin Quarter.  It had been a long day, but we made our walk to the train station just a few blocks longer in order to catch a glimpse of the Notre Dame Cathedral at night.

Arc de Triomphe

Molly, Amy, Brendan and Glenn

Selfie photo bomb

Getting artsy

Sunday was another early start so we could get to Disneyland as soon as the doors opened.  It was fun to enjoy the magic of the park and interesting to see the differences between the version we know from the States.  We hit the highlights of both parks and too soon it was time for us to start the drive back.  Amy, Brendan, and Glenn still had another day in Paris, so it was also time to say goodbye.  They were a wonderful group of visitors.  We were grateful to show off Antwerp to them and to get to experience a new European destination together.  We had a great time and were sad to see them go.  Until next time!    

Disneyland Paris!

The castle and another selfie photo bomb

The biggest cotton candy we have ever seen

     

Week 69 August 8-14 Lux

In mid August, we made the adventure to Luxembourg for a quick weekend trip.  This was a milestone trip for such a small country; it was Molly's 30th country visited.  After we had visited so many countries and Molly realized she was close to 30, it became a mission to visit 30 countries by the age of 30.  Mission complete!  But our trip was not only a quick drive across the border to accomplish the task, we visited Luxembourg City and went on a lovely hike in the Luxembourg wilderness.  

After work on Friday, we piled in the car and slogged through the Brussels traffic to arrive at our hotel just outside the main part of Luxembourg City.  We were late arriving and we were starving!  Instead of venturing out to find a restaurant, we decided to have a quick bite at the hotel restaurant... worst idea ever.  It was certainly the worst meal we have had since moving to Europe.  European restaurants are pretty reliable for an OK meal wherever you are... but this one was bad.  We went to bed a little discouraged about the start to our weekend adventure, but things brightened quickly the next morning when the hotel front desk informed us that the buses in Luxembourg City are free on Saturdays!  We decided to forgo the expensive hotel breakfast and head to the city center for a meal.  We found a nice cafe with a great cappuccino and breakfast bagel sandwiches (Coffee Lounge).  After breakfast, we began our exploration of the city.  Lux City is a really cool city with tons of green space and a large pedestrian only area.  Although the city is relatively small, it is interesting to explore as it is set on a plateau that drops into the river, with many ancient walls and castle ramparts scattered throughout.  We hit up the tourist information center for a city map and started their suggested walking tour.  We walked past the palace and their Notre Dame (one of Molly's favorite alters so far).

Lux City Saturday Market

The Palace

Notre Dame

  We ended up in the ravine around lunch time and stopped at a German restaurant.  We had a leisurely lunch with a few beers on the patio in the beautiful weather before continuing our stroll through the city.  Next up were the Bock casemates, a series of tunnels in the side of the hill that were used for defences.  They were last used in WWII as a bomb shelter for up to 35,000 people.  They are now open to the public.  We did not participate in the paid part of the tour as they seemed a bit overcrowded with everyone was taking a break from the heat, but we did explore a bit.  When we headed back into the center of town, they were having a festival of street performers.  We stopped and watched a few strange performances before heading for a pizza dinner.  This dinner was MUCH better than the evening before except we had some language issues... our French is terrible.  After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for our early hike the next morning.

A view of the casemates

We like Lux City!

Street performers

On Sunday, we got up early to head to Echternach in the area of Luxembourg called "Little Switzerland".  We did a small piece of the 112km Mullerthall trail that runs throughout this region.  We left Echternach and hiked straight up out of the city to be rewarded with some amazing views.  As the trail was a loop, we hiked half, stopped at a natural amphitheater for lunch and then made the return.  After our 7.5 mi hike, we were pretty tired, but not so tired as too avoid walking into the city center to find ice cream before hoping in the car back to Belgium.  We really enjoyed our time in Luxembourg and since it is a short 2-3 hour journey, we plan to go back and explore more of their hiking trails.

A view of Echternach from above