Impressionnant, Genial, Ontzagwekkend!

"Impressionnant, Genial, Ontzagwekkend!" Means "Awesome, awesome, awesome" in French, German, and Dutch.

 

 AWESOME!  Floating shoes!  Something funny we saw in the colorful city of Ghent, Belgium!

 

 

We walked through rows of old buildings in Ghent.

 

Here is the inside of one!  Cool rafters!

 

In the middle of the city, there is a castle!  How AWESOME is that?

 

Gravensteen Castle was built in 1180.

 

We took the self-guided tour.

 

And we saw a sword that was taller than Kieran! AWESOME!

 

And here is a suit of armor.  The armor was only a little bigger than the sword!

 

Dramatic view from the top of the castle.

 

Kieran pretended he was shooting arrows through the little holes.

 

All hail Kieran, King Otter!

 

And his royal assistant, Maya.  (We know who holds the REAL power in this kingdom.)

 

Anyone see a giant plus sign?  Really big?

 

 

 

After we saw the castle, we went to see Kieran's REAL kingdom....Otterland!

 

Actually, we went to Sea Life in Blankenberg, Belgium.  We arrived just in time for otter feeding time!  They had lots of cool fish to see there.

 

My favorite thing was the Disco Jellyfish room. 

 

There were lots of jellyfish floating in cylindrical tanks, with disco lights flashing and music playing.

 

Purple, red, orange! AWESOME!

 

So cool!

 

And on a totally different note, we ask you to turn off the disco music and begin to play your Gregorian chants.  So here are the ruins of an old Abbey in Villers-la-Ville, Belgium.

 

It had no roof.

 

...and lots of arches...

 

...and cool windows...

 

It was old and way cooler without a roof.  Because if it had a roof, it would be all dark and gloomy inside. 

 

But instead, it was light inside.

 

...and...

 

...it was...

 

AWESOME!!!

 

We both liked it.

 

See...this part still had a roof...and it was dark and gloomy.

 

But this part was light and AWESOME!

 

Light and AWESOME!

 

Yay for no roofs!

 

Okay, the roof was pretty cool, too.

 

But this is WAY cooler!  In Luxembourg (a small country between France, Belgium, & Germany) they have parking areas reserved for ladies!  How AWESOME is that?

 

This is the City Hall in Luxembourg City, which (surprisingly) is the Capitol if Luxembourg.

They speak German, French, and Luxembourgish in Luxembourg.  Sorry, we could not find a translation of "Awesome" in Luxembourgish. 

 

Here is the Royal Palace.

 

You can see the Luxembourg flag here.  Look carefully and you can see a strange man's face in the black light post.

 

If you look on the building above the gate, you will see another freaky face carved into the stone.

 

There is a really cool walk-way along the gorge where you can see the river and city below.

 

You can see the old fortifications of the city walls.

 

Here is a cool church in the valley!  Too bad it has a roof!

 

Well, that's it for Belgium and Luxembourg.  Aren't they AWESOME?

 

 

 If you or someone you know speaks Luxembourgish, please let me know what "Awesome" translates to.

 

Gaufres, Wafels, und Waffeln

"Gaufres, Wafels, und Waffeln" means "Waffles, Waffles, and Waffles" in French, Dutch, and German!  They speak a lot of languages in Belgium!

 

Warning!  This blog may be disturbing to select people.  If you are easily disturbed by statues of small peeing boys, read no further.

 

 

Welcome to Brussels, Belgium!  This is the Koninklijk van Brussel (no, that's not a type-o).  In English it's called the Royal Palace of Brussels.

 

It's pretty cool!

 

But it's not quite Versailles...

 

Apparently the second "largest" attraction in Brussels called Mannekin Pis.  What is Mannekin Pis?  Is it a famous building?  Is it wonderful piece of art?  A historical memorial? 

 

No.

 

It is a statue of a peeing boy.  Why???  Nobody really knows...

 

But you can buy your own replica of Mannekin Pis in any color of the rainbow...made out of plastic, made out of glass, made out of plaster...made out of chocolate! 

 

Clearly, this is something VERY exciting and big.  As we reached the area where the fountain would be, we began to see more and more Mannekin Pis collectibles. (Apparently, he even likes waffles...)

 

So imagine my suprise when we finally arrived.

 

WHAT?

 

It's TINY!!!  You can't even tell what it is from here, can you?

 

Oh, well.  We still don't get it.

 

But here's the Palace at night.

 

And here is the #1 attraction in Belgium - the Grote Markt (Grand Place) the central square in Belgium. 

 

You can see it looks especially beautiful lit up at night.

 

Now on to the three most important things about Belgium.

 

#1 CHOCOLATE

 

(and macarons...)

 

There are chocolatiers everywhere in Belgium!

 

About every time you turn the corner.  Of course we tried to sample them all.

 

This one was in Brugge.

 

This place is famous for making chocolate right in the store.

 

Kieran was excited.

 

My parents let us each get a .25 kilogram box with whatever chocolate we wanted!

 

Here are some of my choices.

 

And then we saw this candy store...Who came up with that name?  I bet it sucks.

 

And then we saw this store.  Apparently, it's super dry.

 

#2 WAFFLES!

 

Who thinks they've tasted a Belgian waffle?

 

Unless you've been to Belgium, you have NOT.

 

They are so delicious that you don't even need to put anything on them.  The batter has clumps of sugar in it - they are just soooo gooood!

 

We pretty much bought one every time we saw a waffle truck, because we decided that the ones made in a truck were better than the ones made in a kitchen! Weird!

 

#3 BELGIAN FRITES

 

Did you know that French Fries were actually invented in Belgium?  They sell them everywhere and they are sooo tasty!  They serve them to you in a big cone and give you a mini tiny plastic fork to eat them with!  They usually serve it with ketchup and mayo.

 

Wash it down with a good old Sprite.  Sprite is not one of the most delicious things in Belgium, but my dad just took a random picture of this Sprite bottle!

 

This cute little city is about one hour from Brussels.  It's called Brugge.  (There are a lot of tourists there!)

 

A few more pictures in Brugge.

 

One day we went to a musical instrument museum in Brussels.

 

The building was one of the first Art Nuveau architecture.

 

There were different musical instruments that you could listen to on a nifty little device they had like an audio guide.  There were no words - only music.

 

These are all weird pianos.

 

The ergonomic keyboard piano...

 

The disco keys...

 

There were a bunch of harps.

 

This a cell-iano (or something) - half cello, half piano.  It looks like it needs to an orthodontist.  Where do get an orthodontist for a cell-iano anyway?

 

We also went to the Rene Magritte surrealist museum. 

 

It was surreal.

 

On Sunday we found our church.  It was ten feet wide and four stories tall.  The chapel was long like a bowling alley.  Church was in French, Dutch, and English.  Pretty much everyone was wearing a headset for translation!

 

Fall in Belgium...

 

A good reason to get some hot cocoa and maybe a warm waffle!

 

And a big "CONGRATULATIONS!" to the winners of the Gruenhundstrasse Anniversary Challenge!

 

Nicole Crandall and Alexia Potter will both be receiving a box full of delicious German candy!

Thanks for playing!!!