More Friends Come For A Visit

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Geo: 52.3738, 4.89095

After many delays our friend Brad was scheduled to be in Amsterdam on business. After doing some fare hunting I found a great deal for another friend, Chris, to fly from DC to Amsterdam. I thought this was the perfect opportunity for us to spend a couple days in our favorite city and see our friends.

Brad got into Amsterdam on Monday and Chris meet him there on Thursday. Kim and I drove the car there and meet up with them on Friday evening. I found a nice apartment for the four of us to rent for two nights. http://www.bedandnet.com/ The location was great. The cleanliness could have been better but that's par for the course sometimes. We parked the car outside the city, took the train to Central Station then took the tram to the apartment. It was great to see friends from home and get to enjoy the wonderful pubs of Amsterdam with them. We had great food and great drinks. Probably too much of both.

After a couple great days in Amsterdam we picked up the car and headed south to Antwerp and stopped at 't Oud Arsenaala pub for a drink. This place has been open since 1924 and it looks like nothing has changed since day one. After our one quick beer we were back in the car and off to Brussels. We got a great deal on rooms at the Sheraton Hotel Brussels and after dropping off the luggage we were off on the town. A quick dinner then back to the main square and the near by pubs. Our first stop was Delirium Cafe http://www.deliriumcafe.be/ . This place holds the world's record for the largest number of beers available at 2004. We went down stairs and the music was THUMPING. To loud to talk or hear anything else. Very crowded and not my type of bar. Upstairs looked much better but we were off to A la Mort Subite http://www.alamortsubite.com/ENG/histoire.html
This is an old traditional Brussels Pub and much more my kind of place. We enjoyed several wonderful beers then headed back to the hotel for a well deserved nights sleep. The next morning we were off to our favorite beer store Dranken Geers http://www.drankengeers.be/uk/index.htm . We did a little shopping there then off to Brugge where we walked into the main square, had some wonderful Belgian Fries, a Belgian waffle and a looked at some canals. Off again we drove over to the famous Belgian Abby of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren http://www.sintsixtus.be/eng/home.htm . We each had a glass of the famous Westvleteren beer in the pub across the street and did a little shopping in the gift shop then off to the port to catch the ferry back to Dover.

The next day we were off to London to see the Rock and Roll Legend Chuck Berry in concert. The concert was held at the Jazz Cafe and the show was sold out. We grabbed dinner then off to the show. Keep in mind that Chuck is now 81 years old which is 155 in rock and roll years. For a man of his age he was in great shape and seemed to have a great time playing for the crowd. He still played guitar and sang but needed some help from the band remembering what song to play and his son played lead guitar. He played many of his greatest hits to the approval of the crowd. It was a real treat to see this legend perform live.

We spent several days relaxing and enjoying the Ramsgate area before Brad and Chris were headed back to the airport and back to the states. We toughly enjoyed there visit and look forward to there return.

UPDATE: The All Day Breakfast In A Can

One of the joys of being here is shopping at the supermarket. The veriety of foods available is truly amazing. There is also a whole new culture of foods to try. Well maybe not try all of them Some of them you just have to use your best judgment.
So the Brits are crazy about their beans. Not green beans but canned beans. Kinda like baked beans but with less flavor. These are smaller white beans canned with a thin tomato sauce. They eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They have them in microwavable little yogurt style cups to heat up for breakfast and even serve them with chicken at KFC.
So while shopping at the supermarket I came across this can of "All Day Breakfast" It is the beans in tomato sauce but then added to it is mushrooms, sausages, some kind of mystery sliced sausage, bits of egg, and meat balls. I make it a point to point this out to everyone who comes for a visit. I always wonder "Who eats this"? Well while pointing it out to Chris and Brad, I told Chris I bet him $5 he would not eat it. I was wrong. Hear are the photos to prove it. I warned him if he did eat it he might have a "All Day Sh@T" but he was not detoured. He made this culinary mistake even better by washing it down with Banana flavored milk. Yummy. Good news he did survive and lived to see another day. However he may have shortened his life expectancy.

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