Welcome to Germany and Belgium

Rhonda & Naemi

The flight was smooth sailing from Stockholm to Düsseldorf and after we ALL collected our luggage we were happy to see Naemi's smiling face waiting for us. We exchanged our USD for EUR and continued to the parking area. Naemi had borrowed a VW van to haul us around in. First stop, Old Town in Düsseldorf. Again, like the other cities there were many old, historic buildings. We went in to a shop and bought a pastry and coffee. There was a triathalon going on in the city so some of the area was blocked off. It was cool to watch the cyclists speed by.

Rhine River

We went to the top of the Rhine Tower and took great pictures of the Rhine River and the city of Düsseldorf. Naemi has a fear of heights so she was pretty nervous about riding the elevator to the top. After our whirlwind visit to Düsseldorf, we cruised on to the Autobahn where we flew by trees at an alarming 180 kph! It was a little nerve wracking but since there's no speed limit, it's all good.

Our first stop was in the quaint little town of Monschau. It is over 1000 years old and well preserved. We walked to the top of a hill that overlooked the city and we were able to take in the storybook view. It looked like we were looking down on a fairytale village.

Monschau, Germany

We walked the streets of the town and stopped at a little restaurant and ordered Wienerschnitzel. I found out that it was just a pork chop with a fancy German name. But it was very good! I also ate some real German potato salad and sauerkraut, which tasted like our German slaw, not our canned sauerkraut. After our trip to Monschau, we went to Roetgen where Naemi's boyfriend Philipp's parents live. They were putting us up for the night. Philipp's dad, Mr. Weiss, opened a bottle of champagne and filled our glasses and toasted to our visit to Germany.

The next morning, we sat down to a good German breakfast consisting of fresh baked breads, which they purchased at a bakery that morning. Then we had several options of meat and cheese and jam and scrambled eggs with sausage that we could make an open faced sandwich with. It was very good and we enjoyed the hospitality being shown towards us. Six Germans and six Americans sat around the breakfast table enjoying food and each others company. After our Paris trip we will come back to the Weiss house for one more night and a good German BBQ!

St. Michael's Cathedral, Brussels

Here we were, on the Autobahn again, speeding towards Brussels, Belgium. Our first stop was St. Michael's cathedral, which was over 1000 years old and very grand.

We also saw the European Parliament building, City Hall, Old Town, the Royal Palace and the famous Peeing Boy Statue. Since we were in Brussels, we wanted to try some mussels... ok I wanted to try mussels. So we stopped at a restaurant, Leon's, amd split one order of mussels and frites (fries). I thought the mussels were good, but Rhonda and Robin couldn't manage to choke them down. The next stop on our food tour was for a Belgian waffle. Mine had whipped cream, strawberries, bananas and chocolate. It was so delicious! And of course, we had to eat Belgian chocolate! People in Brussels speak French or Flemish so even Naemi couldn't understand much of what they were saying.

On the way out of Belgium I wanted to stop at the Atomium, the large steel structure that I saw on the Amazing Race. It was really cool.

We would now head towards our next destination of Brugge, Belgium...