Brussels

December 28, 2009 by Andrea Leave a Comment

My last minute escape from Paris has seen me end up in nearby Brussels. For the most part it has been grey and drizzling but the sun has made an appearance a couple of times.

We were able to see most of the city within the first few hours of arriving but spent the last two days exploring further out from the city centre. I was surprised to see the city is still as beautiful as I remember even though it looks like everything needs a good clean but it no doubt looks better in spring and summer.

Of course there is plenty to eat and drink – chips, waffles, chocolate, beer etc – all good.

I got a special deal with the Sofitel hotel which included a chocolate tasting which was delicious. We especially loved that Here are a few of my favourite photos of Brussels.

Belgian Chocolates

December 28, 2009 by Andrea 2 Comments

Filed Under: Belgium Tagged With: Belgium, Brussels, chocolate

A Little Snow

December 25, 2009 by Andrea Leave a Comment

The great thing about the recent freezing weather was the snow that came with it. Unfortunately it only really snowed on one day and it didn’t last long on the ground. I had hoped it would snow again so I could go out and take lots of photos of Paris under the snow but it wasn’t meant to be.

Filed Under: France Tagged With: France, paris, snow

Noel

December 25, 2009 by Andrea Leave a Comment

Christmas Day – the most boring and pointless day of the year.

I slept in until 1pm. Had cream cheese on baguette for lunch, washed down with a delicious glass of Redbull. Not much else to do but play tourist in the City of Lights.

The only mildly entertaining event of the day was seeing Le Pere Noel being driven around Paris in a sidecar with 10 motor cycle police escorts.

Filed Under: France Tagged With: christmas, France, paris

Kindle Europe

December 24, 2009 by Andrea Leave a Comment

If you love to read and in particular if you love to read and to travel then you’ve got to get a Kindle. I got mine a few weeks ago and I love it!

It can store up to 1500 books so you can read whatever you want whenever you want. You connect to Amazon via wifi from anywhere in the world, including in Europe (for free), and it takes 2 seconds to buy and download a new book.

What I love most is that I can just take the Kindle with me when travelling and don’t have to carry 2 or 3 heavy books. So if I want to read say a Lonely Planet guide of the destination and another book then I easily can and if I don’t like what I’m reading, I can just download another book and read that instead.

Even though the Kindle is kind of expensive, I do think it’ll work out cheaper in the long run. If you live in France, you know how ridiculously expensive English language books are. Even if you order from Amazon.fr or Amazon.co.uk the prices are really inflated. Or if you do buy from Amazon.com where the books are cheaper, you still have to pay for postage which adds quite a bit to the cost. So with the Kindle, the price of a book is slightly less than what you would pay for the physical book and there is no postage so, win!

Kindle Europe

They don’t sell the Kindle here in France or anywhere in Europe, you have to buy it from Amazon.com in the US. They ship it by international courier and customs duty is paid directly to Amazon but it’ll arrive in Europe after 2 or 3 days which is great.

The only real negative I’ve found about the Kindle is that, it seems, you can only get the American version of books which means American spelling and American grammar, which I find annoying, but you can’t have everything I suppose.

You can order your Kindle from Amazon here.

Filed Under: France Tagged With: books, europe, France, kindle

Holidays

December 24, 2009 by Andrea Leave a Comment

December is a really quiet month for me, work wise. I’m actually kind of lost without any work to do I’ve seen seen 3 movies this week already and read 2 books but now I don’t know what to do.

I would have gone away earlier but F had a few dentist appointments so we couldn’t go anywhere. I do have one last trip planned before the end of the year though. Three days in Brussels, starting Boxing Day and then 4 days in Amsterdam for the New Year. I’ve been to both a couple of times before but that was 7 or 8 years ago. Will be interesting to see how they have changed, if at all.

I don’t have anything booked after Amsterdam so I might travel around the Netherlands a bit, maybe to Maastricht and somewhere else. We’ll see…

Hope everyone has a great New Year!

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Travel, Work

Perth 2009

December 18, 2009 by Andrea Leave a Comment

I went home to Perth a few months ago. It had been 4 years since my last visit so it was great to catch up with friends and family. It was the middle of winter and freezing and I had to get up at 5:30am every morning to go to work, but I still managed to have a good time

Filed Under: Australia Tagged With: Australia, family, perth

Jade

December 16, 2009 by Andrea Leave a Comment

20 years old and still going strong. Well, Jade is deaf and possibly going blind, and has arthritis and kidney problems, but hey, not bad for her age.