Today I am feeling pretty exhausted following the trip that Elizabeth and I just went on to EUROPE! That's right, we just returned home this morning after spending about 11 days in Europe. We left for our trip on Friday, June 3rd, from Chicago. We had a layover in Lisbon, Portugal for 4 hours, before flying to Brussels. We spent about 4 days in Brussels, 3 days in Bruges, and 2 in Amsterdam before flying home from Amsterdam. This was my first ever trip to Europe.
You could say that the "theme" of our trip was to find the best Belgian beers that we could. We were able to drink at the famus Delirium bar in Brussels, we toured the Lindemans lambic beer factory, we toured "De Halve Maan" brewery in Bruge, the Heineken brewery in Amsterdam, and we even rented a car and drove to the Westvleteren monastary where monks make what may people have called "the best beer in the world". As for that, Elizabeth and I both decided that the Westvleteren 12 was good but definitly not the "best in the world". I actually thought that the Westvleteren 8 was better. In total, I enjoyed 47 beers while on our trip. However, I was not what I would call "drunk" at any point during out trip. We mainly spaced out our beer consumption to a couple during lunch, some with supper, and then maybe one or two each evening. Of all the beers that I tried, I would say that the St. Bernardus 12 was my favorite. My top 5 would probably be: 1) St. Bernardus 12, 2) Leffe Brune, 3) Gouden Carolus Classic, 4) St. Bernardus Xmas, and 5) Westvleteren 8.
There were many things, good and bad, that I learned about Belgium and the Netherlands while we were there. Some things that I did not like as much were the super narrow steps that were typical to find in the Air B&Bs that we stayed at, having to pay to use public restrooms, paying for water at most restaurants, and the fact that manual transmission cars are the norm. Since it had been probably 20 years since I had driven a manual car, I was not the best at driving them when we rented a car to drive to Westvleteren. I think that in the future I will not be renting cars if they are not automatic.
Of course the good things heavily outweighed the "bad" things during out trip. It was amazing to see all of the old architecture in the cities that we visited. I think that Grand Place in Brussels was my favorite of all of them. Bruge did have a lot of charm with beautiful buildings basically wherever you looked. The Bruge Belfry and the Church of Our Lady were both very beautiful buildings to see. Speaking of the Church of Our Lady, I had no idea that it housed a sculpture from Michelangelo until we wandered into the church to take a look around. Other landmarks that we were able to see include Atomium, manneken pis, Cinquantenaire Arch, a torture meuseum, a beer meuseum, and the Anne Frank house, among others.
We also enjoyed a bunch of good food while on our trip. My favorite food was the Flemish beef stew that I had in Belgium. It was basically a beef pot roast with the richest, most flavorful gravy that I've every had. Of course we had our share of street food, from Belgian waffles, frites, herring, and stroopwaffles. All in all, it was a good but exhausting trip, and now I am happy to be back home with the boys.
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| Elizabeth with the Grand Place lit up green. |
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| Here I am outside fo Atomium. |
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| This is the Bruge canal, and we were able to board a boat for a canal cruise ride at this location. |
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| Here I am with the statue "Modonna" that was created by Michelangelo. |
