Saturday, January 26, 2008
Au Revoir Belgique
On our third day we moved even slower, knowing there would be little open in the morning. I found some breakfast at the food maker, one of the few open locations down the street with come croissants and a coffee riding around in our stomachs, we could venture off to see the sights of Brussels. We took the metro to the center of the city, and wandered around the Grand Place, taking pictures and milling about with the other tourists. We then dropped by to see the Manneken Pis, although he was not dressed up on this day. We wandered around a bit looking at the little shops and then went back to the Grand place for some food and and authentic Belgian Beer. We enjoyed a beer and some salami and cheese, and then had a strawberry ice cream sort of dish and a spiked coffee drink to warm ourselves back up. Yes it was a tourist trap, but the beer was tasty, and we needed a snack. On our way back to the hotel we dropped back in to the food maker for something to drink, and went to the hotel to rest up a bit. Finally we walked down our little restaurant street and found a brasserie where we ordered some tasty beers had a great meal and enjoyed our final night in Brussels. I finally sat down to the huge portion of Mussels and fries (Moules et Frites) that I'd seen everyone else eating since we'd gotten to town. They are just as good as advertised. The hotel was out of irons, so they did our ironing for us the next morning, and we took the train and a bus to Brussels airport. We got slightly less cozy first class seats on a 767 on the way home, but it was certainly more comfortable than the coach ride we took from D.C. to San Francisco.
All dressed up with no place to go
Fortunately for us the whole city of Brussels gets off to a slow start on weekends, so when I got up around nine, there was still not a lot of places open. Even the sun gets off to a slower start here, with sunrise not until after 7:30 a.m. I scored us a few croissants in the metro station, and then did some reading while W slept some more, trying to rest off whatever she was fighting. We grabbed a delicious light lunch at the food court in the shopping center next to us at a little place called le pretexte. We had a really tasty prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich and then went off to try to find the grand place. It was raining and windy and crappy and we didn't know exactly which way to walk, so I ended up just dropping W back off at the hotel. After a snack I went out and wandered around, just getting know where things were and riding the metro a bit more so I'd know my way around. I found the botanical garden, a few interesting churches, and then by accident wandered right into the grand place. I turned a corner and bumped into Belgium's most famous landmark, and he was even all dressed up for the occasion. When I'd gotten wet and cold and tired enough I went back and dragged W out for dinner, this time choosing La Vigne, on the same little street we'd eaten on the night before. We ate in authentic Brussels style starting with an apertif, a starter of cheese croquets, and I had sole fillets with mussels, and W had a very tasty cordon bleu. I had a fabulous mousse au chocolate for dessert that seemed absolutely sinful. Early to bed again, for one more big day.
Bonjour Bruxelles
Our Brussels trip was in trouble on its first day when W woke up with an earache. Spending 9 hours on a flight would certainly not be fun with sinus and ear pain, She took one for the team and decided to tough it out anyway so we jumped on a flight headed for Frankfurt and away we went. We've traveled so much lately that the movies haven't changed much since the last time we flew, but I did have time to check out rush hour 3,(not bad for a sequel) and Mr. Woodcock (not recommended). Because it was the longest of the movies available I also spent too much time watching the end of Into the wild (boring, and sad). The upgraded food on the plane was awesome I had a lamb with apricot curry that I really enjoyed. When we arrived in Frankfurt, W was an unrested, congested, teary shell of her self, so we grabbed a quiet place to sit to consider our options, and then decided on taking the train to Brussels. It would take about 5 hours, but would be a scenic journey. We had mapped out a trip from home already, so we were able to walk up to the automated ticket machine grab some tickets and head for our train. the trip up the romantic Rhine was beautiful, with little villages and castle ruins all along the way.
The train was moving too fast and it was too cloudy for many pictures, but you get somewhat of a sense from it here. When we arrived at the North Brussels train station, we knew we had a tight connection, and missed it, but a very helpful English speaker at the information booth pointed us in the right direction. We got on a train on a line I still haven't figured out, and it stopped at one point and we were afraid it had been taken out of service. We arrived at Gare Central (the central Brussels station) and knew our hotel should have been within walking distance, but tired, sick, and quickly getting wet, we just decided to get a cab for €10 and be done traveling for the day. We settled in to our hotel for a bit and then I went out to explore the neighborhood. I found the closest metro station, and some potential restaurants for dinner. After a nap W was starting to come around, so we wandered out for dinner and found Le Délire Parisien. We started with a delicious French onion soup. W had a salad, and I had a delicious duck with Thai style seasonings. For dessert W had a fresh fruit plate and I had the most wonderful sabayon spiked with Grand Marnier. We called it a night early and retired to our room. We stayed at the Sofitel Brussels Toison d'Or. Our room was actually very nice, and the service was friendly and helpful. It was conveniently located near the Louise metro station, with plenty of shopping and restaurants, and one very loud church bell nearby. The room was however, quite warm with the lowest setting on the heater a balmy 20 degrees C. We spent a lot of time with the window open, but it was super windy and that kept moving the door. Definitely the most comfortable bed ever though. We didn't want to get up at all the next morning
The train was moving too fast and it was too cloudy for many pictures, but you get somewhat of a sense from it here. When we arrived at the North Brussels train station, we knew we had a tight connection, and missed it, but a very helpful English speaker at the information booth pointed us in the right direction. We got on a train on a line I still haven't figured out, and it stopped at one point and we were afraid it had been taken out of service. We arrived at Gare Central (the central Brussels station) and knew our hotel should have been within walking distance, but tired, sick, and quickly getting wet, we just decided to get a cab for €10 and be done traveling for the day. We settled in to our hotel for a bit and then I went out to explore the neighborhood. I found the closest metro station, and some potential restaurants for dinner. After a nap W was starting to come around, so we wandered out for dinner and found Le Délire Parisien. We started with a delicious French onion soup. W had a salad, and I had a delicious duck with Thai style seasonings. For dessert W had a fresh fruit plate and I had the most wonderful sabayon spiked with Grand Marnier. We called it a night early and retired to our room. We stayed at the Sofitel Brussels Toison d'Or. Our room was actually very nice, and the service was friendly and helpful. It was conveniently located near the Louise metro station, with plenty of shopping and restaurants, and one very loud church bell nearby. The room was however, quite warm with the lowest setting on the heater a balmy 20 degrees C. We spent a lot of time with the window open, but it was super windy and that kept moving the door. Definitely the most comfortable bed ever though. We didn't want to get up at all the next morning
Thursday, January 17, 2008
No new posts for a while... that can only mean one thing
OK, so its been a while since I made an update, and you know what that means. Sometimes work and other work and wii (this week it's the Simpsons game) and even some old school PS2 (NBA street volume 3) have been getting in the way of my blogging life. W spends less evenings at work now that school's back in session, and the nights when I have the house to myself are the ones that I actually have time to sit down and organize my thoughts into words. So these are the relevant facts.
1. I've been working hard, my relationship with my 3rd boss since I got promoted has been interesting, she leaves at 4 everyday come hell or high water, and since she gets an earlier start than I do I'm frequently greeted by 3 emails before I even get my computer turned on in the morning.
2. Whenever I work hard for a quarter close I usually like to reward myself somehow.
3. There's a 3 day weekend coming up and if I leave the office at 11:30 tomorrow I get four and a half days off for the price of one.
4. W's birthday happens to fall right after this long weekend
5. I really need a globe so that I can spin it and put my finger on it and go to that place that I point to, although for maximum effect it would have to rotate on both axes.
OK, so what I'm building up to here is we looked at our calendars and we looked at the flights and we looked at the weather and "settled" on a quick trip to Belgium. My co-workers at both jobs are understandably jealous. I've been trying to learn a little French. (W took it in High school too, making her partially trilingual) and studying my favorite Lonely Planet and Fodor's books for what to see do and eat.
1. I've been working hard, my relationship with my 3rd boss since I got promoted has been interesting, she leaves at 4 everyday come hell or high water, and since she gets an earlier start than I do I'm frequently greeted by 3 emails before I even get my computer turned on in the morning.
2. Whenever I work hard for a quarter close I usually like to reward myself somehow.
3. There's a 3 day weekend coming up and if I leave the office at 11:30 tomorrow I get four and a half days off for the price of one.
4. W's birthday happens to fall right after this long weekend
5. I really need a globe so that I can spin it and put my finger on it and go to that place that I point to, although for maximum effect it would have to rotate on both axes.
OK, so what I'm building up to here is we looked at our calendars and we looked at the flights and we looked at the weather and "settled" on a quick trip to Belgium. My co-workers at both jobs are understandably jealous. I've been trying to learn a little French. (W took it in High school too, making her partially trilingual) and studying my favorite Lonely Planet and Fodor's books for what to see do and eat.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Welcome 2008!
2007 was definitely a year to remember for me, but I'm always encouraged by the beginning of a new year and the hope and possibilities it brings. We brought in the new year quietly at home with good friend Scott and new friend Ann. We ate appetizers, including some reformulated leftover crab rangoons from our dinner party last week. Oh that's right, I haven't told you about last weekends dinner party. We had been to travel buddy Francie and husband Steve's house a couple of times, and they take dinner and entertaining seriously. So when they visited us for dinner over the weekend I had to bring my A game. We started with Steve cooking some delicious sea scallops with a pistachio topping. I then turned out a slightly modified (deep fried, rather than steamed) version of this Crab rangoon recipe, and then followed that with this Tom Yum Goong soup. My original plan was to serve a dish from everywhere we'd been this year but that required a little too much of a mix of flavors and constrained my creativity. For an entree I went to an old standby, nut crusted fish. We went to Costco in the morning and all they had in a white fish was tilapia, so we used that, and picked up some delicious marcona almonds and coated my tilapia with them. I served the fish with a side of this spinach salad with balsamic vinegar instead of the red wine vinegar that's called for. I also experimented with a skillet soda bread, that I like more and more every time I eat it. The skillet makes a great crust on the bread, and its very simple to make. We finished with my famous creme brulee (recipe from my Joy of Cooking cookbook), kicked up with a shot of amaretto with some berries and toasted almonds on the side. It was a great dinner if I do say so myself, and it was complemented nicely with a small sampling of Steve's extensive wine collection.
Our new years eve night was capped with a hefty helping of wii, and and I reached back to my college days and stayed up until 5 a.m. playing baseball with Scott. Count me in for an early night tonight and perhaps a healthy nap this afternoon.
Our new years eve night was capped with a hefty helping of wii, and and I reached back to my college days and stayed up until 5 a.m. playing baseball with Scott. Count me in for an early night tonight and perhaps a healthy nap this afternoon.
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