2003/10/16 – Thursday

10 hour flight after work with my bro to London. Slept most the way, which was perfect for adjusting to the time change.

2003/10/17 – Friday

Arrive in London. Take the subway (which is way too expensive, ~ $7) to central London. There was a stop for the subway right next to our hotel, but still had to walk around a little to find which corner it was on. I felt odd and out of place walking around with a suitcase. Upon checking in, we learn that our reservation was made for Saturday night, and not Friday night. Oops. Luckily they still have a room, but it’s twice as expensive as it was online. After getting that all settled, we drop our bags and start walking around. We see Big Ben, and other sights nearby, then head back for some Indian food for dinner (I think Haji-baba’s in Tempe is probably better, and definitely more food).

2003/10/18 – Saturday

Wake up a little later than originally planned, but sleep is good when you’re on vacation. We go down to the Tower Bridge, and see David Blane in his box that he was living in for 45 days with only water. We head back, check out of the hotel, pay to much to have them hold our bags for an hour or two, and go eat some lunch at an English pub.

After lunch, we head to the airport via subway and bus (was supposed to be train, but that wasn’t happening for some reason, so they bussed us there instead). We arrived early enough, but had a little trouble at Stansted Airport finding the right place to check in, RyanAir had a separate ticket counter for every flight. Given that they basically own that entire airport, it wasn’t a bad system, just not very clear to the unsuspecting traveler. The flight left a little late, but they seem to build about 30 min. into each flight, and we arrived 10-15 minutes early in Brussels. Customs were fast, and we waited 10 minutes for our ride. Bill and mom were there to pick us up, good thing ‘cause I wouldn’t have recognized Bill. We arrived to Bill & Jan’s for dinner. Talk mostly revolved around my/ryan’s jobs. Since Bill’s with army intelligence, he was fairly knowledgeable with my work. We also talked extensively about college, as their son, Evan, is a senior in HS this year.

2003/10/19 – Sunday

Brugge. We took a day trip to Brugge to tour the town. It’s a very interesting town, lots of history, the medieval style of buildings has been well preserved. They have canals all about the city, so we took a boat tour. We stopped for an afternoon tea, after the boat tour, which was nice since it was fairly cold out. Actually it was quite cold, considering it was still 100 degrees in Phoenix. We toured the church, and other parts of the town. We headed for home around sundown, and had dinner and celebrated Jan’s 50th birthday.

2003/10/20 – Monday

Brussels. Jan took us to Mons and dropped the three of us at the train station to catch a train to Brussels. We drove around the town a little bit first, trying to make our way to the church, but the one way roads didn’t allow for that. We did get a good idea for the layout of the town, and what it had to offer. When we returned, we did have a chance to finally go up to the church, which was probably more beautiful at night with their blue lights shining on it - which made it unique looking.

Once in Brussels, we walked around to see all the sights. Churches, city parks, gov’t buildings, etc. We skipped the giant molecule, since we were advised it wasn’t worth the money to get there, but we saw it from a distance, which was good enough. The most impressive thing to me was the courthouse. Inside were huge (very huge) pillars. I tried to take a picture or two, not sure how they turned out as I haven’t had time to look through those yet. Also, one of the churches had some amazing stained glass, and not just beautiful, but tons and tons of it – more in one place than I’ve ever seen before. I don’t recall which church it was, but it was the first one we went to. If I find the name I’ll add it to this post.

One of the many things I learned this trip was that Belgium has essentially has two cultures (French & Dutch/Flemish). The French people used to have the major influence over the country, but that has been eroded away by the Dutch, who realized the importance of learning English for doing business with US and other countries. The French aren’t too happy about this, being French and all and proud of it, however they realize that it is happening, which causes some tension. They do get along, in general, but the tension does exist. Also, the countryside of Belgium was very familiar to the Midwest, I could’ve been in Missouri had it not been for the road signs and cars.

Italy is yet to come, sorry but there’s just so much to write and so little time. Photos too, maybe this weekend I’ll work on it some. I’m working major hours at work to make up for the trip, 10.5 hours today. Tomorrow I’m going to the Something Corporate concert with Tim & Jenny, so Thursday will be another 10.5 hours or so too.