Belgium

We were warned that Belgium is a weird country, it even says so in my guidebook We only fully realized this when we entered the metro and were immediately greeted by a man dressed up as an artist, complete with his pallet of paint. He asked us to come down to the lower level and to dress-up and have our pictures taken. I remember thinking...what the heck is this guy on and why is he walking around dressed up like that??? Alas, we went down the stairs where we were shuffled into this little area with tons and tons of dress-up clothes - like the big laundry basket of old crap you had that you were little that seemed to amuse you for hours on end. This was the best we could do....as you can see, we look just as glamorous as we probably did when we were 8 years old. It ended up being a photography class...the whole place was set up with lights and professional cameras. Yeah, the metro dress-up, stuff like this just doesn't happen at home.

After dressing up at the metro we went to the most famous attraction in Brussels, the aptly named Manneken Pis, the famous fountain of a little boy peeing. Of course, we found the mandatory flock of Asian tourists. It has become somewhat of a phenomenon in our travels.
Then we went to an art museum and rode a huge elevator ...I mean really, it had chairs. But we didn't push any of the buttons, we just hung out in the elevator because out feet were so tired...well until it starting bouncing and I got scared.The Delirium bar. It boasts 2500 different types of beer and an impressively diverse clientèle. The man in the back, a Parisian, who thought I was Erin's mom :( hahaha. And the other two, a Dutch couple who invited us to come stay with them after Amsterdam.

Ah, and then off to Amsterdam...pictures coming soon.

Strasbourg

Erin an I just returned from a little jaunt through northern france, belgium, and holland. Our first stop was Strasbourg, which is on the border of Germany and France. There's even a bridge over to Germany...you can walk right over...but more about that later.The old city center of Strasbourg is centered around a series of canals, which of course make s it really hard to find your way around...but well that doesn't take much for me.



We made a short stop over to Germany HA! Our map wasn't to scale at all, so we ended up walking through the industrialized part of strasbourg for an hour just to get to the bridge. Of course, no border control...we just walked over the bridge and hung out in Kehl for a little while. When we crossed back over we decided to take a bus back over the bridge into Strasbourg. Well, yeah, there's border control when you cross the bridge by vehical. Luckily I had my passport, but as for Erin, not so much. We managed to talk our way out of any problems which wasn't hard since I had mine and it was US. Sad as it is, having a US passport usually solves all your problems. There was an elderly German lady in the seat behind us, traveling across with her daughter who didn't have her passport either and the officer wouldn't let her cross. Erin taking a picture of France, standing in Germany.

The Alps 2...a slightly more successful trip!

Xavier...our gracious chauffeur...can you make out the van to the right? YES! A trip with a suitable car, not packed into a 2 door...but I guess that's the american in me!
Playing poker...I'm not sure if he can't keep a straight face or what, but during large bets, David prefered to go incognito
Still playing poker...from the right: Nini, Isabel, Cecile and Xav
Nini ready to go after a long night of poker

WOMAN...STOP TAKING MY PICTURE....
Oh Hallelujah! Sunshine and no wind at all...this time around, I didn't even need a winter coat, and I could actually see where I was going...a bit different from the demoralizing weekend trying to snowboard in a snowstorm with 0 visability.
Lunch at the top...jambon and fromage...yeah ok it sounds fancy but it was just ham and cheese :)