Visitors Itinerary | Mark

We had our first visitor to Brussels this past weekend. And ready or not, we became tour guides. Mark took a break from the Dallas heat to tour around Europe. Here’s a little synopsis of the weekend’s festivities..

First stop on the Tour de Belgium: Grand Place.
The Grand Place is decked out for Christmas. The controversial techno tree is in full ‘bloom.’ And the Christmas markets surround the smaller streets. We ordered moules frites and covered the tourist part of the visit. Then, ended the night in Place Flagey.

The next day: Military museum.
The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History occupies part of the Cinquantenaire. The aviation exhibition boasts one of the largest aircraft collections in the world. It’s located in the coolest wing…ba da ching!

Mama Roma…duh.

Then, we road tripped over to Dinant, Belgium. Birthplace of the saxophone and home of the Leffe Abbey. Oh, and apparently an ostrich farm. Definitely on the list for a full weekend trip.

We took the tour of Maison Leffe, which was everything but the actual brewery. We left very impressed, mostly because of the interactive smell machines and Leffe glasses we received as gifts. Although the beer history and learning how to pour a perfect glass was probably the boys’ favorite, I loved the interior of the dining room. So chic for such an historical, quaint town!
On sunday, we took off to the Parliamentarium. One of the coolest buildings of our lives.Our Croatian friends showed us that there is actually vin chaud in the world that we enjoy and spoiled us at their home. The weekend ended in Place Jourdan, sans frites…not kidding.

Not too shabby for being 3 month locals.

A Walk in Brussels

So, as winter approaches we find the days getting shorter and colder. The leaves have all changed colors and fallen, and we’ve had our first snow of the year this past weekend. It all makes us think back just a few weeks when we had blue skies and we could take a walk through the city in a light sweater. We had started out from our apartment to see the Grand Place and were pleasantly surprised at what we found along the way.

Our first discovery was the Place Royale and the Eglise Saint-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg. The Church dominates the cobblestone square, and the steps was the site that the first King of the Belgians took his oath.. Probably since its right around the corner from the palace. Makes everyone come to him, man, being a king must be nice. There’s also a pretty nice view of the Hôtel de Ville with the Basilique Nationale du Sacré-Cœur in the background.

We finally catch a close-up glimpse of the Hôtel de Ville as we round a corner and make our way down a tiny narrow street to land on the Grand Place. They somehow packed a bunch of different architectural styles onto this public square and made it into one of Europe’s most popular, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

And on our way home we find Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock… Great walk.

Week One – Check!

Schmoly cow. We live in Europe. Quite often we find ourselves realizing this..although rarely at the same moment, so the convo usually sounds a bit like:

     J: OMG! We like totes live in Europe!!
     A: Uhhh, duh.

     ..2.5 minutes later..

     A: OMG!  We freaking live in Europe!

     Disclaimer – J might not actually say things like ‘OMG! We like totes..’

In any case, here’s our little week ..

Sunday-Monday: 15 hours of traveling. Complete daze. Still exhausted.

Monday night: I met some of J’s Belgium fam. As we don’t speak the same language, there’s a large generational gap, and I feel the need to act things out when they don’t understand me, our communications are quite humorous. Lots of staring. Back at ‘home’ (our one month corporate apt), we took off exploring our temporary neighborhood. Discoveries: it’s hard to find eateries that are open before 8pm and they have Tobasco here.

Tuesday: We flawlessly navigated the bus route to PwC, only to find that the last bus stop is half a mile down the road…with no side-walk (note: just don’t ever wear suede shoes here, ever). After ‘take your wife to work day,’ we decided to take a walk. Seven hours later..

Someone asked us where the prince lives. We’re oooobviously doing something right.