97 Days, 12 Countries, 1 Kangoo

We are going to take a departure from the standard narrative format to touch on a few things that we keep forgetting to mention.

• In a complete 180 from Bavaria, the Luxembourgers drink some very foo-foo cocktails. Taice and I sat in 'Club City Skyline' at the bar in Luxembourg City on a saturday night and the most popular drink ordered was Sprite, grenadine and a splash of beer on top. This was followed clolsely by something with peach juice and something green but that wasn't midori. I felt like a real man with my glass full of just beer.

  
  

• We are doing our best to grasp the nuances of Rugby, since it is getting in the way of watching American football. An older Belgian man sat with us while we watched Scotland vs Argentina last sunday night. He was nice enough to help us figure out such rugby terms as 'handling in the ruck', 'pulling the jumper in the air' and 'illegal scrummaging'. We look forward to catching some of the semifinals this weekend and learning a bit more.

  
  

• Most underwhelming tourist attraction so far (and by far): the Manakin Pis statue in Brussels. Ok - I knew it was just a statue of a boy peeing. What I didn't know was that it is 18" tall and tucked in a corner in a small alley. Picture Caleb peeing. I think I need to hear the story of why it is famous again. All I know is that it is extremely popular in Asia, judging from the crowd gatered round.

  
  

• Tip for american bar owners - serve cheese and salami platters as snacks! Most of the bars over here have great snack menus. You can get about 3 lbs of cheese served up with tasty mustard dips for 4 bucks. It's wonderful. Note to self: charge friends 4 dollars when they come over for cheese and wine nights.

  
  

• Why is everyone in Belgium obsessed with Bolognese? Every single bar and restaurant has Bolognese on their menu. We have yet to try it (holding out for Bologna) but it's been tempting us every night.

Other random thoughts:
Next time pack more than 6 pairs of underwear.
Install a sink in our bedroom - it seems to be all the rage.
Salami IS a breakfast food!

Here's a link to the pictures and GO SOX!!!!!

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159699201/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

We were less than impressed with our hotel choice in Stuttgart, and driving around the city was a nightmare. But the fabulous Mercedes Benz museum more than made up for our initial dissapointments. Chris had a list of many car museums he wanted to visit while on our trip, and this is the first one we've actually made it to (we skipped one in Strasbourg and couldn't get into the BMW museum in Munich). You will see from the pictures the greater exterior architecture and all the amazing cars inside, of course!

After a few hours drooling over cars you only dream of driving, we left Germany for Luxembourg. We had nothing but positive reviews from friends and family regarding the city of Luxembourg. We arrived on a busy Saturday afternoon and as we stopped for a red light, on a hill, we noticed a huge bus trying to navigate the corner. The guy in front of us kicked it into reverse and slammed into our car. Yikes. Our first European accident. We both pulled over and assessed the damage - only our license plate appeared to be dented. No big deal. When we finally found a parking garage, Chris tried to pop the hood to check for any internal damage. Well, we thought things were really bad since we couldn't get the hood open. After a few frustrating minutes of panic, Chris realized that our car's hood opens from the windshield out. HA. Relief.

Luxembourg was a very beautiful city and we enjoyed a nice sit-down dinner of Italian food - couldn't get into many restaurants since it was a Saturday night.

The next day (Sunday) we drove on to Ghent. Our plan was to camp outside of Ghent for three nights and explore some surrounding cities and towns - Brugges, Brussels, and Antwerp. We found the campsite, set up the tent, and headed into the center of Ghent. It was a GORGEOUS Sunday afternoon so the streets were busy with locals and tourists. We loved strolling around the side streets, eating waffles, and trying a few Belgian beers. YUM! Chris wanted to find a sports bar that would have the Sox or Patriots game on, so we hit up an Irish pub. After chatting with the bartender for a few minutes he told us his name was Chris and he was from Boston. Small world! But no Sox game due to the Rugby World Cup, which was pretty entertaining to watch.

Sunday night was dreadful. Awful. So cold. I am still thinking about how much it sucked. I hate camping. We got back to the campsite around 11PM and with only one TINY blanket to share I put on three layers of clothes and attempted at sleeping. 8 restless hours later, Chris and I got up to freezing cold camp showers and soaking wet bathroom floors. Trying to move on....

That morning we headed to Brugges, which is only 25 minutes from Ghent. Brugges was more of the same - enchanted village with lovely side streets and plenty of canals to wander around. We took a canal cruise and after talking to a shop keeper, we decided to head to the Northern coast for the rest of the afternoon. Apparently the coast of Ostend is where Marvin Gaye wrote Sexual Healing. So we went there to relax from our torturous night. As we watched the waves we chatted about the camping issue. Do we go back for two more nights? Do we pull an all-nighter and stay out clubbing in Ghent and pick our tent up in the morning? Do we just leave the tent there and get another room in town? The camping experience made us realize that a good night's sleep is THE most important thing when traveling, so we went back to the Information center in Ghent and had them book us a bed in a hotel with a shower and breakfast for the night. YAY!

This morning we checked out of our hotel and then checked out of our campsite. Much more rested and ready to tackle the rest of Belgium. We're sitting in an internet cafe in Brussels right now looking for a place to stay since we ditched the camping idea....stay tuned.

Check out the pics:

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159682607/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

And keep the comments and emails coming! We love it.

A special shoutout also needs to go out to Manny and Papi - please let us ride your shoulders to another World Series. And thanks to Donte Stallworth for finally catching a TD - I'm sure that hurt Pete more than he'll admit.

Till Next Time!

Chris & Taice