A little break from Paris, and mostly photos.
We took the train to Bonn from Paris for our conference. 1st class seats were only 10 Euro more and included free internet and lunch, so it was a nice 4 hour comfy ride, watching the countryside roll by. I’ve never taken a train in Europe (and had only ever been to Barcelona and the south of France, anyway) so this was gorgeous. The train from Bonn to Bruxelles 2 days later was lovely too, Belgium looks like Vermont but with ancient stone houses!
Sleepiest mouse face. At this point it was 3 days of not sleeping.
And once we arrive in Bonn, have just an afternoon to wander…
On to Bruxelles, where we have less than 24 hours, but only one 3 hour meeting, so we run around a lot. I adore this city, it’s so, so gorgeous and vibrant.
Hotel Bloom, Bruxelles
Victor Horta Museum, Bruxelles
Botanical garden
Grand place
We can just airlift this to my land for the wedding, right? The colors are perfect!
i love belgium so much. ghent and bruges (and bruxelles!) are my favorite european cities. i know this is totally dorky, but did you notice that the grand place actually smells of heavenly waffles!? it’s true! it’s true!
Yes! It smelled so much of waffles that we ate some! But they are so sweet & heavy and not really very nice at all. But I can say I ate waffles in Belgium!
This post is the one that has me wanting to go back – I need to spend a week in Bruxelles! With S, preferably…
wow, really? mine weren’t like that at all–that’s why i don’t like american waffles!
they were like 242398473829 times sweeter and heavier than waffles I’ve had here! but then i’m used to fancy Bay Area magical foodie food. SO SPOILED. Seriously, so spoiled here.
we have lots of awesome food here. i’m just not really a fan of any waffles at all, save for the belgian ones. maybe ours were very different. the context makes a big difference for me, too–being a dessert rather than a breakfast food, it just makes sense to me. breakfast waffles are a no-no in my brain.
what!! THAT IS CRAZY TALKING!!!
at college there was a waffle maker, a HUGE iron one that you rotated while it cooked to make the most perfect, fluffy, light, crispy waffles – slather on some rose petal jam and clotted cream, NOM NOM NOM NOM
weep, weep, weep. aaah! it’s all too beautiful. AND THAT PHOTO OF YOU IN HOTEL BLOOM. i don’t think my heart has started up again yet. insanity light and branches. oh my god. perfect decadence.
also hello treats come into my mouth. and that lost kitty poster. why are you so sad but so cuuuuute? “miiiAAAN!”
please keep posting these, every time you do it’s like the same excitement of starting a new chapter in a really good book. happiness!
I know, that kitty! Named cat! Aw.
The hotel restaurant (with the branches) was super silly: http://www.smoods.net/
We kept making jokes about our SMOODS.
Heh, I’ve been to Brussels 2 or 3 times and I thought it was fantastic until my hopefully last trip there, where I was hit by a car and subsequently hassled by xenophobic police officers and then finally mugged by a junkie in the train station while trying to leave. It’s pretty but, as a country, Belgium is completely dysfunctional. It’s government is completely corrupt at every level and the ethnic hatred is so intense, I’m surprised there aren’t regular riots.
Yeah, the area around the train station REALLY made me think more of far-eastern europe scariness, for sure. also our taxi driver drove like a crazy movie taxi driver. it is not all “it’s a small world after all” or anything.
awesome pics, looks like a great trip. The shoes you are wearing in those two pics-must see MORE! they look super cool!
They ‘re ASH wedges, I love them!
Oh, can’t stand it, sooo lovely! The colors and tones, and your eye for it all, yum! And the piles of gorgeous confections, which for some reason remind me of Fall… what a dreamy place.
where did you get your absolutely amazing shoes/who makes them?
I love that cat sign, “sur certaines ‘parties'”—hee! which “parties” would that be? so coy…
shoes: Ash!
ooh thanks–they’re fabulous!
Bonn and Bruxelles look gorgeous. Would love to go either place someday.
And um, that first picture where you say you’ve had no sleep…you look stunning.
aw, thank you! eye bags and no makeup! Maybe I just remember how. insanely. tired. I felt. Delirious! I was lying awake at night BEGGING the sleep fairies to let me sleep!
Bonn is weirdly like shopping disneyland. I bought shoes.
siiiigh, all these posts are so transportative and make me yearn for european city discoveries. you look very beautiful, with or without sleep, you lucky thing.
Ohhh, all the photos are so beautiful and dreamy. I wish we had more places in the States that look so amazing. Beautiful!
I’m taking a trip to London/Paris/Brussels later this year but only spending 3 days in Belgium. Seeing these photos, I’m sure I’ll wish we had more time there. There’s supposed to be a great bar in Brussels called Goupil Le Fou-Velvetdahlia has some pictures of it up on Flickr.