Amsterdam and Brussels

We had an amazing time on our quick vacation to Europe. We spent most of our time just walking. We only had two days in each city, so hoofing it was the best way for us to see every thing on our list. Amsterdam was crazy. On more then one occasion I was almost taken out by a bike, car and tram within 10 seconds of each other. In Amsterdam, pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way! If you go to Amsterdam be ready to get lost, even using a map the whole time, we found ourselves making circles!

Westerkerk Church & The Flower Market

Millions of Bikes & Us along a canal

On our second day in Amsterdam we went to the Van Gogh Museum. I really didn't know very much about him going in, but we felt like experts on the way out. He was definitely a head case, but obviously an amazing artist. I loved a lot of his work, but my favorites were: The Potato Eaters (1885) Wheatfield and Crows (1890) and Self Portrait. We've all seen Starry Night at every poster shop in American, but to see the details in his work and the amazingly small brush strokes he used was something else.

In Brussels we followed our same walking plan. We had two walking tours in our guide book that brought us to some really cool sights. The architecture in Brussels in incredible. It is a mix of mideval, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st century styles. I would definitely recommend this city for architecture lovers. Brussels had great street food, waffles, pom frites & chocolates (just to name a few.) We also went to a nice dinner at La Moule Sacree. I had the special of the day; shrimp coquettes, mussels and an amazing chocolate mouse for dessert. Shawn had the Flemish casserole, and that was wonderful as well.

Our favorite Pom Frites place and The Grand Place at Sundown

St. Michaels & Shawn with Manneken Pis (the most famous little statue in Belgium)

The beer in Brussels was so good. All of the beer is really strong, and each beer is served in its own glass. They even serve bottled beer in a glass.

All in all, I would recommend both of the cities we went to. They were very different and gave us a nice taste of that part of Europe....Next up, France and Italy! Hopefully it won't take me 28 years to get back!