Hostellerie Klokhof Kortrijk

Hé hé !

L'Amérique latine, nous voici nous voilà très très bientôt !!!
Plus que quelques heures avant le décollage...
L'excitation et l'appréhension sont 2 émotions qui se battent en duel en ce moment.

Le départ est prévu à 20h ce lundi 7 décembre de Paris CDG et l'atterrisage le mardi 8 décembre à Buenos Aires.
Nous en avons rêvé et ce projet va enfin devenir réalité.

Nous partons tout équipés : les 2 v ...

... window on the way, listening to my ipod looking out the window. By the time I got out of the train at Brugges, and walked along countless other tourists (insane, and this is WINTER), the sun had peeked out a bit.

By the time I was walking into the main historical center, I had beautiful weather. Nice rays of sunshine giving me some beautiful lighting for pictures and just admiring the beauty of ...

... is the largest collection of musical instruments in the world, and for only 4 euro (with a student card discount), I spent a good couple of hours visiting the hundreds and hundreds of musical instruments, which automatically play 2 or 3 short pieces through your wireless headphones as you walk around the different exhibits. -

It was "fun" (quote marks intended for ...

... the amazing Louvre, with the Mona Lisa and thousands of other pieces of art, as well as the Chateau de Versailles. Anyways, Paris was amazing, and now I'll be in Lille for a couple of days..

My European trip is coming to an end in about 2 weeks or so, when I leave from Dusseldorf on the 8th of December to Fort Myers Florida. But before that I still have a bit of Netherlands and Belgium to enjoy..

... well I think, travelling over 1400 miles (or over 2300km) and the car ran faultlessly! Overall it was an awesome holiday, we all had heaps of fun and all said we'd like to do it again. The next one is in early May, and is going to be a motorsport themed event, running through France to Monaco, ending at the Monaco Grand Prix. I'd really like to go on this rally, but won't be able to as I'll be on the Topdeck training trip!

... attention to detail.

Back on the road, we headed further north and crossed over the border in Luxembourg. We stopped briefly at some motorway services, but as we were running short for time we didn't get the chance to stop in Luxembourg city. Going through one village we did see a pretty cool house on top of an outcrop of rocks, which looked great all lit up, but it was hard to get a shot which did it justice.

After crossing over into Belgium we stopped for gas, then ...

... the market and the shops and then went on a boat ride which was fantastic, after which we went to a tea-room which claimed to have the best hot chocolate in town, and it was really good! It was incredibly sickly though and gave both Erin and I a headache for the ride home!

Altogether a really fun day out in Bruges, truffles bought, Belgian food eaten and Belgian alcohol drunk, and Belgian chocolate drunk! This is another place where we will definitely be returning!!

... once again. When we weren't needed we spent the time walking around Lille, in our Rotary blazers, dancing in the Grand Place and the fountain, or getting free hugs, or taking photos with men all dressed up because they were getting married soon. It was also organised that night that a bunch of us were going to go salsa-ing, but I couldn't because I had another party to go to. Boy, doesn't it suck to be overbooked? But that Saturday was a really good Saturday. Anytime with the ...

... Flaming Moe" of "The Simpsons" fame! Caprese salad - good, as always! Tortellini with a 4-cheese sauce - it was reminiscent of the phlegm sauce I had in Palermo (see Euro 2006 blog entitled - "A culinary delight - cannelloni with phlegm sauce!") It was served with some shredded cheese on the side - I'm not sure what it was, but it definitely wasn't parmesan. Definitely not the best pasta I've ever had. I momentarily ******* my ...

Today we travelled to Belgium with our parents. We started out in the city of Brugge. This is a beautiful city full of (surprise) canals, cathedrals, and incredible architecture. The city is extremely old- many of the buildings dating back to the 1600's. The thing that makes Brugge unique is that even though it is a large city, you feel as if it is very small. All of the streets are narrow and lined with cozy little cafe's, waffle ...