Monday, November 30, 2009
I'm Back!! (with company again!)
Hey everyone - sorry for the short tease post but I wanted to let you know that I am back and my parents are with me for this first week! We are having an amazing time thus far going to Brussels on Sunday and Brugge (not me) / Gent on Monday. More to come tomorrow night and my Mom is going to write a guest post on Wednesday night after their trip to Amsterdam! (Emma and Jessie - still waiting for your guest post!). I will be here till Friday, December 18th so keep checking for updates!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
London Part 2
Rain, rain, and more rain. We were able to find our hotel without any issue and we decided to do the double decker bus tour, visit the tower of London museum, and ride the London Eye. We hopped on one of the busses and it of course started to rain not even 10 minutes into our ride so we decided to get off at the tower of London museum which was a terrible idea because only parts of this are inside; but it was very interesting as there is so much history there. We then walked across the Tower Bridge to head to Burrough Market to get some lunch before hopping back on the tour bus to ride around and see the remaining sites. We got off at the Buckingham Palace because double decker busses are not allowed to drive in front of the palace (assuming security reasons) and took the walk along St. James Park to the houses of Parliament, past Big Ben and to the London Eye – which was very neat to ride at night!
For dinner we of course ate fish and chips – and not surprisingly, Leanne did not like her mushy peas!
On Saturday morning we walked over to the shopping district and grabbed lunch (fish and chips again) before heading to the tube to catch our train to Brussels. Again, it started pouring after being a beautiful, sunny morning and my shoes are still soaked as this time the wind broke my umbrella.
We made a pit stop in Brussels so I could show her the Grote Markt, Manneken Pis, to grab dinner, and so she could buy some Belgian chocolate. Our flight is ~11AM tomorrow and I am looking forward to being back in Chicago / home for Thanksgiving!!
On Saturday morning we walked over to the shopping district and grabbed lunch (fish and chips again) before heading to the tube to catch our train to Brussels. Again, it started pouring after being a beautiful, sunny morning and my shoes are still soaked as this time the wind broke my umbrella.
We made a pit stop in Brussels so I could show her the Grote Markt, Manneken Pis, to grab dinner, and so she could buy some Belgian chocolate. Our flight is ~11AM tomorrow and I am looking forward to being back in Chicago / home for Thanksgiving!!
Trip to Paris
Caption: Outside the Louvre.
Thursday morning we went to the Eiffel tower to go up to the top – which took ~2 hours at 1 PM on a Thursday but overall totally worth it as we were able to see Paris from an extraordinary view and made sure we got our money’s worth by making a stop at each of the three levels.
We then headed to a restaurant for a break to grab a crepe before heading to the Louvre where we only had enough time to see the Mona Lisa, which is incredibly small and anti-climatic because you can not get within 25 feet of it and it is not big enough to really get a good view of it.
Caption: Just want to show the setup, has a whole wall to itself, it is small and you can not get very close.
We are now on our way to London via the high-speed Eurostar train – we paid an extra $16 per person for the ‘Leisure Select Club’ and it was totally worth it! Three rounds of drinks, a small meal and dessert is the best way to arrive in London without a clue of how to get to our hotel :-)!!!!
Koln
On Friday night I was supposed to learn some more Dutch songs while participating in my first ‘Cantus’; (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantus). Unfortunately, when I was trying to leave work the car that I was supposed to have was no where to be found so I was unable to drive to Leuven. They called a cab for me and I told him to step on it to make the 19:42 train to Leuven, so he did everything he could to get me to the train station at 19:40, but when I walked in I realized the train left at 19:34 so we received some bad information. Then, I was lucky enough to have to take the 25 minute walk to my hotel where I was so bummed and tired I just went to bed at 9 PM. Saturday morning I took the train to meet Leanne :-) at the airport and we were planning to head to Cologne for the weekend. Her plane was a bit delayed so we stayed in Brussels until our train left to Germany. When we arrived in Germany we walked out of the train station and ‘Holy Dom’ – the Dom is the HUGE cathedral just outside of the train station and it was beautiful (could definitely use a power wash though!).
After we checked into our hotel we walked toward the city centre and found a place to eat dinner and we found this nice little pub in the Alter Markt and ordered a ‘Halve Hahn’ (bread, Dutch cheese, and onion) and potatoes with a fried egg – delicious! Then we saw a huge Ferris wheel across the Rhein River so we took the journey over there and we rode the swings, the Ferris wheel and I rode this ride called the ‘Stargate’ – which is the witch’s wheel on steroids! It spun me round and round, up and down, for almost 10 minutes and I think I said “O Sheizer” almost 75 times! We then kept on pub hopping until we stopped for some German fries on the way back to the hotel.
Sunday we woke up fairly early to a beautiful day and the first thing we wanted to do was to scale the Dom - ~530 stairs to the top and the stair case was a very small, spiraling staircase nearly the entire way up (and down) so it was rather cramped and people were heaving by the time they reached the top! It was much more fun to go down the stairs and laugh (internally) at the people who were breathing heavy and I knew they were note even close to the top yet!
After taming the Dom we headed toward the Chocolate Museum which used to be owned by my client but we sold it back to Lindt a while back. It was fairly interesting (more for Leanne) as I know how chocolate is made and we had an amazing dessert / hot chocolates afterwards.
After the museum we were on a mission to find a pretzel and some German sausage at a Brauhaus. First stop – ‘Peters Brauhaus’ and we ordered a wiener schnitzel – and guess what – this IS NOT sausage!!! It is this beaten piece of pork and it only leads to disappointment.
So we made our way to the shopping area and found a huge pretzel and it tasted like a normal pretzel you would buy at any ball game. But, after we went to another Brauhaus to order a real sausage and it was priced by the quarter meter so we knew we were in business! So good too!
Then, we hit a couple souvenir shops to find my magnet then we headed back to Belgium.
After we checked into our hotel we walked toward the city centre and found a place to eat dinner and we found this nice little pub in the Alter Markt and ordered a ‘Halve Hahn’ (bread, Dutch cheese, and onion) and potatoes with a fried egg – delicious! Then we saw a huge Ferris wheel across the Rhein River so we took the journey over there and we rode the swings, the Ferris wheel and I rode this ride called the ‘Stargate’ – which is the witch’s wheel on steroids! It spun me round and round, up and down, for almost 10 minutes and I think I said “O Sheizer” almost 75 times! We then kept on pub hopping until we stopped for some German fries on the way back to the hotel.
Sunday we woke up fairly early to a beautiful day and the first thing we wanted to do was to scale the Dom - ~530 stairs to the top and the stair case was a very small, spiraling staircase nearly the entire way up (and down) so it was rather cramped and people were heaving by the time they reached the top! It was much more fun to go down the stairs and laugh (internally) at the people who were breathing heavy and I knew they were note even close to the top yet!
After the museum we were on a mission to find a pretzel and some German sausage at a Brauhaus. First stop – ‘Peters Brauhaus’ and we ordered a wiener schnitzel – and guess what – this IS NOT sausage!!! It is this beaten piece of pork and it only leads to disappointment.
Then, we hit a couple souvenir shops to find my magnet then we headed back to Belgium.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Last Night in Europe (for E&J)
Our last night we went to a nice restaurant in Aalst and had plans of coming back to the hotel and order a waffle off of their 24 hour snack menu... but of course they could not do waffles tonight. Poor Emma and Jessie, could not go anywhere today because of the rail strikes, and then no waffle! We made sure to exchange all of our pictures and then got some sleep as I am driving them to the train station early. Quick sidenote: Jessie got an email tonight from United telling her that her flight was canceled, and they might have booked her on a different flight already. So after making numerous phone calls to both United and US Air at 0.75 eurocents a minute, she finally was told that her flight was not canceled but today's flight was canceled and they emailed her by accident due to the time change blah blah. It was quite humorous when she found out and just laughed at the person on the phone (mainly because Emma and I were laughing in the background making her laugh...!) Also, bad news, the apartment I was supposed to live in has been rented out (because it took forever to get them to approve this through the client...!!!), and there are no other apartments in Gent left...
More Driving Adventures...
So Tuesday morning was the last day I was able to drive the Audi – just as I finally was used to it. So today I get a Renault Laguna – and to make matters worse of course it is pouring out. By the time I actually find the car (because again it was not parked where they told me), I was half soaked. The navigation system actually has a visual map which is nice, except it only has Dutch or French and it took me 5-10 minutes to find the parking break because it was a lever/button deal underneath the left side of the steering wheel. I ended up finally making it home, only stalled once because of the new clutch, in a decent sized intersection but not too big of a deal. Wednesday morning I had to take a colleague from Barcelona who is in for the week and this other random guy who is in the hotel, plus Emma and Jessie wanted me to drop them off at the train station. However, I was unable to start the car because the battery was dead – must of left a light on even though we double checked twice… So that was a great way to start the morning!
So glad we are going to dinner in Gent tonight (but I do not know if I should drive as parking is a mess, and the rail company is supposedly supposed to go on strike tonight so… I might be stuck in Gent!).
Dinner in Gent was very nice – the food was not remarkable, but I did not taste anything that wasn’t good. I had pigeon soup and Scottish fawn for dinner, interesting but very good – the pigeon was actually better than the fawn!
After dinner we walked a bit in Gent and went to a couple pubs including the ‘little bicycle’ pub I went the first time I was there with all of the junk all over the ceilings! I ended up driving because the rail company's strike – but I did very well, even parked in an underground parking garage so I am getting better!! But I am excited I was able to drive to and in the city center of Gent without much issue as I am hoping my apartment gets approved today so I can move in on Saturday...!!!
So glad we are going to dinner in Gent tonight (but I do not know if I should drive as parking is a mess, and the rail company is supposedly supposed to go on strike tonight so… I might be stuck in Gent!).
Dinner in Gent was very nice – the food was not remarkable, but I did not taste anything that wasn’t good. I had pigeon soup and Scottish fawn for dinner, interesting but very good – the pigeon was actually better than the fawn!
Pigeon soup above. Scottish fawn below.
After dinner we walked a bit in Gent and went to a couple pubs including the ‘little bicycle’ pub I went the first time I was there with all of the junk all over the ceilings! I ended up driving because the rail company's strike – but I did very well, even parked in an underground parking garage so I am getting better!! But I am excited I was able to drive to and in the city center of Gent without much issue as I am hoping my apartment gets approved today so I can move in on Saturday...!!!
Evening in Brussels
After work I took the train to Brussels to meet up Emma and Jessie for dinner at a restaurant called “Bonsoir Clara” – one that was in all of our guide books and was also suggested by some friends in Chicago. The food was delicious, we ordered scallops, monk fish, salmon, and baby soles; the soles and the scallops were the best! The atmosphere reminded me of a miniature Carnivale with bright colors everywhere. After dinner I took them to this neat little ‘pub’ that Hugo took me to on Friday night – you would never guess that it was a bar. Inside is filled with couches, books, paintings – looks more similar to a home.
Caption: Never guess this was a bar would you?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Halloween in Amsterdam
Happy birthday Hennis! I stayed at Hugo's place in Brussels on Friday night because Emma's flight landed at 7AM on Saturday morning. Hugo and his gf Jaclyn picked me up around 7:30 and we up and headed into Leuven for breakfast before heading up to Amsterdam-- Jessie was flying into Amsterdam and was meeting us at the hotel. The drive into Amsterdam was very cool - Holland is beautiful, they manicure everything to perfection; from their roads, to farmland, to the trees - I have never seen so many perfectly aligned, exact looking, same height and trimmed tall trees in my life. We arrived at the hotel around 1:30 and met up with Jessie and started walking around the city center to find some lunch.
The city also had the "2009 Parade of Elephants"-differently designed elephants in all parts of the city, I took quite a few pics of a lot of them but here is one of the funniest ones, I think its name was "KISS":
The hotel was literally 4 beds in a room and a tiny bathroom. After lunch we decided to head to the Van Gogh museum which was incredible - it was interesting to learn more of his story and see some of his original works in person, except it brought me back to my Art 1 days and how I "earned" a B as a junior...
When we checked into the hotel I grabbed a free guide book and noticed one of the attractions was the "House of Bols - the ultimate cocktail and genever experience." Emma was craving a cocktail after walking around the Van Gogh museum and conveniently enough the House of Bols was across the street! We arrived at 5:45 just wanting to grab a drink at the bar and we found out it was more of a museum type deal where you have a short independent tour and the bar is at the end where you get a drink and a couple tastes of the different flavored purees and their own genever (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenever). So of course we bought the tickets and had a blast finding our way to the bar as we were the only people remaining on the tour. I chose the double dutch cosmopolitan and the banana and peach flavored purees.
After 5 drinks and about 15 tastings between the 5 of us we were feeling a bit warmer and ready to go to dinner. Where would we go? (Of course I was quick enough to ask the cashier at the beginning of the tour if she had any restaurant suggestions, being a local and all, and she suggested a place called “Bazar,” which was a Middle Eastern genre where you get lots of food for a little price.) So we went to Bazar, and it was in an old, large synagogue converted to two-level restaurant – she was correct, good food and everything totaled to be less than 20 Euros a head.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel so the girls and I could freshen up a bit because they were in the same clothes since Friday morning and me because I was in the same clothes as Friday morning…! It was finally dark and we headed over to the highly anticipated red light district to see what it was really like. After one walk through it, we found a quaint little pub and we discussed what we had just witnessed because it was not quite what we had imagined and our curiosity was racing. [My thoughts: it was much more organized / commercialized than I thought, all of the girls are in buildings behind windows (doors really) with red lights above them, and if someone is interested they walk up to the door, the girl opens it and if the price is right then they close the door then the curtain…] After ten minutes of conversing we came up with the following competition (Disclaimer: this exercise was being performed strictly for educational purposes only :-) ). One of the questions we were discussing was “How much?” So we decided there was only one way to find out.
Rules:
On the back of your coaster, write down how much you think it is for each of the 3 categories:
1) Very attractive
2) Somewhat attractive
3) Unattractive
The level of attractiveness will be agreed on by the entire group before going to ask how much. The winner will be the lowest sum of the differences for each category.
I suggest you do the same and take the "Red Light District Challenge" and see how well you would have done. The answers will be at the end of the blog, so keep reading!
After this challenge we found a pub with an empty table so we went in – after about 5 minutes we realized why it was somewhat empty – because it was a karaoke bar! Did that stop us? Of course not, we ended up stealing the show and owning the microphone while we were there singing “Come on Eileen” and “Shout” and also singing louder and more accurate than the group that sang “Poker Face” and we didn’t even have a microphone. Unfortunately, they could not find “Sweet Caroline” or “Wannabe” but we still managed to have a good time with it and we have the entire ‘Shout’ performance on video, it’s hilar!
We were all exhausted so we decided to head back to the hotel and almost made the guy at the front desk cry because he did not have the authority to make a decision on whether or not we were able to sleep 5 people in our room, because we checked in with 4 people – so we made up a story, walked all over him and slept 5 people in our room. (For whatever reason, they are extremely particular on the number of people in a room and we were not even allowed to take our key out of the hotel, we had to leave it at the front desk when we left.) So we paid the 30 bucks for an extra person when we checked out in the morning. We woke up early as we wanted to get some pictures by the “I Amsterdam” sign and see some more of the city before we went to the “Heineken experience” museum at noon.
The museum was definitely an “experience” and was again definitely worth the money spent. We were able to learn a bit more the evolution of the brand, how they make their beer, and were even able to make this amazing dutch video (http://heineken_singalong.bitmove.tv/bitmove/cgi/receive.jsp?uid=9A96D4E6A58DD1F27C3837859E7BE129&format=wmv)!
We stopped at a McDonald's on the way home and it tasted exactly the same, and their American meal of the week was the "Chicago Works." We then drove back to Belgium and the drive was full of traffic and heavy rains so it took longer than expected but Hugo was nice enough to drive us by the world Expo Atonium and take some pictures of us in the rain!
And now what we have all been waiting for… the results from the educational exercise. Well the big winner in our group was Jessie. She was an amazing $5 off:
Official Results, total difference:
1) Jessie - $5
2) Hugo - $30
3) Matt - $140
4) Emma - $155
5) Jaclyn - $325
Needless to say we gave Jaclyn a bit of a hard time. So the answers you are waiting for:
1) Very attractive = $50
2) Somewhat attractive = $50
3) Unattractive = $25
Total - $125
* The asterisk on this incredibly unofficial study was that there were no questions on service provided and that is something that we had no desire to tackle...!* Overall, phenomenal weekend in a beautiful city.
The city also had the "2009 Parade of Elephants"-differently designed elephants in all parts of the city, I took quite a few pics of a lot of them but here is one of the funniest ones, I think its name was "KISS":
The hotel was literally 4 beds in a room and a tiny bathroom. After lunch we decided to head to the Van Gogh museum which was incredible - it was interesting to learn more of his story and see some of his original works in person, except it brought me back to my Art 1 days and how I "earned" a B as a junior...
When we checked into the hotel I grabbed a free guide book and noticed one of the attractions was the "House of Bols - the ultimate cocktail and genever experience." Emma was craving a cocktail after walking around the Van Gogh museum and conveniently enough the House of Bols was across the street! We arrived at 5:45 just wanting to grab a drink at the bar and we found out it was more of a museum type deal where you have a short independent tour and the bar is at the end where you get a drink and a couple tastes of the different flavored purees and their own genever (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenever). So of course we bought the tickets and had a blast finding our way to the bar as we were the only people remaining on the tour. I chose the double dutch cosmopolitan and the banana and peach flavored purees.
After 5 drinks and about 15 tastings between the 5 of us we were feeling a bit warmer and ready to go to dinner. Where would we go? (Of course I was quick enough to ask the cashier at the beginning of the tour if she had any restaurant suggestions, being a local and all, and she suggested a place called “Bazar,” which was a Middle Eastern genre where you get lots of food for a little price.) So we went to Bazar, and it was in an old, large synagogue converted to two-level restaurant – she was correct, good food and everything totaled to be less than 20 Euros a head.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel so the girls and I could freshen up a bit because they were in the same clothes since Friday morning and me because I was in the same clothes as Friday morning…! It was finally dark and we headed over to the highly anticipated red light district to see what it was really like. After one walk through it, we found a quaint little pub and we discussed what we had just witnessed because it was not quite what we had imagined and our curiosity was racing. [My thoughts: it was much more organized / commercialized than I thought, all of the girls are in buildings behind windows (doors really) with red lights above them, and if someone is interested they walk up to the door, the girl opens it and if the price is right then they close the door then the curtain…] After ten minutes of conversing we came up with the following competition (Disclaimer: this exercise was being performed strictly for educational purposes only :-) ). One of the questions we were discussing was “How much?” So we decided there was only one way to find out.
Rules:
On the back of your coaster, write down how much you think it is for each of the 3 categories:
1) Very attractive
2) Somewhat attractive
3) Unattractive
The level of attractiveness will be agreed on by the entire group before going to ask how much. The winner will be the lowest sum of the differences for each category.
I suggest you do the same and take the "Red Light District Challenge" and see how well you would have done. The answers will be at the end of the blog, so keep reading!
After this challenge we found a pub with an empty table so we went in – after about 5 minutes we realized why it was somewhat empty – because it was a karaoke bar! Did that stop us? Of course not, we ended up stealing the show and owning the microphone while we were there singing “Come on Eileen” and “Shout” and also singing louder and more accurate than the group that sang “Poker Face” and we didn’t even have a microphone. Unfortunately, they could not find “Sweet Caroline” or “Wannabe” but we still managed to have a good time with it and we have the entire ‘Shout’ performance on video, it’s hilar!
Caption: Sorry, but I just think this picture of the karaoke screen is hilarious...
We were all exhausted so we decided to head back to the hotel and almost made the guy at the front desk cry because he did not have the authority to make a decision on whether or not we were able to sleep 5 people in our room, because we checked in with 4 people – so we made up a story, walked all over him and slept 5 people in our room. (For whatever reason, they are extremely particular on the number of people in a room and we were not even allowed to take our key out of the hotel, we had to leave it at the front desk when we left.) So we paid the 30 bucks for an extra person when we checked out in the morning. We woke up early as we wanted to get some pictures by the “I Amsterdam” sign and see some more of the city before we went to the “Heineken experience” museum at noon.
Caption: Amazing feature on my camera.
The museum was definitely an “experience” and was again definitely worth the money spent. We were able to learn a bit more the evolution of the brand, how they make their beer, and were even able to make this amazing dutch video (http://heineken_singalong.bitmove.tv/bitmove/cgi/receive.jsp?uid=9A96D4E6A58DD1F27C3837859E7BE129&format=wmv)!
We stopped at a McDonald's on the way home and it tasted exactly the same, and their American meal of the week was the "Chicago Works." We then drove back to Belgium and the drive was full of traffic and heavy rains so it took longer than expected but Hugo was nice enough to drive us by the world Expo Atonium and take some pictures of us in the rain!
And now what we have all been waiting for… the results from the educational exercise. Well the big winner in our group was Jessie. She was an amazing $5 off:
Official Results, total difference:
1) Jessie - $5
2) Hugo - $30
3) Matt - $140
4) Emma - $155
5) Jaclyn - $325
Needless to say we gave Jaclyn a bit of a hard time. So the answers you are waiting for:
1) Very attractive = $50
2) Somewhat attractive = $50
3) Unattractive = $25
Total - $125
* The asterisk on this incredibly unofficial study was that there were no questions on service provided and that is something that we had no desire to tackle...!* Overall, phenomenal weekend in a beautiful city.
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