On August 15th Mom and Kayla arrived back in London! Mom had been planning on this trip for quite awhile since I had found out that every 2 years in Brussels, Belgium they create a huge flower carpet in Grand Place (main square in Brussels). Since she loves flowers and it just happened to fall the weekend before her birthday she knew she had to come! Kayla decided this was going to be a sight to see and decided to make the trip as well. Girls week in Brussels and London for Mom's birthday...Why not?
The morning after their arrival, Saturday August 16th, we had to be up bright and early to catch the Eurostar train which was to take us from London St. Pancras station, through the chunnel (under the English Channel) to Belgium. We left our flat at 5:30 AM and the train departed at 6:57 AM. No time for them to rest their jet lag! My friend Amy also was excited to come along for this part of girls weekend and see the flower carpet! Here we are trying to not look too tired before boarding the train...
The train ride was just over 2 hours long. One of my favorite things from when Brian and I had visited Belgium before was the waffles...so we quickly found a waffle truck upon our arrival! They were just as good as I had remembered...
I should mention that Amy and I were feeling pretty good about ourselves since we were able to navigate our way from the Eurostar station onto another train to take us near where we were staying. We then had to find the route to our hotel using no electronic capabilities like we normally do with maps on our phones. Since neither of us have international plans like the guys do we had to do things the old fashion way, look at the maps posted on the sidewalks. We turned around and back tracked a couple times since we didn't have that "blue GPS dot" moving to tell us which direction we were going. But we were excited when we found the hotel! After checking in we set out to explore...
Eventually we headed in the direction of Grand Place where the Flower Carpet was on display to get our first glimpse of it.
It was pretty amazing...
My favorite part was the heart!
After we took what you can imagine was a lot of pictures we decided it was time for some lunch. We dipped into a pizza place right as it started to downpour rain and we sure were glad we got our first pictures of the carpet when we did!
First beers in Belgium! (and wine for Mom)
After lunch the rain had stopped and it was time to finally eat some Belgian chocolate...
Melt in your mouth truffles!
Next stop was the famous Delirium Cafe where the Belgian beer selection is huge, look at all the taps in the picture below to the right.
We got tasting glasses so we could try a few kinds. Mom even tried one called Ruby which is a cherry flavored beer, she said didn't mind since it didn't have a strong beer taste!
Next we set off to Golden Bar... Brian and I had been there on our previous Brussels trip and I found my favorite Belgian beer there, Tripel Karmeliet. Like the waffles this was another thing about Belgium that I couldn't wait for!
You are probably thinking "wow they did a lot of drinking"...yep it's just what you do in Belgium! :)
That night even though we all were pretty tired we were troopers and made it to the 10:00pm light show on the Flower Carpet. We all agreed it was pretty short and they could have done a better job but it was still fun to see and Grand Place is so beautiful at night.
The next morning we started out with more waffles...
You can get them with lots of toppings but they are sweet enough as they are so we preferred the plain with
powdered sugar.
Next it was time to wait in line to go out on the balcony of the Town Hall to get a birds eye view of the Flower Carpet...
It was neat to see some of the rooms inside the Town Hall and there were pretty flower arrangements along the way.
After about a half hour in line it was our turn for the view!
Too big to get in the picture but amazing view from above!
The carpet is made of hundreds of thousands of begonias and is up for 3 days.
The first Flower Carpet was constructed in 1971. Every second year since then a new design has been created and displayed in Grand Place.
This was the 19th Flower Carpet...
We all were glad we traveled there to see it, what a masterpiece!
After lunch we had to say goodbye to Amy, she only could stay one night and had to head back to London to work the next morning. Glad she could come, it was a great time!
After Amy left the rain and wind really picked up. We had some troubles with our umbrellas...
or should I say Mom really did!
So after doing some souvenir and chocolate shopping we decided it was a good time for one last beer flight and some people watching at a great pub with an outdoor seating area (the rain and wind had died down)...
Brussels was a success and after staying our second night there it was time to head back to London the next morning on the train.
Girls Week Part 2: London
Back in London we had 4 1/2 days which were nice and relaxing since this was Mom's third trip here and Kayla's second and we didn't feel to rushed around to do a lot of touristy things. Here are some highlights. Afternoon tea at the Royal Garden Hotel...
Got to choose our teas from the bottles, the 3 below are the ones we decided on. All very yummy!
So fun to be able to have tea with them together this time!
Below is that night at dinner with Brian. Think he was glad we were back in London :)
Another highlight was seeing Tower of London Remembers. This is a memorial going on for the 100 year anniversary of WWI. Handmade clay poppies are being placed in the moat to represent "blood swept lands and seas of red" dedicated to those who lost their lives in the war. It was pretty cool to see.
Volunteer groups were still working on "planting" the poppies and by November the entire moat will be red.
The sun was out so it was nice and warm along the
river and Tower Bridge...
Lunch at the Borough Market...
Friday, August 22nd we started out Mom's Birthday at Lola's Cupcakes for breakfast..what better way then to start your birthday off with cake right away?!
Next we toured Buckingham Palace. I had been last summer but it was Mom and Kayla's first time being able to go in since it's only open for 2 months during the summer when the Queen is on her summer holiday in Scotland. It's pretty impressive inside!
Birthday dinner!
Such a great week with many wonderful memories. So glad these two were able to make the trip!
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