Summer is Over

August has been a great month for us here. Everyone in Europe seems to take Holiday in August, so for starters, driving back and forth from work is a breeze.

This month Pam, Alex, Austin and I took a trip to Spain. It was our summer sun and fun getaway. We visited a small costal city in Spain, Salou. You can find out more about Salou here : Salou Spain. It was fun. None of us had spent any time in the Med before - so it was a first for all of us. The sun was warm, the water was clear and the sand was fine. We all got a bit of our color back and spent a week in the Sun. While we were in Spain we did a bit of sight seeing too. We visited 3 cities along the cost.

First was Barcelona. Actually, I had some work to do so I visited our offices there - but we all got a chance to see a bit of the city. The first big event was a visit to the Football stadium of FC-Barcelona. It was neat. We got a tour of the entire stadium, walked through a great museum and picked up some official gear in the gift shop. This was Austin’s destination of choice. I’d say we spent a few hours there. Next we spent some time in the Gothic part of the City. Really - we were spending time on the L3 metro line - going back and forth - but we got to see a bit of the city along the way. We had planned a bike tour - but our train arrived late and we missed the departure time... Maybe next time.

Our second tour spot was the city of Tarragona. If you don’t know, this little city is now the home to one of the growing list of “Wonders of the World”. You can see some of the photos and information here Tarragona. Lots of stuff from 200 A.D. and a fun little town to walk around in and site see.

The rest of the week was spent to and from the beach, which was only a walk of 500 M or so away. And we spent two evenings in an Amusement Park nearby. We did not rent a car so we traveled by train or bus the entire week. This worked out well, actually. The water off the Beach of Salou is warm and shallow and is all sand. This makes swimming great. The sun was out almost every day and the city “rented” sun chairs that made bathing in the sun an easy chore. The kids also got their first taste of “European Sun bathing” habits. We were not sure how they would handle it - but after day 1 - it was not even given a second thought. Well, not given a second comment, I’m sure there were more than a few thoughts :)

Time tables are different is Spain. Dinner never started before 20:00 and on a few nights we were finishing up dinner past mid-night. That’s just how it is there. The food there was OK and the drinks and night time parties are the specialty of the area. All in all it was a good week and I think everyone enjoyed just being in the sun again.

During the last weekend of August we took a weekend trip to London. It was a great, quick, trip. We left Brussels on Friday evening and took the EuroStar to London. If you don’t know, the train is a great way to get around Europe. It’s painless, it’s convenient and it is much more relaxing than dealing with the airlines here. We arrived Friday night, got checked into our hotel and stepped out for some dinner. The next day was a back to back agenda of things to do and see in London.

Saturday began with a short walk to Buckingham Palace. We arrived in time to see the Changing of the Guard and mingled with the hundreds of people who were there to watch the event. I was amazed at how many people showed up for this. It’s almost ridiculous, that something so routine in frequency draws so many people. Perhaps it was just a weekend draw, perhaps because it was a Holiday weekend in the UK, but I would suggest you arrive early. We had great “seats” and got to observe the tradition from the left flank of the Palace.

From there we took a short walk down to the River and headed to the London Eye. It was a great way to see the city from on high. The ride lasts ~20 minutes and you get a great 360 degree view of London. After the ride we were off to do some more sight seeing and time to get acquainted with the London Underground; a really well done Subway system. We were attempting to see some of the sights as we made our way back across town to do some shopping at Harrods. As usual we had forgotten to pack some item or another and it made for a great excuse to spend some time (and money) fueling the local economy.

We ended the day by preparing for “the show”. Pam secured tickets for a viewing of “The Mouse Trap”. We got everyone dressed to a respectable level and headed to the theater district / SOHO and we off in a cab by 6:30 pm. The show was good fun. It was something we all could enjoy and it turns out is one of the longest running performances in London. It was a neat little “who done it” and the cast put on a really good show. I’m not at all a fan of Theater - but I enjoyed this quite a bit. Pam and the kids did too. After the show we wandered around the area a bit and settled in for a late dinner. Saturday was drawing to an end ~ midnight and it was a good thing. I think we all were ready to drop, it was a busy day.

Sunday was our last full day and we spent time, again, taking in the basics. Green Park, Hyde Park, the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, more London Underground travel and a great stop off to visit the HMS Belfast. If you have kids - they will love the Belfast. It’s a tour at your own pace, rummage around an old Navy ship, very well furnished museum. You can get a great sense of what it must have been like to serve on her and you get a good dose of moving about a ship as it might have been when she was in service. Up ladders, down ladders over bulk head doors, through small cramped spaces, all while you can feel the deck moving below you to the “wake” of the river. We did a ton of walking on Sunday and ended with our last stop at a local book store just off Piccadilly Circus. Alex was in heaven, it was 7 floors of books, books and more books.

We needed to head back to St Pancras station for our train ride home and walked back to the Hotel to collect our things. All was going well - until we realized we had mis-read our itinerary. We showed up at the train station at almost the exact time our train departed... Oops. Luckily there was room on the next train and we were headed back to Brussels only 1 short hour later.
It’s back to school for Alex and Austin now - and I suspect back to a bit of normal life for us. We have loads of pictures from the last few months and I will post them once I get time to get them organized and uploaded. Look for them in our next update to the blog. In the mean time - here is wishing that you had as much fun this summer as we have had. It was a great first summer here in Europe for us and we are looking forward to our first Fall and a change of seasons that most of us (Alex and Austin) have not really experienced before...