Beer in Belgium

After London and Paris we needed a change of pace, so we headed to Brussels. Our tour guide Jackson had the next two days off and was also planning on traveling so he decided to tag along with us.

One of the things Belgium is known for is it’s wonderful waffles. These waffle stands are all over the city and are a tasty treat for under 2 euro. 

The architecture in Brussels was a mixture of the old and new. Often times there was a new modern building right next to a building dating back to the 15^th century. The Grand Place is a perfect example of the 15^th century architecture. It is a square with gothic style buildings all around it.

 

The St. Goedele- St. Michiels Cathedral was a favorite while we were visiting. In the basement of the church you could see the remains of the old church that was built in the early 13^th century.

After a quick nap we all decided to head out to a local bar to check out another Belgium classic- Beer. We went to Delirium, a local bar that broke the Guinness book of world records for having the most beer on tap! They have over 2000 different flavors, we found a great cherry beer.

The next day when we were leaving we made a split second decision to go to Bruges, Belgium for a day trip instead of straight to Amsterdam. We ate lunch at a local pub and walked around the city to experience the culture.

Do As The Parisian Do

Paris was absolutely amazing.  We arrived in Paris late Saturday night and went straight to our Hotel to go to bed.  The next morning we got up and took the metro to the Eiffel Tower.  Seeing it for the first time unbelievable. The size and the beauty of the tower were surreal. 

The lines were long so we decided to go see some other sites and come back tomorrow.  We went to the Saint Chapelle. This Chapel was built by Louis IX to house the relics of the Passion of the Christ including the Crown of Thorns and a piece of the Cross. There are 15 windows that are almost floor to ceiling. The windows are the most amazing thing about the chapel.

Next we went to Notre Dame.  

We were sent on a mission by Stasia’s roommate, Alisha to find the relics of Cross and Crown of Thorns.  They were originally housed in Saint Chapelle and were moved to Notre Dame. The relics were in a separate Treasury room connected to the church. 

Our next stop was the famous Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysees.  

We climbed 284 stairs to the top to see the view.  Twelve avenues connect to Arc which give it the appearance of a star from the sky. We had a great 360 degree view of the city.

That night we went on a bike tour with The Fat Tire Bike Tour Company.  At first, we were very rusty and a little nervous riding bikes through the busy streets of Paris. Our tour guide, Jackson, is from California and is currently working in Paris.  We biked through the Latin Quarter to Notre Dame, stopped for some homemade ice cream, and then through the glass pyramids outside the Louvre.  

The Tour included a boat ride through the river Seine.  It was dark by then and the Eiffel Tower started to sparkle with lights. We enjoyed the view with a glass of wine. We met two girls, Cindy and Rochelle, from New Zealand that are living in London. We made plans with our new friends to have a picnic by the Eiffel tower the next night.

On Sunday we got up really early to go to the Eiffel Tower.  We rode a double decker lift to the second level and then to the very top.  Stasia was a little afraid to stand near the edge.  There were two men hanging off the edge of the very top of the tower painting and we thought this was crazy because the tower stands just over 1000 feet.  On the way down we stopped at the restaurant level where they had a theater set up that had a video showing many of the movies that the Eiffel Tower has featured in.

After the Eiffel tower we took the metro to the Louvre.  The Louvre is so big if you spent one minute at each art piece it would take you nine months to see the whole museum.  It is very easy to get lost!  Our favorite part of the museum was the foundations of the Medieval Louvre and of course the Mona Lisa.  We were tired after walking around so we laid down on the lawn of the Louvre and took a nap like a true Parisian.

That night we met Rochelle and Cindy in the Champs de Mars (field of Mars) the park in front of the Eiffel tower.  We brought wine, cheese, crackers, and of course a baguette and had a picnic watching the sun set.  Jackson, our bike tour guide also met up with us and we all watched the lights on the Eiffel Tower sparkle until midnight.

 

Stasia and Jessy

In response to Corby and Bryan’s question on the Philadelphia blog:

Q: What kind of action figures do they have in Europe?

A:  Many of the statues around Europe look like huge action figures. There are many statues of soldiers and kings.

Bloody Good Time In London

Cheers!

We finally made it! After landing in Manchester we hopped on a train and went straight to London. We got to London in the afternoon and checked in to our hostel, The Generator. We reserved a small private room for the 3 nights we were staying. We were pleased with the room, it was clean and we felt safe. In the room was a bunk bed and a small sink, we had to share a bathroom that was down the hall.

First order of business was to find some Fish and Chips for Stasia and something for Jessy to eat as well. We found a nice café down the street from the hostel that was cheap and had large portions. We liked it a lot and ate there 2 more times.

We didn’t want to waste any time so we got straight to site seeing. We hopped on the tube to Westminster to see Parliament, Big Ben and The London Eye.

The London Eye is the world’s largest observation wheel. The ride lasts 30 minutes and you can see as far as 25 miles of London’s skyline. 

The next day we went on a free walking tour offered by the hostel. The tour was interesting and our tour guide, David, offered great information and was very funny. He took us to most of the main sites and even some lesser known sites.

During the tour we saw a lot of awesome sites including the Queens House, Buckingham Palace.

Another great thing about the tour was we got to meet the other people staying in our hostel. We met fun 3 guys from Wisconsin Adam, Alex and Sean. After the tour all 5 of us went to see more sties together. 

We saw the Tower Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral. 

Jessy saw some trampolines with bungie cords that you could jump on for only 6 pounds.  The trampoline was rigged with a machine that made you jump even higher than normal. It was awesome!  She even got to do some flips. 

On our way back to the hostel we had to change tubes at King’s Cross Station, which is home of Platform 9 ¾ from the Harry Potter Books.   We had a jolly good time pretending we were going through the platform just like Harry Potter!

And of course we couldn’t pass up a photo opp in an Original London phone booth.

We had big plans for the following day. The plan was to see Westminster Abbey, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Tate Modern Museum, the Tower of London and go on a ‘Jack the Ripper’ Tour. We made it to Westminster Abbey and did a self-guided tour of the church, unfortunately there are no pictures allowed inside the church.

Then we headed off to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and Tate Modern. There was some confusion about where the bus stops were and how they were labeled so we missed our stop and ended up walking a lot and not being able to see the Tate Modern because we didn’t have time.  We grabbed some lunch and headed over to catch the bus, like a true Londoner, to the Tower of London. 

At the Tower of London they offer free tours given by the Yeomen Warder or ‘The Beefeaters’. This was one of our favorite things of the day.  We learned about many of the people that were imprisoned and executed there and looked viewed some of the equipment used in the torture chamber.

During the tour, Stasia ran to the front of the group. The tour guide asked our names and yelled them out to everyone.  Then when we walked to the next stop on the tour he made us take his arms and gave us a special spot in the front of the tour.  When we told him where we were from Kansas City he thought we meant Kansas and made us click our heels together and say “There’s no place like home”  in front of the whole crowd.  We were so embarrassed.

After the tower of London we headed over to the meeting spot for the Jack the Ripper tour. This tour let us walk in the foot steps of Jack. We learned about each murder and even saw the actual sites of two of them. One site still had the original cobble stone that were there in 1888, when the murders took place. 

Who can go to London with out making a trip to Harrod’s? After a long day of sites and tours we rewarded ourselves with a small and inexpensive present to experience the high class shopping of London. Harrod’s was so large it was almost over whelming for us, which does not happen often. 

 

Cheers!

Stasia and Jessy

 In response to Gerardo and Audria’s questions from the first post:

Q: Why does the Liberty Bell have a crack?

A: The bell is cracked because of it’s large size and it was made with many different kinds of metal. The Bell was actually made in the same foundry that the Ben Big Bell in London was cast in. Both bells cracked and had to be re-cast many times.

Q: Did we have anymore delays?

A: No we did not. We made it to Europe finally on Tuesday.

 

Thanks for the Questions!

Layover equals an Extra Adventure

Our day started out with a 7:35am take off time to DC, that went smoothly, thankfully.

Then we took the shortest flight ever, it was only 45 minutes, to Philly.

In Philly we had an 8 hour layover thanks to the rescheduling from yesterday. So, we decided to make the best of it and see the town.

From the airport we took a train to the city center.

Our first mission was to find an authentic Philly Cheesesteak. We must have looked like tourist because an visitor center officer approached us and pointed us in the direction of a place called Reading Terminal Market were we could find a ‘real’ cheesesteak. After he gave us maps and advise we headed over to find the Cheesesteaks.

And we found them, they were good! 

After we stuffed ourselves we headed off to find the Liberty Bell.

Then we looked at the sights around the bell, including Independence Hall, Betsy Ross’ House and The Christ Church.

We left the Independence Hall tour and the U.S. Mint to be visited on our way back to the states.

Our last stop was Christ Church also called the Nations Church. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin attended services there. This Church was built in 1727.

We even got to sit in George Washington’s pew.

After a long day that wasn’t done yet, we caught a train back to the airport to board our flight to Manchester.

We got on the plane as scheduled and when we saw our seats we disappointed that they did not have TV’s in front of them like all the other seats. Just when we were about to ask to change to seats with TV’s a flight attendant pointed out that they flipped up from underneath our seats. Little did we know that this was the least of our worries. Our flight was delayed again because of maintenance problems. For the second time in our trip we were asked to de-board the plane. Luckily this time there was an extra plane and we were only delayed 3 hours. Needless to say we were exhausted and just wanted to get to Europe.

We want to thank everyone for all the comments so far, please keep leaving them, we love getting them. Questions about the sites we see or countries we are in are welcome. Please just remember to sign your name!

Stasia and Jessy

Guess What? We Are Still In KC.

Well, we are still in Kansas City. Our flight was cancelled.

The day started out nicely with our bags packed, we were all ready to go. 

  

We arrived at the airport, said our goodbyes and boarded the plane. 

Just as we were just about to lift off the pilot slammed on the breaks, an emergency light had a come on. We were asked to de-board the plane until the problem was resolved. After an hour of waiting the flight was officially cancelled. 

After even more waiting we were told that we would have to wait until the following morning (Tuesday) to get a flight out. 

We finally booked a flight with many connections and a long layover but we will finally make it to Manchester one day late. The airline agreed to extend our trip to Friday June 12, therefore we are still in Europe for 24 days. We have decided to go straight to London and continue from there. We hopefully will be able to reschedule Liverpool for the end of the trip. 

We joked and said today was just practice for tomorrow. We hope round two goes better. 

Stasia and Jessy