It was early September that I was scrolling facebook and saw an ad for flights to Europe for a pretty decent fare. Having no annual cold weather trip planned this year, and the prospect of fulfilling a 3 year belated honeymoon trip promise (now with baby in tow, if that still counts?) the idea got in my head a bit, and a bit more, and I started researching more than I should have been working. After some looking, we found a return ticket to Paris on Air China, for a very good price I thought. We had some idea what to expect (you get what you pay for), and it did get us there and back safely, but in hindsight, I might have spent a bit more on another ticket. Think pretty horrible food and long layovers in Beijing airport, known as the world’s best airport by no human ever.)
Anyway, near the end of October the wifey and our 15 month old tornado of smiles, Kela, were on a flight bound for Paris. It was their first time in Europe, and had been 12 years since I was there last, so I was really looking forward to being on a different continent too.
Our plan was to visit 5 countries: France, Belgium, Holland, Czech Republic and Italy in 2 weeks. A little ambitious perhaps, but I wanted to make the most of flying across the world, knowing it could be a while before we were able to come again. In the end, it was a lot of moving, but worked out pretty perfectly we thought.
We landed in Paris and spent the first few days there, seeing the sights and getting into the Europe vibe (and prices!) Next, we jumped on a train to Brussels, Belgium where we visited and stayed with old friends from Vietnam for the weekend (so much great food and beer!)
With me everywhere we went, was my very very favorite camera I’ve ever owned, the Fuji X100F, a lightning fast and silent light capturing machine! Beyond capturing nice family memories (I’ll spare you the multitude of those here) and purposely shooting a bit different than I do for work or fun in Asia, (partly for cultural reasons and partly for most of the time spent chasing the baby around reasons) I was more intrigued by the architecture, colors, light and lines I found as we were out and about.
That’s were this blog series comes in! Some 6 weeks later, I’ve finally got around to getting them edited and ready to share, and am pleased to present the first of 3 here.
Below are a few of my favorite snaps from Paris, Brussels and Bruges. I hope you enjoy, and stay tuned for the next installment coming very soon.
After a great few days in Paris, we boarded a Friday afternoon express train (300km/hr!) to Brussels to stay with old friends from Vietnam for the weekend. This was the one country on this trip I had not been before, so I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but upon arrival was pretty pleasantly surprised. We found a very walkable and affordable city where the food was great (Belgian fries and mayo aplenty!) and the beers were half the price and twice as strong as Paris, and coming in countless varieties. I did my best to work through the menu whenever I could!
We only had a short time there, from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, but we packed in as much as we could. Checking out the Atomium and Mini Europe on a Saturday afternoon (for Kela’s photos, but I secretly kinda wanted to go too) capped by an awesome picnic in the park. Then a Sunday train trip to Bruges, bookended by one last dinner at home with friends, and next thing we knew it was Monday morning, they were out the door for work and we were on our way to the train station bound for Amsterdam. Short but sweet, as were a few of our stops on this trip, with heavy emphasis on the sweet…
The next installment with images from Amsterdam & Prague will be coming very soon. Stay tuned!
