Bodleian Library

The Newcomer's Club has started up their event calendar again now that Trinity Term has started. There are three terms to the academic year, and the spring term is called Trinity. The winter term when we arrived, was the Hilary Term and in the fall is the Michaelmas Term. The tour I missed during the winter term was one of the Bodleian Library in the city centre. The Bodleian is one of only three copyright libraries in England, which means they legally must receive one copy of every single book published in England. And they have been collecting them since the 1600s! So you can imagine the volumes of books they have in their collection. There are underground storage areas with racks of books on wheels attached to the ceiling. This is how they move them around to find some ancient copy of a book that has rarely been looked at.

I think I read a statistic that said every book in the library is read at least once every 16 years. A few other facts about the library - you cannot check out a book to take home. The books can only be read at the library. So there are many reading rooms designated for studying. And only if you are a student or employee of the University can you reserve a book to read. Therefor, Brian does not have this privilege unfortunately. Neither can I go in there, except on a paying tour (which of course is how I did). But the tour I was on was better than the standard since it was through the Newcomer's group.

Of course there is some amazing history to the building of the library, what the rooms were originally created for and it's an architectural gem. But I won't bore you with all that info, you'll have to come visit for yourself (hint, hint!) or check it out online at www.bodley.ox.ac.uk.


Note on all the photos. You're not allowed to take photos inside the actual library areas. You can in the Divinity School and University Congregation Parliament room, which is where these photos are showing.

Royal London

While Brian was at his meeting at the Royal Society, I had the opportunity to roam the Royal part of London. If you have only 1/2 a day or less to see London, this is the area to go to. Within walking distance, you can see Buckingham Palace, St. Jame's Park, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square and the theatre's West End. And these are just the bigger name, well-known sights. Of course, if you want to go inside any of them, you'll need more than 1/2 a day. But on Tuesday, it was warm and sunny day, and I could have sat in St. Jame's Park the entire afternoon. It was the most gorgeous park I'd been in and was full of British people on their lunch breaks or strolling through. It also helps that it's one of the Royal parks, so of course it's absolutely perfect.

After Brian headed to his meeting, I grabbed some take-away (take out) for lunch. It's very common here that everyone eats lunch on the go, even while they are walking down the sidewalk. Pre-made and pre-packaged sandwiches are the most popular, with bags of crisps (potato chips) and a cookie or something. I stopped in one of the take-away chain shops called Eat. and grabbed an Asian chicken noodle salad and cookie. Headed to the park and had lunch in the grass. Not too tough for a Tuesday afternoon! Eventually peeled myself away from the park to walk around the area and see what Brian and I should check out when he was done with his meeting.


At 3 p.m. we met up and visited Buckingham Palace, walked through the park some more, to Big Ben and Parliament, by Westminister, by Whitehall palace and the Horse Guards, and took pics by The Royal Society. We also found an Information place where we could book discount tickets for a play that evening. We stopped at a pub close by Parliament, and realized we were having a pint with many of the lobbyists (if that is what they call them here) between the hours of 5-6 p.m. Luckily, we had dressed up a bit so we didn't scream tourists and kind of had fun trying to blend in a bit with that scene. Seemed by 6 though, they had all cleared out (had to get home to the wives and fams I suppose) and the tourists started to come in. By then, we headed to West End area to grab dinner at an Italian restaurant close to the Garrick theatre, where our play was showing.

It's a new play, called Treats. There are three characters, one girl and two guys. The fun part about it was that all three actors are well-known TV stars, roughly in their 30s. The one guy we knew from watching a BBC sitcom called "My Family" and he was the goofy son in the show. So we thought it was fun to see him in a live performance. The girl is in a TV show called Dr. Who, and the other guy is in a new show called Lewis, which is a spin off to the Inspector Morse movies. Anywho, the play was about the girl trying to decide between the jerk of an ex-boyfriend and the overly boring new boyfriend. We enjoyed it and was glad we were able to catch a show. We stopped at Starbucks on our way back to the train (yes, there is now even a Starbucks on almost every corner in London or Oxford) and headed back home. A very, very fun day in London!

The Royal Society

Last Tuesday we took a day trip into London. It was the day after Brian stabbed himself, but he was still up for it, and mainly because he had an important lunch meeting a The Royal Society. So a little background information for everyone to remind you about Brian's grant and how we are here in the first place. Brian received a two-year research fellowship from The Royal Society www.royalsoc.ac.uk, which is the UK's national academy of science, much like the NSF (National Science Foundation) in the US. This is an international fellowship specifically for North Americans (so US or Canada) who have obtained their PhD's and want to further their research and experience. The Royal Society also has other International fellowships like this one for scientists in China or India. Interesting enough, they do not have these type of fellowships for scientists in the EU, since UK is also part of the EU. This year, there are about a total of 77 International Research Fellows with the Royal Society and they vary in age, experience and expertise. The research fellows also are working at various UK universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and the University of London. The research fellowships are mainly for only one year, but Brian managed to land one of the few two-year research fellowships.

So the lunch meeting involved gathering select International Research Fellows for a lunch and meeting. Brian said there were about 10 who attended (see the group photo). We arrived late into London due to train issues (which I've learned always to assume you'll be late in your on the train to London) but Brian made it to the Royal Society in time for the meeting. The meeting was mainly for the Royal Society to find out from the fellows how the program was going and what could they do to help make things better for the fellows. Supposedly the North American grants have been around for only 3 years, so it's fairly new for all involved. Brian enjoyed giving feedback and asking questions and learning more about the organization that so generously has funded a huge grant for him. The Royal Society is also quite prestigious in that famous scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton was a fellow and current physicist Stephen Hawking among others. Only a select few are chosen each year to become actual fellows. Brian enjoyed a tour of the Royal Society building and saw some of Sir Isaac Newton's authentic lab books in the library archives.

And also to clarify, Brian and other other International Research Fellows are not actual real Royal Society Fellows, like the famous physicists. . . but doesn't mean that someday he won't be! :)

And while I'm explaining all this, I'll explain what Brian's role then is at Oxford. Unfortunately he's not a true employee of the University of Oxford. He's more like a visiting academic or visiting researcher, being funded by the Royal Society. There are many other postdocs or researchers in similar situations as Brian, being funded by other entities. The good news is, he's basically treated as a regular postdoc in the department. The bad news is, postdocs are kind of in this grey area anyway, since they are not students anymore, nor are they professors or lecturers or anything. So there are other benefits they miss out on, like not having any affiliation to a particular college at Oxford. Overall though, it's not a big deal to his experience and learning here. It's pretty amazing!

Emergency Room!

On Monday we experienced the social health care system here in England firsthand. We took a fun little trip to the ER! Luckily it's just down the road and Elin was home and could drive us there. And I'm happy to report, it wasn't for me for once!!! But I'm not happy to report that Brian had a minor mishap and has a large stab wound in his hand. Yikes! He's doing just fine and it's going to heal nicely. So the story goes. . .

We had just received our new bikes (well used bikes) and some accessories. Brian was opening some packaging with his Leatherman pocket knife and it slipped and almost the entire length of the blade went into his left hand between the thumb and pointer finger! It started bleeding profusely and I've never seen him turn so white. As we all know, I don't do well with blood at all. But since I realized he might pass out this time, I couldn't and had to figure out what we should do. So I found the neighbor to give us a ride and figured out where to go. We were mainly concerned he either severed a tendon or hit an artery or something. We found the ER for Minor Injuries at the hospital and all we had to do to check in was give them his name, a UK address, and US address and a phone number if we had one. That's it. No insurance info, passport, national insurance number, nada. Frankly, after all is said and done we don't know if we'll get a bill in the mail, or if emergency services is covered on the NHS (National Health Service), which we think it is. So we'll find out.

Anywho, he was triaged by a nurse right away. She just cleaned it and looked it over. Then told us to wait for the doctor to call his name. The wait was about 60 minutes, but could have been worse. The doc looked at it, made fun of Brian with his British humor about stabbing himself, and said he didn't hit anything major. So the nurse came back in, gave him a tetnus shot, some painkillers and put the strip things on the wound (instead of real stitches) to close it up. Understandably so, Brian wasn't up for the rest of the afternoon to go to work, so we grabbed some sandwiches for lunch and he chilled at home while I did some grocery shopping with Elin. Exciting day!

Lazy Sunday

No, I don't mean the SNL parody, but this past Sunday was pretty chill. Since I wasn't feeling too perky from the BBQ the evening before, we relaxed and enjoyed a typical British Sunday afternoon in the park. We walked down to the University Parks, which is right next to Brian's physics building. It's a lovely park with many walking paths, duck ponds and cricket, football (soccer) and rugby fields. We happened upon a local Oxford cricket game, and sat along the sidelines and tried to figure out how the heck the game is played. Well we were not successful and found it rather boring (if you think baseball can sometimes drag on, you will not be a fan of cricket). However, it was nice to sit in the sun and the 70 degree weather and have a picnic lunch.

British Afternoon BBQ

Having a few troubles with downloading our photos, but just got it cleared up. So I wanted to post some photos and tell you about our first outdoor British BBQ. One of the guys in Brian's group hosted a BBQ at his flat with his fiance. Adam is British and is nearing the end of his graduate work at Oxford. He'll continue on still at Oxford for a postdoc. His fiance is Maggie, a beautiful blonde from Czech Republic. She does some type of land surveying outside of London. Her English is adorable with a very strong Czech accent (where sometimes I can't quite understand her!).


So how it worked here, was that Adam and Maggie went to store and bought a bunch of different meats to grill, hamburgers, sausages, chicken, etc., along with the buns, sauces, etc. They also made a nice large salad. The rest of us were to just bring about 5 pounds and BYOB. So it was nice and laid back, with about 10 of us there. 3 gals, 7 guys, so at least I had some ladies to chat with. After the BBQ, we hung out inside at their flat and the guys got into a game of Risk. I've never played it before, but wasn't a bit fan to be honest. So Maggie and I had fun just talking in the corner. I think I had a bit too much British beer though as I didn't feel too perky the next Sunday!

Most difficult British word is. . .

Trousers! Not because it's difficult to pronounce, but because what North Americans call pants, the British call trousers. And even this isn't the main reason why it's a big deal. The problem is, every time I refer to my "pants" (instead of trousers) I'm talking about my underwear! They call underwear "pants" and they call ladies undies "knickers". So when I took Brian's trousers to the dry cleaner today, and started to say, I have some pants to drop off. . . she looked at me funny and quickly pointed out that they are called trousers. I, of coursed, laughed at my own mistake, thinking she too would laugh with me, but no. It was not funny to her, only annoying!

Another "pants" story I've heard comes from my Canadian friend Lindsay, who sometimes substitute teaches at a nearby elementary school. She was giving a spelling test to a class of 4th years. She states the word, then uses it in a sentence, then states the word again for them to spell. So the word was, "tight". Her sentence was: After I ate a large dinner, my pants were too tight. Those kids never laughed so hard, and she quickly realized her enormous mistake (as any little faux paux is so huge here!) and changed to saying her trousers were too tight!

This is a tough one to get used to, and I still haven't gotten it right!

Mexican Food & Swedish Board Games

Last week we had dinner again with our Swedish neighbors. I think we're going to try to make it a weekly thing, since it's fun to do and nice to have great neighbors. So this time Brian and I cooked, but we still ate at their place, since they have a larger table and it's easier for Rebecka, their one-year-old. Mexican food is hard to come by in England, basically they don't have any restaurants at all that sell Mexican food. But I have found some basics such as tortillas, salsa, beans, etc., at the larger supermarket when I go with Bettina. So we made chicken fajitas, mexican rice and found some chips and salsa. Magnus and Elin have had Mexican before, but only when they visited the states a few years ago. The food turned out pretty well (we weren't sure how it would taste from over here) and everyone enjoyed.

Then we played a fun Swedish board game called Far and Away. It was all in Swedish, so we had to split up teams so Magnus and Elin could translate for us. So Magnus and I were on a team, and Brian and Elin. Basically you travel around the board game to the different continents of the world and answer worldly trivia questions. You have to fill out your "passport" and collect money along the way. It was a close game, but Elin and Brian won just by a few hundred dollars! (Or Swedish crowns I should say.)

Easter Sunday

Brian and I had quite a busy and enjoyable British Easter Sunday. We went to an Easter church service at Christ Church Cathedral, which is the place of worship for Christ Church College. The Christ Church College dining hall is best known in the Harry Potter films. The Cathedral was absolutely spectacular and such an awesome place to attend Easter service. We have friends who usher at the church, and told us to make sure to arrive early enough because there would be a long que (line). So luckily, we made it early enough to sit in the middle section, right next to the boys choir. Chris Church has had a boys choir for over 500 years. The choir consists of boys from ages 7 to 18ish. They were fantastic and it was amazing to hear the young boys sing soprano so clear and strong, and read the music and sing in Latin. It was just beautiful. Check out their website at: www.chchchoir.org. The body of the church is in the shape of the cross, and in the middle, you sit with the pews facing each other on either side. So you don't face the front altar, but other parishioners across the aisle. The denomination is the Church of England, and it was very interesting to learn that many of the prayers and songs were the same as we practice in the Lutheran church. That helped us feel at ease and comfortable in a church in a far away land!

For Easter lunch, we were invited over to Brian's new advisor's home. His advisor is Ian, and we met Ian's wife Kate and their three pre-teen kids, Alex, Nathan and Claire. Ian is British and Kate is American. They met while they both were grad students in the U.S. and all 3 kids were born in the U.S., but now have dual citizenship. It was a little funny to hear Kate with a still strong North American accent, while the kids have picked up British accents. They had also invited over another new postdoc from the group, who also happens to be American. Gina is from Colorado, and one of the few females in the physics group. She's great and can hold her own well with all the guys. One other British neighbor of theirs was over for lunch, so we had a nice group.

Brian and I had walked over from the church, but it was still a bit of a hike. We got lost, and were about 25 minutes late, which stunk. But we made it just in the nick of time. They served leek and potato soup for the first course. Then grilled lamb, roasted potatoes and a green salad for the main. (Brian was nice to take a piece of lamb, but then just pushed it around his plate.) I thought it was delicious! We had a nice almond/lemon tart thing for dessert and then tea or coffee of course. We walked over to the adjoining park and threw around the American football for a bit and the kids played with the (soccer) football. Back to their house to sit on the patio in the sun (it was about 68 degrees and sunny!) while the kids jumped on their trampoline. Eventually we made it inside where the kids showed us their new Nintendo Wii game player, which was pretty cool! We had a full day and were home early evening - about 8 p.m. The great thing was is that everyone had Monday off of work/school too, as they celebrate Easter Monday as well - it's a bank holiday! (To clarify, not in a financial banks sort of way, but in a government holiday way.)

Oxford vs. Cambridge Rowing

I'm sure many of you have at least heard about the ongoing annual rowing competition between Oxford and Cambridge. It's been going on for over 175 years on the River Thames in London. The top men's teams from both universities compete this Saturday and it's televised on the BBC and I'm sure on a sports channel in the U.S.

Each college also has 3-4 different women's teams and other men's teams as well. These teams have their big annual competition the weekend before the top men compete. Which means last Sunday, Brian and I experienced our first British sport outing!

We figured it might be more enjoyable (i.e. less crowded and crazy) to watch the women's teams compete than worry about getting to London this Sunday for the main event. We also were invited to ride with two of the guys from Brian's lab, who were willing to drive - nice!

The race was in Henley, which is known at Henley-on-Thames, since the Thames river flows through it. Henley is home to many of the professional British rowing teams, so it's quite a posh place with fancy rowing clubs and regattas lined up and down the competitive stretch of river.


It was a beautiful day and was fun to just observe the friendly competition on the shores. So what seems to typically happen is you come to watch the races (about 5 races total) with either your entire family, or your entire group of friends. You bring a picnic lunch. But not just food in a brown sack, you bring the whole works. Glassware for your wine, glass cake stand for your cake at afternoon tea time, real silverware, the works. And of course, plenty of wine, tea and Pimms if you fancy that (which I'll get to in a sec).

Many of the groups of friends were current university students cheering on their mates who were rowing. Among them were guys and gals wearing special jackets (reminding me of the green jacket you win in professional golf). Oxford in navy and cream colors, Cambridge in a light green color. These jackets represent previous years a student rowed, and won in his/her race. If you win, then you earn the right to (purchase) get your own jacket. It's a big deal to wear your jacket at all competitions as it earns you very large bragging rights and the right to get piss drunk at the races. :)

Well we didn't bring a posh picnic basket, but not to fear, they have concessions stands just like in the U.S. where we could get burgers, chips (fries), sandwiches, etc. And a bar (of course) with beer, cider, hot wine and Pimms. So I had to have a Pimms, because that is the thing to drink when watching rowing or participating in punting (another leisure form of rowing down a small river/channel). It's brown in color, but sweet with a lemony flavor. Sounds good, but I wasn't too sure I liked it. It gets mixed with tonic and they put fruit/veggie pieces in it. Mine had oranges, apples and cucumber. A bit weird, but I'm getting more fond of cucumber over here.

After the races, we popped into a local pub for a pint to enjoy the sun setting on the water and then headed back to Oxford.

Belgium Wrap Up

Well since I was in Belgium about 2 weeks ago now, I need to finish up telling you about my trip. I was flying out Monday at noon back to London, so Sunday was our last full day to hang out. We spent the day Sunday exploring Louvain la Nueve. As typical with many European cities, most of the shops and things were closed on Sunday (and Mondays too sometimes). But we didn't mind, it was a fairly nice day outside, and we just walked around. We first went to the Sports Center on campus where Charlie's team has some indoor practices. I found it rather interesting when the most popular sport there was hitting the bar. Yep, they have a full-sized, huge sitting area bar in the sports center, with windows where you can look down into the rec area. Already it was bumping at noon from people who just finished a mean round of badminton and had to wash it down with some Leffe lager.

We then walked through campus a bit more and into the little city center and scoped out the area. Mainly shops, movie theater, restaurants, bars, etc. Very nice and cozy actually.
Then we walked south of the center towards the Phoenix baseball complex. We spent a nice amount of time there, as one of the other coaches was also there and was showing the storage area to Charlie. Then Wesley and his girls showed up to throw the ball around, so we chatted with them too. Took some fun pics of Charlie on the field and in the dugout.

At six, Charlie's host father Yves, (pronounced Eves) picked us up from the hotel and took us back to their house, where Charlie has been temporarily staying. We met up with the mom Corrine, and their two kids, son Arnaud (he's 17 and plays on the Juniors team) and Se Se, who is 11. They were so kind to take us out for dinner at a very posh Chinese restaurant in Belgium. Have to admit it was the best Chinese I ever had. I think the two best parts of the dinner were 1) my dessert and 2) after dinner sake. Dessert because it was a beignet (basically a sugar-covered donut in a ball shape) with ice cream in the middle. It was served with sake poured on top and lit on fire. Yum! Lastly, we all were given a shot of sake, and before you drank it, if you looked down to the bottom of the little shot glass, you'd see a naked lady! Corrine teased Yves about the restaurant being a popular place he takes his visiting American business partners!



Anyway, they are absolutely wonderfully nice people and enjoy having Charlie stay with them. They all speak some English (except Se Se) and have fun practicing with Charlie. But they are also great about teaching him French as well. I took some pics of Charlie with the family dog and the nice third-floor room he's been staying in.

Corrine and Charlie drove me to the airport Monday late morning after a tasty Belgium breakfast of pain au chocolat (croissant with chocolate inside) and a latte.

I was definitely bummed to say goodbye to the bro, but I also knew he was in good hands with his host family, Carlos and the entire organization. And I also knew I was only a plane ride away (actually living closer to him now, than I have in the last 7 years in the states)!

The end. Tra la la!

Saturday Baseball

Saturday Charlie had a baseball game in Brussels. His team is named the Phoenix, and they were playing the Brussels team, the Kangaroos. Charlie's club is actually in a southern suburb of Brussels called Louvain la Nueve. You can check out their website: http://www.llnphoenix.be/ but it's in French, so you'll just have to get the idea.

Charlie's coach picked us up from the hotel about 1:30 and drove us to the game. In the morning we had made a last trip into town for final items and food, and stopped at an internet cafe to email mom and dad.

We arrived at the field a bit after 2, and the weather wasn't very nice. Light rain and cold. Not good for me, since I'd be sitting in bleachers for about 4 hours. Right as we arrived, the rest of Charlie's team arrived too and I was introduced to everyone. Now remember, it's very common on the continent and especially French-speaking countries to kiss on the cheek as part of your greeting. Charlie is great and has quickly adapted to the custom, kissing his teammates on the check as they reciprocate. So I received many kisses and Bon Jours from his teammates. I think it's great!

They warmed up for an hour or so, and the game was underway at 3:30. They were playing a full 9 innings and it was just a pre-season game. I'm not sure how many total Belgium baseball teams there are, but I do know that each team can only have two foreigners on the team. So Charlie is one of them, and a guy from Mexico is the other, although he wasn't there yet. On the opposing team, there were at least two Americans and it seemed obvious there were a few others from somewhere else. So would be interesting to hear how they claim there are only 2 foreigners. Also on Charlie's team is a guy named Wesley, and he's American and Belgium. So he doesn't count as a foreigner.

The guys on the team all range in age from early 20s to Wesley at 41. It's the senior team, so there is no exact age limit or range, just all based on ability. Many of them speak some English, and many more at least understand it being spoken, but are not comfortable speaking. At least Charlie has Wesley to talk with and to help interpret. Charlie's coach, Salim, coaches and plays on the team too. When they play the game, they all try to speak in English, but of course, they fall into French since it's what's they all speak. So some things are different, but overall the game and rules they play follow along American baseball.


Charlie played short stop and was able to bat. He hasn't played these positions in awhile since he's been a pitcher, but he fun and did well. The team is excited about his pitching since he's so fast and accurate. Since it was only pre-season, they didn't want the other team to see him pitch yet! They want him as the secret weapon further in the season and especially during tournament time.

I was able to meet Wesley's Belgium girlfriend and his two daughters. They came to watch the game and were a few of the only other people there. Her name was Laurence (but it's pronounced very differently than spelled here - like La Honce). She spoke a bit of English and Wesley said it was good for me to get her to practice speaking English. His daughters were 9 & 7 and fluent in both English and French.

I also met the president of the Phoenix organization, Carlos. He's Canadian by birth, but his mother is Brazilian and father French, so he moved around the world all his life. He's settled in Belgium and followed American baseball all his life. He founded the club about 7-8 years ago and found corporate and government funding to build their field and clubhouse. But mainly, all the players' families' support themselves financially and contribute to the Phoenix organization. So it was great to meet Carlos and ask him a lot of questions about baseball in Belgium!

That evening, the organization was holding a spaghetti dinner at the Phoenix clubhouse, down in Louvain la Nueve. It was part fundraiser, part informal banquet, part season kick-off get together. The organization is made up of about 6 baseball teams and 2 softball teams. So the dinner was for all players and families involved in all the teams.

It was great to be in Belgium when the dinner happened, because it gave me a sense of the group Charlie is playing and working for and I was able to meet many of the people involved. Carlos also introduced Charlie to everyone as a new coach and player. Luckily Carlos told us what he was going to say ahead of time, because he gave all his announcements in French, and we had no idea what he was saying! At one point everyone started to laugh, and Carlos leaned down to tell Charlie that he told everyone Charlie was a single guy and looking for a girlfriend to help him learn French quicker! Was pretty funny.



We relaxed at the club house and enjoyed more beer and desserts, and visited with Charlie's teammates. I also met Charlie's host family that evening, and they are incredibly kind, warm and friendly and great people to take Charlie in for some time.

As the dinner wound down, we went with a few of the players to nightclub/bar/cafe place in town, and the guys played some pool. When the night came to a close, they gave us a ride to the new hotel we were staying at in Louvain la Nueve. We wanted to check out the town on Sunday, and figured it was easy to stay in town for the night.

At the hotel, we finally figured out how to call mom and dad. It was pretty late for us, but we knew they would be up. So the calling card finally worked. And the guy behind the reception desk gave us a free basket of salty bar snacks - so a good top off to the evening!

Friday in Brussels

Friday was great, since we knew we had the entire day to just explore the city and the sights. It's typical in European hotels to offer a simple breakfast, and those of you who know I need my 3 squares a day, of course I opted in for breakfast. It consisted of juice, coffee, tea, milk, croissants, bread, jam, butter, spreadable cheese and corn flakes. It was actually pretty good, and I took some extras to Charlie, since he's not much of a breakfast eater, but I figured some bread and juice would do him good.

So we got going late morning and went back to the Grand Place square in the middle of the city for some pics and to layout a plan for the day. One thing we wanted to try to figure out is how to call our parents. We bought a calling card, but couldn't figure out how to use it from a pay phone. We tried asking around, but to no avail. So we put it on hold and decided to try later. We both had the same tour guide book, which has great photos and walks to go on, so we decided to hit up the main touristy sites and just take our time. Brussels is home to the European Union, so it's quite metropolis, but it's actually less busy on the weekends, than during the weekdays. So good for us.

Well without boring you with all the exact places we went to, I'll mention some fun Belgium places and things. The most popular site is the statue of Manneken Pis. We were expecting him to be a larger statue, but he's doll-sized and he pees water out of his wee-wee into a fountain. Visiting dignitaries from around the world will bring an authentic costume for Manneken Pis, and he wears it while the dignitary is visiting. Pretty interesting concept! We found the Brussels city museum, and learned a bit about the city's history, but the coolest part was the costume room for Manneken-Pis. We could view all the different costumes from the last 60 or so years. They are pretty amazing and elaborate. So that was definitely a highlight. Especially the video we watched of a British woman viewing the statue and saying it wasn't as big as she thought. Her husband asked, "What, the kid or the weenie?" Those British!

Some other fun things were eating Belgium waffles from the street vendors, taste testing belgium chocolates from many, many chocolatiers, and viewing the Royal Palace and surrounding park and art museum area of the city.

We popped back to the hotel for some re-energizing, and hit an early dinner. We figured we better eat on the cheap from this point on, and we had spied a kebab place. It was called Sultans of Kebab, and was a chain. But I tell you, it was delicious! If you order the doner kebab, it's sliced lamb in a thick pita like bread, with garlic or hot sauce and tons of lettuce, slaw and tomatoes. Cheap and delish!

So we figured we'd have an early night, but still wanted to stop at a few cafes for some beer. Well, by the time we visiting 4, and ended up at our new favorite one we found the night before - it was well past midnight and we had the munchies. So we headed back to Sultans of Kebab - kid you not! But on the way there, some reggae music pulled us down a narrow street and we ended up in a Belgium reggae bar! Pretty funny, but fun atmosphere and we made new friends. :) Stayed for just one drink, but it was the best mojito I'd ever had. Ended up with kebabs and chips (french fries) and headed back to the hotel to crash out. Oh, and in this last pic, Charlie is holding ice to his shoulder after pitching the day before. We basically scooped up ice from the seafood restaurants throwing it out on the sidewalk as garbage! Charlie said it didn't smell too fishy ... :)