Today our late evenings in Paris really caught up with us, so we decided not to fight the tiredness and have a more relaxing day. This meant sleeping in and then much later in the day returning for a nap. Oh the beauty of being on vacation! We started the day off by cutting Luke's hair. I would say the drug store sheers came through for us, thankfully. The sheers I used Luke likes to call banana scissors, I have a pair of professional ones, because they are curved, which is fine just makes it different not to mention they are from the drug store and have a manufacturers defect already. Anyways! He looks fresher now.
Brussels is a small quaint city. Older buildings mixed in with some newer looking ones. We walked around for quite some time just exploring the squares, the main buildings, and eventually finding a cafe to sit in and enjoy the moment. They also have some pretty sweet street art on the sides of buildings, as well as projectors in the evening displaying a scene on buildings. They have some pretty cool buildings and squares that are surrounded by unique buildings.
So the Manneken Pis. The peeing child that has some how become oh so famous that invite swarms and swarms of people around it. It is guarded by two military personal. LUCKILY when we went earlier the little guy was wearing a golfing outfit! Even had a little putter. Thankfully we went earlier cause when we went back past him he wasn't wearing a thing. Oh the look on Luke's face when we turned the corner and saw the little peeing boy all dressed up. Apparently they change the outfit every week. They also literally anything you could ever want as a souvenir of a little boy peeing.
Alright so a peeing statue that attracts literally hundreds of I am sure thousands of people. There was a post going around face book not to long ago of a pair of glasses on the ground at a museum and a crowd of people around it taking pictures of it. Low and behold the glasses were not a work of art but someone actually lost their glasses. This is how I feel about this statue. We seen other fountains that were much more impressive then the peeing boy and somehow he is the one that attracts the masses. It is hilarious. Yes it must be seen, and it is funny to see, especially that they dress him up it is hilarious! They have tons of different costumes.
We stopped for some delicious fresh cut fries right out of the cooker. Fries are just fries here. French frie is a certain type of cut the way the French cut their fries. Otherwise they are just fries. They also serve them here with many different kinds of sauces but they smother it all over the top like gravy on a poutine.
We people watched this afternoon while enjoying a Irish coffee for myself, and a new delicious beer for Mr. Luke. The square wasn't nearly as exciting as the intersection we sat at last night for a solid hour, but it worked cause there were people which makes for good people watching. We were hoping the drinks would wake us up a little bit but they didn't as much as we thought. I am desperately hoping we find gluten free waffles, but I think we will be unsuccessful so chocolate will just have to do, and that is alright me :) I will watch with jealousy as Luke devours one and thoroughly enjoys it.
We were glad that the rain held off today. It was a cloudy day but fairly warm out, which was great for walking around. We found a few other interesting statues along our journey.
We had a very good and relaxing day walking around exploring. Somehow even though we had a nap we are still tired. Nice to have a change of pace for a few days. We are still very much enjoying our trip, it's safe to say we aren't missing home, just missing our families and friends. Looking forward to having some familiar faces join us over here Sunday!
Well before I get distracted and begin to rant about something random and unnecessary I shall close, happy weekend to everyone!
Also this just in. Paris has flooded much more since we left. Barely any room left under the bridge. The Louvre has closed and have moved many paintings and artifacts from the basement to higher floors. It is crazy to see, especially as we were watching it get higher and higher while we were there, and it has only got worse.
And so the adventure continues...
Luke and Lindsay, well Lindsay because you are actually doing all the heavy lifting on on the blog! :-)
ReplyDeleteWe ar enjoying your exploits greatly, you are getting around with such relative ease and this week escaping a natural disaster in Paris in just the nick of time! You guys are blessed!!
I wonder many things as I read your blog yet wanted to ask how you are set up during the day and what do you carry in your day packs? Do you park everything at your accommodation and just go with a purse or much more than that? Is there VG security for your bags during th day that you never worry about ur gear?? Are you traveling lighter now during ur tour days than when you started??
Lots of interesting questions to be asked about how you are set up and how your "on the fly" research is going!
Happy trails guys, so happy for you both on how you are managing out there! What adventure!!!
Steve
Hey!! Haha yea I have taken over the blog for sure.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you are enjoying it :) we are so blessed to have avoided that disater!, crazy as we were there it was rising everytime we looked at the river it was higher then the last! Also glad we made it to the Louvre while we were there.
We usually aren't carrying our packs during the day, that won't really happen till Italy a few different times. We always have our own room, even when we stay at hostels we have booked private rooms, so we can spread out a little more and not have to pack up every morning to put our stuff in a locker. We have been staying at mostly hostels, there have been a few hotels along the way for a change, but both have a room we can put our packs, so on our travel days we put our bags there and continuing our going around then come back for our backs before heading to the train station.
As for during the day, it varies. We each brought a day pack but we have actually only been using one and combining our stuff in their then switching who carries it, although most of the time it's still Luke till he gets sick of it, but again it varies what we put it in, and sometimes we don't ever bring it.
Depending on the type of day if it is sunny when we leave we each a sweater in the pack, if it gloomy then our rain coats and at least one umbrella, a wine and bottle opener very important to have with us, headphones to listen to walking tours, money Luke always keeps on him, water bottle, snack if we have any, cameras,
But we usually go pretty light and pick up what we need along the way. Except for travel days, when we pick them up from the rooms then head to the train station people are usually understanding and let us put our bags on the side somewhere if we are earlier then we thought.
So fun! We are certainly travelling lighter now then at first as we were both bringing packs and then decided it was unnecessary.
Good to hear from you!
Thanks for the insights Lindsay, so many variables in any day, weather, activities, proximity to hotel, moving day... you are squeezing so much into a day when you are rested up.
ReplyDeleteDo enjoy your family time this week, such a unique opportunity to share some time away together.
Happy trails!
Steve and Shawn