Day 5 and a half - Brugge

After Amsterdam we went to the town called Brugge which is located on the western side of Belgium... It is touted to be the most tourist visited area and I can see why... The place was just quaint.... It's like an old town which never got around to modernisation... The roads were all cobblestones...the architecture was old... it was just cosy... :)

First stop was the supposedly most scenic or most photographed spot in Brugge... Dont seem to be that unique but if they say so who am I to argue rite?

Next up was the market place... which is the central court of which the whole town surrounds... even comes with horse carriage rides but I didnt manage that... :(

Found this cute little chocolate shop which was so tiny you had to bend down to get in the front door.. It looks like it was initially there alone and the buildings next to it was build after just around it.... Choco was good and comparatively cheap... :)

Next I decided to go for a beer making tour... Mum and sis decided not to go but it was said to be one of the experiences you shouldnt miss so I didnt... hehe!! This is the beer being brewed.... This is our tour guide explaining the old bottling process.... which was hazardous to say the least... :)

How we get different variations of beer... It's all in the roasting of the barley... The darker the roast the darker the beer....

They had a huge collection of beer cans from all around the world... cool...

Then we went up to the rooftop and it gave us a great view of the town itself... Better than climbing the bell tower which was closed during the time I went there... :)

At the end of the tour the guide explained about a certain famous mask which initially was worn by the tank cleaners because of the sulphur which was being used... can you spot the mask?

Aaah.... after the tour... what else? Let's sit down and enjoy the beer which was brewed... It was actually quite good... award winning as well.. :)

The rest of the nite was just having a quick dinner and lazing in the room.... The next morning we went to the market place for their morning market... It was so much fun... their market is so much cleaner than ours... All the wet produce were on trucks which have display cabinets like those in the supermarket... nice!!! Not forgetting the blooms on sale... beautiful!!! :D

Well after that we were off to Amsterdam... see ya there!!! :D

Brussels - Day 3 & 4

No I am not getting lazier just that there is less to show and tell so I combined the 2 days...

I left Paris in the morning and boarded the Thalys the high speed train to Brussels... It was good thinking on my part not to fly everywhere I went since I would have been stranded in the Paris then due to the ask cloud..... Cute self check in machine... It verifies your tickets before you board the train... A lot of trust factor involved though...What is a person just boards?

Upon landing I needed a toilet break ASAP and found a nifty way of flushing... this should definitely be implemented in Malaysia to avoid everyone from stepping on the handle as long as it is below waist height... Inconsiderate ppl.... sheeh!!

Out from the Brussels Midi station and there was a morning market... It was such a nice market... everything looked so fresh!! yum yum!! Plus the best belgian waffle I had was here too but it smelt so good that we whallop it all down before we could take a picture... whoopsies...

Guess what, I bought 2kgs of strawberries for Euro4 only!! It was a steal...hehe!! Waaah...this is literally a crate-full of apples....

Now this took us so long find find... we were walking from one end of the market to the other... kept seeing ppl carrying fresh flowers but we couldnt find the stall... why? how come? then we found out...the market stretched to the other side of the station as well and the flowers were there... so pretty.... wish i could buy some back home.. :( but they would die within a day in Malaysian heat...

Finally after walking for so long.... the reason why we walked was because our apartment was not ready to be checked in yet...haha!! There one common thing in brussels though, they seem to think that a few kilometres walk is near...we went to the rental office to get our key and we were directed to the apartment... The lady says it's just a 15 mins walk from the place but since my mum's knee was not too well we insisted on calling a cab... wheen the cab came and we gave him the address again he say that is not far... so we said we were told... So he drove... and it was damn far... even by car it took 10 mins... what more by foot right? that happened with all the taxis we took... "But that is not far!!!" Jeez I am giving business and they are asking why am I not walking... haiz... Anyway... the apartment was the best lodging we had throughout our stay... Nice and big...spacious with full kitchen facilities although it was not easy working the electric stove..haha!! It came with 2 bedrooms, 1 toilet and 1 bath...

Then again mum was tired so we left her at the apartment and went to the Le Grande Place to look see look see... I can see why they call it so...it was really grand.... fuh!!!

Because mum was not around we thought it would be fun to rent some bicycle and ride around instead of walking and taking the subway... boy did we regret... most of the roads were actually cobble roads that look like this!! and we were riding like some drunken ppl... haha!! When you have not rode a bike for as long as we have, add the cobble stone to it... it's the recipe for disaster...haha!!
But we did manage to cycle and see the Little Minneskin Pis before we gave up on our bikes...haha!!! All the fame for just for a peeing statue...wonder why?

We decided to call it a day and went to grab some "Quick" which is their McD over there and had that for dinner.... One thing we noticed is that at places you least expect it there will be such paintings of cartoons all over town....

So the next day came and we woke up late since there was nothing to do.... hahha!! Headed over to the shopping street coz Whadaya know... Kipling was from Belgium and it was on 30% discount...haha!! So after our purchases we dropped by at Chez Leon which is supposedly famous for their mussel and we tried... We were told by all the websites and books that you cannot go to brussels or belgium without having some mussels and fries... Of course not forgetting the beer... They are the one country that doesnt serve Free Water... haha!! and the beer cost the same as water so what do you drink? BEER!!! We had beer every day and a different one every day... :) Alll I can say about the mussels was Yuck!! I dont know whether it's coz I dont like mussels to start off with or I choose the wrong shop... but it was not appetising at all...Eww....

Dont be fooled by the happy face...That was taken just before I took my first bite...

So what do we do after lunch...? We went to buy chocolate of course... We were recommended to go Pierre Marcolini.... "The best chocolate in belgium" says our taxi driver.. so we bought some..forgot to take pictures again.. whoopsies..haha!! Not forgetting the common Godiva and others.... Then we stopped by for tea at Wittamer which was also touted to be the best pastries shop in brussels... Okay so their cakes are pretty good... haha!!So this one is worth a try... :D

That night we decided to cook our own dinner since we had a kitchen...guess what we cooked? Maggi mee la...hahaha!! But it was Tesco Chicken Flavoured noodles which left us wanting for the real thing... Haiz.... :(

Paris - Day 2

Started my second day bright and early... :) Took the train into town... left mummy in the hotel coz all the subway staircases took a toll on her... Passed a scenic bridge with a clear view of the Eiffel Tower...

This is an extremely weird sign I came about... and there were many of the same sign everywhere... what does it mean? ' Men are not allowed to hold little girls' hands??' It just didnt make much sense... maybe someone who knows can tell me... haha!!

Got ourselves to Saint Chappelle which is the church smack dab in the middle of Paris.... Famous for it's stain glass windows...wait til you see the pictures...

This was the lower hall.... A common factor for all the buildings I have visited : Gold!!! In abundance... Seriously...

Went upstairs and what I saw took my breath away.... This is called the Rose glass because of the design...each pane has a different picture depicting some moment in time way back when....

The handwork was so intricate... every section was handpainted and there were 6 of these on each side... each telling a time which is told in the bible from Adam and Eve....

The stairwell going up on in this case me going down.... spirally...

Then we walked over to Notre Dame Cathedral.... the one and only church which photos I could take but because flash was not allowed it does look a tad dark....

The organ which is still fully functional... Wow... how do you play such a thing?

Looking up you can see that the ceiling of the cathedral is actually bricks which were laid to shape a dome... now that is what I call skills....

After that Ai Li left me to climb the Tower all by myself... :( Coz it was 387 steps up and we have to pay to climb... talk about paying to be tortured...haha!! Worst thing was that everyone seemed so fit... because it was also a spiral staircase which can only fit one person so everyone was climbing in single file and even the old grandmas and grandpas didnt seem to need to stop and take a breather so poor aichin had to drag herself up non stop also although I was feeling a bit winded nearing the top... hahah!! But the view of the entire Paris was really really nice.... Not forgetting the famous gargoyles... This one looks bored...

This is what the gargoyles look at on a daily basis... Dont know why he is so bored... The view was fantastic.....

I found the gargoyles really interesting because I could not find 2 of the same one... they were all different doing different things... sticking their tongue out, staring, eating, perching etc.... and some had wings, some looked like panthers....

After Notre Dame we had to rush back to the hotel and collect my mum to be to the louvre... not because he was desperate to see it but coz we already got the tickets... haha!!

This is the below one of the pyramids... It reflects the pyramid at the top and there is a tiny one at the bottom as well...

We didnt have much time to go about but there were many paintings, statues and artifacts... but of course the main reason why you go is for this... The Mona Lisa.... After looking at it I thought... "What is so great? Painting nia ma...." haha!! I think I am not cultured enough..... Now this I found super fascinating... who would have thought to sculpt this? haha!!

We actually got in through the side entrance coz everyone told us the main one would have a long line....but you cant leave the Lourve without seeing it from the outside right?

So I decided to pick it up along with me... haha!!!

Then off we went to Champ Elysee and visited Louis Vuitton... So not worth it..You are treated so bad...no one would bother with you and you had to line up to get in...jeez!!!

So we walked out and went to see Arc De Triomphe which again I ask "So what is do great?" haha!! I am so not getting why we need to see such monuments... I mean I know it is symbolic but still....

So that was it for Day 2.... mum was so irked by the LV ppl we decided to go back to the hotel early.... Next morning we are off to another country... :)