Jan 21 2010
I have always enjoyed Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss because it comically explains the importance of punctuation on intended meaning. I was looking around the internet today to see if I could get myself in a better mood when I stumbled upon this great image:
WHAT is in that Blizzard? Seems like a throwback to Swift’s “Modest Proposal” to me. 😉
If you found the image funny, maybe you should check out Eats, Shoots & Leaves, or even “Semantricks” by Lewis M. Gediman.
|:| Zach |:|
Jan 10 2010
Today we woke up, and were greeted by the cat meowing fiercely at the dog. These two animals were very friendly pets of the owner of the Budget Flats. Anyway, we got ready, checked out, and headed back to Düsseldorf. Before we started back, though, we went to a fritkot called Fritland for a burger and fries… essentially for the fries.
We made it back to Düsseldorf in a little under two hours, which may be because of the 150 kmh on the autobahn. We looked and looked for a bakery that was open on Sundays, but alas, we couldn’t find one. So, we settled for the McCafe, which is the bakery / coffee shop that is inside some McDonald’s locations in Germany. I had a slice of apple pie and some herbal tea. It was a nice filler before getting on the plane.
We dropped off the car at the rental place and then got a ride to the airport. Interestingly, we couldn’t find the check-in counter for our airline anywhere in the terminal. That was because our airline only had one departing flight today, and the check-in counter didn’t open until 2 hours before the flight. Everything went smoothly through customs and such, and the flight was painless.
We missed the bus to Swords by about 2 minutes, so we just ended up taking a taxi even though it was a much higher price. The bus only runs every thirty minutes or so on Sundays, and it was cold and rainy.
When we got back to Swords, we took the 10-minute walk to the village to find something to eat for dinner. The only place that was open really was Eddie Rockets, which is basically just a diner fashioned after the American 1960s. I had some chicken tenders, and a shake. The best part was that we didn’t have to pay for water like we did on the mainland. Yippee!
We head out tomorrow morning bright and early. It has been an exciting trip. 🙂
Jan 09 2010
Today we woke up and headed out to see a few different things around Brussels. We started by heading to a place to get some fries. Apparently these are supposed to be some of the best fries in the world. The street vendor that we had originally set out to see was closed today (many businesses seem to close on Saturdays), but there was a snack shop called Snack La Couronne next door. We went in, and the guy there had a bunch of different things on the menu. I got a burger, which was essentially these two thinly-sliced Halal beef patties on a French baguette, and some great fries. I also tried this drink called Tropico, and it was great! Both of us ate, and had four drinks for only 10 euro, which is amazing given the price of food here.
After our snack, we headed to the Basilica of Koekelberg, or the Basilique as it is known here. It was an astonishing beautiful, and huge cathedral. The interesting part about it was that it wasn’t lavishly ornate and trimmed with gold this and gold that like many of the cathedrals I have seen. Mainly, there was a lot of nice woodwork and some granite and marble. It was quite a remarkable building.
Then it was off to the Atomium, which is arguably the hi-light of Brussels (although some would say that title belongs to the Manneken Pis). This huge and futuristic building is shaped like a gigantic molecule, and the atoms (orbs) of the molecule are rooms with museum-like exhibits. It was a little pricey to go into the Atomium, but the view from the panorama was really neat. Given my fear of heights, though, I couldn’t get very close to the windows (just like when we visited the Rhine Tower).
After the Atomium, we headed back to see the Manneken Pis? Why would we want to see it again you ask? Well, since he wasn’t dressed up in honour of Elvis yesterday, we wondered if he would be dressed up today. He was! He was dressed up as the chief of the Meyboom Fanfare. Not only did we get to see him donning this costume, but we also saw the guy come turn off the fountain, remove the costume, and start it back up again at 17:00.
We also had to stop in and see some of the world-famous chocolatiers that reside in Brussels. Some of the places had insanely expensive boxes of chocolates, but I could almost justify spending the money because they were outstandingly delicious. 😉 We then headed to dinner, but out of the seven places I looked up all seven were closed (either indefinitely, or for the night). So, we went back to the hotel and asked the owner for another recommendation. We ended up walking to this Chinese place up the street. The menu was completely in French with a Dutch translation, but no English at all. It was interesting to eat Chinese from a place with no Chinese or English on the menu, but that was playing English-language Disco music and oldies.
Anyway, tomorrow we had back to Düsseldorf tomorrow, and then take the flight back to Dublin. We are hoping to find something fun and exciting to do on the way back, since the flight isn’t until the evening.
