Eurospectacular Vacation: Part 1

I'm baaaack! Well, technically I've been back for nearly three weeks, but returning to reality after four weeks travelling the most beautiful cities in the world is a tough pill to swallow, so I've been cautiously adding one layer of my life at a time. And the time to blog has come!

As expected, I have returned with fresh ideas and renewed energy that I am super excited to channel into Dear Edna this fall. I'll share all of that fun stuff with you in due time, but first things firstvacation recap!

London, England
Despite all the travelling I've done in the past, believe it or not, I have never even had a stopover in London. I was thrilled to begin our journey there, easing the transition while staying with family and speaking English! Overly excited about the trip that lay ahead, I'm afraid I feverishly dragged poor Mikey J around to all the tourist sites he had seen before, plus a few extras. Our feet were aching, but it was worth it. As a lover of historical fiction, this city was a treat. Add fashion, farmers markets, and pubs on every corner, and you've got a tourist for life.


Amsterdam, Netherlands
Of all the cities we visited, I could most see myself living in Amsterdam. I loved it from the moment I arrived. Everything from the people to the weather has an effortless style about it. More bikes than cars, more handmade than brand name, more old than new. sigh.


Bruges, Belgium
As much as Amsterdam was pure style, Bruges was pure beauty. I don't know if it was the time of year or the height of the buildings, but the light always seemed to reflect off the walls on those narrow streets in the most beautiful way. It felt like every street we looked down was a picture-perfect moment. The Flemish people were the most friendly we met on our whole trip and we were delighted to find their reputation held true for having the world's best chocolate, waffles and beer! Bruges is also known for their handmade lace tradition; I was honoured to get to see a demonstration of their lightening fast skills and to bring back a couple samples.


Brussels, Belgium
I feel like we owe Brussels an apology, as we've been bad-mouthing it a little ever since we left. We were there for less than a day, so we only saw a small portion of the city, and we were there when the heat wave of the century hit, so we were dragging our feet and grouchy, to say the least. I will say that their Grand Place was impressive. All of the buildings in that square had incredibly gorgeous and detailed architecture. I can only imagine what it was like as a bustling centre of commerce back in the day. You may also be interested to know, the chocolate, waffles and beer were also yummy here (we factored enough time in for that of course)!


You can see these pictures in more detail, complete with captions, plus many more in my Picasa photo gallery.

Stay tuned for Part 2... The City of Love! Ooh la la!

2 comments

Carla said...

the pictures look great! looking back, it must be hard to believe you were in all these places less than a month ago! waffle, please.

Erin said...

It feels like the pictures don't even capture half of what it was really like to be there! And yes... it already feels like ages ago now that I'm back to the everyday.