Hotel Werchter Leuven

Hi Everyone!

After catching up with work from school and just taking a few days to enjoy Florence, I was off to my next destination…Brussels!

We had found a great deal using Ryan Air and decided to jump on the offer.

We departed early from Florence by train in order to get to the airport in Pisa. After a quick transfer, we were there. The Pisa airport is very tiny, similar to Florence's airport. We checked in, and then waited ...

I'm tired. I'm surrounded by bodies of people in the same boat, many of whom have given in to the tiredness despite the uncomfortable surroundings. I have spent much of the last day in a muddy field in the middle of Belgium . This could go on to be some weird fantasy about being a first world war veteran, but I have in fact been at Belgium's premier music festival, Rock Werchter, so named because they ...

... to the brand of Stella Artois. We all know Stella is a second rate boring lager, but anyway...What you have to be able to do it go through the complicated pouring ritual and pour two Stella's exactly the same. They scrutinise the sizes of head in millimetres or less. Then in the second round you have to do that plus pour two other beers, a Hoegaarden and a Leffe Brune from the bottle. It is really good except for when they tip the beer down ...

... and the kids got a piece of cake to split for an after lunch treat. We made grilled cheese for lunch and they split their cake with raspberries on the side for dessert. I tried with all my might to get Eliza to take an early nap so we could head to the park and the pool, but she was too wound up. Abigail took a nice little nap however. We ended up waking Abigail up around 2:30 and heading to the park across town via the ...

... was indeed exceptionally good. Yummy. Six happy people left the restaurant and we all walked around some more. In the Oude Markt, we saw costumed people preparing for a parade for something called the Meyboomplanting, which, best as I gather, involves the ceremonial planting of a tree. The costumed people seemed intent for us to understand what it was all about, and helpfully handed out brochures, but since I don't read Flemish, I'm relying on hearsay on that one. In ...

... that it brought us out on a different part of the street and Emma still could figure out where we needed to go. She has a great sense of direction. We had pasta and salad for dinner and then walked to the center of town and got the kids an ice cream. A lazy evening of wine and relaxing is our plan this evening. No TV (there is one but at this time of year the only thing we wish to be watching is the Red Sox L ), but we are enjoying each other's company immensely!

... particularly good, but it was better than nothing. Douglas decided to go back to the hostel after only a few minutes. He was pretty exhausted having only slept a short while last night. I continued to walk around, however. Le Grand Place actually reminds me a little bit of the square in front of Santiago de Compostela's cathedral. Santiago is famous as being the end point of a pilgrimage that stretches over 900 km, all the way from ...

... sqaure not only looked to be the oldest area I've ever been in, in a modern city, but it was also the prettiest. Down the street I saw the little statue of a boy peeing. It was hilarious, there were throngs of tourist taking pictures of the statue, of course I joined in. Although the most important thing for me in the area was the little waffle stand. I had the most amazing belgian waffle, smothered in strawberies, whip cream, powered sugar and chocolate syrup ...

We are now in Brussels after a short one hour train ride. Our last night in Brugge was spent having dinner at a delightful side walk cafe and watching all the tourists. Of course by this time, we are old time locals. Mom had what she had wanted since we got to Belgium--Mussels. Me; well I had sole. The food was great as usual. We have not had a bad meal since we arrived this time. It was a great experience to be able to casually sit outside and have ...

... town, windmills, a pub, and a castle. Then to a local chocolate shop (they are everywhere! With everything from chocolate soccer balls, to chocolate brazieres!) Tomorrow we head to Haarlem, Netherlands, which will be our home base for Amsterdam. We're having a wonderful time, it's all a bit overwhelming, though! It hasn't quite sunk in yet that we're really here! More from us the next time we find a cyber cafe! Love, Ron and Ellie