Beautiful but Brisk - Brussels, Belgium

A couple Saturdays ago Clayton and I decided on taking a USO trip to Brussels. . . I have wanted to go to this wonderful city in Belgium since we moved here and just haven't gotten up and gone.  The USO (United Service Organizations) on base here in Germany offers a variety of trips every weekend to service members and their families and we have gone on several of these trips before (Strasbourg, Wewelsburg Castle, Paris).  The bus ride is horrid . . . but the result of being dropped off downtown without having to find/pay for parking and usually having a tour guide is worth the 5-6 hour bus ride.  It also offers the traveler some much needed sleep roundtrip (not very restful sleep I might add) as the trips usually leave around 1 am and do not return back until 1 am the following morning.

Our latest USO trip took us to Brussels . . . the city of waffles, beautiful buildings and the all-too-famous fountain of Mannequin Pis.





The day was bitter cold . . . my feet were freezing through my not so insulated rain boots.  It was neither snowing or raining but the wind chill was biting! I have to admit, the first part of the day was utter misery.  We first stopped at the Atomium, a structure built for the 1958 World's Fair that took place in Brussels, to take some quick pictures before heading into the city.  Supposedly it was built to rival the Eiffel Tower in Paris which was built for the 1889 World's Fair . . . in my opinion they utterly failed . . but it still is pretty cool.  The Atomium is 335 feet tall and is made up of nine stainless steel spheres that are connected to form the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal . . . magnified 165 billion times of course!

We then continued on into the heart of the city . . . our guide took us on a walking tour (the miserable part of the day) and we were grateful to finally make it to the Grand Place, or central market square, in Brussels.  From there we were given the rest of the day to enjoy in our own way (the fun and enjoyable part of the day).  Our first order of business  . . obtaining a delicious waffle to eat!  We found one first thing outside of the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula.  The Cathedral itself was pretty amazing with a neat history in that it is used for weddings/funerals of both the common man and of royalty . . . but the waffle was our main priority :-) 

Having settled the first order of business we then took our time strolling through the streets around the Grand Place.  We enjoyed looking at the beautiful tapestry shops, window shopping the fantastic displays of the chocolatier shops, browsing through a leather goods store that was completely out of our price range and hit up the Tin Tin store as well.  Throw all of that in with a couple more delicious Belgian Waffles and we had ourselves a time!  One street in particular beckoned to us with the delicious smells of chocolate and waffely goodness . . it was as if our noses arrived in their own personal heaven . . . Oh yes . . we also found the shopping district and enjoyed several expensive hours in it's depths.

Mannequin Pis . . . . what can I say about this little guy . . . he is the mascot of the city and one can find mugs, t-shirts, figurines, etc. etc. displaying this fellow.  I am sure most people have seen a picture of him and he has become a crucial piece of culture in Brussels . . . what I wasn't expecting was how small he actually is!  The fountain is tucked away in an alley way surrounding the Grand Place and if you weren't looking for him (and ignored the throngs of people surrounding him) you could very well miss him altogether.  Created and put into place in the early 1600's this sculpture of just over 24 inches tall has been repeatedly stolen throughout the years.  There are many tales and legends told about this fountain, thus adding to the mystery and intrigue behind him.  He is dressed in costumes several times a week and his wardrobe consists of over three hundred of these costumes.  He just so happened to be dressed as some sort of archer/robin hood on the day we met his acquaintance.

A few things about the Grand Place . . . first of all it is absolutely beautiful!!  It is the most important tourist destination and landmark in Brussels and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  In 2010 it was voted as the most beautiful square in Europe.  It is unique in that all of the buildings that line this market square are all decorated/designed in the different styles of Gothic, Baroque and Louis XIV.  I couldn't take enough panoramic pictures with my Iphone to capture the beauty, but I sure tried!

Skiing the Alps ~ Finally did it!! (check!)

One thing I have dreamed of since I learned to ski at the age of 5 . . never thought possible . . . kept trying to get my family on board with the idea . . . will forever cherish the memory . . . SKIING THE ALPS IN EUROPE!!

I had to move thousands of miles away and to a different continent but I finally did it . . . got my dad to come visit me and ski the Alps for Christmas!  Oh what fun we had! Oh the beauty! The Splendor! The vastness!  I probably will never be able to paint a picture pretty enough to describe it in words . . . kinda like when you take a picture of a beautiful sunrise or sunset.  A picture just doesn't capture what you are seeing through the naked eye.

On December 17, 2013 I was able to finally check a pretty high item off the ol' "bucket" list.  Dad and I headed up to ski the Jungfrau region of Switzerland.  Although not even half of the lifts were open yet the three combined ski resorts offered almost too many lifts to take for one day!  I think we did it though . . I think we hit every single one that was open.  This was only possible by the fact that we didn't want to stop for any reason other than attempting to capture the beauty on a photograph and therefore only stopped to share a bottle of water and eat a nutrigrain bar apiece for lunch. Dad kept making statements such as "This is AMAZING", "This is UNBELIVEABLE!", "I can't believe I am skiing at the base of the Eiger!", "Look!  It's the Eiger!" etc. etc. I have to say, I have never skied at the base of glaciers before and it was pretty stinking awesome!!

The EIGER!!

The Jungfrau ski region contained 214 kilometers of slopes against the backdrop of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. It is a combination of three ski resorts all connected allowing us to ski from one to the other . . and back again. The three resorts are Kleine Scheidegg-Männlichen, Grindelwald-First and Mürren-Schilthorn.  The Jungfrau is the highest summit at 13,642 feet and is know as "The top of Europe." According to Wikipedia, "Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and is considered one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps."  Yup . . that is where we skied! :-)




Not more than a few weeks later I was able to ski the Alps once more . . . this time in Austria AND Switzerland with my buddy Sammy!  We were able to take a bus from one of the Army bases nearby . . . boy was that an experience!  We arrived at the bus stop at 12:30 AM only to freeze our deriers off until the bus showed up around 1:00 AM.  There were only four females on the trip (including us) and the chivalrous military gentlemen allowed us the get on the bus LAST!!!  What in the world?!??  They all rushed to the bus pushing and shoving . . like a bunch of 7 year old children!  When we were finally able to board the bus we were met with the smell of alcohol (although strictly forbidden) and a rowdy bunch of males.  Sigh . . . we made it through the 7 hour bus drive and arrived at Ischgl, Austria.

Ischgl is a town in the Austrian state of Tyrol and its ski resort is connected with the ski resort of Samnaun, located across the border in Switzerland. We were literally able to ski back and forth in between the Austrian and Swiss Alps . . how cool is that?!? With both of these resorts combined, it is the largest skiing resort in the Alps. Its 238 km of groomed runs are accessed by over 40 mechanical lifts including cable cars, gondolas, detachable chair lifts and some T-bars. (The T-bar was one lift we were not planning on taking . . we were forced!  Ohh boy . . I am not good at T-bars)  Again, the beauty was amazing!  At one point me and Sam popped off our skis/board and sat down on the tip of a snowy cliff to enjoy the sights along with some well deserved snacks.  We ended up taking a lunch break this day (as the runs were so long and wonderful that we were plum worn out and needed to rest the poor knees) and the lunch was fantastic! We shared a plate of some sort of pancake casserole served with apple sauce and a plate of noodles that reminded us of really, really good mac'n cheese.

 

 

If I had to compare the two resorts I would have to say that Ischgl/Samnaun was definitely larger than Jungfrau but the views were not as majestic.  Don't get me wrong, they were still amazing and beat any views from Tahoe . . . but there is just something about skiing with glaciers to your back.  Both resorts had pro's that the other did not have . . .they were both wonderful!  Since this is my last winter here in Europe I am attempting to hit the slopes a few more times.  YOLO, right Sam??