Brussels

Galeries St Hubert

Nathan and I had a lovely weekend in Brussels.  It was our first time away on our own since our Paris trip last April, so it was long over due!  We travelled over on the eurostar Friday after work and checked into the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in - including a free mini bar! On Saturday we walked through the Galeries St Hubert (shopping arcade - eclectic mix of shops) on our way to the Grand Place.  We had ticked off two of the tourist hotspots in about 10 minutes, we thought we were awesome.  We walked back to the shopping arcade to find the Rue de Bouchers, a street lined with tacky touristy restaurants, that looked interesting to walk down but not to eat along.  

Grand Place

We then walked out to the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts (translation = art gallery).  The gallery had an awesome Stanley Kubrick photography display so most of our time was spent at this exhibition. On the tube out to the Atomium Nath and I took Stanley Kubrick style photos of each other.  He is famous for capturing shots of people on the NY tube system, camera disguised so people are natural and not posing for the photos, as they didn't know they were being photographed. 

Atomium

We visited the Atomium built for the 1958 world fair - it is an iron atom enlarged 165 billion times.  It was not worth paying the €11 to go inside, you do get a view over the city, but the displays inside are rubbish. 
We weren't there long before we decided it was beer o'clock, by this time it was 3pm and we needed lunch and beer. The lonely planet suggested a pub off the Rue de Bouchers called the Delirium Cafe, when we read it is guaranteed to stock 2004 beers we decided this was the pub for us.  Nath had a beer that was 10% while I was much more sensible and settled for a 7%.  After a couple of beers we left in search of a pub showing the football and rugby.  It wasn't to hard find.  This time we didn't order Belgium beers, we went for a standard 4% corona!

Inside the Delirium Cafe

Manneken Pis

Sunday was wet and it wasn't nice walking around the city.  We quickly went and saw the Manneken Pis, a miniture fountain of a boy pissing into a pool.  Random.  Sometimes the boy has an outfit on but not today.  We then found a brewery house in the grand place where we did a little tour and had a taster of beer.  This got us in the mood for more beer so we headed back to the Delirium cafe for a couple of beers before having to board the eurostar and head back to London.

A lovely weekend away.  We must try to get away just the two of us more often.  No plans yet for our next get away together.  Our next holiday is to Portugal for my 30th in two weeks time!!

In the little brew house

Naughty! Churros with nutella.

Italy - Rome, Cinque Terre, Pisa and Venice!

I'm not sure where to start with this blog, we had such an epic holiday with Anna & Borrie and did so much I can't write about all of it! I will try to include the best bits and put some photos on that haven't made the facebook cut.

Praying in St Peters Basilica

Our holiday started in Rome - one of the ancient civilisations of the world. That alone is enough to get Nath excited.  We had 3 action packed days where we did a tour of the Colosseum & Palatine Hill and the Vatican City.  We also saw the Pantheon, Spanish Steps and Trevi fountain.  We took a trip out to the catacombes of San Callisto, I was disappointed that we didn't see any bones but I think Anna was relieved.  The best part about Rome was the free water fountains dotted all around city.  Luckily our tour guide of Palatine Hill told us the water was OK to drink or else we probably would have avoided it and spent loads of cash buying water. 

Riomaggiore at night

Walking action shot

Synchronised swimming in the Med

My favourite part of our holiday was the time we spent in Cinque Terre.  The scenery was beautiful and it was nice to be swimming in the ocean and drinking locally made wines.  In the mornings we would get up and walk between the colourful fishing villages.  In the afternoons we would swim and enjoy the sunshine.  In the evenings we would eat delicious Italian food and drink good wine.  One time we bought salami, cheeses, olives and bread from a deli and ate on the rocks of the jetty as the sun set.  Bello.  I didn't want to leave the Cinque Terre but I am hopeful I will return there one day.

Our last stop on our tour of Italy was Venice. We took the train from Cinque Terre and stopped off at Pisa for a few cheeky photos with the leaning tower before continuing on our way.





 It was deja vu being back in Venice and it was cool to be there.  We managed to squeeze in a lot more than our previous trip visiting Doge's palace, St Marks Basilica, and we went up the Bell Tower that gave us panoramic views over Venice.  We had fun walking around the canals, never knowing if we were going to reach a dead end and have to back track.  It was an interesting experience flying out of Venice - we arrived at the airport in a boat!! As we took off it was amazing looking out the windows to see all the water ways and the little islands created by the canals. 

 

 As I write this blog I have just finished end of year reports and have 20 school days left before summer break.  Cannot wait for 7 weeks of sleep ins!