Where in the world are Diep and Julee? Day 4

Can you tell by looking at this photo of Julee?



Another hint, look at the photo of Diep!

Frites, frites, frites,.....and more frites!!

Okay, Diep had her turn at updating the blog and now it's mine!

Diep's recollection of our arrival here is pretty accurate...with just a few bits of info left out....

a) She arrived at the departure gate 3 hours before the flight took off. She was ready to go!!

b) While Julee couldn't figure out how to turn off the faucet in the airplane bathroom, Diep grappled with the finer points of putting down the tray behind the seat......and she's in charge of security :-)

c) Diep refuses to change the time on her watch and so Julee who has no watch has to wait for Diep to look at her watch and add 6 hours to the time just to know what time it is!

d) Diep loves malted balls......ooooooh, malted balls. She loves them so much, she even hugged the vending machine at the train station. See pic to the left.

e) Diep loves frites.....oh she loves frites. Frites, frites, frites.

Finally in Brussels!

Greetings from Brussels :).

We almost got delayed at Dulles because Diep's boarding pass jammed up the reader as we were getting ready to board. Now, what a way to start the trip! They made her step aside while they were trying to fix the machine, with all the passengers (aka Julie) behind getting upset.

Since Julee was the tallest of the two (grin), she sat on the aisle seat to help out with getting the bags in the overhead bin. Lo and behold, Diep's bag weighed a ton (thank you DIT for chosing IBMs), so it took a while to get Julee to put the bag in the overhead bin. Finally, the exhausted Julee managed to put the bag away, when she heard a small voice next to her: "Julee, I forgot something important in my bag....". Julee almost sent Diep in the overhead bin WITH the bag!

We're off!!

Today's the day we leave on our adventure. Bags are packed, travel papers are all in order and enough Euros to get us started. We're still missing a hotel reservation or two and we're not quite sure how the rail system works but we'll figure it out when we get there....hopefully, we'll get there.

Keep your eyes on this blog. We'll update it the next chance we have!

Diep and Julee

The countdown begins....!

We got our hotel confirmations and vouchers - at least for our first few travel days.

Thanks to FedEx, we got our Eurail tickets!! ....and we've decided that our first "real" stop in France is going to be Lyon....and we've booked a hotel - http://www.holidaycityeurope.com/berlioz-lyon/index.htm. Nothing fancy but it's very centrally located so we should be able to easily make our way around the old part of the city and if we have time, do a day trip into the outskirts of the city.

After Lyon, we'll be heading to Nice. Woohoo!! Some sun and sand ....okay, so it's really sun and rocky beaches. Not to mention maybe some "eye candy" for two travelling chicks, if you get our gist.

After our whirlwind tour of Belgium and Lyon, it'll be nice to just have a few days to relax. Julee's hoping for warm weather so she can actually sinking her bare feet into sand. Diep is already planning the daily meal menu :-)

From Nice, we can easily hop on the train and head to Cannes and Monaco - maybe do some hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Okay, maybe not but it's a nice dream ;-) We haven't booked our hotel yet but should have something picked out before we leave.

'later,

Diep and Julee

Testing the camera.

As many of you know, I recently bought a digital camera. Okay, I admit it...., the last time I bought a camera, it was an Olympus 35mm SLR so the digital camera is definitely new territory for me. Of course, I will be bringing my camera with me on the trip and I'm planning on posting photos as we go along - hopefully there will be internet cafes and/or wireless hotspot available along the way.

Anyhoo, some "anonymous" blogger challenged me to test out my ability to post photos on this blog. Unfortunately, I haven't taken that many photos to-date. So, I picked one out - had to put the obligatory "gray" circle to protect the innocent "victim" (hehe). So here's proof that not only can I take photos with my new camera but I have some photo editing skills (actually, I'm quite good w/Photoshop) and I can post photos to this blog.

You've all been warned!

Julee

It's one week and two days before we leave

 .....not that we're counting down the days or anything like that!!

So the game plan is to fly into Paris and immediately hop on train to go to Brussels. Don't ask why we didn't fly directly to Brussels instead - kind of a sore spot for Julee.

It took a couple of nights of text messaging via gtalk to get our hotel booked for Brussels. All we can say is thank God for the internet and secured websites!! Here's where we will be staying during the few days that we'll be in Brussels => http://www.hotelsiru.com/. Check out the interactive video for pics of the rooms - some pretty wild artwork hangs on the walls, particularly for chambre #3.

Two more weeks to go!

A bit of news:

1- It is now confirmed that there will be two traveling chicks going to Europe. Julee finally got her passport all squared away :). I almost thought I would travel alone, as the process of obtaining a new passport was not too promising, and Julee just started the process of hers in March.

2- We still haven't booked any hotel reservations anywhere, no train tickets, but we definitely know what we will be eating when we get there :). Nothing beats eating a "cornet de frites" at the train station in Brussels.

3- Julee is convinced that she will be taking a lot of pictures of me sleeping everywhere. For some reason, she's under the impression that I love my sleep. I really don't know where she gets that idea!