Holiday Travels in Belgium

Well, It's that time again!

Time for updates and pictures from our Holiday travels.

As most of you know we spent our Holidays in Belgium.

We started off in Bruges on Christmas day.

Bruges / Brugge is known as "The Venice of the North"

It is a very picturesque village surrounded by beautiful canals, churches and buildings.

We stayed at the Hotel Ter Brughe

The building dates back to 1470 and is on a beautiful canal between 2 bridges.

We ventured out to the Grote Markt, one of the 2 Christmas Markets in Bruges

We were surprised to see most everything open and the town filled with lots of people on Christmas day.   We had to try what Belgium is best known for: 
waffles, beer and chocolate.

For our "Christmas Dinner" we decided on Sushi. I know its not the traditional Christmas dinner but it had been awhile since we have had sushi and it was wonderful.

Nightime at the Grote Markt and Ice Rink

really felt like Christmas, it was a beautiful site to see. 

 Belfry Tower

The Belfry of Bruges, or Belfort, is a medieval bell tower in the historical centre of Bruges, Belgium.  The belfry was added to the market square around 1240

It was a scary climb to the top of the 83-metre-high building. The stairs were a narrow, steep, spiral staircase of 366 steps. With people going in both directions having to pass one another in very narrow places, sometimes only 24 inches wide.

But, the view from the top made it all worth it.

 'De Halve Maan' Brewery 

6 generations of the brewing family succeeded each other since 1856

Brugse Zot Beer

 View from the top of the brewery

 

The Church of Our Lady

Its tower, at 122.3 meters in height, remains the tallest structure in the city and the second tallest brickwork tower in the world

 The altarpiece of the large chapel in the southern aisle enshrines the most celebrated art treasure of the church—a white marble sculpture of the 

Madonna and Child created by Michelangelo around 1504.

 

After 4 days in Bruges we took the train to Brussels / Bruxelles

Brussels is the both the Capitol of Belgium and of the European Union and with a population of around 1.2 million it is also the largest city.  Judging by the crowds, I think they were all out wandering the streets for the holidays.  

Grand Place
The Grand Place is one of the most beautiful Town Squares in Europe with architecture from 3 different eras (Baroque, Gothic and Louis XIV) 

 

The Grand Place at night was an amazing sight to see. The lights were set to Holiday music, and was truly one of the most beautiful things that we have ever seen. 

Mannekin Pis

A famous Brussels landmark of a 

sculpture depicting a naked (usually) little boy urinating into the fountain's basin, created in 1618.  Someone dressed him in the local football club's clothing for the day.

We took the Hop on Hop off 

double decker tour bus around the city to see the sights.

Royal Palace of Laeken

 The official residence of the King and Queen of the Belgians and their family

Leopold I monument 

At Dynasty Square in the park of Laeken 

Japanese Tower 

Royal Palace Of Brussels

Where the King works

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula

The city streets were scattered with art exhibitions.  The metal arch corridor lit up in various colors and play tones as people walked through.  

 

The shipping container was a unique piece.  They say art is supposed to make you think; it made us think about what happened to our household goods on the way over here.

We wandered around town and found some interesting places to eat and shop.  We were told we had to try the mussels and we are glad we did, they were delicious.

 

New Year's Eve was a quiet affair, we hung out at the hotel lounge with some fellow Americans who were there on holiday.  We were looking forward to a relaxing evening after dealing with the crowds for past few days.

Sorry we were a little late getting this out.  January was a hectic month but we are already working on the next update of our travels with our first house guest, CJ's cousin Candy. 

Cheers, Sending much love from Scotland! 
John and CJ

Home, Holidays, Friends and Fun Times.

Wow, it's hard to believe that we have been in Scotland for 4 months already.  
(And it's been 6 weeks since our last Blog, oops!) 

Well, in the past 6 weeks we took a road trip down to England to visit our English friends that we met while they were living in Florida.

It was great to see familiar faces so far away from home. 

Tony and Angie own an Inn and Pub 
in Higham

The Crown Inn
The village of Higham and the cottages that house the Crown Inn date back to the 11th Century and William the Conqueror.  

Friday night we had a great dinner in the restaurant, and a few pints in the pub with roaring fires and some of their friends.

Saturday we got up and went for a walk around the beautiful English countryside across the road from the inn.  It was a beautiful walk, aside from the fact that we almost got attacked by some crazy cows and a young bull. 

                                     

 We had such a great time visiting with them and meeting new friends that we are going back again next weekend for their Christmas party and their 1 year anniversary of owning the inn. 

Around the House

We still have been working on projects around the house.

We added a fireplace surround and finally found the clock we have been looking for to finish the living room.

The bookcase we stained and fitted to store our game systems in the upstairs lounge 

Upstairs Lounge  

Couch folds flat to provide extra bedding for additional guests.

Next project is staining this old pew from a Scotland church to match the other furniture in the dining room.

As a few of you have pointed out I haven't posted any pics of the kitchen so here are a few. 

 

Thanksgiving

It was very strange to be in a place where they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but we made the best of it.  John had to work on Thursday and 1/2 a day on Friday.  

I cooked all morning on Friday so we could have our Thanksgiving dinner when he got home. 

Have you ever seen a 10 lb turkey? 

Kinda looks like a chicken in this pic.

A mini feast for 2. 

 Around Helensburgh

We are getting settled into our new town and are having fun exploring and finding our favorite restaurants, stores and pubs.  

 Helensburgh had a Winter Festival that included a parade, Christmas tree lighting ceremony, music, a Christmas Market, Santa dash, Fireworks and other various events for 
2 weekends in a row. 

We could watch the Fireworks from our upstairs window. 

We attended a party in the neighborhood last weekend and got to meet most of our neighbors.  We had dinner and drinks with a really nice couple and got invited to coffee, drinks, dinners and lunches with some of the others.  We are looking forward to getting to know them and making some new friends. 

In other news
As of November 27th, we are no longer Florida Homeowners.
 We made many great memories there 
and will always cherish "Our First Home."

Planning to visit?  

We are working on putting together a calendar of visitors, trips and events, so if you think you want to visit us next spring/summer please let us know of your dates so that we can be sure to fit everyone in. 

So, get those calendars out and passports ready. 

We hope to see you all soon!

Cheers!