Eurotrip with the double Ds

Hey y'all,

So this past week has been a whirlwind. I left Lille last Saturday at 9am and met up with my parents in Brussels. Saturday we just toured around Brussels. 

Of course we went to a beer museum.

                                            

yum.

Here's a view of the city

Here's the Royal Palace.

Here's the church in Grand Place.

Brussels is known for its lace. Deb went CRAZY. 

Neat clock leading down into the old city. 

Notre Dame of Brussels

Manneken Pis.

Yes, that's a foot-tall fountain of a boy urinating. 

Sunday we took a day trip to Ghent and Bruges, two really cute towns in Belgium.

We first visited Ghent. I had never been there, but liked it. The weather was less than ideal though. It was super foggy, so it was hard to take good pictures. 

I had already been to Bruges, but not really as a tourist - merely as a beer festival drinker. Being a tourist here was a really fun experience as well. 

There were lots of swans here.

We went into one church and saw a relic that supposedly held the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm skeptical...apparently there's a lot of JC's blood floating around Europe. 

Here's a big building in the Grand Place. 

Then we went to Lille on Monday. My parents had a great hotel that looked out onto the Grand Place. There aren't a ton of tourist activities in Lille, but it was cool to show them where I live. 

Then Wednesday, we took a bus to Amsterdam. WOOP.

Amsterdam is the best. 

Our trip included a visit to the Anne Frank House (I'd already been, but enjoyed going again), as well as a trip to the Van Gogh museum. 

Here's a picture of one of Van Gogh's famous paintings "The bedroom." I know what you're thinking (because my mom said the EXACT same thing to me) - "I thought photography wasn't allowed?"

Long hair, don't care.

Today, we took a really great day trip through the Dutch countryside. 

Our first stop was in Marken and we saw where wooden shoes were made. Pretty interesting stuff, actually. 

This is a wooden cow.

With wooden clogs. 

Then we went to Volendam to see a cheese museum. Cheese museums and cheese stores in general in the Netherlands are the BEST, mainly because they have tons and tons of samples. Slurp. I can get on board with that. 

We then went to one last place, but I've forgotten the name. This was the coolest place because we got to see real windmills - none of this modern metal stuff you see nowadays, but real windmills. 

Now we're back in Brussels. Tomorrow morning, I'm taking a train back to Lille and mom and dad are heading to the Brussels airport to head back to America. This has been such a fun trip. We've travelled all over the place, eaten too much and shopped too much, but had a great time. I can't wait to go abroad again so my parents can come visit me again.

Hope things are well stateside.

Luv,

Sarah