This week Adrien and I were in Austin visiting my family and enjoying the lovely weather in Austin. Some highlights from out wonderful week:

We spent two nights at one of our favorite hotels- The San Jose.

I got to eat plenty of Queso. Well maybe not plenty but enough to hold me over till my next visit.

We got to see and visit with my new niece Mia, who is very cute.

Adrien finally got to go to the Lady Bird Wild flower center. He has been asking for about a year to go.






As an early birthday celebration I made dinner and my Mom made me one of my favorite cakes- Angle Delight.

My Dad took us out on a boat ride around Lake Travis, which was great. I can’t believe I had never been out there before.







One of the nice things about going out to the lake was seeing for the first time where my Dad works:



We saw a couple of movies at the Alamo Draft house and stuffed ourselves on the very good food.

Our last night we were taken out to the Oasis for a great view, some margaritas, tex mex and salsa dancing. Well we only danced one song, but we spent plenty of time enjoying the view and the margaritas.

The week went by too fast but luckily we will be able to come back soon.

Today is was my last real day in Europe; the entirety of tomorrow will be consumed by travel. So I tried to make the most of the day even with the wind and rain outside. I started the day with another delicious croissant and yogurt from a great little grocery store in the central train station. This grocery store was better than my neighborhood grocery, and that’s impressive considering it is half the size. After eating my breakfast on a park bench I headed over to the Netherlands Architecture Institute. I was hopping for a particularly good show since this year the city of Rotterdam was celebrating its distinctive architecture. But in the end I was unimpressed with their exhibit on living in the lowlands, and a temporary exhibit on photography of architecture. More impressive than the NAI was the Sonneveld house next door. I will just copy directly from the brochure “The Sonneveld House is one of he best surviving examples of a residence build in the “Nieuwe Bouwen” style, and has been fully returned to its original state of 1933. Ever room is suffused with light. The large number of doors leading to the garden and the balconies allow an intensive use of the outside. The house is build entirely in accordance with the motto of the “Nieuwe Bouwen” style” light, air and space.” Essentially I would love to live in this house:











In the afternoon I took a harbor tour that focused on architecture. It was a nice backdrop for my lunch- a kass broobje from a local café, and a Heineken and chips bought on the boat.



For dinner I ate at a great restaurant just a block from my hotel. I had stuffed gnocchi for the first time, the gnocchi were ping-pong sized and filled with melted cheese and pesto. For dessert I ordered the lemon meringue, and got something I was not expecting at all. A banana bread base, with a creamy lemon gelatin top, it was strange, yet delicious.

Because today it was raining, and all of the museums were closed (due to it being Monday,) I took the 45-minute train up to Amsterdam. It was nice to get one last day in Amsterdam. One last day to sit in the cafes, one last day for shopping, one last time of eating pancakes, and amazing risotto. Even though it was raining in Amsterdam too the city seemed more pleasant than Rotterdam, maybe because I already for the most part new my way around. The rain also seemed to run off a good number of tourists and so the streets were mostly empty. I took the chance to go and see the Ann Frank House- the lines were ¼ of what they were during a sunny day. The museum is interesting, and I guess I’m glad that I went. But I was by no mean wowed by the experience. I took the train back after having another amazing dinner at Brasserie Harkema.

This morning I checked out of my hostel, and at 9:30 when I headed out the streets were still mostly empty. I made it over to the main train station where I had some time to kill and ended up stumbling upon the biggest outdoor market I had ever seen. This was the Wal-Mart of outdoor markets, you could buy clothes, shoes, house wares, electronics, fabrics, groceries, produce, cheese, meat, fish, everything. I bought two Belgium waffles from two different stands, both hot, both delicious. I than took the two hour train up to Rotterdam.

With the help of a cab getting to my hotel was a breeze. It’s located right on the harbor in a seemingly good location. I found a tour office half a block away and spent the afternoon on a mini-train architecture tour, and a harbor boat tour. Unfortunately it’s a very cloudy day so my pictures didn’t turn out so well.







I got some cheese and Heineken for dinner from the bar/ restaurant next door- but I should probably eat something else today.

This morning I had my first real Belgian waffle and it really was everything everyone makes them out to be. I got mine from a street stand, and it was warm and moist inside, light and crispy outside. After my morning waffle experience I took the train to Antwerpen, just for fun and to see another Belgium town. I was mostly unimpressed except for the nice and ornate central station. I ate some decent pasta at a street café, bought another box of chocolate and come back to Brussels.



Upon returning to Brussels I wandered the streets resisting the strong urge to buy more chocolates. I wandered though the corridor of this lovely old shopping mall. The picture isn’t entirely clear but the corridor is covered with a glass roof. I wouldn't mind malls so much if they all were like this:





When dinner- time came around I got another waffle- this one even better. I think I’m in love:



It’s a good thing that I am leaving Belgium tomorrow. My inability to resist the chocolates is getting out of hand and I’m not sure how I will fit all these little boxes into my already full bags. Anything that doesn’t fit will just have to be eaten:

Today was my first full day in Brussels, and after a day and a half I feel like I have seen enough. I took a bus tour of the city, stopped at the Atomium, and saw plenty of Gothic and Neo-Gothic buildings.






In the afternoon I had the pleasure of browsing a dozen or more chocolate shops, sampling truffles, and chocolates along the way. Its probably good that I am not going to be in Brussels long, or I would end up spending far too much money on chocolates- I have no self control.



I figured I had to see the Manneken Piss since the stature is on postcards and miniature statues all over the city. I was a bit impressed when I found out that the little pissing boy has over 720 outfits that he wears for all kinds of occasions. If only I had that kind of wardrobe.



For dinner I yet another wonderful crepe. This was from a little French side walk cafe and I spent the whole meal laughing to myself because they were playing the Amilee soundtrack:

I didn’t sleep nearly as much I would have liked to on the train from Berlin to Brussels- 5:30am came way to soon. But I drank some tea, and come coffee and I was awake enough. I put my bags into the lockers in the station and headed out to Bruges to waste the day until I could check into my hostel. Bruges is a small costal town about an hour train ride from Brussels, Kristen had been going on and on about the city so I figured I should check it out. I read that is is described as the Venice of the north. Its very cute and quant, also very touristy- I was a bit surprised though by the large numbers of Japanese and Chinese tourists. I got butter and sugar crepe for breakfast, did a bit of tourist shopping, and took a canal boat ride around the city.







I really wanted these bunnies, but at 225 euros they were a bit much.



At this point I had seen plenty and headed back to Brussels eating some chocolate covered cookies on the train back. I checked into my hostel, got acquainted with Brussels, and had some dinner. For dinner I had some fantastic pizza from a restaurant I had read about- it was so good I ate far more than I should have and am now in a food coma.

Today I woke up very exhausted from the previous day of festivities, but it was my last day in Berlin so I had to try to make the most of it. On a recommendation I went to the Hamburger Museum, and it was amazing. The Hamburger is great contemporary art museum with an exhibit up right now all about pain. The exhibit continued to the near by Medical History Museum which was such a graphic museum I would have lost my much if I had eaten any.

I did a good amount of walking around Berlin in the afternoon, and finally made it back to my hostel to get my bags and head out to the train station. I left out of the Hauptbahnohf station, which is fairly new, fairly impressive and supposedly has come to symbolize modern European transit.



Before I left Berlin I got another croissant from Le Crbag, which seem to be as well spread in Berlin as starbucks is in the states.

Today was mostly consumed with mayday celebrations. I went out to an area of town where there were hundreds of thousands of people, at least a dozen areas with bands, and lots of food stands. In the evening I walked in the whole mayday march. I ended up marching with the anti-g-8 group mostly because they had the best djs. After the march I saw a punk-ska show, and than danced at a beer garden that had great dj’s. Unfortunately I stayed out late enough that the trains weren’t running- so I ended up taking a cab ride home. A couple of pictures of the day: