Adventures of the Family Kowalski : July 2012

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Chocolate, Waffles, and French Fries.. OH MY!

After a day to relax at home, Mom and I took an ITT trip to Brussels Belgium. It had been on my list of places to visit, but being 4 hours away, we hadn't made it there yet. Luckily I had my adventurous traveling partner so off we went in search for Brussels..home to Chocolate, Waffles, Beer, French fries and mussels! We enjoyed a short tour on the bus of Brussels then we had ample time to explore on our own!

First stop on our bus tour was the Atomium. It was a sculpture built for the World's Fair that was held in Belgium in the 1950s. It is now used as an observation deck and individual art exhibits. It was a building marvel of the time period as in the "beams" connecting the spheres are escalators!

Belgium is still run by a royal family and this is evident in some of the interesting buildings around the city. One of the Kings wanted Belgium to be known as an international city so he had two oriental buildings built, one a chinese pagoda house and the other a japanese tower. This is the pagoda.

Entrance to one of the Royal palaces.

The senate building

The main royal residency

Another cathedral

Small fair/market

The town square

Many people mistake this for a church..SURPRISE! It is the TOWN HALL!

Museum

Manneken pis is a famous statue in Belgium. We saw replicas everywhere.. this was a "chocolate" one advertising a waffle stand

The original Manneken Pis is in a museum as it was stolen too many times..this is a replica. He is usually naked but does have many costumes. The costume of the day was the yellow shirt (leader shirt) of the Tour De France as the 1st day of this race was starting in Belgium!

Funny story from our guide. The statue has hundreds of costumes, but from time to time he gets a new one. When he does they have a festival to commemorate the new costume.. and the statue begins to "pee" beer that is free to the public to drink!

Amazing... I loved this view so much I got a watercolor of it! This is also the home of the "flower carpet" of brussels every August.

Paris is always a good idea- Audrey Hepburn

After a great weekend in Heidelberg, Mom, Matt, and I went home to relax. Mom and I didn't have too long to relax though, because on Tuesday it was off to Paris (her 1st time, my 3rd). Paris is a beautiful city and there is a lot to do. My biggest complaint is how expensive it is! A water or soda at a restaurant is anywhere from 4-6 dollars and not all places offer tap water. Also, this particular trip was extremely humid! We made the best of it though, we enjoyed the Louvre, shopping, and sight-seeing.

We took the train from Gare Luxembourg in Luxembourg City to Gare L'Est. From there it was a short metro ride to our hotel. We had a great time at the Holiday Inn St. Germain De Pres in the St. Germain area of Paris. This is also known as the artist or student area. After we relaxed, had some lunch, and got our bearings, we set off for some shopping and the Bateaux Mouches Seine River cruise.

Mom in front of Notre Dame

Eiffel Tower!!

Old Paris Train Station

Side view Notre Dame

Mom enjoying the breeze

It was windy!

After our river cruise we went back to the hotel to freshen up before it was out on the town for dinner. The next day we devoted to the Louvre. We got there about 9:30am and stayed until 2:30pm. Unfortunately, the French do not believe in air conditioning in most parts of the museum, so it was not as enjoyable as we would have liked. The stuffy air and humidity really took it out of us. Then it was back to the hotel to freshen up and more shopping and dinner!

Mom and I in front of the Pyramid in the center of the Louvre courtyard

Mom enjoying some art

Mom and I found this neat little sculpture garden

Mom in front of the street entrance to the Louvre

View from our hotel room at night

On our last day in Paris we went to the northern outskirts of the Paris city centre to Sacre Coeur Cathedral. I have been wanting to see this church since my first time in Paris, but on my other two trips there was lousy weather. One of the main points of going up to Sacre Coeur is for the view. It surely didn't disappoint!