Brussels

My best friend Emily came to visit London!  We only spent a couple of days in London and she had already seen the major sights, so we did a little shopping, pub trivia and saw the musical Once.  But then we took the Eurostar to spend 3 days in Brussels. 

 

The Grand Place - it rained a lot while we were in Belgium!

In the evening the rain stopped and we got some great night pictures.

 

 

Park du Cinquantenaire - a really nice urban park.  While we were there, they were setting up for a Renaissance fair so there were some interesting characters wandering around in costumes.  Sorry I didn't get any good pictures of that!

 

They have a thing for Smurfs in Belgium - we saw them in the windows of several shops, candy shops and this nice statue. 

A photo montage of Brussels isn't complete without Mannekin Pis - the unofficial mascot of the city. 

We also visited the City Museum where they keep a collection of over 1000 costumes for the statue.  It is considered a diplomatic gift from other countries and important people to give Brussels for Mannekin! 

 

 

Amsterdam

Over the May bank holiday weekend, I visited Amsterdam with another expat friend.  We had a great time! Here are a few of the things we saw.

Bicycles and tulips...

Cheese...

 

 

Heineken...

Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum...

 

The Anne Frank house...

We happened to visit the Netherlands during a festive time - just last week the current Queen Beatrix passed over her throne to her son, the new King Willem and his wife, Queen Maxima.  Beatrix retired and abdicated to the younger generation.  So there was a lot of festivity surrounding the event last week.  This is a flower petal arrangement we saw at Keukenhof.

 

Saturday was Remembrance Day (aka Memorial Day) in the Netherlands.  There was a ceremony at Dam Square in the evening that we attended.  It was very solemn, but we did get to see the new King and Queen pass by!  Unfortunately, none of my pictures caught them, but this is the Square we were in.

 These are some of the wreath memorials that were placed in the Square.

Finally, Sunday commemorated Liberation Day from the Germans after World War 2.  There were concerts throughout the day and we attended the largest in the evening.  It was set on one of the canals, with the stage on one side, barges for the important people in the canal and the rest of us on the roads and bridges all around.  Sorry these pictures are a little blurry. 

Love the canals here!!

Keukenhof

Keukenhof is a garden park just outside Amsterdam.  They are only open about 8 weeks each spring during the peak of tulip blooming season.  We were lucky enough to visit in early May - check it out!

 

They had a special display this year highlighted the flowers of the UK.  Channeling my best Julia Roberts Notting Hill impression!

My friend Lizzie and I...

Big Ben and the Tower Bridge in flowers!

Krakow

Wieliczka Salt Mines – Salt mine just outside of Krakow that dates back to the 13^th century and once provided the primary source of wealth to the region.  It was a working mine until 2007 and now is open to visitors.  We descended over 400 wooden steps down to a depth of 120 meters below the surface.  The tour covered only about 2km of the total 300 km of tunnels in the mine. It includes an underground lake, several chapels and many chambers with carvings in the salt rock.  Most of the carving and artwork was created by miners who have worked here over the centuries. 

Wawel Castle – Original seat of government in Poland until the capital was moved to Warsaw in 1600s. There is a castle, but also several other buildings including a Cathedral.  Most of Poland’s kings were crowned here and many are buried here as well.  There are several museums on the property, including one dedicated to Pope John Paul II.

 

St. Florian’s Gate – The old city of Krakow was surrounded by walls with 47 defensive towers in medieval times.  Most of the walls were demolished by the Austrians in the 19^th century and this is the only major tower still standing.  Where the original walls and towers had stood, the space is now filled with a park that surrounds the Old City. 

 

 

 Stare Miasto (Old City) and Rynek Glowny (Main Square) – The Old Town is small and very easy to walk, many of the streets are closed to traffic.  Krakow did not see the same kinds of destruction as Warsaw in WWII, so most of the Old City is original.  The Main Square includes a large market building that was once the largest center of commerce in Eastern Europe, connecting the Middle East with Western Europe. 

 

 

St. Mary’s Basilica sits on the square.  Every hour there is a trumpet player in the tower of the church who plays a fanfare. There is a legend that a trumpet player sounded the alarm when the Mongolians were invading in the 13^th century.  An arrow killed the trumpeter before he could finish the alarm and so today the trumpet player stops short of completing the tune.   The trumpet player has been a member of the local fire brigade for the last 200 years.