I met up with Ben and Josh and we wandered into the main square, which had some quite impressive buildings. After all the days of partying we decided that we'd watch the new batman film that night (all the films shown at the main cinema were in English strangely enough!). On the way over there we saw a huge crowd of people and some camera men....it turned out that they were protesting about immigration laws. The next thing we knew, there were loads of guys climbing up a huge crane - with everyone spurring them on! When I left two days later the guys were still camped out on the crane!
The next day we wandered around the city and saw some nice parks, museums, churches and the headquarters of the EU, which was wholly un-impressive. One thing that was quite cool though is that every so often you see buildings with one wall whitewashed and a funky cartoon painted on the side!
However, it was the last night that really made Brussels memorable. We managed to track down the location of a bar with the world record for the most number of beers available - a staggering 2004 different kinds of beer!!! We felt like kids as we read the 2 inch thick menu! Another cool thing was the funky beer glasses. Myself and Josh started off with a 1 litre boot shaped glass, then moved on to Kwak beer, served in a mini yard-of-ale type glass which you had to drink using its wooden stand. Next it was cherry beer, followed by horse ale for me, before the daddy of them all - the 2 litre glass of beer! Now you have to remember that two litres is already almost 4 imperial pints, but when you're drinking beer with 9.5% alcohol content that becomes the equivalent of about 8 pints of carling!!! Great fun was had by all!
The next day it was off to Paris on the high speed train. By now I was practically dead but a sleep on the train gave me a bit of strength to carry on! After arriving in Paris I visited the Notre Dame Church, which is spectacular inside and has some great stained-glass windows. I then walked towards the Louvre and through the gardens that surround it. Next it was the long (very long) walk to the Arc di Triomphe, which took me through a busy shopping street before I finally made it over. When I finally reached the Arch, I didn't know how to get to it, as it is in the middle of one of the busiest roundabouts in Europe! Finally I found the way, under the ground, and had a look around the Arch. There is the "body of an un-named soldier", a statue commemorating all that died in the war, as well as some pretty neat carving on the Arch.
The next day I got up early and headed over to the Louvre. As advised by many people I'd met, the first thing I went to see was Lianado da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Even at 9am there was a huge scrum of people pushing to take pictures of the picture...I'm just glad I wasn't there at 1pm! Was great to see it though and it is quite mesmerizing in real life...
After about eight hours in the Louvre I had probably only seen half of it but my dedication to art was waining and I'd seen pretty much everything I wanted to see so I hot-footed it out of there. Highlights included the Mona Lisa, Napoleon's Apartments, the Roman Sculptures and the Italian paintings. By then Josh and Ben had arrived from Brussels so we met up and headed for the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at about 9ish - just in time to see it in daylight and then see the sun go down and the lights go on. We were all rather surprised to find that its a brown-ish colour, not steel coloured, and also that there are big EU stars on the front! We chilled out in the gardens next to the tower with people from all over the world and watched the blue lights get more intense as the light faded. At 10pm millions of little lights started flickering on and off, giving the effect that the tower was sparkling - it looked amazing! At about 11pm we climbed the stairs to the first and then second viewing areas. The view over Paris at night was great and it felt like we were on top of the world.
That was a great way to end my trip! I jumped on the Eurostar at a ridiculous hour the next morning and was back in London by 10am. My two months in Europe were fantastic and I hope you enjoyed reading about them. See ya next time I jet off to some exotic place!!
Berlin: The ceiling of the Sony Centre in Berlin, a HUGE modern building
The memorial to all the Jews that were exterminated by Hitler
The Brandenburg Gate
Not just any posh hotel - the one Michael Jackson dangled his baby from!
The Jewish memorial again....
It was rather odd walking through it - you never knew when someone would come from the side passages!
The Berlin Wall
Checkpoint Charlie - One of the only places that people could cross from East Germany to West (if they had the right papers)
A WW2 related monument
A big cathedral (whose name I can't remember!)
We also came across a random sand castle competition on the way to the station!!!
Amsterdam: The first coffeshop we came across!
Left to right: Keegan, Paul, Katura and Erica
An anonymous sculpture placed in the red light district in Amsterdam!
The thinnest building in Amsterdam - this building is ONLY 180cm WIDE!!!
Beautiful weather in Amsterdam, lucky!
A rather interesting condom shop!
Brussels: The first of the building paintings!
The big tower in the main square
Another painted wall
While wandering around we came across a HUGE cloths peg! why? who cares!
More building painting
The main cathedral, another baroque effort with lovely stained glass windows
Again, painting...
The EU HQ (we think! if not it was something pretty damn EU related!)
This painting had the shadow of the tree in front of the building!
And again...
The protesters that scaled the crane! I wonder if those guys are still up there!
The legendary Delerium Cafe!!
Myself and Josh, sampling a good ol' litre boot of beer!
The menu was this thick!
Boots down, whats next?!
Kwak Beer
You had to drink it out the strange wooden holders!
The DADDY - a massive TWO LITRES (approx. 4 pints) of beer, in one handy glass!
One of the stranger ones - Horse Ale
Paris: Notre Dame Cathedral
The entrance
Lovely stained glass windows
An arch near the Louvre
An obelisk near the Louvre!
The Arc di Triomphe
Notre Dame Cathedral again from a different angle
After fly-kicking my way through the crowds I finally got close enough to take a picture of The Mona Lisa!
