blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

  • Home, and other stuff

    Got home yesterday around 1:30pm. The flight was decent. I watched a couple movies and got a 20 minute nap in (nearly a record for me, I can’t really sleep on planes). After getting home and getting unpacked Kelly and I went to the store for some food, made dinner, and then promptly passed out in the living room around 7pm or so (we’d basically been up and at it for 23 hours or so). I was really trying to stay up until 10pm (get back into this time zone as quickly as I could) but oh well. That meant waking up at 5am, fully alert and unable to fall back asleep.

    Today, due to the early rise, I got quite a bit done. All my laundry is done, spent a bit of time adding tags and captions to the photos from the trip. Have a lot more to go through, but it’s a start. Also today I went and picked up the Nitro/CO2 tank I needed, and a keg of Guinness. Finally. Got the kegerator all cleaned and set up, but not tapped yet. The Guinness will go flat in about 2 weeks. Yikes! Apparently the nitro interacts with beer in a bad way. Something CO2 does too, only it takes a keg tapped with CO2 like, 2 or 3 months to flatten the beer. Not two weeks. SO, I’m not sure when I’m going to tap it. I might do it tomorrow, making Friday the 13th of June a really scary day.

    At Moon & Sixpence right now, waiting for my brother T (and maybe my other brother C) to show up. Gonna have a few pints and a meal with him before going home and probably dozing off early-ish again tonight. Stupid jetlag.

  • Last night in Amsterdam, home tomorrow

    It’s late here in Amsterdam on our last night. Getting up early tomorrow morning to fly home. Had a great time in Amsterdam.

    Yesterday we visited a few churches, the former location of a nunnery, and went to Rembrandt Huis, the former home of Rembrandt for many years here in Amsterdam. The weather was odd, starting off rainy, and after a short afternoon nap at the hotel, ended up sunny and beautiful.

    Today we went to the Rijksmuseum, where we got to see paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer among other Dutch artists. It’s an amazing museum, and had been remodeled since our visit in 2001. Afterwards we walked through Vondelpark for a bit, before sitting at a restaurant in Leidseplein for some lunch. After a brief stop at the hotel in the afternoon we ventured out for dinner, and later ended up at this great pub called In de Wildeman, which was a beer cafe on the site of a former distillery that operated for over 250 years, and had been a beer cafe for the past 23 years. There were 17 beers on tap (from all over the world, though mostly focusing on northern Europe) and 200 bottled beers. While there we met a really funny and quirky expat Englishman who’d been living in Amsterdam for the past 12 years. We had a lot of fun chatting with him until we just had to get back to the hotel. We need to get up at 6:30am here, get packed, get breakfast, and be at the airport at 8:30am. It’s been a really good trip, and while I’m not looking forward to going home, at the same time, I am. You probably know the feeling.

    Might blog before the flight, but probably not. Might when I get home, if I’m up to it and if there’s anything to say. In the meantime, there’s loads of photos in the gallery (and some being uploaded as I write this). Enjoy!

  • In Amsterdam

    Two and a half hours on the train and we’re now in our hotel in Amsterdam. It’s a bit rainy today, which kinda sucks, but it’s just as charming as I remember it, and we’re in a decent hotel that’s only about a 10 minute walk from the train station (and right along a canal, though we don’t have a direct canal view, sadly). Just got done unpacking and now we’ll probably head out to brave the elements and explore the area around our hotel. Yay for Amsterdam! I already have a feeling that it will be a welcome rest after Brussels. Oh, the front desk of our hotel are very friendly, and lightheartedly poked fun after learning we’re not Dutch, even though we have a Dutch last name (saying how they were about to throw flowers and sing praises that a Dutch person was staying in their hotel). 🙂

  • Brussels, and off to Amsterdam

    It’s been an interesting few days here in Brussels. A couple days ago we took the metro out and visited the amazing Atomium. It was very impressive to see (and go inside of). Looking at it from a distance makes it look like it couldn’t possibly be real, and that it’s some kind of special effect. But it’s not, it’s big. And shiny. Yesterday we went to two museums, the Musical Instrument Museum (which is in a great old building, the ‘Old England’) where we wandered around 5 different floors with big headphones that would key into radio frequency spots in front of different instruments from around the globe. Some of my favorites to hear were from India, Turkey, and Eastern Europe. After that, we visited the Musee d’Art Ancien, where we got to see loads of old Flemmish paintings (including Bosch, one of my favorites). Last night we went out for a nice dinner near the crazy chaos of the Jazz Festival at the Grande Place, and then went back towards the area near our hotel. We got a spot under some table umbrellas at just the right time, as it started pouring down rain last night (first rain on the trip). Hope it doesn’t stick around. We’re off to Amsterdam today (like, in a couple hours). We’ve had fun in Brussels, but I’m looking forward to a change of pace.

  • In Brussels (Parlez-Vouz Anglais?)

    Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Brussels, and what a shocker it was. Bruges was so picturesque and charming, and Brussels… well… isn’t. At least, when we first arrived and walked from the train station to our hotel, my reaction was “hmm, perhaps we should have stayed in Bruges”. Being a big city, there is graffiti everywhere, traffic noise, and hurried people everywhere. A pretty big change after coming from calm and relaxing Bruges. My mood worsened when we rounded the corner to our hotel to find that there was massive street construction underway right in front of it. Ugh.

    Our hotel however is very nice, and our room is very large and comfortable (and we were given a room as far away from the construction noise as possible). After spending an hour or two unpacking and settling in,  we set out to explore our neighborhood (in a shopping and cafe-filled area known as le Sablon) and found that it was nicer than it looked at first. The large church nearby was under renovation (in a big way, most of it was blocked off with a plywood wall) but we continued to walk around and found a great view over the city. Later at night we walked to both the Manneken Pis (funny little statue, I’ve nicknamed him ‘pee boy’) and Grande Place. The latter quite a few of the historic buildings covered in scaffolding and tarps for renovation work. The Grande Place has one additional eyesore marring it’s historic beauty… a temporary stage has been erected for some Jazz Festival happening here for the next 3 days. Hrmph!

    One additional note about Brussels: Know some French (or bring a phrase book). All of the guide books and travel documentaries on the city has said that English is widely spoken here, and it is fine to speak English to everyone you meet. So far we’ve run into several servers, bartenders and shopkeepers (even some of the staff at our hotel) who don’t speak much (if any) English. We’ve found our limited grasp of the French language invaluable here, and without it getting by could be a bigger challenge. Oui!

  • Leaving beautiful Bruges

    Well, we’ve spent the past couple days in Bruges, and it’s a wonderful city. It’s small enough to walk the entire center (only about a mile wide, and about 2 miles long), but packed with history. We took a canal boat ride, which while a touristy thing to do, was a lot of fun. We also climbed the 366 steps to the top of the belfry of the Halles (the historic town hall & treasury building in the Markt, or central square). We visited a few of the large churches and cathedrals, and visited one of the galleries that housed a lot of historic artifacts and paintings from Bruges (no photos allowed, drats). Last night Kelly and I had a great night at ‘beer heaven’, ‘t Brugs Beertje (somewhere around 300 Belgian beers, 6 on tap, the rest in bottles). We’d stopped in there a couple times already, but after dinner we went there and stayed longer than we thought we would, talking to a local guy named Justin who’s studying to teach primary school (elementary). Had a blast. And a lot of beers. 🙂

    Bruges is beautiful, and old, and the people are friendly and the whole place is very relaxing. I wish I could spend another day or two here, but today we’re off to Brussels. In fact, time to finish packing and get us to the train station!

    As before, photos are in the gallery, though I’m about a day behind… it takes a while to upload them from the wifi at the hotel and I’m only uploading them once in a while. Hope to get caught up shortly.

  • In Bruges

    After a LONG day of travel, we’ve made it to our hotel in Bruges, Belgium.

    The flight leaving PDX was delayed on the tarmac due to some break heating issue, so we sat on the plan for about an additional hour before leaving on our 9 hour 30 minute flight. Once in Amsterdam, we caught a train to the main train station in Amsterdam where we figured out what tickets to buy and what platform to go to for Bruges. The train ride was about 4 hours to Bruges, stopping to transfer at the amazing station at Antwerp (it was a 4 or 5 story train station, with different platforms on different levels, all of which could be seen from an open center.

    After we arrived in Bruges, we caught a bus into the center of town (the Markt) and it is incredible. The square is just lovely. We walked through the medieval streets and made it to our hotel with ease. We’re now going to muster whatever energy we have left and go out for dinner and some beers. Very tired, didn’t sleep much on the plane and dozed off here and there on the train but haven’t gotten much solid sleep. It will probably be an early night. 🙂

    Photos are in the gallery.

  • Up, up and away

    At the airport. Boarding is about to begin. Thank you M for the ride to the airport, it saved us the mess of mass transit during the May heat wave. Flight leaves at 4pm… then it’s 10 hours to Amsterdam, and then another 5 or 6 hours of train rides until we reach Bruges. More to come, hopefully late tomorrow.

  • Shows, movies, The Goose, and more travels

    Since the last recap, Kelly and I got caught up on Lost and Battlestar Galactica (both of which were really good episodes, after waiting through some ‘filler’ episodes recently), and we went to see two movies, Iron Man and In Bruges.

    Iron Man was really fantastic. I’d heard good things, but wasn’t expecting it to be quite as good as it was. Not only was it a fantastic comic book film, but it also was a good movie all around. A great mixture of humor, action, romantic scenes, and all around good acting and a fun story. Gorn says “yessss”.

    Later that same day (last Sunday) Kelly and I went to Kennedy School to see In Bruges with M & B (who will be watching over our furry black evil, otherwise known as Arthur Guinness, while we’re gone). The movie was great fun. Not only was the setting something which Kelly and I were keenly observing, but the story was fun and the acting was great. Even Colin Farrell, whom I don’t generally like, was likable and hilarious. I couldn’t help but thinking through the entire film “in 7 days from we’ll be there”

    Tonight brother T and I went to The Goose (Goose Hollow Inn) for some beers and dinner after work. There really isn’t much better than their reuben sandwich. Yum!

    Kelly’s in Chicago at the moment. She had to get up around 4am this morning to fly out with a coworker for a work event, and returns tomorrow afternoon. Then, we pack and get ready, and fly out on Saturday about mid-day. Really looking forward to the trip.

  • An update-y thingy

    Since my last post of randomness, a few things have happened… most importantly, Kelly had her graduation for her MBA last weekend. The ceremony wasn’t too long, a little over an hour, however due to the order of events, and our shared last name, Kelly was nearly the last person to get presented with her degree. My mom came into town and sat in the bleachers at Concordia University with me, so it wasn’t just me hooting and hollering when her name was announced, though I’m sure she didn’t hear it. 🙂

    Afterwards we briefly went to the ‘cake and coffee’ event before returning home. We had some friends and family over to celebrate, a bit of a last minute BBQ thing. Had really good time. And congrats (again) Kelly!

    Today we went out to my folks place to celebrate an early Mother’s Day with a late lunch of sandwiches and salads. It was really nice, and there were three generations of mothers there; my grandma, my mom, and my sis-in-law (with my nephew ‘Bart‘, who’s growing insanely fast). My brothers and I spent some time wandering around the wooded three acres where we spent nearly all of our youth running around. We visited the former location of our old tree house (a three-story behemoth that we spent several summers stealing dad’s lumber to construct, which was sadly destroyed during intense wind storms last year) making our way through the now-overgrown paths, and realizing how different the property is now, partly due to some light cedar logging my dad did a few years ago, and partly due to the aforementioned wind storms. It was a nice day too, the weather which threatened rain remained fairly warm and rain-free.

    Aside from that, it’s been a few weeks of intense work, and the usual going out to pubs with Snooks and my brother T for after-work beers.

    Oh, and about one week from now we’ll probably be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Europe. Looking forward to the trip, but the amount of work I have to try and complete between now and then is daunting. Must keep focused on all the beer that awaits me in Belgium. Mmmmm… beer.