In Bruges

These are views from our hotel in Bruges.  This is a fantastic city.  It is exactly the type of European city we were hoping to find on our adventure.

 
After a morning blog we hit the streets to take in the sites.

 
We had strong Belgium beer at lunch (7% alcohol).  Jen combined the beer with some mystery decongestant pills she bought from the apothecary on the high street.  I love that Jen threw caution to the Belgium wind to take unidentified pills on the word of a Bruges-ian who spoke broken English.

Later in the day, Jen shopped and I went to a cigar bar.  The cigar bar in Bruges packed us smokers in a little glass room.  On the left of me was a young couple enjoying lattes and cigarettes.  On the right was the dude above drinking coffee and smoking his pipe while his mother worked on a sudoku.  I love the menagerie that the cigar bar brings together.

 
This shop sold headdresses, which Jen had to try out.  There was a bunch of them in the shop, which makes you wonder about the market demand. If they didn't cost 200 euro a pop I would have bought one for Mother Entwistle.

The picture to the right is me skewing our frog leg appetizer at lunch.  Yes, they tasted like chicken.  No, they are not worth the effort of eating around the little bones.

Beautiful Bruges

Vomit on a side road.  No, it was not us.  The UK has pre pared us well for the strong Belgian beer.

Jen was very excited to be in the land of waffles!

Taking Our Anniversary On The Road

Friday was lucky #13 for us so we decided to get away for the weekend to Bruges, Belgium.  It looks so close on the map.  It sounded so easy on paper.  And yet, it took about 6 and a half hours from door to door.  Part of the problem was that we got to Heathrow two hours early for a 45 minute flight.  How to fill the time....shoe shine!!

This was my first show shine!  He did an excellent job and entertained us with stories.  I was disappointed that he didn't bite down on the pound coin, though. (I'm assuming everyone reading this blog is old enough to remember Underdog?)

The hotel is fab!!  Our room is down it's own corridor so very quiet.  It has a comfy sitting area with a big screen tv and dvd player.  Petey settled in right away.

We found a place for dinner right off the market square.  We were drawn to the open flame like moths to an open flame.  We were drawn to the Belgian beer like slugs drawn to beer.  We're looking forward to seeing Bruges in the daylight and boosting its economy with our hard earned euros.

(Fletch - we are in another country for real.  This is not a photoshop trick)

M and Q bond on stage in London

What would happen if the real life inspiration for Alice in Wonderland met the real life inspiration for Peter Pan?  Judi Dench (Alice) and Ben Whishaw (Peter) meet in the back room before some sort of speaking event (the set you see behind us) and then, as they each tell their stories we drift into Neverland and down the rabbit hole.

We bought the tickets so long ago that I forgot we were in the second row.  As Bill said when we were leaving, "If we were in the back row we wouldn't have see all that acting!"  We saw the spittle fly as the actors annunciated.  We saw Ben's teary eyes and each line on Judi's face.  Of course we couldn't take any pics until the final bows and most of those came out a bit blurry - these are the best of the lot.

Christin - this one's for you....do you know who played the storybook Alice??  (You won't from my crap picture so I'll have to tell you)  That's Ruby Bentall also known as Minnie from Larkrise!!! Next to her is Nicholas Farrell from many British shows and movies but I always remember him from Chariots of Fire. 

Unfortunately I'm battling a head cold so hopefully they were not backstage last night talking about the girl with the runny nose in the second row.  This was a quiet, talky play without a lot of opportunities for discreet nose blowing.  

Caption Suggestions Anyone?

Lesson learned

Jen and Bill find out the hard way that hunting dogs are attracted to doody heads.

Never too old to get a package from Mom

I received a care package from my Mom today.  The first time she shipped me a package it cost a lot and it was stuff I could have picked up from her when I went home.  Then she shipped me newspaper articles but it was stuff I had read on the internet weeks before.  But this time she got it just right.  The package included articles on my high school, Danvers, winning big hockey and basketball playoff games.  She included articles on the kids high school, Ipswich, and their sports teams.  There were articles on the damage the recent storms have done to Plum Island.  Mom even included an article on recent tax changes, some political cartoons and several crossword puzzles.

She hit a home run this package, but the aforementioned enclosures pale in comparison to my note telling me how much my Mom misses us.

London Sunday

Back on the train Sunday morning with our tea. Grey and raw weather - a good day for a matinee.  We have finally learned that you have to book movies in advance so we have tickets to see The Paperboy.

Brunch on Brick Lane in a french restaurant that I read about on one of my regular blogs.  It took me a minute to figure out that this yellow thing on the wall in the bathroom was soap!

Lots to look at in this little space.  Beautiful tiles on the wall behind the bar, fake birds in cages around the lights, many people speaking french...and the food was delicious but we decided not to post a picture of it. 

The movie theater in Shoreditch is also a gallery, a cafe and live music venue.  On Sunday they had a space for people to doodle on the walls.  Bill doodled a picture of Diane and the monkeys sitting under an apple tree.

Homeward bound....already looking forward to next weekend....

Our Day with Chris

We spent Saturday with Chris in London.  It was a cold snowy day so we met at the John Soanes museum.  (The irony of that statement is that we were late and Chris had to wait in line in the snow.  When we arrived we were already branded by his fellow line mates as the inconsiderate Americans...)
Anyway, Soanes was an architect and a collector.  The museum is his house filled with art and antiquities.  No photos allowed so I have no idea how we got these two....

Lunch at The Queen's Larder.  I was appropriately dressed in the Queen's sweater - I knew Chris would appreciate  my Petey-wear.

Next stop - the British Museum.  We just hit a few highlights - the Elgin Marbles, the Lewis Chessmen, the Rosetta Stone.  Photos were allowed although we only took them of ourselves.

 It was sad to say goodbye to Chris on the Picadilly line.  Bill and I drowned our sorrows in meat and cheese at one of our favorites in Soho - - I'm really not that into eating meat but we seem to keep going to places that are really keen on connecting the food on your plate with it's animal origin.  (Note the leg of beast in the last photo - hoof and all!)

Friday night - and we're off the couch!

On our way into London for a rare Friday night out.

Jennie looking posh in her new hat. 

 We met up with Chris, a good friend from Boston.  We told quite a few non-repeatable stories and some that, quite frankly, shouldn't have been said over dinner.  The couple next to us should have asked for a refund, as they were forced to overhear stories about poo, etc.

Weary, we head back to Eton.  I look weary, at least.  Jennie is always up for a photo shoot.

Hard at Work or Hardly Working?

Here is a game for our readers....they say "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have."  What job do you think Bill is going for??

Didi - notice the calendar over his shoulder?  There is a picture of one of our nights out.  Bill seems to have gotten the office with the post in it (= undesirable?) but at least he got a window.  He's tried to make the office his own with a nice framed bug on the wall.  Do you think the UK knew what they were getting when they imported this executive?