And we're back!!

Sorry about the lack of blogging over the past few weeks. We've been super busy...

Kristin spent a week in New York visiting the Evans clan, including the adorable Mr. Avi. She really enjoyed meeting her new nephew in person. He is so precious! And of course, spending time with Michaela and Matt. After a wonderful week in America, she headed back to Munich. On that Friday, we hosted about 30 of our German friends in our apartment for a house warming party. We had lots of beer, wine, and food (We stuck to the European style of mostly crackers, cheese, olives, etc.). Everyone loved our apartment and had a really great time. It was a great success! It was really nice to be able to host all of our friends who have been so helpful over the last few weeks.

Two days later we were at it again with the start of Oktoberfest! Or Wiesn, as it is known to the locals (after the name of the fairgrounds where it is held). Oktoberfest lasts 16 days every year in late September to early October. The very first Oktoberfest was held as a celebration for the wedding of King Ludwig I and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The 6 main breweries of Bavaria all have tents where they serve their "Wiesn" beer, which must be at least 6% alcohol. You get one liter of beer at a time, which is the equivalent of about 3 American beer bottles. Although they are called tents because they are temporary structures, they are huge and don't feel like "tents" at all. Every tent also has a live band. Until about 6 PM, the band plays quieter music, mostly traditional German music. Later in the evening, however, they play much more fun songs, including both German and American favorites. They love "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver haha. They also love "Sweet Caroline" and many others. We also have learned some of the words to a few of the German songs, which are also a lot of fun. When the music starts playing, everyone stands on the benches to dance. But, it's important to remember that dancing on the TABLES is not allowed, under any circumstances. It's benches only. All in all, we had a fantastic first Oktoberfest as locals.

Along with the housewarming party and Oktoberfest, we have also been busy working on our apartment, as we FINALLY received all of our stuff from America!! It's really nice to have all of our own dishes, glasses, clothes, photos, etc. The apartment is really starting to feel like home now. We still have a little more work to do, but it's definitely coming along nicely. We'll take some more photos and post them next week.

We have "intercultural" training all day Monday at Matt's office, so look forward to a great post about that in the next few days. Should be pretty interesting! haha Also, we're headed to Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday and we'll be there until Saturday. We're very excited for our next adventure and we promise to share photos on the blog when we get back.

Cheers,
Kristin and Matt

Bruges

After spending two days in Brussels, it was off to Bruges, another city in Belgium. Honestly, I hadn't ever really thought of visiting this city until Matt had told me he heard it was quite beautiful. As it was less than an hour from Brussels, it fit into our travel plans perfectly.

We arrived by train in the morning. We walked around the (tiny) town, making sure to hit all of the notable tourist spots along the way. The whole town is so beautiful! You can definitely notice the medieval influence on much of the architecture. There also is a small canal system that runs through the town, so it almost feels like a miniature Venice with French and German characteristics as opposed to Italian. Both Brussels and Bruges are a really unique mix of French and German influence. We took a ton of photos because everything was just so beautiful.

We had lunch at a small French-ish cafe (I say French-ish because while it feels French, it still has a lot of mixed characteristics). After lunch, we went on a canal cruise on one of the small boats. It was very interesting to see the city from this perspective. Matt did an awesome job of snapping photos, despite the Asian man sitting in front of him with the humongous camera (who took like 1,000 photos on a 30 minute boat ride).

Later, we stopped by a local brewery, De Halve Maan (Half Moon), for a tour. It was really interesting to learn about the techniques that are specific to Belgian beer. We also learned why the Bavarian beer served in Munich has no variety--there are actually "purity" laws prohibiting the use of extra ingredients. So no spices or seasonings can be used. Belgian beer, however, can have these ingredients added, which is why there are so many varieties (similar to the U.S.). We also went on the roof of the brewery, where we had a great view of the entire town.

At the end of the tour, we also got a free beer to enjoy in the brewery's cafe.

One other interesting stop in Bruges was our visit to the Basilica of the Holy Blood. This tiny Roman Catholic chapel in the city center houses a phial that is said to hold a cloth with the blood of Jesus Christ. Supposedly, it was brought to Bruges around 1147-1149 by Thierry of Alsace. Legend has it that he was presented with the cloth by his brother-in-law, Baldwin III of Jerusalem, as a reward for his services. Every year, there is a ceremonial procession through the town with the phial. It's a pretty interesting story and I couldn't pass it up.

We enjoyed a delicious meal at a Greek restaurant in the city, then headed back to Brussels on the train. Here are a few more photos...

Amsterdam tomorrow!

Brussels

We spent one night in Luxembourg, then headed on the train to Brussels early the next morning. We weren't sure what to expect of Brussels, as many of our German friends said it wasn't that great. Despite what they said, however, we really loved Brussels! It is much larger than Luxembourg and there was much more to do. It is also nice mix of a modern city, but still with a picturesque, historical city center.

Our hotel was right near the European Union parliament buildings. This is where all of the representatives from the different nations within the European Unions get together to make (or at least discuss) all of the difficult decisions. The buildings are awesome. Our German friends joked that that it where all of their money went haha!

After checking our the EU buildings, we walked about 10 minutes to the city center. They have a really nice main square that is surrounded by several blocks of shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, etc. We spent some time exploring and snapping some photos. There was also a Belgian beer festival going on in the main square all weekend. They had huge tents set up and hundreds of different beers on tap (you can see the white tents in the photo below). However, it was very crowded and the beer was pretty expensive, so we opted to try some Belgian beers in cafes instead.

We also tried some tasty biscuits, or "pain a la grecque" from the famous Dandoy Biscuiterie. These are a Brussels specialty and they were delicious!

Belgium is known for quite a few specialties... including waffles, chocolate, and beer. We tried all three... (Note: They are also known for fresh mussels. We skipped this specialty)

But we didn't JUST eat and drink... We also toured the Royal Palace, went to the Chocolate Museum, spent some time in the park, shopped in the impressive Galeries Royales Saint Hubert, and saw the Manneken Pis, the famous statue (Matt was disappointed in the size of the statue, hence the second photo to show perspective).

And here are just a few more photos...

We had a really great time in Brussels. Perfect weather, perfect food and drink, perfect company. Now, off to Bruges!

Luxembourg

So we're finally back from our week long Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) adventure! We had a blast exploring some new places. The weather was (mostly) beautiful. No rain, just a few cloudy days. We'll post a separate entry for each destination so that we can post pictures more easily.

First off was Luxembourg. We've both always been curious about this tiny country (total population of approximately 512k). It is known for it's very high GDP (per capita average of about $80k!). However, we originally were going to skip it in order to have more time in the other cities. But, as luck would have it, it was most economical for us to fly through Luxembourg, so we found ourselves there for one day.

Matt is notorious for letting the weather form is opinion on new places. Luxembourg was no different. When we arrived at around 11 AM, it was pretty cloudy and a bit chilly. However, it did clear up a little later in the day and Matt agreed that Luxembourg City is in fact, a pretty neat place. You can tell right away that it's a very diverse place, much more diverse than Munich. This isn't surprising considering it's location in Europe. It's bordered by France, Belgium, and Germany.

It's a small city and there aren't too many tourist attractions, but we did spend time at the Casemates. There is a large cliff in the city on which a castle was built. They then built these Casemates, or underground tunnels, as a method of defense. You can go into the tunnels and explore them. It's pretty neat. You also have a great view of the Grund, which is the tiny region in down that is situated in the valley created by the cliff. It is very picturesque.

Later in the afternoon, we spent time exploring the city. There was a central area with many clothing boutiques, chocolate shops, bakeries, cafes, and restaurants. We also had time to get some cappuccino (this has quickly become one of our favorite things to do in Europe in general).

We ate dinner at a French-ish restaurant. It was very cute. We got to eat outside, which is always Matt's preference.

After dinner, we stopped at a cafe for a crepe for Kristin and gelato for Matt. It was a nice ending to a great first day of our trip.

More to come!!
Kristin and Matt