First Euroflat Brussels

... yes Mum, there was more than one) markets around the place, as well as take in the absolutely stunning architecture that surrounds them. We tried “hot dogs”, which as you can see in the picture of Todd, are not your traditional American kind, crepes (delicious!) and fairy floss (just because I wanted some). A must see in the centre of Brussels is the Mannekin Pis, which literally means the ******* man. They have outfits for him to suit every occasion ...

... they are Belgium’s big sea catch and they are fantastic. Whether beer cooked, white wine or creamy wine they are good. They come in little mussel pots and are really a great bargain considering how many you get for the price. We ate ourselves sick with mussels because people here can always cook at least one thing well – mussels.
Several local (as in, brewed on premises) micro brews that were pretty good, but not outstanding. Portland makes us beer spoiled.

... exterior and nineteenth centuty atmosphere. Like we do, we stopped into a pub for lunch and a few high-alcohol Belgian beers. When I say "high-alcohol," I definitely mean it. I had two Nostradamus's, and John and Drew had something called a "Guillotine." Can you say, "12%" easily? Delicious. The ladies sitting next to us who were staring at the American urchin children the whole time certainly agreed. Latriece ...

... sometimes you get an onslaught of skinheads - they're nice enough (to me, anyway, because I support Barça and Sant Andreu) but they do make a lot of noise. Anyway, I've been looking at pictures of Brussels and it looks quite a nice place. I suppose they must have chosen it as the political nerve centre of Europe for one reason or another. Although knowing politicians, I suspect that it became the capital of the European Union because of the quality ...

train to Brussels
-waffles and chocolate in train station
-drunk dude who was laughing ridiculous loud in station, scaring people
-spent the night in Charleroi airport (not even close to Brussels, would've ben nice to know that)
-plane to Dublin

... and the mannekin pis, which i will include the pics. IUf you dont know that is the statue of the baby taking a leak. of course, baby boy alex has a new t shirt coming with a baby boy taking a leak. I want to encourage all to **** outdoors like my baby boy likes too!! Anyway, today we hopped on the train, and in 1 1/2 hours, were in PAris. Visited notre dame, oh, ill tell you more later. LaterS!!!

... pretty often. Seems they only got interested in talking to us when they learned afterall that we were foreigner from 'interesting' country. Anyhow, the dance evening started quite suddenly and I wasn't too mad when I noticed that I could stay appart as I didn't have a matching partner. So I sticked to the back of the room sipping my drink and making sure nobody was noticing me... then sipping the drinks of Achim and Dylan, avoiding the looks of the other persons coming in ...

... to get some night shots because I've seen some postcards of lthe guildhouses all lit up and pretty - but it doesn't get dark until almost 10pm and I couldn't be bothered going back out at that time of night. I'm settling down by then, ready to play some cards, have a shower and then go to bed. The weather here in Belgium hasn't been kind to us. It hasn't been cold but it's been raining on and off a lot. Wheneverf we head outside it starts to rain so I get my umbrella ...

... view: THE FINAL DAY: FRANCE AND CHIMAY To get from Boullion to the Chimay monastery, the most direct route was to drive through France. Coming into France was not like the other European Union border crossings we'd experienced thus far. When driving across the German or Belgian borders, it's sort of like driving to another state in the U.S. There's a sign that says "Welcome to Germany" and that's about it. But, coming into France was a little ...