Belgie / Belgique

Our trip through Belgium began on Christmas day in Waterloo. If you don't know, this is the site of a famous battle in 1815 in which an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington combined with a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher defeated Napolean, thus changing European history. 

Also, thanks to the 1974 Eurovision song contest, it's a metaphor for being destined to be with someone even if you want to avoid them at all costs.

While Belgium was once known as the battleground of Europe, it is now better known for its waffles... 

Mussels...

Chocolate...

And of course beer. We were in Brussels for 3 days where Josh tried the official 8th best beer in the world, Rochfort Trappistes 10. It was interesting in that it had several flavours, but he hated it.

While Yaz tried cherry beer, banana beer, cookie beer, raspberry beer, blueberry beer and the weirdest of all, cactus beer. (That's the green one)

Other things in Brussels include, a light show at the Grand Place...

 The Mannekin Pis, perhaps the lamest tourist site ever...

A super fun Ferris Wheel...

The atomium...

And a statue of Soccerates, the Greek philosopher who had a great head for football.

Then we went to Bruges (it's in Belgium). It's full of well preserved medieval buildings and it looks like a fairytale.

In Bruges is the Basilica of the Holy Blood where they have a phial of Jesus's blood. And with a small donation and a prayer this man will let you touch it. Do you trust this man?

Lastly, we went to Ghent which is also a city with medieval buildings.

And we went to a couple of museums, including an old insane asylum where we learned how to perform phrenological examinations and trepanning.

And to the chocolate museum where we saw a chocolate president. (That's not racist)

P.S. Did you know that swans have see-through noses?

Blog Christmas Special

Long before christmas was about capitalism and spending money, it was simply about markets and gifts.

This week we went to several of Europe's finest christmas markets, each with their own unique atmosphere and setting.

In Cologne (or Köln in German) the market was at the base of the very impressive Cologne Cathedral, Germany's most visited attraction.

As seen from above early in the morning

Aachen's christmas market felt the most traditional, but was also really cool because of the giant gingerbread man.

The christmas market in Maastricht wins the prize for best ice-skating rink

The prize is awarded based on how many people we laughed at falling over.

Brussels was part of a wider Winter Festival which had a ferris wheel, a ski slope in the city and tobogganing. 

By the time we made it to Bruges, we hated everything about christmas so this is the only photo of the festivities.

Of course, what they all had in common was the great food and drink, such as oliebollen, bratwurst, champignons, chocolate chili, frites with mayo, reibekuchen (German latkas), hot chocolate with various liqueurs, and of course Gluhwein.

  

One thing we did find interesting was that nowhere did we see a man dressed as santa asking kids what they wanted for christmas. I guess its just an American thing.

But there were a few playing the accordion. See you next year Santa!

Homer Leaves Holland

Our first official stop was Cologne, which is famous for its super massive Cathedral and for men who smell nice.

They started building in 1248, got lazy in 1473 and had a break until 1842 when they decided they may as well finish the job. In 1880 it opened.

Remember those three wise men from when Jesus was born? Well in case you were wondering, their bones are now inside a gold sarcophagus within this cathedral. At least that's what these people believe.

Yaz ate some goose with unspecified dumplings. It tasted just like winter should. 

We also went to a museum in a building which was used by the Gestapo for interrogations. More than 1800 inscriptions made by prisoners, some who were held for months, can still be seen.

Some inscriptions describe the horrible conditions endured, some are evidence of prisoners reaching their mental limits, some are warnings to future prisoners, some show a desire to be remembered and some are messages of contempt and defiance towards the fascist bastards who had locked them up.

We left the city by the Hohenzollern Bridge across the Rhine.

What's cool about the bridge is that thousands of "love padlocks" have been attached to the fence. We need our padlock for later so I guess we'll have to come back one day.

On Friday we stopped in Aachen for the christmas market, see Blog Christmas Special for details. They also have a cathedral in Aachen which was very nicely painted on the inside.

Aachen also has a statue of Brother Maynard holding the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

We also stopped for a day in Maastricht where Josh took this photo.

By the way, Homer is the name of our car

erdam

We were in Amsterdam for a second week before buying a car. 

As with the first week it was mostly filled with canals, museums, rain and cycling.

This is the Portuguese synagogue which is near where we stayed.

We've been cooking for ourselves a lot, mostly Mexican.

But have also gone out several times. The best meal was traditional Dutch Indonesian food.

On Saturday night, Yasmin's cousins organised for Josh to perform at a comedy club. It went pretty well.

And on Sunday we went to see Ajax Amsterdam beat ADO Den Haag 4-0.