Travel Day: London to Brussels

   Got another late start, haha ha, but managed to finish packing and take our last tube ride to St. Pancras station.  Just walked right up to the Eurostar counter, asked for ticket to Brussels and boom, we go check in and wait to board... easy-peasy.

   Here's the girls on the escalator going to the train platform. Another beautiful train station.

    And rolling through the French countryside over 100mph.

   And we made it. Brussels Midi station.  _Now_ it feels like we are in Europe. The language barrier really drives the point home.  But, we were able to buy tram tickets from the automated machines sans a chip and pin card and get to the right tram. No wrong stops and we make it to check in for our apartment.  A short walk after getting the key was easy and we get settled in.  The apartment is _really_ nice and the location is primo.

   So we quickly start our own search for the best french fries. What? french fries are a Belgian invention and they have the best (french (actually frenched) refers to the culinary practice of cutting into strips, not the country).  Fried potatoes, add duck fat... pure genius. The above batch was for our walk to our destination batch.

   Second batch at Fritland... _really_ good. It's also nice they have 8-10 different sauces too. The 'pita', oil and garlic, was a crowd favorite.

   Bring on the waffles. There's two main types, Brussels and Liege. Brussels is very light and flaky with no sugar. The Liege is thick and chewy with pearl sugar that caramelizes in the iron. The Brussels is what people in the US would recognize as a 'Belgian waffle' and the Liege is the most popular in Belgium... and I know why. Just amazing. Of course layering with high quality Belgian chocolate does nothing to hurt.
   The girls were tired so Cindy and I snuck out by ourselves.

   Here's Cindy at Manneken Pis just down from our apartment. Believe it or not, it was crowded just to get a picture of it. We thought it was pretty funny.

    We went to Moeder Lambic, a famous bar, and had drinks. The Saison was good, but the trippel, Bons Voeux, was excellent.

   OK, one last chocolate and waffle... who wins? We both do! 

   Since it was so close, we walked to the Grand Place before heading back to the apartment. Now some rest... see what happens tomorrow.

London Day 4

   Well... we got up late again. I'm beginning to think it's not the time change, but rather we are just lazy people. As the girls got ready for the day, I snuck out to one of my favorite places in London,

The Regency Cafe. I had a standard English breakfast with what Alan Hunter would say was 'proper' bacon and grilled tomatoes. Grilled tomatoes for breakfast, there's something the colonies need.
   The plan was to do the London Eye first.

    So on the walk from the apartment, we took a route right by Westminster Abbey.

    And the Parliament building with Big Ben.

   So the London Eye... how high do you think it goes. Well, it's approximately seven thousand feet tall. OK, 135m or 443 feet tall. But for people scared of heights, it _towers_ above the T-cranes that themselves tower over the  buildings of the city. I sat and clenched the wooden bench for some of the ride, but I did finally get up and take a few pictures. Everyone else took way more then me oddly enough.

    Bailley with a view northeast.

    Madison with a view south. You can see Parliament building and Westminster Abbey way below.

    Cindy with a view directly east over the city.

   And Abigail with Parliament as a backdrop.

   Whew, safely back on the ground... a great pic down the river.

   Lunch was a trek back to Speedy's to try and catch it open. Yes! Nice lunch in the cafe next to 221B from the current Sherlock series film location. We were not the only ones, it was crowded and had plenty of people coming to also take pictures.

    A quick tube ride while we still had daylight.

    To Abbey Road... It's a somewhat busy street so trying to recreate the Beatles album cover was not that easy. This was the best we could achieve without completely stopping traffic.

    Here's the girls and Cindy in front of Abbey Road Studios. Madison even signed the wall for us.

    A quick trip to the Victoria & Albert museum to fill time before our only scheduled event at 6:00.  We only scratched the surface, but the displays were awe inspiring as usual. Then out to grab a bite and a pint and then try our hand at "escaping".

   Bailley had found (don't ask me how) an "escape room". Rooms filled with logic puzzles and riddles and some feats of dexterity. We all had to work together within a time limit. The owner said it was challenging and it was.

 We did need a couple of hints. OK, technically we didn't ask for any, but I guess the owner thought we were floundering some. We had one last lock on the door to go when time ran out. He gave us a little more time and we opened that last lock and final door. Man... that was fun.

   Not too far from there was Needoo, an Indian restaurant listed in the top five in London, so that was dinner. Tomorrow is a travel day, which we are doing differently than most of our travels... no schedule or pre-bought tickets. For a planner, it feels good and bad all at the same time. We'll see where we get. More later.

London Day 3: Day Trip to Cambridge

  An early start to today as we had pre bought tickets to tour the colleges in Cambridge. Slow tube service, but we finally made it to King's Cross in the middle of peak travel...

 Even had enough time grab a quick bite to take on the train.

   The first tour stop was at a pub, The Eagle. It's famous for having US airman signatures on the ceiling from when they returned from missions and were happy to still be alive.  It's also where Crick declared that he had uncovered the secret of life... DNA.
   We got some information on the "grasshopper" clock, then stopped by a plaque commemurating Alan Turing who went to Queen's College. We even got to go inside Queen's College. Then on to the River Cam.

  We got to walk over the Mathematical Bridge. And just after I told Madison how Isaac Newton designed it and how it's held together with no metal the guide said that both were _not_ true. There are a lot of Isaac Newton stories in Cambridge and seems many are not true.

   Here's the river with a punter on it. Then for the big finish...

   We got to go inside King's College chapel. The best example of fan vaulting in the world. The chapel was started by Henry VI and finished by Henry VIII, right at 100 years to complete. The symbolism and changes through history as it was built was incredible.

   Tour was over, so we returned to shopping. The small open air market it fun to browse through, I'll go that far.

    Cindy's and I on King's Row outside King's College. A cold but beautiful day.

   And the whole family at the River Cam by all the punts.  As we walked to the bus stop, we even found Little St. Mary's cathedral where there's a plaque honoring the burial site of Rev. Godfrey Washington, a Jesus College graduate and the great uncle of George Washington. And the family crest?... stars and stripes.

   Then a train ride back to London. Too pooped to do much else, we just stopped by a market and grabbed food to eat in the apartment. Let's see what we can get done tomorrow...

London Day 2

   First full day, and I think everyone is still trying to get in sync with the time change. We got somewhat of a late start today. Grabbed a quick breakfast and headed for the Tate Britain in the rain.

  Lot's of beautiful works...

   Admired by everyone for a while... then mainly by Madison. She really loved all the art. And it varied from a lot of classics by Turner to...

   stacks of 'art'? I guess our artistic tastes only go so far.

    As with most of the museums here, the building itself it a work of art.

   Then a hurried tube ride to Kensington Palace.

   For high tea at the Orangery.  Neal Burgess, a friend from ARM, had recommended this long ago and it did not disappoint.

    That might of been the most tea any of us had every drank in a sitting.
 

   Then a walk down Regent Street for some window shopping and looking around. Net quite as crowded the time Cindy met me in the UK, but still bustling.

   Madison wanted to go by some sites from the Sherlock TV series, so we decided to try dinner at Speedy's Cafe (next to 221B on the TV show). Unfortunately it is not open on Sundays.

   So we just made our way back toward the apartment for a quick bite at the pub and back to the apartment to rest and recover a bit. On to Cambridge in the morning.

London Day 1, part 2

   Well, we summoned enough energy to go back out before collapsing. We are about a 5 minute walk from St. James Park underground stop. And along the way... Scotland Yard. As a big Sherlock Holmes fan, Madison enjoyed seeing this.

  We made our way to a mall near St. Paul's. Cindy wanted a new Swatch watch from London. It was night by now, but the cathedral was still spectacular.

   Madison is our 'icebreaker' through the crowds in the underground. But she's been walking so fast we debated causing some serious, intentional, toe injuries to slow her down.

   Last stop was a little shopping at Harrod's. Man... I've never seen so many people packed into a department store buying such expensive items... lot's of 500$ shirts and 2000$ coats. It was at least fun to look at (ok, it wasn't fun for me, but the girls liked it). The window decorations were really pretty, you can see a few behind the girls here.

  A bite to eat then time to collapse. More tomorrow...

London Day 1

  Well... the girls left school a little early, we did the final packing, and got to the airport. The flight to London was a new British Airways 787 and direct... no stop in Dallas. The plane was noticeably quieter and smoother, and other than the crying baby was a really nice flight. 

   We deplaned into busses to get bussed to Terminal 5. I guess British Airways has so many planes in and out of Heathrow there are not enough jetways on their new terminal. We got through immigration and got our bags... straight to the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station.

   Paddington Station... I know there are some nice airports, but Paddington never ceases to amaze me every time I see it. It always makes me feel like none of our newer transportation hubs are built to last like it was.

  Of course the tube was very crowded and we were managing two large bags... but we made it to our apartment rental. It was being cleaned, but we dropped our bags and headed a few blocks down Horseferry Road.

  The Parliament building is always such a wonderful site.

  And of course the River Thames with the London Eye in the distance.

  And Big Ben...

  On our way back was a classic English phone booth, so the girls had to stop and pretend to use it.

  And of course plenty of pubs. The Barley Mow provided a quick pint and bangers and mash which Bailley and I split. Great 'muddle through' day so far. Everyone is starting to run out of gas... but hopefully we can hit a few places before calling it a day.