Stinky Cheese, Fruity Beer and Yummy Chocolates

     Since Sam and I weren’t able to take our trip to Barcelona we decided to try and take a shorter one as a last hoorah before Sam takes off on his deployment this week. Our only stipulation for this trip was that we didn’t want to fly. After consulting our dream sheet we decided to venture over to Luxembourg and Belgium. We headed to Dover, where there is a ferry port, the Friday after Valentine’s Day. It takes about two hours to drive from our house to Dover, two hours on the ferry, and three hours to drive from France to Luxembourg, so all in all it was a seven hour journey. The craziest thing is that by the end of the day we had driven in four separate countries….just like driving in different states. 

Ferry Ride!

Trucks on the ferry...we drove onto a boat.

Its like a cruise but much crappier

Sam first time on a boat...his face says, "So glad I am not in the Navy"

Ferry

     Our first experience in Europe was trying to find me a bathroom. Sam decided to get gas while we were pulled off somewhere in Belgium. I did find a bathroom, but freaked out when there was a sign all in French so I left. Lucky for me there was a restaurant up the road and since it was so hard to convince Sam to pull off in the first place, I decided we should eat while we were off the motorway. We stopped at a French restaurant, thinking we were in France, and the entire menu was in French. Luckily, my husband took French in High School and remembered some of it. Unfortunately, Sam had no clue what he ordered and it turned out to be stinky cheese that was gross, but my meal wasn’t too bad. After we finished eating we sat there for a good two hours trying to figure out how to get our check. During this time, thanks to Google, I learned that it is considered rude in the French culture to bring your check immediately, they feel like you are at their home for dinner and giving you the check is rushing you away. It is also common for the servers to all say goodbye to you multiple times as if you were leaving their home after a meal. Sam finally got the waitresses attention and asked for the check, completely in French, and I was impressed. After about a two hour detour we were back on the road again, finally arriving in Luxembourg City at midnight on Friday. 

Sam's stinky French cheese meal

No clue what this is that I ordered...but not too shabby

The view from our hotel in Luxembourg City

Another view from our hotel in Luxembourg City

     We spent one day in Luxembourg City. We started in the city center by exploring the Notre Dame Cathedral. It is a breath taking building with gothic style ceilings inside. We were actually able to attend a service there, though it was all in Luxembourgish, it was a fun experience. Amen is definitely a universal word! Fun fact- in Luxembourg they must be fluent in three languages to graduate high school. They start school speaking Luxembourgish, then in middle school they start learning German and in high school they speak French. In order to graduate from high school they must test proficient in all three of these languages, oh and somewhere along the way they also learn English as well…talk about feeling uneducated. We got to see the Palace where the Duke of Luxembourg resides. It was a beautiful building in the town center. We explored their market and walked around the old town; where we were blown away by all of the beautiful buildings and the quaintness of the town. We decided that we could definitely live in Luxembourg City, which is also the safest city in the entire world! On Sunday we set out for a drive through the country in an area known as “Little Switzerland” on our way to Viaden Castle in Luxembourg. It was absolutely beautiful and we got to go inside the castle. I got to experience driving through the Luxembourg country side, which is very picturesque, especially with the snow. After we saw the castle we had dinner and took off for Brussels. It was so fun driving in Europe, especially since they drive on the right side of the road, however, I did turn into the wrong lane as there was a car coming straight at us….oops! I guess my brain was still set to British driving!  

Cute Town

Luxembourg City

Luxembourg City

Walking the town...I am sure there is something cool behind us you just cant see

On the cool bridge...again you cant see it

I was caught! This is inside Viaden Castle

Notre Dam Cathedral

Where we went to church

The ceilings is what makes this "Gothic architecture"

Inside Notre Dam

The Duke's Palace

The cool gates

In front of the palace

The guard

Sam in front of the back entrance to the palace

Walking in Luxembourg City

They have green buses!

We found Springfield :)

It is very foggy in Luxembourg

Love this city!

A Church in Luxembourg City

More of Luxembourg City

These pictures all look the same...but the view was amazing

The blueberry

A Church in Luxembourg City

Love it

About ten feet from where I took the other picture...It makes a difference right?!

A babbling brook and cool bridge

Some may call it a water fall but I still say babbling brook

The river...as you can see we have now made it down the hill that we were previously on top of...still taking pictures of the same thing

Some old ruins

Love this bridge

Okay...now it looks more like a waterfall

The same view from above but now on ground level

I love this picture

There we go...we finally got some scenery in the background

I still love that bridge

Same picture as above...just a few feet over

We found an American Cemetery in Luxembourg City

A memorial to all the fallen soldiers in a small chapel inside the cemetery. Sam signed the guest book...Here's a toast...

An American flag in Luxembourg!

General Patton is buried here...neat!

Very foggy morning but here is the cemetery

Medal of honor

This grave site is different than like Arlington National Cemetery because they are in a horse shoe shape rather than straight across

We found a Holbrook on the list of people who were never found or identified. Can you find him?

We left a small stone on an unknown tomb...which is something you do to show that someone visited the grave. We were hoping the unknown tomb was in fact Curtis Holbrook.

Driving through "Little Switzerland"

More of Luxembourg

Luxembourg

The country side

Beautiful

I love Luxembourg

Accidentally drove into Germany

Back into Luxembourg. See they have open boarders so its just like driving across of a state line

Viaden Castle

The view from the castle

Viaden city

And again

Inside the castle

The bedroom inside the castle

Hanging out on top of the castle

Another view from the top of the castle

Sam

Viaden City

Viaden Castle

Viaden Castle

Driving in Europe

The Castle again

Beautiful drive through Luxembourg

Sam is not the best passenger photographer

Much better! View of the Luxembourg country side

Absolutely gorgeous...I love Luxembourg!

      My first impression of Brussels was nerve wracking. I was driving as we entered into the city and there were three lanes of traffic as well as a tram. I took a wrong turn causing the drive to last even longer, but we made it safe and sound to the hotel. It was dinner time and the first thing we did was find a place to eat. There was a Hard Rock Café and since we were near the end of the trip being able to eat American food and order in English rather than French sounded amazing. So we decided to go! However, according to Google maps it was a 30 minute walk and our lazy American ways came back and we decided to drive. Sam took the wheel this time and after almost hitting a pedestrian, trying to turn down a one way street, and getting cut off by a tram he decided that he hated Brussels and we were going back to the hotel. We ditched the car and set out on our walk to the Hard Rock, which in fact only took between fifteen and twenty minutes, not thirty, but we finally got food! 

See how the cars drive right next to the tram tracks?

The Tram

Hard Rock

Sam and his huge crape before we headed to Belgium

Es-cargo anyone?

      We had one day in Brussels, Monday, and we learned that everything we wanted to do was closed on Mondays. So don’t visit Denmark on Sundays and don’t visit Brussels on Monday’s. We did have a warm sunny day, which is always welcomed! We decided to take the tram to the main town center, which was an interesting experience since we didn’t know you had to buy a ticket and then put it in a machine, luckily some nice Belgium people told us the directions in French. When it was time to get off the doors didn’t open right away, you had to push a button, as Sam was figuring this out I was running to the back of the tram to get off through the open door. Then when you get off the tram you are jumping into traffic basically, good thing the Belgium drivers are used to it and stop for you. 

Interesting clock

We think this is a church...there are random statues all over Brussels

Sam loves to read signs...too bad they aren't in English

The city of Brussels

      We walked past the Queen of Belgium’s castle; we even saw shadows moving inside so we basically met the Queen. Then we walked to the town center where they had some pretty neat buildings. Brussels is known for a statue called the Manneken Pis which is a little boy peeing. Everywhere you go, even on the magnet I bought, there is this statue. So we went on a hunt for it, much to my disappointment, it was tiny! The replicas in the store are much bigger than the real thing; I have no idea why it is such a big deal or their claim to fame, but hey mark it off the list.  There is also a fountain of a peeing little girl, which if you toss money into it and make a wish it was supposed to come true. Also, it is a very tiny statue and isn’t that the case with any fountain, you make a wish and toss a coin inside? I was more impressed by the fountains in the park. 

The Queens Palace

Make way for the Queens guard

I would live there

Nice building

The gates outside of the palace

In front of the palace

It is very rare that the sun makes it difficult to take a picture...but we finally got a good one

This one is even better

The lion statue at the back of the palace

Peeing girl fountain

Sam didn't like that I made him stand in front of it

Me in front of the Manneken Pis

Sam tried to make it look like it was peeing on my head...

Manneken Pis....yup that's it...so tiny

Peeing girl

Now that is a real fountain

This is what I expected the Manneken Pis to be

But instead it was this...

So Tiny!

      We went into the most beautiful church I have ever seen. The ceilings were the gothic style, just amazing. They had lots of murals and statues, I was simply in awe. I decided to light my candle, like I do at every church we visit, in front of a depiction of Christ’s death on the cross. The best part was that this church was actually Catholic! You don’t see that much in England, you normally see an Anglican church, so the beauty of the church has been destroyed when King Henry VIII ordered that all the statues of catholic churches be destroyed, thus tainting beautiful architecture during the Protestant Reformation. I grew up protestant, Baptist to be precise, and I am not raging on Protestants, since I am one, but they don’t make breath taking churches like these Catholic Cathedrals.

Outside the church

Trying to show how tall it is

I was photo bombing :)

Another church we saw in the town

The outside of the church

The inside of the church

Sam cut me out of this picture..can you find me?

See the ceilings coming to a point....Gothic Architecture...you learn something new everyday. Now you will be able to point out Gothic Architecture when you go places 

More of the inside

My candle is the small one in front of the big red one :)

      Sam found a local restaurant that supposedly had the best Belgium waffles. We both ordered waffles and I had tea while Sam had a petite mocha. It was delicious! Most of my experience with Belgium waffles have been making them in hotel lobbies, and let me tell you the ones in Belgium are WAY better! We also tried Lambic beer, another thing to cross off the list try a Belgium beer, which was fruity so I actually liked it. Of course we bought lots of Belgium chocolate….YUM! And I went into my first Tiffany’s ever, lucky for Sam I didn’t see anything that looked worth the price. 

My tea and Sam's petite mocha

Sam's petite mocha was very petite indeed

Belgium Waffles

Yum!!

Yay!

     When Tuesday rolled around it was time to head back to the Ferry. However, we didn’t have to leave until noon so we decided to try and go to some of the museums that were closed on Monday. We went to the chocolate museum…which was interesting, but not worth the money. Especially, because there weren’t any samples! There was a chocolate making demonstration, which would’ve probably been pretty neat, but like all the signs it was in French, so we didn’t stay for it. We headed to the Brussels museum next, Sam was very lucky that I agreed to visit two museums in one day I normally limit him to only one per day. The museum was neat, filled with lots of school children, but I enjoyed it! I like going through museums in Europe, because they never have English on the signs, so Sam moves through much more quickly. The best part of the museum was the room full of Manneken pis manikins’ dressed in different outfits, there was even one dressed in a flight suit! Which is something I took a picture of, even though it was clearly marked not to take pictures, but if you know me then you know I tend to disregard signs like that at times :). 

Pretty buildings in Brussels main square

The museum we went into

Another cool building

Manneken Pis Pilot....see bigger than the real thing

     We did enjoy our time in Brussels; it is definitely a dirty city, unlike Luxembourg City. There are also lots of homeless people around Brussels, but I guess it’s like any capital/bigger city. I am also pretty sure it isn’t as safe as Luxembourg City, but I feel safer in England/Europe than in the United States overall. While we were walking around Brussels Sam noticed a helicopter that kept circling the city. We thought it was a bit strange, but decided they were probably taking areal pictures. Turns out there was a plane robbery at the Brussels airport and they were stealing some really expensive diamonds and the helicopters were part of the search. I guess the passengers on the plane didn’t even know about the robbery, but it was still pretty cool to read the report and know that we saw it happening! Overall, we had a fantastic trip! Sometime we will head to Bruges in Belgium, which I hear is gorgeous, but that will be another weekend trip, once Sam gets back.

Best sushi we have had since moving to England and we found it in Brussels!

Thanks for reading!

Amanda