It was quite chilly while we were in Bruges, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the canals, street art, and seasonal Christmas decorations around town. We started our first night walking north...
Blog posts from Belgium
Euro Christmas Markets 2022: Bruges food & drink
Friday Our favorite pub in Bruges, De Garre, was absolutely packed so we decided to try another fave, t'Poatersgat, instead. We had about 30 minutes before it opened so we killed some time looking...
Euro Christmas Markets 2022: a night in Ghent
Our first two trips to Ghent had been day trips from Brussels in 2012 and 2014, and each time we really liked the city. For this visit we originally considered a day trip from Bruges, then decided...
Euro Christmas Markets 2022: introduction
In 2020 we had planned on a Thanksgiving trip centered on European Christmas markets, as it had been 6 years since we were last in Europe late in the year. Of course, all of our 2020 plans were...
Belgium 2014: Daytrip to Ghent
Belgian Rail had a Christmas rate for 11 euros (round trip) that applied for some weekends and the days leading up to Christmas, so a day trip to Ghent was definitely in order. As with our previous...
Belgium 2014: Fun in Brussels
Sunday After our night in Antwerp we took the train back to Brussels and met up with our friends Andrew and Kristin (on their honeymoon) and Jeremy and Tracey (who recently moved to Amsterdam). The...
Belgium 2014: Antwerp and the OBER Christmas beer festival in Essen
We learned about the O.B.E.R. Christmas Beer festival several years ago, and ended up building our Euro-Asia trip around attending. The festival features ~200 winter beers, many of which are rare...
Taiwan the long way: where we stayed
Hotel 73 - Taipei, Taiwan After getting turned around coming out of the Dongmen MRT metro (note: Taiwanese maps don't always have north at the top, and maps in different parts of the metro station...
Taiwan, the long way
For our final 2014 trip we booked a near-round-the-world ticket to Taipei, Taiwan, with stops in Europe in both directions. As with most of our longer trips we used miles, in this case US Air miles,...
Belgium 2012: street art
Below are a few of my favorite examples of street art / graffiti we saw on our recent Belgium trip. Bruges always look behind the street signs... harsh yo. that's where I left it... Antwerp those...
Belgium 2012: Bruges food & drink
Beer De Garre - This small bar hidden in an alleyway is our traditional first stop in Bruges. The house tripel is amazing and only available here. Our whole group started there and then veered off...
Belgium 2012: where we stayed
Grand Hotel Casselbergh, Bruges On our last two trips to Bruges we stayed at the Oud Huis de Peellaert, and while we enjoyed our stay both times, on this trip their sister property, Grand Hotel...
Belgium 2012: Overview
Belgium, again? Yes! Even after our previous trips in April 2011 and March 2010 (link 2) we recently returned to Belgium with our friends Meg and Drew, and this time included Drew's sister Tiffany...
Belgian beer! (part 2)
On our second trip to Belgium we were just as excited to revisit a few old favorites (de Garre! OMER.!) as we were to try some new breweries. Here's the beer list from our recent trip with where we...
visiting Antwerp
Instead of dragging our friends all over Brussels to look at churches and other landmarks (like we did on our first trip), we took a train north to experience another small Belgian city, Antwerp....
Brussels
On this trip to Brussels we spent more of our time simply hanging out and trying a few new bars rather than traipsing all over the city. Andrew and his handy iPhone app directed us to several new...
Royal Greenhouses in Laeken
As luck would have it, our visit to Brussels coincided with one of the three weeks that the Royal Greenhouses are open in 2011. As soon as I found out I made it my one must-see site for this trip....
In Bruges (again)
Thankfully, the rain let up for the rest of the trip and we were able to walk around Bruges without having to constantly duck into doorways. Spring was in full swing and all the green gardens and...
Our Itinerary
2024 Trips
San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Puglia, Italy (Sept)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
Mosel Valley, Germany (Oct)
London, UK (Dec)
Manchester, UK (Dec)
2023 Trips
San Diego (Jan)
Orlando (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Apr)
Northern Italy (Apr)
NC Mountains (May)
Long Island (Jul)
Wisconsin (Aug)
Chicago (Aug)
Oak Island, NC (Sept)
Brooklyn, NY (Sept)
Bordeaux + Rugby World Cup (Sep)
Castilla y León (Sep)
Seychelles (Nov)
Willamette Valley (Dec)
2022 Trips
Florida (Feb)
NC Mountains (Apr)
Washington DC (Apr)
Valencia, Spain (May)
Hilton Head, SC (May)
Pacific NW (Jun)
Long Island (Jul)
Florida (Sept)
Chicago (Sept)
Poland (Sept)
NC Mountains (Nov)
Euro Xmas Markets (Dec)