On our second day in Bruges we rented a bicycle and took a scenic tour of the city and then road along the canal to the small town of Damme. In the 13th century, Damme was the port for Bruges and linked by the river Reie. Now the river has been canalized into the long, straight, treelined and picturesque Damse Vaart.
After a day and a half in the big city of Brussels we got on a train and headed to Bruges. Bruges has beautiful canals, great architecture, and idealic cafes. If you’re wondering about the spelling of the town, it’s Bruges in French and English, and Brugge in Flemish.
After getting off our train into Bruges we jumped onto a bus to Bruges’ Market Square, the heart of the city. In the square is the bell tower, which has been there since 1300. We climbed the 366 steps of the tower to get a sense of the town. In front of the bell tower sits two french-fry stands and as you might guess french fries are big in Belgium as well.
During our tour of the town we visited the Basilica of the Holy Blood which is famous for its relic of the blood of Christ, which, according to tradition, was brought to Bruges in 1150 after the Second Crusade.
We also went to the City Hall and the Church of Our Lady. In this beautiful church there is a statue of Madonna and Child by Michelangelo but to our dismay, this section of the church has been sectioned off and costs what at the time seemed like an unreasonable amount of money just to see the statue.
Kate and I spent two days exploring this beautiful little town. Some highlights of our time in Bruges included the food and beverages of course. Chocolate. There are small chocolate shops all over this quant town where you can get an assortment of Bruges’ best pralines which are filled chocolates. We toured a chocolate museum where we learned the history of chocolate and how it’s made in Belgium today.
Waffles are maybe one of the best things I found in Belgium and nothing like the breakfast food you get in the states. It’s eaten as a dessert or afternoon snack, alone or with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Belgium is also known for it’s mussels and fries and of course, we had to have some!
Bruges is one of those towns that missed the 21st-century bus and is full of Old World charm. And the reason why I loved this town so much!
While in France this summer one of my good friends and co-worker, Kate was able to visit and do all of the wonderful touristy things with me while Dusty worked. Kate and I took a trip to Belgium and visited two of it’s major cities, Brussels and Bruges. We met in Brussels and then made our way to Bruges after a day and a half of sightseeing.
Brussels was most definitely the big city. The city is the capital of Belgium and the European Union. The city’s main square is called La Grand Place and is the heart of the old town. The main square is where we spent most of our time. We toured the Museum of Modern Art and the Magritte Museum, honoring the Surrealist painter René Magritte.
One fun fact is that Brussels has one of the most interesting mascots. Its mascot is the Manneken-Pis, a statue/fountain of a little boy who looks like he’s peeing. Of course, we made sure to find time to have a few glasses of Belgium’s beer and eat lots of chocolate. I did try a few “real” beers but tended to choose the cherry-flavored Kriek and strawberry-flavored Frambozen as my beer of choice. Both are well huge in Belgium. There are hundreds of different kinds of Belgium beers as well as chocolate.
While we were in Paris this summer I took a day trip to Giverny to see Monet’s garden. I took four years of french in high school and because of this I’m in love with French impressionists including Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. Monet is famous for his waterlilies and his garden at Giverny.
Above are two paintings by Monet of his garden and water lilies. And below are some of the pictures I captured while mesmerized by the beautiful surroundings.
One of my favorite things that we did in London was ride on the London Eye. The London eye is a giant Ferris wheel on the River Thames. The entire structure is 443 ft tall and the wheel has a diameter of 394 ft. It’s the tallest ferris wheel in Europe.
While in Europe this summer we were able to visit a good friend of ours, Stefanie and her fiance, Jay in London. Stefanie’s been traveling around the world for the past two years and happened to be living near London at the time. We took the high-speed Eurostart train to get to London and it took less than two and a half hours, which traverses the English channel via the “Chunnel”. Dusty’s traveled around England before but this was my first visit. We went to all of the big touristy places and really enjoyed our three days away from Paris.
Our fifth wedding anniversary is in just a few short days and we’ll be celebrating in Italy so I thought I’d post a few days early. It’s been five wonderful years!
Le Chateaubriand is one of the cool places to go if you’re a foodie in Paris, at least that’s what we’ve read and what some of our foodie friends say. Dusty was able to get us reservations last night and the chef, Iñaki Aizpitarte, was did a superb job. The word we came up with to describe the food was “interesting”. Dinner was unique, even for a bid city where there are an abundant number of creative chefs. They served a prix-fixe menu and we selected to have the wine pairings to match. We had several amuse-bouches along with our courses, including two desserts.
The staff was very friendly. We were shown our menu and given an excellent description of each dish. The dishes had an interesting combination of ingredients that somehow went well together. There were a couple of times that we had no idea what something was, even after asking our waiter. Our wine pairings, I do believe, made the dishes so much more. They paired well with the dishes and were very much like the dishes, interesting.
Dusty’s favorite dish was the green one. It was describe as “risotto of samphire”. I had no idea what samphire was but Dusty did a little researching and found out that there are two different kinds, we had marsh samphire. Marsh samphire has “vibrant green stalks, similar to baby asparagus, with a distinctively crisp and salty taste”. The dish was most definitely salty. The green stuff on top tasted like seaweed but other than that, I have now idea what the green liquid was or how it was even made. Many of the other dishes were much the same, we knew what one or two ingredients were but couldn’t tell you any more than that. My favorite dish was the second dessert, which was a caramelized egg yolk on a cookie. The cookie reminded me of a macaroon but when we tasted it alone it was almost like cotton candy, both in taste and texture. You were supposed to eat it in one bit and it was amazing!
Amuse-bouches
top left: fish broth; top right: risotto of samphire; bottom left: cod, mushrooms & asparagus; bottom right: lady lamb 6 ways with a shredded white vegetable and mascarpone cheese (or something similar to it)
top left: fluffy whipped marshmallow or cheese with berries; top right: caramelized egg yolk on cookie;
bottom left: seeds on melon; bottom right: people standing in line when we left
The French Open, also known as Roland Garros, is one of the major international tennis matches. It’s held in Paris for two weeks at the end of May and beginning of June each year. The stadium where the tournament is hosted is also called Roland Garros and is located in the southwest part of Paris. I’m a novice to tennis, although I was on the tennis team in high school for one short season. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t even know how to play tennis before I joined. Dusty and I were lucky enough to get tickets from a friend of Dusty’s who works for ESPN and attend a few weekends ago.
I don’t think I realized how lucky we were until that evening when we were out for drinks and we started talking to some gentlemen from Czech Republic who were trying to figure out how to get tickets.
It was super easy to get to Roland Garros using the Metro. The gates opened at 10am and matches started at 11am. We arrived early enough that we could get our bearings and figure out which courts we needed to be at and when.
I think just as much fun as watching the star athletes is watching the “ball boys” and yes, there were girls too. You can tell this must be a huge honor for the kids and they take their jobs very seriously. There’s lots of unspoken communication between them to make sure the balls stay off the court and in the right place. My other favorite part of the event was people watching.
We love taking pictures and being in Paris means we take even more pictures than normal. More pictures doesn’t mean better pictures though. Last summer I took a photography lesson from our neighbor (who’s a professional photographer) and continue to research how to use our camera. I’ve also been reading up on how to enhance our pictures using Photoshop. I know there are many different kinds of software to use but I own Photoshop and am familiar with it just enough to make me dangerous. I’ve followed many design blogs, photographers, and others who enjoy taking pictures for a long time and have decided it’s time for me to start taking advantage of all the free information, tutorials, and advice out there.
Well, here’s my first attempt at enhancing a picture (and understanding what I’m doing). I took this picture at the Bastille market. There’s a subtle difference but just enough to make the vegetables look even more enticing.
