Europe Part 1

The most amazing thing about spending two weeks in Europe was all of the spectacular attractions we saw while we were there. Considering that we were lucky enough to see four different countries, you can just imagine all of the sites we took in. And for that reason, I will break up the trip into smaller, more digestible parts, so as not to bore you with my drowning on and on.

We left out of Newark Airport, NJ instead of more local airports as it provided us the only direct flight. That added a two hour travel time from lovely CT and it really was a small price to pay to ensure my luggage arrived safely. After all, as I mentioned in my last post, the clothes, while beautiful in Europe, are tailored to fit extremely skinny ass people with NO CURVES. And while I have lost 43 pounds and dropped down to an acceptable size 12 pants/Large shirt, when I tried on the cutest pair of pants I HAVE EVER SEEN in Belgium - I couldn't pull them past the knee. Sigh. Big thighs, my nemesis.

And speaking of weight, I am happy to report that despite my not limiting my alcohol intake, which may or may not have been a 3 bottle of wine a night + a bottle of home made Lemoncellos (read grain alcohol) habit. And the fact that I ate BREAD and CHEESE and every other God forsaken thing put in front of me, I only gained a pound. Technically when I returned it was 2 pounds and then my body was like, "Hey, wait...Are you HOME? - ok, NOW I can relax." Now, just a pound and I am not too worried about that. Thank you tiny baby Jesus.

So, the overnight 7.5 hour flight sucked ass, and the arriving at 2 AM (our time) 8 AM (Belgium time) proved to be alright since we were hopped up on clean air (except for the goats being up-wind) and seeing my extended family I had not seen in 6 months. After throwing luggage in our beautifully accommodated room and showering, we were swept off to our first destination Butte de Lion, which is the site of the Battle of Waterloo. There stands a large monument facing France (talk about flipping the bird, right?).


Note the picture and the STEPS and the INCLINE. This was my first taste of how these people stay skinny. Oh yeah, and no air conditioning. None. Or elevators, escalators, parking lots, screens on the windows, or non-carbonated water that didn't taste like spit in a bottle. But we climbed the 225 steps straight up to heaven and were rewarded with (not having a heart attack) and these amazing views...




After the trek up and down, we headed to a local bar for a bit of beer to wet the whistle. You'll notice this particular theme runs through most of these stories.

Tomorrow I will post about our trek to Brussels, Belgium and our star spotting.