Mussles, French Fries, Organic Lasagna, and Tall Ships

My First view of Antwerp: a cool mix of old and new in the train station.
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Hey Guys.  Well I promised that I would get back to you about what happened after I finally left Spain.  Here's the First part.  Michelle and I flew from Madrid to Brussels, Belgium to continue the European travels.  To make a very long story short, Michelle's grandpa, Gil (or Opa, as some call him), was in charge of the port of a nearby city called Antwerp in the aftermath of WWII.  When he was there he met a guy named Roland, and has managed to continue the friendship to this day for about 62 years over 3 generations.  It's amazing.

A picture of their town hall (they care more over here apparently).
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So Michele De Gheldere (from Belgium, not my friend from the states) is Roland's daughter picked us up with her husband Joe and took us to their beautiful house next to Waterloo.  And yes, it is the same Waterloo where Napolean was defeated.  It's a beautiful place.  The entier battlefield is protected from construction, so it's a very green and beautiful place.  They and their daughter, Valerie, spent the following few days showing us around, and they did an amazingly good job of it.

A view of Antwerp's cathedral and the fountain in front of the town hall commemorating the victory over Antwerp's nasty giant. See the blog for details.
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The first day we went to Antwerp, home of about 70% of the world's diamond trade.  It's a beautiful European city with a very important port (or at least it was during WWII).  I'm pretty sure that it still is.  The city also has a very high-end shopping area that is quite nice.  It rained off and on while we walked around there, but it was no big deal.  As you can see in the pictures, there was also a tall ship show going on, which was fun to see.  Then that evening we were treated to some great Belgian food in front of the Cathedral.  I had some traditional beef, while the Michelles had some of Brussels famous mussels.  It was quite possibly the best food I've had this trip.  Afterwards there were fireworks and then a late drive home.

There was also a tall ships festival. We didn't go in any boats, but it was fun to see them.
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The next day after lounging around for the morning and early afternoon, and a morning jog, Valerie took us into Brussels for a short tour of the city.  It's a very nice place with lots of cool buildings and a few interesting landmarks (i.e the headquarters of the EU).  The most popular is one of a little boy peeing, commemorating him saving the city from burning down by peeing on the fire to put it out (the Mannequin Pis).  They routinely dress it up in different outfits, though not when we were there, and it's quite popular.  We also had Belgian waffles from a street cart.  They're pretty good, though I guess it's normal to only eat it with a bit of syrup--no elaborate filling required.

One of the best boats there.
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Oh, and apparently Belgium invented the French Fry.  Why do we call it a French fry?  I have no idea.  But Belgium is the only place in the world where you can go to a streetside store that sells just french fries and french fry accecesories.

Here's where things get a bit ridiculous, though:  The De Ghelderes suggested that, if we wanted to, we could take a short trip to Paris from Brussels with their daughter as a guide--it's only 1.5 hours by fast train from Brussels.  Michelle e-mailed a friend who lives in Paris, her friend invited us to stay the night at her house, and just like that, we were going to Paris.  I'll fill in that part in the next section.

A couple Italian sailors walking near the water. Incidently, Michelle and Valerie, the daughter of the family we were staying with in Belgium, got a picture with them a moment later. I'll try to steal it from Michelle.
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We got back from Paris on the night of the 22nd fairly tired, but instead of going home, we met Valerie's friends and a friend of Michelle and went out to Thai food in downtown Brussels.  It was pretty fun, though the conversation switched between Spanish, English, French, and German, and half the time I had no idea what some of the people were saying.  English was the only common denominator.  We ended the night by just a little bit of Salsa dancing--3 songs or something in a deserted club.  It was fun, though I have to say that the salsa places here don't hold a candle to the places back home.

Fireworks over Antwerp after our amazing dinner. I'm pretty pleased with how the picture turned out.
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The morning of the 23rd the De Ghelderes took us to the airport after an amazing 5 days, and we headed off to Denmark.  They were some of the nicest people I have met in Europe: very considerate, warm, generous, and environmentally conscious to boot--I've never eaten so much organic and fair trade food in my life.  Hats off to a very hospitable family.