Two Weeks in Western Europe

So, resurrecting this dinosaur today!

It’s been a few years since I’ve written about anything on here. Not sure why. Blame it on the pandemic. Was I worried blogging had fallen out of fashion? I decided I didn’t care!

Tim and I got home a few weeks ago from a two-week trip to Western Europe. We visited the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France. It was in celebration of our 20th anniversary.

I keep saying I can’t believe it has come and gone already!

All the planning and research, and two weeks of vacation gone in a flash! All the worrying. I am kind of a worrier when it comes to getting to places. Not that I am scared to travel, but I am always worried that something is going to be delayed or not go just right. But worrying never does anyone any good. Even if something does go wrong, it won’t be one of the things you worry about, right?

Like at 4 a.m. when we were backing out of the garage for our trip to the airport and Tim ripped off the garage sensor because the pickup got tangled up in one of our seven bikes! We couldn’t get the garage door to shut until I held it down until it closed completely, and then ran out the front door! Ha! Thank goodness for neighbors you can text to keep an eye on the garage door!

But by about the second day into the trip, we’d both forgotten about the silly garage door incident and were instead focusing on the day’s itineraries.

We started out flying into Amsterdam. A short train ride from the airport took us to Utrecht, where we checked into our hotel room on a canal and started exploring this foreign place.

We were so tired but forced ourselves to stay awake until it got dark! We instantly fell in love with the winding streets of the city center and made plans to climb the 465 steps to the top of the Dom Tower and take in the spectacular views from the top.

We couldn’t believe all the bicycles here and in Amsterdam when we visited.

This was a common site in so many places. Just hundreds of bikes. After dinner, we made our way to a grocery store to get a few provisions. I always love to wander around grocery stores wherever I go and see what different things there are to eat. Does anyone else like to do that?

After a good night’s rest, we hopped on a train and went to Amsterdam for our Noon tour of the Anne Frank House and Vincent Van Gough Museum later that afternoon. You must make reservations for both of these places. We also made a spontaneous visit to the modern and contemporary art museum, Mocco and enjoyed apple/bacon and bacon/gouda pancakes that day.

After all that, we were ready to hop back on the train and take in everything we’d just experienced. It was quite a full day with lots to think about.

We planned to take it easy the next day, and slept in a bit, but then ended up doing the Dom Tower climb that afternoon.

The next day we visited Zaanse Schans, which is a neighborhood in the Dutch town of Zaandam, near Amsterdam. We took in the historic windmills and distinctive green wooden houses that were relocated here to recreate the look of an 18^th/19th-century village. We learned about making wooden shoes and cheese!

That afternoon we had stroopwafels and enjoyed beers and jenever at Amsterdam’s oldest pub, Three Little Bottles. Located right off Dam Square, this place has been serving up spirits since 1619. Before we knew it, we were chatting to folks and had a wonderful time before ending the day with a canal cruise.

It was a big, magical day.

The next day we traveled to Brussels. This was on the high-speed Thalys train, which you must also make reservations on in advance. The other trains you just buy your tickets the day of.

We got into town about 2 p.m. and immediately started exploring after checking into our hotel.

First stop: Grand Place, the central square of Brussels, Belgium. Immediate awe. The opulent Baroque guild halls of the former Guilds of Brussels were amazing. Look closely at the fronts of these buildings, that is all real gold.

It wasn’t hard to find places to eat chocolate and drink beer from there while concluding our night with a big pot of mussels and Belgium fries.

The next morning, we hopped on a train for a day trip to Bruges.

I think it was at this point of the trip that I really forgot about everything back home. And wow. Bruges was so beautiful. We strolled through town, stopping to have a bit to eat at a sidewalk café, took a canal cruise of the city and bought more chocolate – ha!

We absolutely loved this day.

The next day back in Brussels we toured the Cantillon Brewery and Museum in Brussels where we learned about Belgian beer in the 100+ year-old building. After spending some time in the tasting room, we purchased a few bottles to enjoy throughout the trip!

After that, I wanted to tour the Comic Book Museum and learn more about my favorite cartoon growing up – the Smurfs!

But first, we had lunch at 58 Rooftop on the way. We thought we could just waltz in there the night before, but the line was around the block! Lunch was no problem, though. And the views were magnificent!

After the museum, we needed a waffle and coffee stop and a little rest before dinner, where we ventured to a restaurant that served nothing by giant meatballs. We had eye-balled it on our first night and had to make a stop on our last night.

The next day we were ready for some new scenery and got on the high-speed train to Cologne, Germany.

We were both super excited to visit Germany and chose Cologne because it was a close and easy stop before Paris. My sister also recommended this a city she also loved.

We stayed at a cool hotel in an old water tower that also had a cool rooftop bar.

We ventured to the city center right away and took in views of the Rhine River and Cologne Cathedral and didn’t waste any time to try a Kolsch beer. The Kolsch style of beer originated in Cologne. It is served in a tall, thin cylindrical 200 ml glass. The server carries a whole tray of these beers and keeps bringing them to you until you put your coaster on top of your empty glass. The server also keeps track of how many glasses you’ve had on your coaster.

It was a delicious cold and almost fruity-flavored beer that we both enjoyed very much. Maybe it was the hot weather, but you can easily drink a few of these!

The next day we ventured to the Ludwig Museum and again enjoyed some Kolsch before retiring back at our hotel. We needed a bit of a rest day. The air conditioner didn’t work in our room the night before, so we were upgraded to a suite the next two nights! We stayed in and ordered room service that night!

The final day we ventured to the Chocolate Museum and also the Cologne Museum before exploring the Belgium Quarter and having one of our favorite meals of the trip. Tim had a creamy veal Bolognese and I some pecorino ravioli.

The next day it was the stop I was most anticipating – Paris! We got on the 6:44 a.m. train out of Cologne and made our way to Paris by late morning. It took a while to get a taxi and travel to our hotel, but we were delighted when we got there, and our room was ready!

We got settled and started out the day with a trip to the Luxembourg Gardens. So magnificent even in the rain. After that, it was a late lunch of croque monsieurs at Le Paris Paris. It was the cutest little restaurant and had the prettiest cocktails. Another favorite restaurant of our trip.

We wandered around a bit more, enjoying the shops and atmosphere. I even found a couple of new blouses! After that, we got a few provisions for back at our room and had a couple of drinks before enjoying the hammam at our hotel.

The next morning, we enjoyed our hotel’s daily petit dejeuner of crepes, croissants, pastries, fruits, juices, meats and cheeses. We were excited about our visit to the Musee d’Orsay.

That afternoon it was a trip to the Pompidou Center. We decided to Uber to save some steps and enjoyed another wonderful lunch at Le Bouledogue Brasserie.

We walked back, passing Notre Dame, Latin Quarter, Shakespeare and Company (I wanted to stop in, but there was a line) and yummy crème puffs at Odette.

It was then back to the hotel for happy hour. We ventured to an Italian place that night for dinner, which neither of us liked. We both ordered pasta – Tim carbonara and me a pistachio pesto dish with seafood. It was OK, but we wished we would have gotten pizza. I think the place was more known for that and I can’t even remember its name!

The next day we didn’t have anything too planned. After breakfast, we ventured up to Montmartre on the Metro to see the Sacre Coeur

We took the Metro to the Abbesses station and stopped by the Love Wall, had a little lunch and made our way to the Sacre Coeur. Both the Love Wall and Sacre Coeur were so crowded! You were constantly walking through people’s photos and running into hucksters trying to sell you lockets and key chains. We did a loop walking by the La Maison rose, Moulin de la Galete and the Moulin Rouge.

That evening we had reservations at Procope. The oldest restaurant in Paris. They even have Napoleon’s hat on display. I had not got onion soup yet, so enjoyed that for my first course, followed by sea bass in a puff pastry. Tim enjoyed the braised beef checks. We passed on dessert and went back to our hotel for its Jazz Night and a nightcap instead.

Friday was our last day. I couldn’t get a reservation to the Louvre until this day, and I even went to do it 6 weeks before! So, if that is on your list to do on your Paris visit, be sure to do it right away!

Tickets for this were also sold out on the Paris Museum Pass, which wouldn’t have been cost-effective for us anyways, only visiting 4 museums over 3 days. To make that cost-effective, I found you had to visit 2-3 each day over 2 days. We didn’t want museum overload. And that is probably another piece of advice. Don’t plan every day. Some days you just want to sleep in and wander around.

The Louvre was amazing and also overwhelming. You could visit it a dozen times and not see everything We, of course, had to see the Mona Lisa and took in a few other things. We weren’t even sure if we were going to visit the Louvre on this trip to Paris. There are just so many things to see, but we were glad we did.

After that we decided to hop on one of the pedi-cabs waiting outside museums. I somehow read the price wrong and who knows, maybe they had two prices, I don’t know. But I thought it was 22 Euro for both of us for a ride to the Arch de Triomphe. Yeah, it was 22 apiece. Yikes. And the guy didn’t even take us the entire way. He said he had to stop at the Torch of the Alma Bridge because of the Rugby Village that was set up. We still had another mile yet to walk. Next time, we are avoiding the pedi cabs. We have had good luck with them in other cities, but not Paris. So, beware. An Uber would have cost a quarter of this.

We walked up the Champs Elyees anyways and took in the Arc de Triomphe and steak and frites for lunch at Brasserie L’Alsace before heading to the Musee de l’Orangerie.

It was our favorite stop of the day. It takes about an hour to visit the entire museum, with the highlight here being Monet’s Water Lilies. After that we enjoyed the Tuileries Gardens, taking a seat and putting our feet up just taking it in.

The evening was our sunset dinner boat cruise.

Our cruise on the Siene was a definite highlight. Our meal was nothing fancy, some veal stew and yummy mashed potatoes, but good. The views were spectacular, especially of the Eifel Tower.

Paris was a wonderful place. We are already planning where we’d like to go next time. What a magical city! Au revoir!