Antwerp Diamond Hotel

... wind dies down, honestly! We have six hours to wait in Heathrow, where we will buy stuff that's either cheaper or more familiar than stuff in Brussels, we will eat something (farewell weight watchers, knew my trousers wouldn't be baggy for long..), probably take the mickey out of English travellers in their football shirts and sit in the lounge and write on the blog.<br><br>Very excited about going to Thailand!!

Today Ann took us to Antwerp for the day. We walked around the whole downtown city core taking photos and visiting the cathedrals in the neighbourhood. While visiting the grand train station, we noticed that there was a lot of extra security and police officers everywhere so we stopped to ask what the fuss was all about. Turns out that the Prince of Belgium (Philippe) was bound to ...

... to watch the Brad Pitt and Angelina Joulie spy flick (which I would never, never recommend!). Belgium was a lot different than Amsterdam. Amsterdam, where the bikes ruled, and pedestrians weaved around town without crosswalk or other traffic limitations, was contrasted by Belgium with somewhat fast moving traffic, and pedestrians that followed the crosswalk signals. A lot like Seattle with this one! But somewhat had the fast moving South ...

The last two days in Belgium were superb! Isaac and I had met a guy named Jelle (Yella) from Belgium while we were in London and he said we could come stay with him in Belgium... so we did! He picked us up from the train station and we went to his small town of Melsbroek. He had already set up a tent for us to sleep in with air mattresses! His mom made us a very filling dinner of potatoes and chicken. Later we went to his "Youth Mansion" to hang ...

... will teach me hanggliding. I have already National Parks, trainrides, ghostcitys, caves, scenerytours, photografic beauties in the planning. The stuff that is not clear yet is when to do what :) But hey, we still have 2 months.

... Here is a pic of St.Nick's Church, the third of the three Belfry Towers.. After the 3 towers, we walked to the town hall, along the canal and to the main square (GroentenMrkt). The scenery was breath taking and the fact that the weather was gorgeous with blue skies (very un-Belgian) made everything that much more beautiful. As we walked along the canal we were overtaken by this very random mini dancing parade. From a distance we saw these ...

... a hurry and I managed to get powdered sugar all over me! We made it to the station and headed into Brussels. From Brussels, we had to make a reservation on the train for a whopping 11 euro and then we went and bought lunch for the train ride. Our train left at 10 past 1 and we were scheduled to arrive in Paris a little after 2:30. I kept thinking over and over again on the train ride "Oh mon dieu, quelque minutes" meaning "Oh my god, any minute." Actually ...

Okay, so my dorm neighbor, Diane and I, booked a last minute trip to Brussels for last weekend. We got a hella sweet deal, and stayed at a wonderful hotel that was just up the street from the mass of EU buildings. It was pretty cool to see the center of the European Union after having studied it in class for the last week. So here's what happened... we got to the Eurostar station about 13 minutes before the train was set to leave, but ...

Am nächsten Tag war ich mal wieder auf der Strecke, diesmal wirklich nach Brüssel. Alles lief ganz gut, ein netter Herr brachte mich nach einem einstündigen Meeting in Dortmund nach Köln. Dort gab es die ersten Probleme, keine netten Autos in die richtige Richtung. Das hatten auch ein dänisch-französisches Pärchen erfahren, das seit 25 Stunden wartete. Genau als endlich ...

... B-DAY It was my b-day weekend and we decided that following work on Fri. we would grab a car and head to Belgium. We decided that we would investigate the mountainous region in the southeastern part of Belgium called the Ardennes. So we grabbed the car and aimed to head out of town before traffic hit. It didn't work...Fri. happened to have been Sinterklaas Day (as referred to in a previous t-pod). On Sinterklaas, people exchange small gag gifts with one another. It is a big party ...