Guaranteed to be Vain & Vapid™ or double your money back.
Gorgeous weather. Whirlwind of activities during the days. Cute cats. Really starting to see the shorter daylight hours. Frustration over not finding public charging. Don’t buy an electric car! And adventures with the guys over the weekend.
We’re not going to discuss how chocolate got on the i3 seat. Suffice to say it did. Proved to be a persistent little stain, too. Cute cats. Coffee with my pal Joe and his nerd credentials. Great view driving over Nob Hill. And a dull weekend of married bliss. See you next week.
Average week as I try to get back into the vlog habit. Not too successful. Or not a very exciting week. We’re in the midst of the typical San Francisco Summer in October. Mostly cloud and fog free days so the sun really heats things up. Cute cats. Pals. And Fleet Week which means sailors in town.
Took longer than expected to recover from the Europe trip so I decided to roll all of September into a single video. Fall semester began. Had wine country and city adventures with Matt and Miguel. i3. Cute cats. And the final weekend, we hopped down to San Diego for a big old gay wedding. Our pals Shannon and Francis put on a perfect celebration.
Final morning in Poperinge. Visited Talbot House and did a quick tour of our room “Eames†at the Hotel Recour. Highly recommended. Then back to Brussels for the final days. Hit the Parc du Cinquantenaire, the excellent Expo 14–18 at the Royal Museum of Military History, and the Musée Magritte Museum among others. Caught the music and light show at Grand Place. Hopefully managed to do it justice here. Then headed home. United botched both flight segments and IAD was an absolute zoo. Not the comfortable conclusion we had in mind but it doesn’t matter. Spectacular trip overall.
Made Poperinge our base in West Flanders but spent a lot of time in and around Ieper, Zonnebeke and Passendale. Very heavy on war sites and monuments. Quite interesting even for a history non-scholar like me. Rich was beside himself most of the time because he has devoted years to studying the region. He kept saying he never really expected that he’d get to visit all these places.
Woke up in London and took the Eurostar back to Brussels where a fabulous Citroen C4 Picasso awaited us. Caught the Flower Carpet at the Grand Place then stopped by the Atomium before driving to Leuven. Totally charmed by the town. That night we drove over to Aarschot, which was commemorating 100 years since the Germans invade and destroyed the town. Very dramatic to see the town lit by candles only. Saturday we climbed the library bell tower and checked out the M-Museum before driving over to Iepres.
Started Tuesday in Brussels but caught the Eurostar to London. Then spent the next three days going all around. Rich had a WWI agenda but we managed to passby many of the city’s greatest hits.
First full day in Belgium. Woke to our beautiful view overlooking Brussels. Thrilled with the Motel One and our balcony room. Explored the city a bit then headed to Bruges. Knew it would be very touristy. Still the crowds overwhelmed us and almost ruined the experience. After finding less crowded parts of the city, I can say that I’m glad we went. Spending a night there would have been overkill since it’s an easy day trip from Brussels. Then back to the city for more sight seeing, including that notorious boy and some cool street art.
Day 1 and 2 of the 2014 European adventure. Got off to a rocky start when United cancelled our first leg to Chicago. Bit of panic ensued. But it all worked out great because they put us on the nonstop to Paris. Trade a connection in ORD for lunch near Gare du Nord? Yes, please. Then we just hopped the high-speed train to Brussels. Easy. First few hours have really impressed us. Can’t wait to really explore the place.