quick news & tulips!

As you might have noticed, a new name has been chosen for this internet space! 

For now, I'll leave the current web address as is so infrequent visitors can still locate me over the next few days. However, I will be changing over to finnfolk.blogspot.com sometime this week. Keep a lookout!

i just love tulips.

ghent & bruges.

We've been hopping around Belgium for the past week, getting to know Davy's homeland  & visiting several cities across the country by train. Here's a look at Ghent & Bruges, where we spent the most time.

Ghent, Belgium

- small & cozy

- filled with bicyclists & cobble stone streets

- full of incredible buildings from the 1300s

- walk-able

- not-too-touristy

- home to “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb”, an incredible painting from the 15^th century by the Flemish Van Eyck brothers. Fun fact: it’s the most frequently stolen painting in history, stolen 13 times over 6 centuries.  There is a very cool (and not too long) NPR article about it here.

- lastly, it’s built along the water, which I love!

a little ghent bridge.

st. bavo cathedral and the eventide waterway.

ghent by day, atop the middle ages Gravensteen castle.

Davy sent us to his favorite ghent pub to try out the local brews.

ghent by night!

en route to bruges!

. . . 

Bruges, Belgium

- around since the 1100s (!!!)

- bigger than Ghent & also built along the water

- more than 50 bridges along the canal

- home to a 200+ year old brewery

- very touristy

- has really delicious waffles

In Bruges, you can take a "boot trip" and ride a little boat through the canal to view the city from the water. We did this our first day there because a) it's really a great (and lazy) way to see the city and b) it's called a "boot trip" and that just cracks me up. 

we asked a girl to please take our picture. we posed for about 45 seconds as
she held the camera upside down. not the ideal recipe for a good picture. she only
took ONE the whole time she was holding it. here it is. don't we seem uncomfortable?

We also took the brewery tour as it had rave reviews on trip advisor. It was money well spent & we particularly liked seeing all the old machinery & glassware from the days of old. At the end, we ended up on the top of the building which offered a great view of the city...

We also visited the Bruges flea market while the weather was pleasant. Belgium has been quite the rainy land and we cheered at the sight of blue sky.

ah yes, the waffles.

. . .

Belgium really is a cool country, filled with medieval wonders, incredible chocolate, 

pretty countryside, & very chic modern design. We're happy to be here!

just some really cute animals.

traveling recaps mean text-heavy posts, and i want you to still like my little blog. please allow me to offer you reading-less rest á la these darling creatures: 

i want all of these little ones to be mine!

lon-done!

There is so much to do & see in London and many of the museums and galleries are free, which is certainly nice, especially when you’re feeling a bit "monetarily downtrodden" due to an unfavorable exchange rate. The incredible metro system makes exploring easy (and inexpensive) & traveling with Finn is like having a personal GPS. He’s incredible at navigation, a skill in which I am severely lacking so I’m thankful to be mindlessly rolling my suitcase behind him wherever we go.

By the end of our trip, we: visited Savile Row, the British Museum, Kensington Gardens, the Sherlock Holmes museum 

& London Zoo, the Tate Modern, walked along the Thames & and waved hello to Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, & the statues 

in Trafalgar Square. Some destinations are pictured below…have a look if you’d like!

Savile Row, the golden mile for tailoring!
Also, if you hang out with me, i'll make you point at stuff
and embarrass you in front of the passersby.

my aslan at trafalgar square.

primrose hill near our hotel by regent park.

happy in the gardens aside buckingham palace.

so glad we visited during bloom-time.
below: big ben & the london eye.

 

Of all our premeditated destinations, the Tate Modern was a site I certainly didn’t want to miss. It’s famed for its huge and diverse collection of modern art, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed gazing at and reading about. Even if I didn't care for the particular piece, it's fun to read the adjoining text & envision what the artist intended to convey. So many creative (and perhaps drug-induced) minds have created beautiful, mysterious, and stirring works that are simply just fun to see. Many of the installations feel like dreams and the short time we spent there was a highlight of our time in London for me.

the art timeline stretches across a giant wall. i love the layout - so cool!

dream like.

a little sample of things we saw.

Our time in London was big fun & I'm thankful I got to tag along with Finn. 

I loved the time we spent together when he hasn't working & enjoyed 

poking around the city on my own the rest of the time. 

All in all, a smashing success! Hoorah!

. . .