Brussels

When we got back from Paris my sisters and brother-in-law went back to the US and my parents and I went to Brussels!  Brussels is the capital of Belgium.  Belgium is next to France, the Netherlands, and Germany.  Their official languages are French and Dutch but a lot of Belgium also speaks English and Flemish.  Belgium is also known for their waffles and chocolate so I was very excited to go and try it!  We ate a lot of chocolate and waffles but I think I liked the waffles better.

Brussels is also very famous for an odd little statue called "Manneken Pis" which pretty much translates to "boy peeing".  This little statue is also a fountain and has been repeatedly stolen.  The current statue is actually a copy from 1965.  The original is kept at the Maison de Rio which is in the Grand Place.

The Manneken Pis actually has many different costumes that it wears at different times of the year.  Unfortunately I was unable to see it dressed up but if I had gone there closer to Christmas I think this is what I would have seen.

The Grand Place is a square in the center of Brussels.  It is a very popular tourist destination.  It is about the size of an American football field.  At night we were walking through the square when all of a sudden all of the buildings start to light up in all different colors like a light show!  When the light show was over we started walking away again only to find out about a minute later that it wasn't over at all!  It happened all over again but this time with a mix of different music most of which sounded like classical songs!  It was awesome!  We think it might have been for the last day of the Christmas fair because we were walking through again the next night and nothing was going on.

This is the square diring the day.

 This is the square at night.

When we were in Brussels we decided to take a day trip to Bruges.  Bruges is about one hour away by train.  Bruges used to be an important trading center because it was close to the coast but then in the 1500s its harbor silted in and was no longer able to be used.  Now it is a very touristy place and some people even call it the Venice of Belgium because of all its beautiful scenery and canals.  Some also say that it is the best preserved Gothic town in Europe.

 This is one of the canals.

This is the Bruges main square (also called the Markt) at night.  I couldn't get a good picture diring the day because they were in the middle of taking down the Christmas fair.

We saw many things in Bruges but one of my favorite things to see was the Madonna and Child. The Madonna and Child is one of the sculptures by Michelangelo.  It is said to be the only statue of his to leave Italy during his lifetime.  The funny thing was that it was on the edge of the town in a church that had only one other person besides us in it so I guess it isn't very well known.  

Paris

I rang in the new year with an awesome trip to Paris!  It was so much fun!  My sisters and brother-in-law came too!  My favorite part of the trip was seeing the Eiffel Tower!  It was huge!  We climbed all the way to the top!  The view was amazing!  You could see for miles and miles in all directions!  The Eiffel Tower was originally built as the entrance to the 1889 world fair and had a 20 year contract after which it was due to be knocked down.  Fortunately this did not happen because it was being used as a telecommunication tower.  When I was researching the Eiffel Tower I found some very interesting facts.   My favorite one though was that a con artist tried to sell the Eiffel Tower as scrap metal, twice!  I don't know how the con artist thought that was going to work!

My sisters and brother-in-law with me in front of the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower at night.

The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Some of the other things we saw in Paris were:

The Arch de Triomphe

If you look closely you can see my dad standing in front of the arch.  The arch is so big that my dad looks like a speck!

The Arc de Triomphe was ordered to be built by Napoleon in 1806.  It has seen many important events in history because it used to be one of the entrances to Paris.  One of those events was when the Germans came in to take over Paris during World War II. The Nazi soldiers walked right through the arch when taking over Paris in 1940.  About four years later Charles de Gaulle and the allied forces walked through it to take Paris back.

My second favorite thing we did in Paris was going to the Louvre museum of art!  We made very good use of our time in the Louvre and only went to see the things that we knew about or were famous because almost everyone who went there said that if you don't pick out the things you want to go see in the Louvre then it will get very overwhelming because it is so big.

  One of the things we decided to see (of course) was the Mona Lisa!  For some reason I was expecting the Mona Lisa to be big and magnificent but it was normal size and looked pretty normal to me.  I was really glad that be got to see it though, especially when I found out you could take pictures of it!

Some of the other things we saw in the Louver that I liked were:

 The Great Sphinx

The Great Sphinx of Tanis is one of the largest sphinx sculptures in existence outside of Egypt.

Venus de Milo

Some call this statue the Aphrodite of Milo.  It was originally carved between 130B.C. and 100 B.C. in ancient Greece.  

The one thing I did NOT like about Paris though was the outside bathrooms for many reasons:

1. They smelled really bad!
2. It took forever to use, line or no line, because it had to wash itself after every use!
3. Because it had to clean itself off, if you went in right after the other person came out you would get washed along with the rest of the bathroom because there is no way to stop the doors from closing or to stop it from washing itself!

At least the bathrooms were free (because most bathrooms in Europe you have to pay to use) and they were relatively clean.

 This is the long line we had to wait in.  It took about 7 minutes for every person to use.

As you can see from our faces it smelled REALLY bad!