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

Week 67 July 21-30 Budapest

In mid July, we had a four day weekend because of Belgian National Day.  We decided to make the most of it and make a trip to Budapest, Hungary.  July and August are the summer vacation months for schools in Belgium.  Europeans take their summer vacations seriously so we were excited to at least have a small break considering all of our colleagues have been going on two to three week long adventures.  For the first time, we flew out of Eindhoven, a small city in the Netherlands that has a few budget airlines.  It is very close to where we work so we were able to head straight to the airport after work on Wednesday.  We took Wizz Air, a Hungarian airline.  We made it to Budapest around 8 and headed to our AirBnb.  Our host gave us a suggestion of a small Italian place close by for dinner so we didn't have to venture too far that evening.  The apartment was pretty nice aside from a slightly uncomfortable bed.  The BEST part was that the couple who owned the Airbnb also owned a cafe in Budapest.  Each morning we had a coupon for a free croissant with jam and a cappuccino.  There were also many other good items on the menu and we always added a little something to our croissant meal.  It was a delicious way to start each day.
  

Our morning coffee

We started out our first full day in Budapest with a free walking tour.  Apparently, all the other tourists thought that was a good idea as well, so we had a small wait while they split the tour group into three.  Budapest is split into two sides across the river from each other.  The Buda side is a bit more hilly and rocky, while the Pest side is flat.  The tour started on the Pest side where we learned some of the tumultuous history of Hungary as well as attempted to learn the language (HA!).  They took us through Pest and across the famous Chain Bridge to the Buda side.  Most of the famous Buda tourist stops are at the top of Castle Hill.  We climbed to the top to see the view of the city below and a few of the top sites.  The tour ended here, and we headed to find lunch.  It was a little touristy in this area but we were able to find a spot for typical Hungarian food, including stuffed cabbage.  After that we headed to Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion, both of which are on the top of the hill.  Molly made a rookie mistake and wore a spaghetti strap dress without a cover-up and was required to wear a paper napkin shawl throughout the church.  We think it might be the next biggest thing in fashion.  After our tour of the church and a climb to the top of the bell tower, we were pretty exhausted, so we found a terrace to overlook the city and enjoy a drink.  Our Airbnb host had mentioned a restaurant on the Pest side of the river that served craft beers that he thought we might like.  We decided to walk that way as we continued to enjoy the sites.  It was a perfect suggestion for us because their main fair was BBQ!!!  Tyler had ribs and Molly had chicken wings and the beer was pretty good too!  After dinner, we headed to a nearby ice cream shop that serves their cones with the ice cream designed in a rose shape.  Super touristy, but a must-do!

 Matthias Church 

Sporting a paper napkin shawl

The Fisherman's Bastion

A peak at the parliament building

Chain Bridge

Rose shaped ice cream

On Friday, after our breakfast, we headed to St. Stephen's Basilica on the Pest side.  The namesake of the church, St, Stephen, was the first king of Hungary.  The most interesting, if not bizarre, thing in the church is St. Stephen's mummified hand that is kept in the chapel.  We made sure to view his hand before climbing this dome as well.  It was 364 steps to the top and we were able to view from the Pest side.  After the climb, we were a bit hungry so we headed to the Market.  It is a giant indoor market that sells various produce and meats.  They also had small restaurant stalls on the second level.  We actually weren't able to eat there because it was so crowded, but we looked around and headed elsewhere for lunch.  After lunch, we had a scheduled tour of the parliament building.  The Hungarian Parliament is one of the most amazing buildings we have ever seen from the exterior.  The interior presented much of the same grandeur as well as the crown jewels.  After the tour we made a stop by the river to see the shoes on the Danube memorial and explored the waterside before heading to dinner.  We went to a wonderful Italian place for dinner that we were so lucky to get a table at.  We walked in pretty early and they gave us the last non-reservation table.  We witnessed so many people get turned away being told there were no openings for three weeks.  The meal was delicious and included all kinds of gifts from the chef.  We thoroughly enjoyed the meal as well as the service.  It isn't common you get that kind of experience with the acceptable price tag!  After our dinner, we headed to the sunset boat tour that we had scheduled.  The boat tour was extremely touristy but one of our favorite things we did on this trip.  They drove us up and down the Danube and spoke about the history and the various buildings we were passing.  We were mesmerized by the sight of the skyline at sunset and were so glad we chose to go on the cruise.

St. Stephens

The Castle in the distance

Ready for our Parliament tour

The Market

The Parliament at night

Castle and Chain bridge at night

On Saturday, we headed to the Varosliget park, the big city park of Budapest, were the Szechenyi Thermal Baths are located.  The thermal baths were incredible, with over 20 different baths in the facility.  We stuck mainly to the outdoor baths as the weather was too warm to be interested in hot indoor baths but we could imagine the appeal in the dead of winter.  We spent a few hours soaking in the water and soaking up the sun until it looked like it might rain.  We headed to lunch and explored the park and Vajdahunyad Castle within the park.  As we were leaving the park, a major rain storm started and we ended up running home in the rain.  We were soaking wet!  After the rain cleared up and we had showered and put on new dry clothes, we headed to the Jewish Quarter to experience the Ruin Bars.  Ruin bars started becoming popular about 10 years ago and are set up in old cellars or abandoned buildings.  They don't really spruce them up, and they are filled with interesting artwork and old things.  We thought it was really cool.  The one we spent the most time in, had a wonderful court yard and lots happening.  We stayed for a few drinks and some good people watching before heading to enjoy a food truck dinner.  Our favorite food choice was a langos, a Budapest special of fried pizza-like dough with garlicy sour cream and shredded cheese on top.  It surely isn't too healthy but it was soooo good!

Heroes square

The baths

A quick cake snack

Ruin bar

Food truck dinner!

We didn't have much time on Sunday but we wandered the city a bit and picked up a few souvenirs before heading to the airport to head back to Antwerp.  We had heard a lot of good things about Budapest and all were true.  It was an amazing city and we would definitely go back for another visit!