I'amsterdam

I visited Amsterdam last month to meet Carrie Hanshaw and her daughter Nicole, visiting their extended family currently living in Bonn Germany.  When friends from home are anywhere near Brussels, I promise to come find you - or you are welcome to come visit me.  Its so nice to see friendly faces... and enjoy being a tourist with others.  I drove up to Amsterdam (only a 2 hour drive from Brussels) and met up with Carrie and Nicole and did a quick tour of the city.  In just the short time I was there, I am already super excited to go back.  What a charming city!  All the bikes and the canals and houseboats and row houses.  Just awesome.  The bikes however - quite aggressive... definitely stay OUT of the bike path or get run down.  No apologies.

We visited the Anne Frank House on Sunday morning.  It was absolutely incredible.  Seeing the actual hidden attic, climbing the stairs behind the moveable book shelf - well, it was intense.  I cried seeing the photo of Otto Frank, back in the secret attic after his release from Auschwitz.  The despair and grief displayed was unlike anything I've ever seen.  I've known loss in my life, but his hallowed eyes were just haunting.  It may sound silly, but I feel truly honored to have experienced this place.  No pictures are allowed inside so I bought a great photo book of the attic.

On the way back to Brussels, we stopped in The Hague, the judicial capital of the United Nations.  While there, we visited the M.C. Escher museum.  Very cool to see the actual works of the artist I admired so much growing up.  The museum is actually in the Queen's Palace so not only are the works incredible, but the building itself is something to see.  Each room had the most unique chandelier.  From bugs, umbrellas, to a skull and crossbones.  Very cool.

Catching up!

Sorry its been so long since really posting.  Part of the excuse if a broken personal computer, the other - well just laziness, I suppose.  Although I have been more busy outside of work than I was when I originally arrived - a very good thing!

Michelle came and visited the week of November 5th.  As I wrote in the previous post, it rained the ENTIRE time she was here.  Fortunately, we made the best of it and still had a great time.  The funniest part was how often Michelle took pictures of her food!

We visited the Butte du Lion, the mound constructed on the battlefield in Waterloo, Belgium where Napolean surrendered.  We climbed the many steps up to the top!  Of course, while we were there, it rained!  :)  I work in Waterloo and the battlefield is only a few kilometers from my new office.  Its touristy stuff like this that I wish I could share with my Dad.  He would have loved it.

During the week, I took Michelle to Brugge, the Mannekin Pis museum (to see a few of the 800 costumes gifted to the "Pride" of Brussels), the Atomium (built for the World's Fair in 1958) and many of the fine food and drink establishments of Brussels. We met some traveling Americans in Delrium (the famous bar boasting a minimum of 2010 beers available, in January, they will guarantee 2011!) and I introduced her to a few of the new friends I have made.  We did TRY to go the Stella Artois factory - but in typical Belgian fashion, service is lacking and tours are randomly canceled without notice at whim).  Guess we will save that for another visit.

It was great having her visit and showing her where I'm living these days.  Most of all it was nice to have someone to eat with - eating alone is... well... lonely.  We feel in love with the moules et frites at Chez Lion in the tourist area... good thing we found that on her last day or we may have gone back every night.