Brugge Belgium

We took a short weekend trip to Brugge, Belgium. It was a great little city, we had fun exploring. The town has canals that were used to bring goods into the city from the sea. Now the canals are just used for tourists.

The yellow fields were all over on our drive, I just couldn't get enough
The drive was kind of buggy
Entering Belgium (from Luxembourg, where they speak Luxembourgish)

Before our ascent up the tower

The main square from the top of the tower

Inside a big fireplace in a mansion that has been turned into a museum-probably shouldn't have been standing on and touching the artifacts-oh well.

A canal and a tourist boat

At our hotel-we had to pass through the first-and-a-half-floor.

As you can read on the sign this store was named the "Bier Temple" Belgium is known for their beer, Jake said it was scrumptious !

The main square and the tower, we climbed all 300 and some steps to the top although Jake is sure there were at least a thousand

The BEST chocolate shop-they had creme brulee caramel in a dark chocolate shell

Another chocolate shop (first runner-up) that sells fried onion chocolate. Didn't try this although the Cuban cigar chocolate went down really smooth.

We toured the local brewery which included a free glass of unfiltered blonde ale-unless you are pregnant, in which case you only got a soda and a tiny sip of your husband's wonderful beer.

The canal and a boat

The Next Generation

Seems God has chosen Landstuhl Germany as the debut city for the newest Foley-Nyman. The development team is 12 weeks into production and everything seems to be coming along according to divine plan. As the production assistants, we have decided to leave the unvieling of the gender until November 2 (or there about) when the new model is expected to make his or her grand entrance. Enjoy the following concept pictures and video.
(If you are so talented to be able to decipher ultrasounds PLEASE DO NOT REVEAL THE GENDER TO US, thanks, Pam and Jake)

Florence, Pisa & Sienna, Italy

A look over the city of Sienna. This is where the newest James Bond movie opening was filmed.

This really is a massive cathedral.

That gold ball at the top of the dome is supposedly around 8 meters (close to 30 feet) tall.

The Dom in Florence.

Pam and her mom going into a shop in Florence.

The backside of the Dom in Florence

The main river going through the city of Florence.

Looking over Florence from the top of the Dom.

That thing is really leaning!

Stavelot, Belgium

Pam found this great little festival for us to go to in Belgium. So we rented a van, packed up a bunch of friends and drove the 2 1/2 hours to Belgium. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. After a chilly morning and a slow start to the festival, it quickly got going and we couldn't believe everything that was happening all at once. See below for more explanation.

All of us at the Stavelot festival!

The crazy outfits of the Stavelot festival

I want a bike like that!

Mmm... Pizza!

They're even feeding pizza to the people in the peanut gallery! How cool!

A few hundred years ago, in protest to the Monarchy ruling the area, the townsmen would get one day a year to revolt against the leadership without getting into trouble. To further hide their identities, the townmen would wear a mask, white cape and use a carrot for their nose to avoid punishment for doing crazy things. Today, it's all fun and games, no more Monarchy. But they still put up funny signs all over town making fun of government leaders and such.

One of the many crazy outfits in the Stavelot parade.

A band walking down main street to start the parade.

Our friend Jana got sucked in... of course they speak French in Belgium so she had no idea what they were saying or wanting her to do.

The drunk transvestite enjoying the party!

This pizza wagon was cooking pizza's during the parade. It was the coolest interactive parade I've ever been to.

A few parade participants.

Hangin' with Aaron on Main street before the parade.

The crowd on main street.

Now that is a serious amount of confetti!

The Stevelot Festival Poster

The party dress - CHECK ...the snack grill - CHECK. Now if I could only find some beer. Oh wait, it's only 10am... oh well!

Aaron Visits...

My buddy Aaron, who I went to high school with, flew to Germany to do a little traveling. It was a great - blast from the past - moment to spend more than a week with Aaron. We laughed, reminisced and gave each other a hard time. It was fun!

We ended up going to Wurzburg, Speyer, Kaiserslautern, Belgium and Köln (aka Cologne). Here are a few pics during Aaron's visit.A beautiful church on the hill in Kaiserslautern.

The castle at Wurzburg.

Overlooking Wurzburg.

Wurzburg (that is me out there)

Getting ready for our trip to Burg Nanstein in Landstuhl

The Palace at Wurzburg.

The Castle ruins in Kaiserstlautern.

WWII momument in Kaiserslautern.

A rolling top of sorts... it actually wasn't very hard to push at all.

A really cool looking building in the main square of Speyer

The Koln, Germany sewer grate.

A statue in the front of the residence in Wurzburg, Germany

A signpost in Kaiserslautern, Germany

The fortress wall of Nanstein Castle in Landstuhl, Germany.

A statue in the courtyard of the Castle in Wurzburg, Germany.

The gardens at the residence in Wurzburg.

The ruins of a small castle outside of Kaiserslautern.

The sewer grate in Kaiserslautern.