Bruxelles (Brussels)

Well the trip is over, but I wasn't able to get this posted until I returned.

We left Germany and headed for Brussels in the early morning hours on Saturday. It was a good plan because traffic was extremely light and we were able to make time on the Autobahn! We made it to Brussels in just over 3 hours, traveling at an average speed of around 180kph (approximately 112mph). It was a pretty fun experience, especially with Beethoven playing in the background!

Side Note: It is important to point out that the quality of the road is much better on the Autobahn than on American roads, and that the greater majority of drivers abide by the rules (i.e, use turn signals, pass on the left and then move immediately to the right). Of course this is because if you don't, the results are almost sure to be fatal! It is also important to point out that traveling at these speeds takes total concentration on the driver's part because it is even more important to know what is happening in front, behind, and beside you because there is no reaction time to spare! I also need to point out that on the previous trip to Rothenburg we hit an all time high speed for me at a whopping 230kph (142mph)! It was only for a short burst (maybe 10-20 Km), and the lead car was actually pulling away from me! Man, I wish I could take my little fun car over there for a run!

Sorry, I got myself sidetracked there. Back to the story! When we arrived we went down to the Grande Platz, the main square of the city. I have a routine that I try not to break, and that is to visit a place I call Leroy's place to have a Kriek (cherry lambek beer) upon arrival into Brussels. So this is exactly what we did.

The actual name of the place is LeRoy de'Espagne (The King of Spain). I don't know the story behind that, but I'll try to find out some day. All I know is that they have good beer and good appetizer type foods.









From LeRoy's you can sit and look out at the rest of the Grande Platz. Here is a couple of pictures of the Tower of Records. It's too tall to get it into a single shot. This is where they used to store all of the records of deeds to property. They felt it was the most defensible place to store them.

If you notice the building is not symmetrical. The story is that the architect, upon seeing the builder's mistakes, climbed all the way to the top of the tower and threw himself off!
















These are just some shots of the other buildings around the Grande Platz.


















Now this little guy stirs up a whole lot of attention. He is probably the best known attraction in Brussels. This is the Manikin Pis (Little boy peeing). No joke, this little guy gets dressed in different outfits, depending upon the season or the festival, and draws a crowd every day! He has probably been in more movies about Europe than any single actor or actress.
Not bad considering he is less than two feet tall!






This is a photo of Atomium. It was erected for the 1958 World's Fair. You can actully go up into it, but we opted to just drive under it and admire it that way. By this point in the trip we were fairly tired, and a bit cold and damp from all of the rain. The photo was expertly snapped by Lightnin, in between wiper blade strokes!




Well it was a fun trip, but it had to end.
After spending two weeks in 50F temperatures we were greated by 90F temps upon returning home, and the air conditioner died on us. So I'll be spending the day trying to get someone to come out and make the needed repairs so that we can get a little relief from the heat.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the photos and hearing about our travels!

I will try to re-post about our trip to Mitenberg, It vanished when I tried to post it originally!

Wiedersehen nach Deutschland (See you later to Germany)!

Well, it's been fun, but it's time to leave. We're heading to Brussels in the morning, and I mean early in the morning! We'll leave around 6:30AM, because it's about a 5 Hr drive, for those of you on eastern US time that's 12:30AM your time.

We head back to the states from there the next morning, so I doubt I will be able to post pics from there until I get back home.

It's been a great trip, and I'll try to get the rest of the photos and some of the stories out as soon as possible.

Tschüs Marina, Sabrina, Edgar, and Giela! Spc. Dude (aka G-nerve) we'll see you again soon and talk to you later!

When in Rome, or Frankfurt that is!

Here we are enjoying a Frankfurter mit kartofel salad (Hot dog with potato salad). We're sitting in the old town square of Frankfurt. It was a little chilly and breezy, but it was worth the effort. I'm pretty sure I mentioned in an earlier post that Frankfurt is the center of commerce for Deutschland (Germany), but it is also that for Europe. The shopping district is the richest area in Europe too. It is not unusual at all to see a Lamborghini, then a Bentley, then a Ferrari as you walk down the street!



While walking past the statue of Kaiser Karl der Grosse (Carl the Great), I noticed a sign that said that the neighboring pub was serving Eisbock vom faß (Ice Bock on tap). So naturally I insisted that we stop by and take advantage of the opportunity that we had been given. An Ice Bock is a true ice beer, not like Bud Ice that you may or may not have tried before. It's dark and sweet, and probably around 7.5-8.5%. Wonderful on a cool breezy day, especially if you're just riding the train, and not driving!



Ok, side note: We really did a lot more than just eat and drink, but it seemed that that was the only time I could get everyone to stand still long enough to get a picture, so that's the photos I have to work with here!

Gratis drinking phot here. We are in McDonalds, having a McBeer! It's actually Bitburger, which is a nice German Pilsner.






This is a photo of Eier Likor (Egg Liqour), or as Lightnin calls it: Edgar Likor. All I know is that it is one of the best dessert drinks ever invented. Our host, Edgar expertly prepared this for us. The best that I can describe it is that it is the best eggnog I have ever tasted, but much better and completely different.

Sorry about that explaination, but if you're truly interested I do have the recipe.

Well, that about does it for now. I'll try to get another post out today still.

Rothenburg, Deutschland (pronounced: wrote-n-burg)

This ia Rothenburg, Germany. I'm not sure if you can see too clearly in the first picture, but the wall actually still surrounds the entire town. This town has buildings that stretch back to the 1200's. It's special because it is one of the few towns that came through WWII without a scratch! It was a beautiful day and I'm glad we took advantage of it to come here.

It was about an hour and a half drive into Bavaria, from Hanau (which I think was sort of southeast). Hanau is a suburb of Frankfürt, which is Hessian, Bavaria is the neighboring Stadt, or as we would call it a state.


This is one of the clock towers, you see this one as you enter the city. The other photo is of the clock tower that is next to the old town hall. If you look close you'll see that there are three clocks on this tower. The top clock is a sun dial, the middle clock is a 24-hour, and the bottom one is a 12-hour clock. Pretty cool! This way you know that anyone has a good chance at telling what time it is!


















And of course we couldn't visit the city without sampling a brew. The Schwartzbier (black beer) was awesome! I'm running out of power so I'll need to say wieder sehen (see you later) for now! Pros't!

Was is Das?

Was is Das? (What is this?)


Why it's a hedge hog, made of steak tartar, and let me tell you it was delicious!

Marina, our lovely hostess, created this specialty to go along with our dinner of various meats (fleische), cheeses (käse), and breads (brot). It was a wonderful meal and was perfect with the pilsner and weisbier that we had to drink.

Es schmeckt gut! (It tasted good!)
Ein prosit von Hanau! (A toast from Hanau!)

Sorry I haven't been able to post until now, I was having trouble getting onto the internet. Since I'm on now, I'll try to post a cople of more before I lose my connection!

Jetlagged

Jet Lag: The feeling of walking around in a fog, with your body functioning somewhat normally, while your brain is on autopilot!

Well, I'm here in Brussels, Belgium! Sorry, no pictures yet. It was cool, damp, and cloudy when I arrived yesterday. Today it is sunny and warm (60's F), so hopefully I'll be able to get the camera out later after work (I'm taking a break at the moment and thought that I'd send out a quick post). Now back to today's topic Jetlagged.

My flight(s) were fairly good this time, but the total time for travel was a bit too long. I left from Ohio around 7:30PM, flew to Minneapolis, where I had a 2 hour layover. Then from there to Amsterdam, again a 2 hour layover, and then on to Brussels arriving at 4:00PM local time. Total travel time was around 20hours. The flight across the ocean was probably the smoothest flight I've ever been on, which was great because I needed, and got, quite a bit of sleep.

The fun part of the trip was the ride on a Fokker 50 from Amsterdam to Brussels. They call it a "City-hopper", I call it a "Puddle-jumper". The Fokker 50 is a twin prop plane that holds about 30 passengers. It was a sturdy plane, and the turbulence was at a minimum, but there were still those occasional elevator-like drops in altitude that you can only truly experience in a smaller aircraft. Just the sort of ride you want after crossing the ocean in the middle of the night!

Once in Brussels I tried to walk around, as much as possible, to catch some fresh air. This is highly recommended to help minimize the jetlag, of course it works better when the sunshine cooperates. In my case it did not! I stopped at one of my new favorite restaurants De Voile Rouge (the red sail). I sampled a few Wit biers, and munched on Carpacio and salade Nicious. The waitress was very patient, the crowd was thin, so she decided to help provide some French lessons while I ate/drank. I can now order either another bier or glass of wine in proper Francias (very important!).

After that I made my way back to the hotel, to have hat I thought was going to be 1, maybe 2 more beers, and then off to bed. I didn't count on meeting a couple of very interesting folks that would bend my arm to stay and visit a bit longer. More details on that later. Needless to say, I didn't get to bed when I planned, so the proper switch over to the local time will need to take place today/tonight! I'll need to rely on the magical powers of the European coffee to make it through the day (Topic of a previous post while in Amiens, France). That way I'll at least give the appearance of being awake, eventhough you and I will know better!

Bonjour for now! More on my travels later, as the week goes along.

Travelin' Man

Well, I'm off on another adventure! This time I'll be traveling to Brussels, Belgium, and then from there over to Frankfurt, Germany.

Brussels is considered the capital of Europe. It's the home of NATO and the European Union. It's probably the most diverse city I've ever had the pleasure of visiting. By that I mean that if you walk through the city for no more than 10 to 15 minutes you will likely have seen some one from nearly every country in the world. It will be a short visit this time though, only a couple of days.

Then it's on to Frankfurt. Frankfurt is the commerce center for Germany, their "Wall Street". It also holds the "high fashion" center for them as well. You know Gucci, Armani, etc., yeah I know, but it is worth mentioning! Besides you wouldn't believe the cars you see lining the streets in that area. Not just Mercedes, they're common over there, I'm talking about Lotus, Ferarri, Bentley, and Rolls! That's why I don't mind walking around. I finally get to see in real life cars that I have only dreamed about since I was a young man!

And here's the best part! This is also where I'll meet up with my son (who lives near there), my wife (who will meet me there), and my parents (traveling to Europe for the first time)! Sometimes this work-life balance thing does work out! It's also going to be fun to see our host's Edgar, Marina, and Sabrina. I'm sure that we'll get in a game of ein Mal before we get out of there! (I'll try to explain this in an upcoming post, and hopefully will get the spelling correct).

Well, I just wanted to give you a little teaser before I leave. I'll try to post photos and stories as I go along, so you can sort of travel with me. It should be fast and fun!

I hope you enjoy it!