Amsterdam + 2

Our biggest goal today was to just enjoy the city and find some souvenirs from our travels. We headed to a large market in the morning and spent a few hours exploring the endless line of tents. Which is typical of Amsterdam, where there are quite a few large market areas that cater to everyone from the tourist to the long time local. From there we moved on to a section of town we had been to just 5 or so weeks before. The street is lined with apartments, cafes, pubs, and lots of unique stores. Many that house anything from original artworks and designs to vintage clothing or even the perfect waffle maker or motorcycle. Most of our afternoon passed as we entered countless shops with friendly store owners that gave us a look in to there lifestyles and passions. Leaving the area with some great gifts and ways to remember our European vacation we headed back to the bed and breakfast to nibble on some leftovers. We had a pretty low key evening getting everything in order, snacking on some Dutch favorites like Stroopwafels and Gouda cheese. Looking out on the canal as our last night came to an end was quite surreal. It seems like we just left Illinois, yet it feels like our travels have taken us so many places. We said good night to Amsterdam and headed of to bed to some rest before our long day of travel back home.

Amsterdam Again + 1

We decided that our hotel was too far out to experience all that we knew Amsterdam had to offer, so we booked a new hotel in the center of town. We had some time to kill, as we were not supposed to check in until 2. We decided to use this time to get some blog posting's finished. After a few hours of work we hopped on a tram and headed inward. We followed our directions to our new hotel, noticing a few familiar sites along the way. We both remembered how much we liked Amsterdam as we lugged our stuff around the cobble stone streets and sidewalks. We finally arrived at our destination which was a small bed and breakfast. We shortly discovered their was no management at the property, as we rang the door bell and wrapped on the door numerous times. They had nice little benches by the canals, so I let Kristen site down as I went out to get us a quick bite to eat. I weaved in and out of the busy shopping streets trying to find a good lunch deal for take away. I finally found something decent and quickly headed back to the hotel, as this was the longest Kristen and I had been apart this whole trip. I got back to see our bags and Kristen were both gone. Before my heart could skip a beat, the door open and Kristen peeked her head out the door. The cleaning guy had let her in, so we sat on the couch and waited for the owner to come back from lunch. There was a night time clerk there who led us up stairs and had the cleaning guy get a room ready for us. We got our things into the room and were about to head out but then ran into the owner. He got us all set up and we were on our way back into the streets of Amsterdam. Since this was a bed and breakfast there was a fully operational kitchen at our disposal and I had been craving one of Kristen's delicious home made meals, we headed to a grocery store down the road. We picked the ingredients for a great meal and headed back in. We cooked up a feast and had plenty of left overs. We headed back upstairs and just hung out all night talking about our wonderful trip and how much fun we had. We fell asleep early watching some English Law and Order and got ready for a long day of shopping for tomorrow.

Brussels Conclusion

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Brussels +3 and Amsterdam Again

Sunday morning we met back up with Debbie, Andrew, Ashley and Michelle for breakfast. We loaded up on Belgium waffles of course! From there we walked the streets a bit to find a grocery store where we could find some treats to bring back home with us. After getting maybe just a bit too much chocolate we headed to the metro to go out to the east side of town. There we saw the arch of Brussels, it looked similar to the one in Berlin, but much larger. We took some family photos and then we headed across town to the Atomium. Built in the late 1950's for the world exhibition in Brussels, you can't miss it, as these massive silver spheres stick out on the flat land. While we made our way closer for some photos we noticed a few people on top of the highest ball. It turns out that they were zip lining off the Atomium in to the tourist area. Looked a bit to crazy for us, especially a dark clouds approached. We were all hearing our stomachs growl so we stopped in for some colas and paninis. The afternoon was coming to an end so we all headed back to the train station, Evan and I had to go our own way and head on to Amsterdam. We really enjoyed meeting up with everyone. It couldn't have worked out better as a perfect end to our trip. Just getting to chat and talk about all of our travels with some fellow Americans, let alone family was nice. Thanks again guys for meeting up with us!!!!
After our last train ride:( we arrived back in Amsterdam. As we took a tram out to our hotel we were both getting excited to be back. Just seeing the city again revitalized our energy. It seems like it had been so long since we were there, but we instantly remembered so much about the compact little city with its tiny streets, calm canals, and the unique building fronts. The fact that our trip was coming to an end started to set in but we were glad to be back in Amsterdam.

Brussels + 2

We had previously planned to meet a few other Calhounians on our trip to Belgium. Kristen's cousin Andrew and his girlfriend Ashley have been in Germany for six weeks, where Andrew had an internship. Kristen's aunt Debbie who was traveling with her sister Michelle had just arrived in Germany to visit with Andrew and Ashley. We thought what better place to meet up than Brussels. They were to arrive in Brussels by train at 10:30 so we thought we would welcome them at the station. Upon arriving at the station, we discovered there were no arrival display's, so we didn't know which track to wait at. We have only been able to contact them by way of Facebook, so calling them was out of the question. We waited at the main staircase of the station for about a half hour after their train was supposed to arrive. We circled the building numerous times looking for them, but no such luck. We didn't know if we had missed their arrival or if it was running late. We headed out towards the general direction of their hotel looking in shops along our way. We weaved in between the small streets looking for their hotel, but didn't have specific directions. We decided to try and find an internet cafe and get on Facebook to sort things out. We left them a message and came back to our hostel to regroup and whatnot. We checked Facebook once more and found that Andrew got our message and wanted us to meet him at 7. We finally had decent directions so we headed over to their hotel. We found their hotel not more than a few feet from where we were previously looking for it. It was a relief to see some familiar faces. It was such a relief, that we all sat down and talked for a good two and a half hours without noticing our stomachs were growling. Andrew, Ashley, Kristen and I all headed out for some dinner around the center of town. While looking for a place to eat we came upon a light show on the Grand Palace which was pretty nifty. I suddenly had an urge for Greek food since we had brought it up in conversation from our night in Strasbourg, so Andrew led us to the Greek food street. We found a few empty chairs, ordered some food and beer and had a good time talking about our different experiences we all had while in Europe. Later we made our way down the street and ended up stopping in at a small pub where we had some homemade Belgian beer which was quite good. As we walked home from a great day, we made plans to meet up again in the morning to catch some sight seeing.

France Conclusion

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Brussels + 1

We decided to try different sleeping arrangements for our second night in Brussels, hoping to get wi-fi access. We headed to the northern part of town to store our luggage before check-in, but our private room in the hostel was actually ready so we headed to our room. Although everything started out great we soon found out that the wireless in the hostel was not compatible with Macs so we were out of luck again. It has been harder for us in France and Belgium to get on the internet on our personal computer and in turn harder to stay in contact on Skype and upload to our blog. So, we apologize for the delays and the massive postings at once, we are just playing a little catch up. We spent most of the afternoon Friday walking the streets window shopping and staring at the walls of beer, waffles and chocolate that were around each corner. We had a local tip that it was better to get larger amounts of chocolate at supermarkets. They said that that is were people from Brussels shop to buy their own sweets and the specialty shops are mainly for tourists with much higher prices. They assured us that Belgium takes such pride in its chocolate that to have the phrase, "Made in Belgium," means that it has to pass strict codes that assure it is top notch. So we headed to the supermarket and got to try our first Belgium chocolates. We are addicted. They were all amazing, with the Dark chocolate and praline mix as my favorite. Having tried the sweets we felt we needed to try some of the beer that makes Belgium famous. We got a few bottles and sampled away. We found some winners but surprisingly we had one that neither of us could finish. It didn't really taste like beer, but it was interesting to try to say the least. We soon called it a night and headed to bed, we had a big day awaiting us.