Family is here!

After waiting weeks and weeks, the family is now all here living together! I used an app called Airport All to track their flight, so I easily knew when they landed (which was 20 minutes early!). I anxiously awaited their arrival at the International Arrivals area and sure enough they all came out with big smiles on their faces. 

They brought 9 bags. A nice airport employee pushed a cart of bags for them. He wasn't interested in stopping for our hugs and kisses, so he plowed through the crowd and took the bags another 30 meters, which was fine.

9 bags don't really fit in a small European car, so we jammed them in, to include multiple bags in our laps. After a short drive, we arrived "home". I had handwritten "Welcome Home" notes, plus I blew up balloons and filled the house with stuff. The kitchen was fully stocked and each of their beds had the welcome note along with fresh chocolate from Belgium as well as other toys and candies. I also put their tickets to Buckingham Palace as well as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory near their pillows. They were very excited about everything, in fact they've been sleeping a long time, probably due to all the excitement :)

Our internet connection doesn't start for a few more days so we might be a little quiet online until then.

Very excited to officially start this unique opportunity of a lifetime together as a family!

Start on the right foot

I met the neighbor tonight. The landlord had told me her name, we'll call her Jane Doe. I said "hi, are you Jane", she responded very politely with "yes, I'm Mrs Doe". I'm worried I offended her by not using her last name :( Sounds like I'll have a bit of relationship building to do and I'm a little embarrassed that it didn't even cross my mind to use a more polite introduction.

Moving into a house and dinner with friends

We had a great walk through today and I'll be moving into a house very soon! It's on the west side of London and it'll be great.

David Gurteen and I had dinner together tonight. He's an all time pro in KM and it's such an honor to chat with him about KM and life for hours. We're thinking about doing some work together, but for the most part, it's just so fun to chat.

Brugge

[photos coming soon]

I started the day in Brussels, where I visited the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula. It was different because the center of the church wasn't as grandiose as most cathedrals, but the walls and decorations were some of the nicest I've seen anywhere. There's a beautiful organ hoisted on a side wall high above the audience. There's a "treasure" area where you pay €1 to look at nice gifts that have been donated to the church.

I had plenty of time before the ferry left, so I drove up to a town called Brugge (or Bruges). Many people recommended it and now I understand why. It's known as the "Venice of the north" due to it's stunning waterways and bridges. 

I drove around the cobblestone streets downtown looking for a parking spot and enjoying the view. I found a spot in the center of town and I jumped straight onto a boat tour. The captain was very funny and told his jokes/stories in 3 languages. I think he knew even more languages, but he stuck with 3 because he asked every person which language they'd prefer.

After the boat ride, and almost 1000 pictures, I walked to the central market, known as Grote Markt. It's a large European center area surrounded by colorful houses and a huge bell tower. The center has outdoor cafés all the way around the inside circle. I read the menu of every place and chose one that specialized in Flemish beef stew. It was good.

I stared at the bell tower while I ate, so when I finished, I felt compelled to go up the tower. 366 stairs later, I was at the top. The view was amazing of course. It's a working bell tower, so sure enough, I enjoyed the serenade at 4 pm. It was loud, but maybe not as loud as you might imagine. (Have you seen the episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike Rowe cleans a bell, it's hilarious, you should search YouTube for it)

It's a circular staircase to get to the top. The stairs are very narrow. "Traffic jams" of people form every few steps. It's easy to meet the people in front of you and behind you because you're all giggling at how crazy it is to climb these steps. There are 3 platforms along the way where you can stop and catch your breath, but of course thats where you find the biggest traffic jams. At one point, we heard a little girl ahead of us yell "go go go", which we all thought was very funny. I guess she saw an opening and was tired of waiting. 

I jumped in the car and drove back to the dock in Calais, France. I felt quite relaxed after enjoying a great weekend in Belgium.

Oh, I bought gas in France. It's a little tricky because you pre-pay at a machine off to the side, then pump your gas. I hope I did it correctly. 

I've started a list of personal and professional things that I've learned on this trip so far. Let me know if you might be interested in hearing that list someday.

How to do Brussels in a day

[photos coming soon]

Place du Grand Sablon

I started the day aiming for a place called Place du Grand Sablon. It's an outdoor market, plus it's where most of the very best Belgian chocolate shops are located. The names of the shops are Mercolini, Neuhaus, Godiva, Wittamer, Leonidas, Passion and several others. I bought macarons at Mercolini and I bought individual pieces at Wittamer.

Musical Instruments Museum

Being somewhat of a musician, I was excited to head over to the "MIM", which is the Musical Instruments Museum. The first thing you notice is that the building and the view outside are awesome. When you go inside, you learn that it's a 10 story building where 4 floors are open and ready. They recommend you start at the top and work your way down. The top floor is a restaurant with a fantastic view of Brussels. The 4th floor is mostly dedicated to saxophones, but actually there's quite a bit of brass there. I learned that the guy that created the sax (his surname was Sax) had pulmonary problems. In fact, most of his family died at a young age due to their problems. He not only created the sax, he custom created many other instruments. He received many patents for his inventions. He lived into his 80s, so they say that music literally saved his life and he said he created those instruments to help others live longer and happier too.

Second floor was string instruments, so I skipped that. Just kidding. It was cool, I liked the old guitars and this was where I realized the incredible professional design of the museum. A few instruments were out in the open, not that you could touch them, but they were right there. The audio guide you carry around automatically played a song using the instrument you were standing closest to - very cool. The bottom floor was pianos and again it was great to see how pianos truly used to be beautiful pieces of art. I suppose they still are, but they've changed a lot. 

Similar to the British Museum, this museum inspired me to realize that tremendous change and improvement really does happen. Even in relatively short periods of time.

As you wander the streets of Brussels, you can't help but smell the sweet aroma of fresh waffles, then notice a trace of chocolate in the air.

Natural History Museum

I stopped by the Natural history museum, but you can skip that unless you have kids under 10 years old with you. 

Metro

I took my first ride on a Brussels metro to get to a place called Atomium. The escalators start moving when step on the first step, which makes sense from a power conservation perspective, but it's a little startling the first time you see it. Inside the station, there's a map hung overhead. Each station on the map has a light beneath it that lights up if a train is currently at that station. That's a kinda cool way to give you a heads up about upcoming trains. 

Atomium

Atomium is 9 huge spheres connected by bars, all in the shape of an atomic structure. The structure tops at 100 meters high. You get to go in a few spheres, then take a lift to the top. One sphere isn't open to public, it's full of mini spheres. The mini spheres are beds for kids and that sphere is designed for a class to come and study science, and spend the night, nice! There's a tremendous 360 degree view of Brussels from the top sphere.

Dinner - Nuetnigenoigh (noot ee nuff)

I checked my phone for a place to eat dinner. The people on the yelp app recommended a Belgium pub called nuetnigenoigh, and a dish called boulettes de veau a la gantoise. I don't know how to pronounce that, but I can tell you it's veal meatballs in a white beer sauce. Here's to crowd sourcing because it was awesome. It was so good that an older couple next to me spoke English and asked if they could take a picture of my food because they had heard it was good too. Then another American couple jumped in the conversation too. There were only 6 tables in the pub, so it became a whole pub conversation about beer and food. Good times.

Waffles for dessert

I ran over to a chocolatier called Frederic Blondeel at 630 for a Belgian waffle dessert, but apparently they had just closed. I knew another place called Dandoy was great, so I looked it up on google maps. They were also closing soon, so I rushed over. The one I went to didn't serve waffles, only biscuits. The woman behind the counter said wait, I'm heading to the other one now, I'll take you. So she did and I helped her carry the stuff she was taking. I got there and ordered waffles with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. I started to pay and the cashier said nope it's on us, nice! I then saw him smile at the woman I had helped.

Mannekin Pis

Mannekin Pis is one block over from Dandoy, so I stopped there. Wow it's small! No, not that. The whole statue. I expected some 6 foot thing and it's literally less that 2 feet tall. It's blocked by an iron gate and it looks like a little doll on top of a cool platform. Yes it really does piss! I hear there's a female version somewhere close by, but no one really goes to that, so I guess I'll skip it too.

Live jazz at Grand Place

I ended the night at a central area called Grand Place. It's a classically beautiful European city center, with a large open area surrounded by beautiful cathedrals and gothic buildings. I was lucky to see a live jazz concert where I sat, relaxed and typed this up. The concert is ending now, so I'm heading back.

Let's do Brussels!

I moved into a different flat for a few days while the house gets ready. I spent one night there and then jumped in the car to drive to Brussels for the 3 day weekend. 

Did you know that there are European rules for items that you must carry in your car? One required item is a "red triangle" that's basically a little popup road sign in case you break down. You have to carry two breathalyzers and you have to put stickers over your xenon headlights. You have to carry backup headlights and a fluorescent yellow jacket. Then, if you're in a rental car (eg hire car) like me, you have to pay for your car to get a "green card". That card allows the car to travel around Europe.

Before moving to London, I thought the English Channel had a tunnel that you could simply drive through. After some googling, I'm pretty sure that doesn't exist. There is a tunnel, but it's serviced by trains and shuttles which can take you and your car. I found the ferries to be much cheaper, so I opted for that. It's about a 90 minute ferry ride. The one I took had two decks, like a cruise ship, where you could eat, shop or play games. 

I was warned that driving and parking in Brussels might be difficult. I spent quite some time looking up garages and preparing for an easy parking spot. The garage I found online was closed when I got there! I drove around Brussels and stumbled upon a garage that a good friend had recommended. I hope it's ok to leave my car there for three days. 

Dutch and French are the main languages here. There's some English and German too. I've mostly seen and heard French. Sortie means exit and nord means north, I picked up on those words very quickly. 

As I was walking around, I heard about a tragic shooting in Brussels. I looked on my map and sure enough it was 2 blocks from where I was walking. It happened two hours before I arrived. I walked by the area on my way to the chocolate place called Neuhaus. There were many people standing around, including police and news crews. My understanding is that Brussels is safe, so this event is shocking and sad.

For dinner I popped into the first shop that looked crowded. I often like to trust the local crowd for good ideas. The menu was in French, so I used google to lookup each word. Their speciality seemed to be salad so I ordered an apple bacon salad. It was amazing! While I was eating, I started a conversation on twitter and several people chimed in, so that was nice. The restaurant was playing American music from the 90s, so that added a nice touch. 

Big day planned tomorrow, off to bed...

Business Travel

I'm back from business travel, but about to head out for more. For now, I just have a few quick updates. Words of the day - crikey and blimey. I think we've heard them before in the US, so we know they're like "oh heck", or something, but they do say it quite a bit over here. 

Apparently there's something called a Haynes manual or something like that. It seems as though everyone knows what it is. It's a guidebook for fixing your car, I think?I haven't googled it yet. When people refer to it, they seem to be referencing it in the same way we would reference turbotax. In other words, it's a good way to design something that's easy to use (and makes a complicated task much easier to do)

I'm off to a coworkers house for dinner. Such a nice, thoughtful way to make people feel included. I think we should host a lot more dinner parties in the future.