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Published: June 23rd 2015
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Southern Artic sea from plane
Un unexpected surprise of our flight! In the first six days of our European adventure we have experienced so, so much that it is difficult to condense down to a blog entry. Nevertheless, here goes my best attempt to share our discoveries in broad brush text and letting the pictures do the rest of the talking.
After leaving from Seattle at midday we flew all night over the southern Artic and Greenland, without ever really seeing the night as we were so far north (Pic of Artic Sea). And then we were welcomed into the "continent" with a bright pink sunrise (winglet on plane). Beautiful countryside as with many small towns and large expanses of woods. I was impressed by how much commercial barge traffic is seen on all rivers.
After we spent a quiet day at Horst and Estela's adjusting for Jet Lag. We headed into Brussels to see the Grand Place..... WOW!... seeing centuries old architecture in such great scale and so much of it was mind blowing!..... the stonework on the buildings, the statues... and in general that sense of history that one feels is very cool! And of course the Chocolate is amazing! And then there is the Manneken Pis (peeing
Morning sun
Dawn light hits the plane winglet Child) which can't be overlooked on a visit to Brussels, it is quite the attraction... perhaps a bit smaller than I imagined, but yet an attraction. (see pic)
We then headed to Amsterdam on a high speed train......I tell you! It is fast!... As we ran parallel to the freeway it seemed that all the cars heading in our same direction had stopped as our speed was so much more than theirs!
We arrived in Amsterdam and headed for the House boat we rented for our stay, through House Trip. And guess what..... phew!....everything worked as expected, the House was there and it was a great base point, close to the center of town, groceries etc.... It's always nice when you discover that everything works as expected... specially when you have made reservations months is advance on the internet..
AMSTERDAM: where to begin...I guess a best place is BYCICLES...I thought Seattle had bicycles... well you really don't know what is a bicycle friendly city until you have been in Amsterdam, there are bike paths everywhere, there are bike racks everywhere and most importantly everyone, kids, adults, seniors, families all ride the bike wherever they go, and although
there are bike paths along sidewalks, along roads, there is a easy flow for all bikes, walkers and cars.... the key is perhaps that all are aware that the bike rider always has the priority.
The CANALS: Preplanned centuries ago, these canals work perfectly for the city in modern day transportation and add great charm to the city.
The buildings! The Museums, Rembrandt, Franz Hall, Van Gogh.... all speak for themselves, but I'll just say that standing next to one of these painting, such as Rembrandt's Night Watch and seeing it in it's true size close by is a special experience!
But perhaps one of the most striking discoveries for us, in the Netherlands is how this place that pretty much tolerates everything but yet functions so well without over-regulation with a sense of self order and responsibility, in fact it was surprising to us to see very few policemen, as well as a total lack of signs with "Don't Do this or that" yet all clearly respect each other as well as their city. Quite an impressive society with friendly and happy people that are comfortable singing aloud in groups for their team, or their school
or just because. And interestingly enough people's self respect is much deeper than "political Correctness" and in fact it is apparent that the burden of political correctness is not... important or necessary.
Back from Amsterdam, our local Belgium "Tour Guide", Estela, took us to see Gent , where we saw An amazing 16th century church and then Brugge, a truly quaint town with a great mediaeval feel with its ancient stone buildings, curving stone paved streets and of course churches, like the Church of Our Lady built in the 12th Century and containing the Statue of The Virgin and Infant by Michelangelo, it is the only Michelangelo statue commissioned and delivered to someone in northern Europe (see pic) We also saw beautiful town squares, a great basilica. And being in Belgium of course the Beer Wall... with every imaginable beer you can find along with it's own brand name glass.....
Today we stopped by to see the Atomium built for the 1958 worlds fair and visited the Brussels Basilica, which we learned, was originally planned to be larger than the Basilica in St Peters square, but, because of that it was not authorized by the church until the
Gallerie Saint Hubert
Chocolates..yum, Belgium lace... high end clothiers plan was reduced to a Basilica which was slightly smaller than St. Peters..... it is still very impressive, so I can't even imagine how St Peters will be...I guest I will find out soon enough.
In all, it has been an amazing first week for our trip, with Horst and Estela as our hosts, giving us our first look at Europe and making this a great way to launch the rest of our adventure. There is so much more that I did not include, because this would get to be to long a blog entry, but I think this gives all of you an idea..... And now till next time..
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Orlando Castelblanco
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Europe how much I miss you!
Tocayo y primita: Me parece estar con ustedes pues sus patitas recorren caminos que yo recorri hace tantos años!.Esos paisajes, museos, arquitectura, cultura y demas deleitan mis sentidos cuando leo y veo con alegria ese premio que se han regalado. Everybody should see Europe at least once in a lifetime. Si, el Maneken Pis es pequeñito, todo, incluido el chorrito! Jajajaj!. Observaron que la gran mayoria de taxis son Mercedes Benz?. Sigan gozando y enviando el reporte. Gracias, lo aprecio muchisimo. Abrazo!