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I'll be back London 🇬🇧✈🇺🇸 #airplane #vscocam

Recap: Last Day in London

This was our last full day in London -- tomorrow we go to airport to fly back to America :( However, it was a really nice day! It started with me going to Liverpool Street to meet up with my friends from Westminster and have breakfast with them at The Breakfast Club. Then, my mom and I met up and took the tube out to where there are little cable cars that go across the river to Greenwich and back. It was cool being on that; you get a great view of London and the river while up there!

After was walked around Greenwich briefly, I went back to Alexander Fleming to meet up with my friends (one last time) and "stalk" a film set that was set up all around the street beside Fleming! They were filming a scene or two of "Legend" starring Tom Hardy!! We stood outside of Fleming watching for anyone famous for probably 4 hours...

Then, I eventually said my good-byes to all of them and met my mom for dinner at The White Lion, in Covent Garden area. We had fish n chips and cider/beer for our last dinner in London.

Tomorrow morning before leaving for the airport we going to try and get to the British Library shortly since it is so close (walking) to the flat we staying in.

I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to America quite yet; the trip has been amazing!!

Recap: London

Today was our first full day back in London and we got a bit of a later start but still managed to have a full day, and see nice things. We started by taking the tube from Euston to London Bridge to go to Borough's Market. While at the market we used all of the free samples we had as our breakfast. We then walked along South Bank to Blackfriars bridge and over the bridge to Fleet street. Here we stopped at a little pub called 'The Tripperary' for chips and a half-pint of strongbow. We then we took the tube to Notting Hill Gate. In Notting Hill we walked down Portobello Road (Market) for a few blocks, then crossed over to where the really cute houses are. We then took the bus to Chelsea to have dinner at The Chelsea's Kitchen; a place we ate at a few times (and really enjoyed) when we were here 2 1/2 years ago!

Recap: Brussels to London

This is our last day in Brussels (Belgium); we head back to London this afternoon. In the morning, we went to the cafe across from our hotel for breakfast then walked to the EU Parliament building to tour it. It was neat to see the meeting area for the EU nations. Afterwards, we walked from there to the Musical Instruments Museum to see the exhibition about Adolphe Sax & the Saxophones. This was really cool to see; they showed how saxophones are made, the evolution of the saxophone and other horns, and displayed other horns that are not too common to see which were really cool! From here we walked back to our hotel to get our luggage, but stopped at a cafe across the EU Parliament building and train station. Once we had our luggage we took the train from Brussels Schuman to Midi train station, to get our train to London. We left Brussels at about 4:56 PM. We arrived back in London around 6:45pm and at our flat a little after 7 PM.

Tonight, for our first dinner back in London, I took my mom to Dishoom. This is an Indian restaurant in Shoreditch that is very good!! It was a lot busier tonight than when I was there before, since it was 9PM on Friday night, but it was still delicious.

Recap: Bruge & Gent

For our second full day in Belgium we took the train out to Bruge for a while then went from Bruge to Gent, and back to Brussels. This was a nice day trip; definitely two places worth going but perhaps it is better to go to Bruge in the off-season so it is not so hectic with the tourist groups. We took a canal boat trip in both cities, but other than that we mostly just walked around to see what's there and look at the wonderful architecture of the old buildings.

Recap: Brussels

Today, we explored Brussels. By 'explored Brussels' I mean we walked from the hotel to the city center then all over the center area then back to the hotel after dinner. I'm not sure what the mileage is but it was determinately a full day of walking. However, I'm not sure why I bothered mentioning the walking here because we've been walking a whole lot of miles and hours in every city we went to!

Anyways, we discovered a very good cafe right across from our hotel; where we ended up going each morning for breakfast. Their Almond croissants are delicious! We walked through a nice park going into (and out of) the city center, and saw a family ducks in the fountain. In the city center, we saw the old buildings that are beautiful, tried the waffles with nutella or Belgium chocolate; the popular street food of Belgium. We also got the walking map for the comic street murals that are all around the city of Brussels and were able to see about 10 of them. For dinner we ate at a place in Grote Markt; I had my pot of mussels which were very good.

Afterwards, we just walked back to our hotel for the night.

Recap: Dresden to Belgium

Today we left Dresden to go to Brussels for a few days. Belgium is the last country we are visiting on this trip. To get there, we took the train from Dresden back to Berlin then went to the airport to fly over to Brussels. We were not at the Berlin train station for very long but we happened to be there at the right time to see the world cup football team go by in their celebration parade!! That was really cool to see :)

We arrived in Brussels around dinner time and checked into our hotel. We went to a pub just down the street for dinner then had cappuccino in the hotel restaurant, after walking around our neighborhood a bit (to see what it's like). The name of the restaurant is Dresdener Troedelkaffee.

Tomorrow starts our Brussels adventure!

Recap: Dresden

On our second full day in Dresden we walked across the bridge to neue markt and stopped at a cafe for a bite to eat and cappuccino. We then walked through that part the city going to Pfunds; a chocolate place with beautiful tiles all over the building. Afterwards, we walked back to the bridge but stopped in a comic store, where I couldn't find any Archie books in German but got what looks like their version of an Archie comic book :) We also stopped in at the same cafe as this morning for a cappuccino, but this time I got a Chili Hot Chocolate which is different from in the USA but very tasty!

For dinner tonight, we ate at a cool little restaurant behind our hotel with a good German menu and tons of little things and pictures all over the restaurant. My bratwurst and sauerkraut here was very good :)

The Shard #london #vscocam

#vscocam #london

Photos may take a bit longer to get through...I have 1000 photos on the memory card currently in the camera and I also have another memory card with the same amount of photos on it (and haven't really gone through either one yet)...that's what 7 hr plane ride back to America is for I guess.

Recap: Berlin to Dresden

We took the train from Berlin to Dresden; which is only about 2 or 2 1/2 hours, i think. When we left the train station in Dresden and were walking to our hotel I could tell it was a nice city, but when we got into the center part and saw all the old building and magnificent architecture I realized how much I was going to like it here! It is hard to describe the feel and look of Dresden in writing (and online) but if you are ever in Germany definitely try to spend at least a day if not a week in Dresden. The buildings are amazing, the culture is cool (you can expect to sit outside at cafes with your drink or food in the evenings). I really did love it there!

Our first day in Dresden, when we arrived, we walked around the old section of Dresden mainly. We saw a palace and a couple buildings attached to the palace that are now museums. Those buildings are all very nice. Afterwords, we walked across the bridge to neue markt (the new section of the city). Over there we walked through a wine festival and then went to a museum with puppets and all kinds of old dolls and toys and things. When we finished there we walked back over to our hotel, to check in and I changed into my Germany football jersey for the big game that was occurring tonight :) When we were ready to go we walked around the section where our hotel was to find a good place to eat dinner and watch the world cup final.

We ended up a place called "Cape Town's; we ate dinner then stayed to watch the game with started at 9PM. By the way, Germany won (beating Argentina to be the World Cup Champions)!! It was so awesome being in Germany for this event; definitely one of the highlights of this awesome trip!!

Recap: Germany Day 2

We started off today with going to the East Side Gallery which was amazing to see. I definitely recommend you going there if you are ever in Berlin; very moving but also interesting. There are many different artists (international) who went and painted (meaningful) pictures & murals on sections of the wall. They are also being protected (or there is an organization working to protect it). We took a while at the wall, but after we finished there we took the U-Bahn to Charlottenburg to see the palace there; which is huge but very nice! We didn't go inside there, we just looked at the outside. So, from there we took the bus and u-bahn over to another section of the city (but near Charlottenburg) to see the KaDeWe department store.

This is said to be the largest department store in Europe, and I have heard about it in my high school German class, so it was really cool to see it in person! It really is huge; I think about 5 or 6 floors filled with all different designer brands, kitchen and living things, etc. From the department store we walked through a little food market with live music to a restaurant called "Marjellchen". This was a really good restaurant; I had a sausage dish that included 3 different types of German sausage, sauerkraut and roasted potatoes. From there we just took the bus back to the East side and went back to our hotel for the night. The next day we left for Dresden!

This is #19 of the 28 comic strip murals around #brussels; called Ric Hochet painted by Tibet. (at rue du Bon Secours 9)

#19 #brussels

Recap: Germany Day 1

Today, we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate and the big dome and some other memorials. We went up to the roof where the dome is and could look over the city of Berlin. Then, we walked through the fan park that was set up for the World Cup; it situated at the Brandenburg Gate along their "parkway". We came out that at a tall monument that we went up to the top of; it had a better view of the city than the dome had. Climbing the monument was basically the same as climbing a lighthouse! Afterwards, we walked back along the "parkway" but through a park for a bit to Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie is where one of the checkpoints was for going through the Berlin Wall. Oh right, along the walk to Checkpoint Charlie we stumbled upon the Sony Center! So we stopped there for a light lunch and looked in the Sony Store...they didn't have any of my camera though, I think because the newer one "A77" is the one they want to sell now. I have the Sony A58 camera :) After Checkpoint Charlie we walked down to where there's still a piece of the wall, but is not the East Side Gallery (as we discovered later this evening). We then just walked back to a German restaurant near our hotel for dinner and called it a night.

🌅 #brussels #vscocam (at Square Ambiorix)

#brussels #vscocam

Just caught the German Fußball Team go by the train station in the celebratory parade! #worldcup14 (at Berlin Hauptbahnhof)

#worldcup14

Recap: Amsterdam to Germany

This Morning we left Amsterdam to catch our Train to Berlin. The train ride to Berlin was about 6 hours, but it sort of went by fast. I organized a brunch of my photos and slept :) Then, finally we got to Berlin, booked a hotel from the train station and got the subway out to Mitte. Once we checked in and relaxed a bit we walked down the street to a restaurant where I had some delicious curry wurst & pommes frites. Tomorrow is when we'll do a lot if sightseeing.

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