Beers, Birthdays, and Bar Crawls: Weekend in Berlin

Weekend 10: October 17^th – October 19^th 2014

Friday, October 17^th

                Stevie took a vacation day to fully enjoy her birthday weekend! Woo hoo! So Friday morning, Rachel met us by the river and we took a taxi to the airport. We got into Berlin pretty early so we left our stuff at the hostel then went shopping! A mall was really close to the hostel and it was a chilly day so we (Stevie and Rachel) decided to buy cute warm accessories! Stevie got herself a nice made-in-Germany warm scarf. After that we got a quick pretzel snack and headed back to the hostel for a free walking tour.

                The tour guide was a nice Romanian guy – currently a research assistant at the local university for ecology of political science or something like that working on his PHD. In a former life he studied at Berkeley and worked as a ‘carnie’ around the east coast of the US. We were his first stop on the walking tour so we had to try and find another hostel to get more people. It took us awhile… Finally we made it and joined up with 18 other people and headed into Berlin. Our first stop was walking by the “new” synagogue. It’s a really pretty Moorish styled building that was saved from “Kristallnacht” because a police officer allowed the fire brigade to extinguish a fire after disbanding a Nazi mob.

                The next stop was Brandenburger Tor – the most ‘souvenir’ shot of all Berlin. This gate was built as a sign of peace by the King of Prussia in 1788. Apparently Napoleon rode through the middle arch of the gate as a sign of rebellion to the King of Prussia (only the King was allowed through the middle). Berlin and Paris never got along real well. The gate is located on ‘Pariser Platz’ or Paris Plaza and was named as such for the anti-Napoleon Allies occupation of Paris in 1814. The tour guide also pointed out the silent memorial to the Berlin wall: 2 rows of bricks in the streets where the wall once stood.

                The next place we saw was the Holocaust memorial: 2,711 slabs of concrete in the same direction, but of varying sizes and slightly angled, looking like graves of varying height. The memorial was very impressive. As you walked between the various slabs of concrete towards the center, the ground dipped and the slabs made you feel smaller and smaller. It was like a giant maze and you could have run into anyone at any corner.

                After some reflection while walking through the memorial, we saw the location of Hitler’s bunker where he and his bride committed suicide then were lit on fire. This was not well marked at all (it was a parking lot with one small sign). The Germans know how bad the holocaust was and our tour guide told us here that there are certain phrases in German that are against the law (relating to the holocaust) that will get you in jail faster than murdering someone.

                After seeing the old bunker location we moseyed over to the only Nazi architecture building that Hitler successfully accomplished while in power. It housed the ministry of aviation 1933-1945. It was nice, but had a prison like feel to it with a lot of small windows and gray stone. Today it’s the national treasury building. The tour guide told us that these big monuments (treasury building, Brandenburger Tor, etc.) were not blow to complete pieces because pilots used them in WWII as references to where they were to drop their bombs.

                After the treasury, we stopped by the “Topography of Terror”; a monumental piece of the Berlin wall showing the story of the invasion of Poland and how it “rose from its ashes”. 1933-1945 this location was the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS (Schutztaffel), or the paramilitary of Hitler. It was a very humbling piece of the Wall.

                After that, we made our way to “Checkpoint Charlie”; one of the three checkpoints into West Berlin when the city was split in half. Pretty touristy with food shacks and sign boards, but still pretty neat to see a living piece of history.

                After Charlie (and grabbing some currywurst) we went to see the twin cathedrals of Berlin. There was a French built cathedral that mirrored a German cathedral in the same plaza as each other. The French Cathedral was built in 1705 by the Huguenot community who were persecuted in France seeking refuge in protestant Berlin. The German cathedral was built directly across from the French and mirrors its architecture. It was built in 1708, and then added a dome in 1785 which was destroyed in a fire in 1945. When they rebuilt the dome – they built it 7 meters taller than the French cathedral.  In this Gendarmenmarkt plaza is also the Konzerthaus (concert house)  - home of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.  

                After the cathedrals we walked past the Bebelplatz of Humboldt University where 20,000 volumes of books were burned in the Nazi book burning of 1933. There is an empty shelf room that you can see under the plaza to show people how much knowledge was lost from the burning.

                Then we walked over to the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) to take in its architecture and see the old palace for the King of Prussia getting rebuilt to the original design.

                Finally (after this 5 hours of walking), the tour was over. It really was a great tour and didn’t seem like we walked all afternoon. We went back to the hostel to check in and have a happy hour cocktail in the lounge then headed next door to the Hofbräu München of Berlin where we enjoyed some HUGE portioned Bavarian (southern German) food with a few pints of fresh beer and live music. This place was hoppin’ on a Friday night! People were dressed up in their Oktoberfest/traditional German costumes and partying the night away with friends and family. All the tables were long picnic tables so you got to make friends while you ate. There was also a band there playing what sounded like was traditional German music because everyone kept chanting bar songs or cheers. It was a really fun and traditional dinner.

                In hopes of trying to make it to midnight for Stevie’s birthday, we went up to the lounge of the hostel for some cheap drinks. It was here where the bartender lit up some shots of sambuca for us. That was quite the experience (see the pictures!). Then, it was bedtime – we almost made it to midnight, but not quite.

Saturday, October 18^th

                Happy birthday Stevie! J! We slept in a little bit then headed out for some pastries for breakfast then we were on our way! First stop of the day, wandering along the river while searching for the Eastside Gallery. We stumbled upon a really cool statue of St. George and the Dragon while we walked along the pretty riverside. Finally we made it to the gallery. This 1.3 km part of the Berlin wall houses really neat graffiti and art work reflecting on the times of the Wall.

                After walking along the wall, we took the train into the city a little bit then walked past the Jewish Museum. We didn't go in, but the outside was very cold and modern with the Star of David on the side of the steel walls. There were very little windows and the aerial view looks very bleak too – an exploding Star of David.

                Then we made our way back to Checkpoint Charlie for some pictures with the “American” soldiers. We walked inside the fence of the small history museum devoted to the checkpoint then got some lunch across the street.

                After that we went up in a ‘hot air balloon’ to see Berlin! It was just a helium balloon with a cable connected to the ground. We went up 150 meters and got to see most of Berlin. It was kind of a hazy day, but we still saw everything that we walked on the tour the day before (A LOT OF WALKING).

                When we got down from the balloon we headed towards the Reichstagsgebäude or the Parliament building of Berlin. It’s a neat old building with now a glass dome where people can go up it and walk around it. Unfortunately we didn't know we needed tickets a day in advance so we just looked at the building and moved on because we just saw Berlin from the balloon.

                We then walked back to the hostel to get ready to party!!! Stevie had a nice google hangout with her family then we all got ready to go out. Rachel found a nice pub crawl online so we meet up with 120 other young adults to go celebrate the birthday! We made our way to four different bars which had specials for our group. We met a nice group of girls from University of Dallas who were studying in Rome and stuck with them most of the night. We also met some nice Israeli boys who managed to get half the bar to sing happy birthday to Stevie at 3 of the 4 bars (twice at one bar – thanks Rachel). The whole group got on a metro then made their way over to the other side of East Berlin to get free entrance into the Matrix club. It was a pretty neat club considering it was built under the tram/metro railway close to the very pretty Oberbaum Bridge. After the 7 hour crawl/clubbing celebration, it was time to call the birthday festivities to an end.

               

Sunday, October 19^th

                Sunday morning we (Stevie and Stuart) got up to go to mass in the Berliner Dom cathedral. However, we found out quickly (with the entrance of a female priest) that this was not a Catholic cathedral. We stayed for the service though. This service included 4 or 5 small readings, lots of singing, a sermon from what seemed like the female bishop from a tall fancy enclosed podium that looked like an egg, a communion service, and a really nice pieced played on the huge organ.

                After that we went back to the hostel to pick up Rachel and made our way to the Mauerpark flea market. This place was huge! Rows and rows of jewelry, bags, stuff, and more old stuff. The center had a lot of food stands where we got some fresh juice, fresh cut potato chips on a stick, and some lunch. We stayed there exploring for a couple hours then headed back to the hostel to get our stuff. It was time to leave Berlin L.

Overall, it was a very fun, sobering, un-sobering, long weekend!

Up next: Paris for this weekend and Madrid for the next!!! (<Stevie can’t wait to show Stuart Madrid J)

Gros bisous (big kisses),

Stevie and Stuart

Castles, Beer, and Bratwursts! Our weekend in Stuttgart, Germany.

Weekend 9: October 10^th – October 12^th 2014

Friday, October 10^th

                Stevie took a half day at work so we were able to meet up with Ed and Carol in Stuttgart Germany Friday night. It was about a 4 hour high speed train ride from Paris over to Stuttgart with 2 other stops along the way. We got in a little late then took the commuter train over to the hotel

                For dinner, the hotel worker suggested we go to the Brauhaus of Schönbuch in Böblingen to kick off our Oktoberfest weekend in Stuttgart! We got some very large beers and typical pork sausage dinners. Stevie had a lentil and weiner meal called linsen and spätzle while Stuart got the schnitzel. The brauhaus was so hoppin’ that we had to sit outside, but it was still nice out and fun to be in the beer house atmosphere. Since the brewery was 20 feet behind the brew house restaurant, the beer tasted very fresh and the bar had a HUGE tap (we’re talking like 1 foot in diameter pipe header here!). There were also a lot of big old copper kettles used for brewing.

 

Saturday, October 11^th

                We got up at a decent time and had a fantastic breakfast at the hotel. We then jumped on the commuter train with about half of Germany dressed in their lederhosen and dirndl dress all ready for Oktoberfest. It’s actually the second largest beef festival in the world and it’s called Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart. We stopped one stop after the beer festival to see the Mercedes museum.

                The museum was really cool and actually a history museum as well as a car museum. The building was arranged in the peace sign Mercedes logo so there were three sections of the museum. You started on the top (7^th) floor and worked your way down a spiral along the three different sections of each floor. As you went down to the next floor there were pictures of newspaper articles and big moments in history that guided you into the next era of car stuff that was about to come. The favorite section of the museum for Stevie was probably the top and oldest section that told the history of Karl Benz. Benz is known as the inventor who first patented the flat engine and is generally regarded as the inventor of the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine. There were a lot of his first models of engines and transportation devices. Since he made engines for a lot of stuff, the Mercedes logo is made of three pieces for engines for land, air, and water.  Stuart really enjoyed how the museum paralleled the evolution of the automobile with the history of the world.

                After the museum, we made our way over to the beer festival! It was pretty much a HUGE carnival. There were five or six huge beer halls  with carnival rides and German carny-food such as pretzels (bretzels), bizarre valentines type gingerbread cookies where you could get different sayings iced on them, roasted candied nuts, and of course, bratwursts and all sorts of sausage/hot dog stuff! We stopped at a beer tent for some local beer and a bratwurst/hot dog thing in a large roll for lunch. After that we explored this very oddly placed flea market that accompanied the festival as well as got some candied nuts.

                After we had enough of the drunken costumed festival, we made our way into central Stuttgart. We found the “Old Palace” or Altes Schloss, home of the newly renovated castle and Landesmuseum Württemberg. This old castle has parts from the 10^th century. The ‘state’ that Stuttgart is the capital of in Germany is called Wurttemberg, so the museum tells the history of the region starting from the stone ages! The museum was filled with artifacts such as weapons, jewelry, and pottery from various time periods throughout the region. There was also a glass exhibit from 4 centuries, a clock collection, and the crypt that holds Queen Olga, King Karl, their niece Wera, her husband Duke Wilhelm Eugen and their son Carl Eugen buried under the Palace Church.

                After the museum we all shared a nice bottle of red wine while we observed the people passing by on their shopping rounds. We sat in the town’s main shopping area square (Schlossplatz) that was lined by “the new castle” (Neues Schloss) where Duke Carl Eugen von Wuerttemberg lived during the winters.

                We made our way back to the town the hotel was in and has a nice Italian dinner as we were all sausage-ed and beer-ed out then had a nice sleep to get ready for the next day!

 

Sunday, October 12^th

                We got up and had breakfast then made our way in the rental car to Liechtenstein Castle, just about an hour or so drive from Stuttgart. Inspired by the book “Lichtenstein”, Count Wilhelm of Wurttemberg built the castle based on the castle in the book in 1840. We were able to get our own private tour of the castle where we saw his hunting/drinking room, chapel, and great ballroom. The castle has a great view of the cities in the surrounding valley. This castle was Wilhelm’s summer home and the castle still belongs to his descendants. There are a lot of interesting myths surrounding this castle and the various shot marks and broken statues in the castle. There’s also a champagne glass as tall as Wilhelm given to him by his bride on their wedding day. Champagne was his favorite drink and three bottles of it could fit in the glass!

                We were able to walk around the “gardens” or surrounding fields of the castle as well as see the church, smaller chapel and little armory in the castle’s property. It sure was spooky with the all the fog in the valley surrounding the castle in the morning.

                After that castle, we made our way to an older, more ruined castle of Hohenneuffen after a minor detour on the way up the hill. The drive between these two castles was gorgeous! Germany is so green and was starting to change colors for the fall. There are a lot of rolling hills and trees in the area making it look similar to Brown County Indiana.

                Once we finally got up the large hill to the castle, we had a great panoramic view of the little neighborhood/cities below. The castle was built before 1140 and it eventually became a military stronghold. But people don’t come to this hill to see the castle, they come to eat and see the falcon show! There’s a restaurant and a hot dog and fry stand in the castle ruins as well as a small company that puts on a falcon show three times a day on the side of the castle. People also bring picnics and just sunbathe or lay around the castle’s green areas enjoying the local billy goats and view.

                We got some lunch up on the castle (hot dogs and something that Stevie can’t pronounce but it was like processed meat and herbs in a potato pasta wrap that looked like ravioli sitting in French onion soup). We also got some local apples from a guy selling them on the way down from the castle. They were pretty good, and he was very nice to let us know which apples not to pick because they had “würmen”.

                We made our way back to Stuttgart where Ed and Carol dropped us off at the train station in time to grab a snack for the train and head back to Paris. Overall it was a very fun, eventful yet relaxing weekend with family!

Up next weekend: Stevie’s birthday in Berlin!!!! One of the best night life cities in Europe J

Plein de baisers (lots of kisses),

Stevie and Stuart

Pot, Prostitutes, and Pancakes: Our weekend in Amsterdam

Weekend 8: October 4^th – October 5^th 2014

Saturday, October 4^th

                We got an early train and made our way to Amsterdam! Once we got in, we stored our luggage and got a map, woo! Amsterdam is pretty small actually, so it was really easy to just walk around the city with the canals as your guide.

                Our first stop off the train was a quick stroll through the center of town and then over to the Anne Frank House. MAJOR TIP NUMBER 1 FOR AMSTERDAM TRAVEL: Don’t go to the Anne Frank House on the very day of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Judaism. So, as it was the holiest day of the year for Jews, the Anne Frank House was closed. This was pretty much the only day of the year that the house was closed, and we picked this weekend to go to Amsterdam….

                After a failed attempt at the museum we wandered around the city and got a nice little Dutch lunch of half a sausage and mini pancakes (poffertjes). We sat through a free organ concert (<this was somewhat of a struggle for us) at the Westerkerk church (one of the first purposefully built Protestant churches in the Netherlands and is still the largest Protestant church there). Rembrandt was buried there.

                After that it was time to stroll the canals en route to the Bloemenmarkt – the world’s only floating flower market, founded in 1862- or so Wiki tells us. It was pretty neat, but mostly sold tulip bulbs – go figure. We decided to head down to the huge street market on Albert Cuypstraat. On our way to the market we saw the Heineken brewery. At the market we bought some nice fresh smoothies and waffles while perusing the unique and not so unique goods along the street. Too bad we were all full on chocolate covered waffles to get the traditional Dutch raw/pickled herring sandwich.

                After the market it was time to head to the museum area of town. We saw the newly renovated Rijksmuseum as well as the Van Gogh museum. The “I Amsterdam” letters were outside of the museums as well as a nice park to have a picnic. We saw some interesting street performing break dancers around the “I Amsterdam” letters.

                After taking a small break outside the museums we walked around the large Vondelpark (similar to a Central Park) and did some people watching. There was a wedding reception, some girls barbecuing shrimp in a bucket, and a whole bunch of other people smoking who knows what (but really I think we all know what they were smoking….).

                We took a nice little canal tour back to the central train station and saw the Anne Frank House and some other neat canal tour-y things. There were a lot of cute little house boats docked along the canals and we even got into a little traffic jam at a “4 way stop” in a canal.

                After getting off at the central station we walked around that area of town. We saw the sailor café inside the tower of Schreierstoren or “Weeper’s Tower” where women would say goodbye to their sailors back in the good ole 1500s. It is said that Henry Hudson set sail from this tower. The café inside the tower is called the VOC café or Dutch for East India Company because sailors went to the “East Indies” from here. Unfortunately the café was closed for a private event when we wanted to get some real sailor’s genever (gin).

                After our wanderings we finally found a quaint little restaurant for dinner. In order to digest, we took a very interesting stroll through the Red Light District. There is definitely a NIGHT and DAY difference in this part of town. Being right in the CENTER of old town Amsterdam, the Red Light District was super crowded and literally glowing red from the red tube lights lining the windows of the brothels (<that’s probably not a politically correct term anymore). To be quite honest, we were a little surprised at first to see women standing in their lingerie in the windows waiting for their next customers. The Red Light District also has “coffee shops” that are very clearly marked that they sell more than coffee (ex. Reefer Café, Green Day Café, High Time Café, The Grass Hopper Coffee Shop). Sorry, no pictures from experience, you’ll have to see it for yourself. We didn’t feel comfortable at all really in this historic neighborhood of Amsterdam after dark. We were done after a quick stroll through the center of town, so then it was off to the hotel.

 Saturday, October 5^th

                Sunday morning we got up for mass and headed to the Basilica of St. Nicholas. Unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures because it was mass time, but it was a dark church inside (painted stone) with the story of St. Nicholas just under the stained glass windows lining the main corridor of the church.

                After mass, it really was time to see the Anne Frank House. Due to Yom Kippur, there were twice as many people in line. We waited for 2 and a half hours as the house is small and the museum filters people through it. We waited in the (freezing) line outside and around the corner. As we waiting we chatted with the older Australian couple behind us. The museum was pretty worth it though. Although the secret back house (annex) was kept barren due to Anne’s father, Otto’s request, the walk through the back house was very humbling. 8 people had lived in secrecy in the back house of Anne’s father’s company’s warehouse for almost two years. After walking through the house, the museum had a lot of Anne’s diaries on display and quotes and pictures along the walls. Unfortunately the front of the house was getting renovated, but we got a picture from the back. I don’t think it was the “back house” or annex, but it gives you the feel of what the front of the jam warehouse would look like.

                After the museum we got some huge pancakes and Dutch pea and sausage soup then made our way to the “Cheese Museum”. The museum was really just a cheese store that had a lot of free samples, but it was pretty good. Amsterdam cheese is a lot less pungent then French cheese. The museum had a lot of gouda on display.

                After our little cheese tour we wandered away the last couple hours of the day by walking to the NEMO Science Center museum as well as the “Scheepvaartmuseum” or Shipyard museum. That was pretty cool because they had a replica three masted “Amsterdam” ship of a Dutch East India Company ship from 1749. We also saw a nice windmill from the Shipyard museum area. That about wraps it up for our weekend in Amsterdam.

The agenda for next weekend: Stuttgart Germany with Ed and Carol for Mercedes and Octoberfest (Cannstatter Volksfest – the world’s second largest beer festival).

A très bientôt (see you very soon),

Stevie and Stuart

Oh no, not another shoe store...

Weekend 7: September 27^th – September 28^th 2014

Saturday, September 27^th

                Spoiler alert- It was a pretty quiet weekend for us as we did not plan any train trips or out of the country trip. Just a weekend in Paris J. So if you chose to stop reading – we don’t blame you.

                The other co-worker that came with us to Paris wanted to go shopping so we slept in then met her on Rue de Rivoli for some shoe shopping! We didn’t end up finding shoes (as Stevie’s co-worker was looking for shoes for a wedding she was in next weekend). Nevertheless it was fun just to go shopping in Paris (for Stevie and Rachel, that is) for the afternoon. Stuart didn’t have as much fun as us, but he was quite the trooper!

                As we were shopping along the street we saw the Tour Saint-Jacques. A lone bell tower from the 16^th century church was all that remained from the church that was there. The French Revolution destroyed the church.

                Also along this street is the Hôtel de Ville or Town Hall of Paris. The building is quite impressive and the location has been used since 1357 (or so Wikipedia says). After checking out the building we kept walking down the street into the neighborhood known as Le Marais – also known as the gay neighborhood. It has some more shopping but more unique vintage type boutiques. We did stop for a small little butter cake that is known to Normandy (Kouign Amann) at a nice boulangerie.

                After shopping we went home and took a nice little powernap before our evening. Another co-worker of Stevie’s that works at the research facility and has been in Paris for about two years invited the three of us to a show. She bought the three of us some tickets to a light and fun comedy show at the theater La Grande Comédie. The show was “Le clan des divorcées”. It was about a divorced woman looking for roommates and ends up with two other divorced women as roommates. One of the roommates was supposed to be from England and played “the dumb blonde” while the other woman was played by a man and was the star of the show. The women put an ad in the paper to get some dates and the woman played by the man was the only one who actually got an honest date but turned it down to stay with her/his friends. It was a cute show regardless of the language barrier. Even in quick French we were able to get the gist of the play. It’s probably a lot funnier actually knowing what they were saying!

                After the show we got some dinner at a nearby brasserie then headed back towards the city center. We were able to see the Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly or House of Representatives) all lit up on our way to the river. We then watched the Eiffel tower glitter and waited for a friend of a friend of Rachel’s to hang out. While we waited along the river, we were able to do some serious people watching. There is a lot of seating right along the river and hundreds (no joke- hundreds) of people were just enjoying bottles of wine and hanging out with their friends before they were off to the clubs or whatever people do after midnight in Paris. There are a lot of bars and restaurant boats along the river too that were extremely popular. We didn’t stay out with the others too late, but we did wait around to see the tower glitter again then it was off to bed for us!

 Sunday, September 28^th

                Another unplanned day in Paris. This weekend was very nice with sunshine and warm weather so we tried to stay outside today. We got up and went to the English speaking church 10 minutes away from us then headed towards the Champ de Mars for breakfast and people watching around the Eiffel Towel. We also passed the Paris aquarium on our walk to the tower from church. Anyway - the park (Champ de Mars) is big and was extremely crowded, even on a Sunday morning. We got some crepes nearby and found a bench to peoplewatch. This peoplewatching included viewing some sort of square dancing in the park led by an American with men and women dancing. The women had on very rufflely skirts- not exactly your jeans and cowboy boot sort of attire you would think to wear when square dancing.

                After breakfast we made our way to another huge park in the north side of Paris, Parc La Villette. This park houses the Cite des Sciences et de l’Industrie (City of Science and Industry – museum). The museum has a geode that looks like a giant mirrored golf ball but it’s actually a theater inside. There was also a submarine outside the museum as well and the rest of the park had a lot of play area for kids and adults! It was a great day for a picnic or just sitting in the park. There’s also a music museum and a concert hall in the park. After exploring around the park, we walked along the canal (Canal de l’Ourcq) that runs through the park. Apparently there was a sort of utopian recycling festival that was going on that we walked through. There were interesting pieces of art made of cardboard and plastic bottles as well as a bunch of pamphlets on different organizations that stood for recycling or public education on some sort of environmental or social issue.

                We took a stroll through the festival alongside the canal then made our way to the metro, stopping for a fresh baguette to buy for dinner.

                We didn't do much after that as Stuart was a little bit sick this weekend so we took it easy.

Next weekend though….AMSTERDAM!

Bien amicalement (sincerely),

Stevie and Stuart

Chocolate, Waffles, and Fries (aka Belgium)

Weekend 6: September 20^th – September 21^st  2014

Saturday, September 20^th

                We took not the first, but the second train to Brussels at 6:30 this morning. We were able to see the sun rise on the train ride to Brussels, Belgium. Once we got to Brussels we hopped on the next little train to get to Bruges, a super cute medieval town near the coast of northwest Belgium. We stored our backpacks at the train station and took a bus right into the city center. Once we got to Bruges (~9:30 in the morning) we walked around the Markt (main square) and realized that nothing was open until 10AM at least…so  we got some breakfast!

                After a nice warm café au lait (and orange juice for Stuart), we started to wander around the city. This tiny cute city was really fun to just wander (and get lost multiple times). The next thing we did was go to the Historium history museum to get some free wifi and a free map from the tourist office. By then it was time for chocolate. After that we did some more wandering. As it was Saturday morning, there were a lot of little flea market type tents selling all sorts of chatchkie, but we were in search of chocolate. There were chocolate shops all over the place, but we found a really good one for a nice little treat.

                After our chocolate fix (for the hour) we went to the Basiliek van het Heilig Bloed (Basilica of the Holy Blood). Legend has it that the relic that is housed in this Basilica (a vile of old blood) is some of Jesus’ blood. It was carried through the crusades and every so often it turns from liquid to solid then to liquid again. Regardless of the legend that is associated with the relic, it was a very awe inspiring experience. The church was well decorated too!

                After the basilica we went on a boat tour of the canal. People call Bruge the Venice of the North. It really is too! It was a nice canal ride up and down the town. (Pictures explain better than words.)

                Then, it was time for lunch. So what did we do…we got some frites!!! (French fries! Which aren’t really French, they were invented in Belgium! Get your facts straight America!) Frites are served with mayo here in Europe so I (Stevie) got a curry-mayo sauce and Rachel and Stuart…well, they got ketchup.

                To walk off our hot delicious frites, we climbed up the bell tower (Belfort or Belfry) in the main town square. It was 366 steps and had a really neat clock and mechanical bell ringing system inside.

                After that we went back to the Historium for a small beer tasting (Duvel) and got to see the town square from above. After the tasting we wandered the town a little bit more, got some more chocolate (bacon and wasabi flavored chocolates!), got a super delicious waffle (wafel!) in the Belgian fashion – not the lighter more square Brussel fashion waffle that we all know as Sunday morning breakfast. These waffles tasted like crescent dough pressed in an iron with sugar so they were hot, buttery, and sugary. Of course we had to add whipped cream and more chocolate on top of our waffle too (no regrets!).

                Back to Brussels for the evening! We got back and ate at some touristic restaurant near the center square of the town. Not too exciting. But then – we got some more chocolate (ginger and cinnamon flavors for Stevie and a s’more type chocolate for Stuart).

Sunday, September 21^st

                We all got up and went to the Cathedrale des Saints Michel et Gudule (<anyone know of Saint Gudule?) to see it and celebrate mass there in French and Dutch. Belgium has three parts to it, the French speaking part, the Dutch speaking part (like the Netherlands/Holland), and the German speaking part. Most of the country speaks French AND Dutch and the news channels are offered in both.

                After mass we met up with a friend of mine (Stevie’s) that I met in Spain. She was in one of my classes and in a group project with me. Marjolaine was able to show us the city (it’s not very big, but it is the seat of European Union!!!). Brussels is one of the most popular conference spots for Europe.

                First we walked to get some breakfast then to St. Catherine’s church. Today was a day without cars in Brussels so the bus, metro, and trams were all FREE!!! There were a TON of flea market shack things and mini festivals going on throughout the city. Outside of St. Catherine’s was a medieval themed little festival thing with people dressed in their middle aged garb.

                After seeing the church we went into an old market building turned into a bar/exhibition area. Then we wandered to try and see the Manneken Pis. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Legend has it that when Brussels was at war (they were in a lot of wars), a little boy came up to a bomb and peed on it thus saving the city from destruction. So, there’s a tiny little statue downtown Brussels commemorating the little boy. This statue has clothes made for it and when he’s done wearing them; the clothes are put in the city’s main museum on their main square, the Grand Place. There was an unveiling of his clothing and way too many people to wait for him to be unveiled, so we left.

                We wandered through the city then got some typical Belgian lunch. Meatballs and fries for Stuart, beef stew and fries for Stevie. After that we went to Delirium, which has the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records record for the most beer held there (2004 types of beer counted in 2004). The beer menu was like a telephone book! Stuart got a cherry flavored lambic and Stevie got a mango flavored beer. We’re not beer drinkers, but these beers were made in Belgium, so it counts!

                After that we went back to Manneken Pis to get a picture, then we walked through a gallery type mall. We then went to the Museum of Musical Instruments. This building was SO COOL! The museum was neat because we had an audio guide that played the old instruments as we walked by them. We only got to be in the museum for an hour as it was closing, but we saw traditional instruments of the world, instruments of the west, then an exhibit on Adolphe Sax (guess what he invented).

                After the museum we walked around by the King’s Palace and saw the festival that was happening near the big park by the Palace and got a free Belgian apple. We kept walking in that neighborhood which had a lot of antique stores and old buildings. We made our way up a hill to see the Palais Justice. The building was huge and had a great view of the city and the Atomium. Built for an exhibition, the Atomium replicates the crystalline structure that iron forms naturally (times 165 billion in size), as the statue is made of iron (stainless steel).

                We made our way back to the Grand Place after observing a very bizarre beach party happening outside the Palais Justice. The party was apparently for the birthday of the European lottery. There was free champagne, bananas, jet skis, sand, and cabanas on roundabout in front of the justice building. Quite entertaining.

                On our way to the Grand Place we got some more chocolates (as souvenirs and free tasters!) and of course, another waffle, but this time with ice cream. Marjolaine had to leave us then, but she was a very good tour guide and showed us all over Brussels! After that we moseyed over to the train station then made our way home.

Best. Weekend. Yet. J

On the agenda for this coming weekend: Paris (including a comedy show?, shopping!?, more exploring of different neighborhoods!)

A bientôt! (See ya or talk to you soon!),

Stevie and Stuart

Loire Valley: Home of 71 Castles and Châteaux

Weekend 5: September 13^th – September 14^th 2014

Wednesday, September 10^th

                I (Stevie) just wanted document my work experience in Frankfurt Germany from Wednesday, the 10^th. I had the opportunity to film some of the FIRST EVER meeting where engineering and operations electrical experts gathered from around the world. It was a great experience and will definitely help in one of my projects I’m working on. We were able to fly to and from Germany in the same day. It was a  long day,  but I got to meet a lot of really experienced people at the very new and modern Frankfurt Global Engineering and Construction Solutions center, so that was neat! By the way, the flight attendants gave out croissants (TWICE!) on the flight to Germany. It was pretty legit.

Saturday, September 13^th

                Well, there’s not TOO much to say about today…We ended up on trains for the majority of the day trying to get to the Chenonceau castle/chateau just outside of Tours France in the Loire Valley. The Loire valley is known for its castles as there are 71 along the river Loire. (We definitely want to go back with a rental car so we can get to more castles!) The castle itself had 5 large gardens and multiple kings/royal people have lived in it including Catherine de Medici (<that woman has her name on a lot of stuff all over France). This chateau wasn’t nearly as extravagant as Fontainebleau, but it was staged like people still live there. The castle staff gathers fresh flowers from the gardens every day to decorate the rooms, so the whole place smelled like death (to Stevie), or flowers to people.

                Anyway, we eventually made it to the castle after a very very minor detour in Tours to check out the cathedral there. That cathedral is definitely one of the best ones that we have seen! We got back to our hotel in Orléans (the original Orleans!) then had a nice dinner at a pizzeria in the old part of town.

Sunday, September 14^th

                We wanted to visit another castle today (Sully-Sur-Loire), but the bus schedule was not in our favor. Stuart and I got up early to go to mass nearby then we set out for a nice French breakfast (croissants, pastries, and coffee). After breakfast, we went to check out the ‘Maison de Jeanne d’Arc’(house of Joan of Arc). It actually wasn’t ever Joan’s house, but she stayed there with the town’s treasurer during her heroic battle where she (successfully) saved the town of Orleans. The house was just a 15 minute video interactive room. The video was pretty cool with statues, tapestry, and walls getting projected on or lit up. No one actually ever drew Joan of Arc while she was in sight. The best drawing of her that there is in the world is just a sketch from a guy who was in Paris while she was in Orleans (it looked like an 8 year old drew it).

                After the museum we went to the cathedral in the center of town. The cathedral had stained glass windows devoted to the life story of Joan of Arc. It was a very well preserved cathedral with cool flags with a different coat of arms on each one lining the main worship space.

                After the church we made our way across the street to Hotel Groslet, a 16^th century mansion where a lot of the Mayors of Orleans had an office. Francois the second died there...The building was pretty cool with more Joan of Arc memorabilia and old stuff.

                We made our way over to the Museum of Fine Arts next and saw some art. There were four or five stories of paintings, sculptures, old plates and stuff. Not much to say here…I (Stevie) am not much of an art museum person, but I did have the camera during the museum, so I only took pictures of really funny or awkward pieces of art. I hope you enjoy those pictures!

                Moving from museum to museum, we went to the Museum of Archeology next where we saw an exhibit of Joan of Arc original pieces of art. The museum also had some old terra cotta, metal pots, and statues and stuff.

                After the museum we got a late lunch/early dinner at an American style diner. They did a good job trying to capture the typical American (steak and shake) type menu. This was also one of the only places open because France (a lot like Spain) closes up shop on Sundays.

                After dinner we got our stuff from the hotel then went to a free concert in the Cathedral with the Symphonic Orchestra and Choir of Orleans. We sat near the back but had a great view of the giant front door of the church. There was stage lighting on the sides of the door and columns near the orchestra which changed color for each song according to the mood of the song. It was a very good free concert! I (Stevie) was expecting a dragon to bust thought the front of the church (like in Shrek) because it really looked like something that would be in a movie.

                After the concert we got an aperitif (happy hour cocktail) then made our way to the train back to Paris.

That was pretty much the weekend! Up next weekend: BELGIUM! Chocolate, waffles, a medieval town and Brussels with an old study abroad friend of Stevie’s from Spain who is from the Brussels area!

Chaleureusement (with warm regards),

Stevie and Stuart

Châteauxs, Gorgeous Gardens, and Good Food!

Weekend 4: September 6^th – September 7^th 2014

Saturday, September 6^th

                We woke up early this morning to take an hour train ride out to Fontainebleau to see the châteaux. The châteaux is huge and a lot of important people have stayed there (King Louis VII, Philip Augustus, Louis IX, Henry II, Catherine de’Medici, Napoleon Bonaparte, Pope Pius VII, etc.). It’s very similar to Versailles, but a little older and less well known. Some of the neat things in the châteaux were some of Napoleon’s stuff (clothing, furniture, swords, etc.) and the bed that was made for Marie Antoinette (that she never used). The châteaux had a conglomeration of 4 or 5 gardens around it and a grand canal.

                After the châteaux we walked around the small city a little bit and bought some lunch for a picnic in the nearby forest. The forest of Fontainebleau used to be a royal hunting ground, but well…now it’s not. We had a nice little picnic in the forest then headed back to Paris for dinner.

                We went to church that night and then had dinner off the Champs-Élysées. We chose a very eclectic but nice Asian restaurant. It was getting dark so we took a stroll around the Triangle D’Or  (Golden Triangle) near the Champs-Élysées then watched the Eiffel Tour light up at 9. The tower glitters for five minutes every hour on the hour at night. We then got some soft serve ice cream and called it a night.

Sunday, September 7^th

                         Today was a busy day. We spent the morning planning out the rest of our weekends here in France. After that we headed to the Jardin du Luxemburg – a huge and beautiful park in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. We got a crepe (chicken and mozzarella for Stuart) and a sandwich on the way (a delicious jabon cru et fromage de chèvre or smoked ham and goat cheese sandwich for Stevie). After eating our picnic in the park we walked around and found the very pretty fountain there that Marie had built (Medici Fountain). This park was made in 1612 for Marie de’Medici as well as her Luxembourg Palace that now houses the French Senate.

                After the gardens we found the oldest church in Paris, l'église saint germain des prés (St. Germain’s church). This church was built in 558 as an abbey then rebuilt in 1014. This church sits in the ‘Latin Quarter’ of Paris because the abbey donated some land for the University of Paris where Latin students came to study. After the church we moseyed over to Shakespeare and Company English bookstore only to get stopped by a huge herd of rollerbladers through the streets of Paris. We also saw the fountain for St. Michael on the way. ALSO along the way was Notre Dame, so we stopped for some pictures. Finally we made it to the tiny little English bookstore where writers like Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound gathered.

              After the bookstore we went over the bridge in Paris just off of the Notre Dame, which happened to have thousands of locks on it. It’s on THE ‘love lock’ bridge, but it sure looked like it. We finally made it to our destination, the world famous ice cream shop of Berthillon on the Île Saint-Louis. After that, our feet were ready to take us home.

On the agenda for next weekend…possibly Loire valley! (Castles, castles, and more castles!)

Bons baisers (lots of love),

Stevie and Stuart