Brussels

Today we were set to head to our final new country, Belgium. We luckily got reservations on the last open train from Paris to Brussels, though we did have a short layover in Lille, France. In Lille, we had a quick lunch in the courtyard in front of the train station. After a short ride we arrived in Bruxelles, Brussel or Brussels (as we call it) and headed into town to check into our hotel. The country of Belgium is split in half with the north full of Flemish folk and the south, Wallonia, true to its French background. Brussels is basically in the middle and represents both sides. All of the street signs are in both French and Dutch. It was surprising to us how French everything seemed. I think in our heads we just imagined Brussels to look and sound a lot like the Netherlands and Germany. Since it was later in the evening when we got settled in and we weren't to familiar with the area we decided to finally see the version original (spoken English with both French and Dutch subtitles) of Harry Potter at a near by cinema. Glad that we went not only for the film, but the building itself was a fantastic piece of Art Deco architecture.

Paris + 2

After a couple great days in Paris, we decided that we should enjoy one more there. Not being able to see the catacombs was kind of disappointing, so we made it a must for the day. We had to switch to a hotel that could accommodate our internet needs and we couldn't check in until 2, so we left our luggage at our previous hotel and made our way to the catacombs. When we finally arrived we were met by a line that wrapped around the block. We ended up waiting in line for close to two hours, but in the end it was worth it. The catacombs consisted of a tunnel system a mile and a half long, filled with piles of symmetrically stacked femurs and skull bones up to my chin. It seemed surreal, so much though that Kristen touched some of the bones, I however stood a good distance away content with just taking pictures. We meandered through the tunnels until we finally reached the end. After washing our hands vigorously, we stopped by a grocery store picking up a massive amount of cheese and bread and had a feast of a lifetime. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting caught up on blog entries and contacting our families since we finally had access to the internet. We really still wanted to see Harry Potter, so we researched some cinemas in the area and headed out. They were all still sold out, so we just wondered around and ended up heading back to the hotel on the metro. We did realize when we bought our tickets for the metro that we were using youth (under 10) tickets the entire time which are 50% cheaper than the adult fare. Whoopsie.

Paris + 1

We woke from our grocery store feast with some leftovers still in tact. We had a quick breakfast, planned out our day and headed out to see what Paris had to offer. We to took the tram into the center of Paris in hopes to see numerous sites. While trying to find the French Catacombs, large military vehicles zipped past us. Large groups of these officials made their way down the confusing streets of Paris waving as they went. We really didn't think anything of it, other than maybe France was being invaded. We arrived at the catacombs and read yet another disappointing sign hanging on the door. The catacombs were closed for the day in recognition of a holiday. We put two and two together and figured out it was Bastille day, which is celebrated similarly to our 4th of July. Many of the sites and restaurants were closed for the day, so we had a limited selection. We made our way to the Eiffel Tower and found a large group of people waiting in the park for an event of some sort. When we got closer to the Tower, we determined it was a concert, featuring the some famous French rocker, probably the equivalent to Bruce Springsteen judging from the fans and t-shirts. We took a few quick shots and continued down the road to the Arch de Triumpe. The roadway to the Arch de Triumpe is famous for shops and people watching. The road was blocked off for the most part due to a parade for later in the day. We walked for a while down this street weaving in between hundreds of people to our destination. We made it to Arch where we had to take a tunnel underneath the famed circle street around, you know the one Clark Griswold gets suck on in European Vacation. Upon exiting we were met by numerous tourists trying to take cleaver pictures in front of the giant monument. After getting a few photos ourselves we made our way back to the hotel on the metro. By this time we were starving and hadn't had any time to research good restaurants, so we asked the front desk. The front desk worker informed us of a little jewel down the street that he frequents. We headed down the street and found the restaurant deserted except for one server/bartender/cook. We made sure they were open and took a seat in the back. We quickly found out that her didn't speak a bit of English, as we asked him for some menus. He moved us up front to were the chalkboard menus were. We tried our best to decipher what we could, but the server knew we were having some difficulties. He quickly stepped in to aid us by using hand gestures and running to the back to show us what some of the dishes were. He was super helpful as he helped us pick out our food. We talked for a bit and before we knew it our food was on its way out. We unknowingly ordered steaks which came with three sides. It was all really good and after the meal the kind man gave us a complimentary glass of wine. We had a really good time and wished we could come back the next night but we had a new hotel booked on the other side of the city. We headed back to the hotel looking for something to do and read that the Paris movie scene was pretty good, with lots of interesting theaters, so we decided to check it out. We really wanted to see the new Harry Potter movie but didn't know if anything would be available due to it being opening night. We looked up a few cinemas who were showing English versions of it and headed out on the metro. We climbed the stairs out of the metro only to find a line wrapping around the building of the first cinema. Heading down the street, all of the other cinemas were the same deal. Even though Harry Potter was sold out everywhere, we still were looking for something to do, so we decided to see Public Enemies. It was a pretty nifty flick, and a pretty nifty day.

Paris

After a not so exciting night in Mulhouse, we checked out and headed to the train station. We fueled up on coffee and croissants (a European delicacy) and mulled around the station for a bit. We figured there would maybe be a grocery store of some sort in the station, but there was none to be found. We bought some bakery type snack food for our five hour train ride to Paris, boarded the train and dug in for a long ride. When we went to make reservations for the train in Mulhouse, the trains we wanted were all booked, so we had to settle for an older train that took a little longer. When we talked to the ticket salesman he said that we didn't have to buy reservations, so we assumed that no one did. We discovered that was a false presumption when we were softly awoken on the train by an Asian man with a kind smile that kept repeating "skuzie". We had to move to another seat because he had booked a reservation for our seat. We moved back a car for the rest of our ride, eating our scheduled snacks Kristen had planned for us by the hour. We arrived in Paris, quickly mixing in with the hoards of people. We made our way further into the station, seeing a few French military guards walking around with machine guns (they meant business). We bought some tram tickets and quickly found our way to our hotel for the evening. Our five hour train ride really drained us, so we decided tonight would be a grocery store meal night. We bought a feast along with some box wine, (which is significantly better and cheaper than American box wine) and ate until our hearts were content.

Switzerland conclusion

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Italy conclusion

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Update!

Hello Everyone,
Hope all is well. We just wanted to let you know that we have been away from the internet for a while, so we are playing catch-up with our posts. Here are four new ones and there will be more to come. We love to hear all of your comments. Hope you enjoy.