Mike and Megan-Europe 2019

Shopping, Café Life Today we went across the way into the mall and looked around.  It rained quite hard through the night, and the weather was still very threatening.  After this, we caught a bus over to the Champs-Élysées and wandered around there for a while.  We walked from near the Arc de Triomphe through the Tuileries and onto the Île de la Cité.  We were thinking of booking a dinner cruise but they don't sell tickets on site during the day, and the website wasn't working well with my mobile phone.  We had cause to quickly choose a café for som crêpes and wine as it started to rain.  We were under cover just in time as it really let loose.  We sat in our streetside streets and watched the downpour.  When we were done and it eased up a bit we ran over to a nearby metro station to head home. Our Café Seat Rainy   Later in the afternoon, when the weather had cleared up, we walked down the Île aux Cygnes by our place to a li...

Walking and Pompidou We got up and went out for a grocery shop around the corner.  Then we headed out.  I had wanted to see the Grand Palais.  We thought we were going in, paid our 18 Euro, but it was just a wing of the Palais with a Science Center.  We did get to walk around and look at poisonous snakes and lizards and spiders, as well as taking a stroll around the rest of the science.  After, when we went around the building, we saw that the exhibits we'd seen advertised (Toulouse-Latrec, etc.) don't open until October so no luck. From the Bridge Right Below Our Apartment Palais-Science Center Side       The Part We Couldn't Go In   Black Mamba-Very Dangerous-You Go First We walked through the Jardin des Tuileries and stopped for some gelato and a drink.  Then we continued on with the idea that we'd find a reasonably priced boat cruise with dinner I'd seen online.  Having not chased that down we decided...

Moving to Paris, Catacombs, Very Long Walk We got up and relaxed in the garden.  We had an 11:30 a.m. train out of Bruges, so we paid up and left the hotel at 10:30, giving ourselves lots of time to navigate the cobblestones with suitcases.  We bought a brie sandwich on baguette at the station, and got on the first train to Brussels.  Clockwork.  We then transferred platforms in Brussels and got on the train from Brussels to Paris.  This one was delayed 15 minutes.  On this train I was able to buy a couple of bottles (small) of red wine so we could dine on our baguette in style. When we got to Paris we took the Metro, with one transfer, to where the apartment is.  There was a long wait to get tickets at the train station as one machine wasn't working.  This created the second delay, so we were about 15 minutes late in arriving to where the 'greeter' was supposed to meet us.  I went across the street to pick up some wifi, where I could se...

Museum Marathon, Walking, Concert This morning we got up and headed right out to see as many of the places featured on our 3-day museum card as we could.  We started at the Groeningemuseum, which had nothing to do with the Simpsons.  That took a good hour to go through, with lots of paintings from medieval through modern. Next we headed down towards the canal to visit the Gentpoort-one of the old towers from the city wall.  We had some fun watching the long canal ferries go through a raising bridge. K. Astridpark-On Route to Gentpoort On Gentpoort Canal Ship and Raising Bridge We then walked along the canal to the Sint-Janshuismolen windmill.  It closes from 12:30-1:30 for lunch, and they apparantly don't like to let anybody up after 12:00 as it interferes with going to lunch, so we had to wander back to both the Gezellemuseum (art) and the Vokskundemuseum.  The second was a very fun arts and crafts museums featuring cobbler shop, bar...

Bruges-Museums, Canal Tour and Walk This morning we breakfasted in the little garden at the back of our apartment hotel.  Then we walked into town to visit the three sites on the Museum Card we bought that are open today.  We started with Brugse Vrije-the old courthouse.  Right next store we spent some time in Stadhuis-the old municipal hall.  Finally, we walked around to where O.L.V.-Kerk is-the old church that houses the only Michelangelo that was taken out of Italy during his lifetime-the Madonna and Child (this church and statue feature prominently in the movie from a few years back-Monuments Men. In Garden Behind Bonobo Vrije-Charles V Mantlepiece Stadhuis-Town Hall Michelangelo-Mother and Child We picked up some excellent baguette sandwiches and headed back to the apartment to have coffee and lunch.  Then we headed out to take a boat tour of the canals.  This is something that tourists have to do-there is a signed contract....

Move to Bruges, Belfort, Sint-Janhospitaal This morning we got up, took it easy, then headed on the metro for the Train station at 10 am.  Our train left for Bruges at 10:52-so no snags on the train today.  We did have to stand for the first part of the journey (as far as Ghent) as seating in second class was at a premium.  It's not a 'local culture' thing as there is such a mixture of people from all over the world traveling around here, but we've found it unsettling how you can get ready to go onto a train or move in a cabin and have some folks aggressively elbow themselves in front of you-almost body checking you out of the way.  We're too chilled out to fight hard. But as far as local culture goes-from Amsterdam to Brussels to maybe even Bruges-there is one thing we've learned.  Don't worry about the car traffic.  It's the bikers who'll kill you.  Seriously-in Amsterdam we noticed as pedestrians we were really on the bottom of the scale. ...