Back in Brussels

It has been a while since I came down to Brussels for a weekend.
This time, I took a train from Amsterdam central station after work. It took less than 2 hours, which was faster than by car.

As usual, my day started with Ramen at one of shops in town - there are at least two good ones here in Brussels.

 Next stop was Paul, a french bakery you see in Europe (not in Amsterdam unfortunately). Chocolate macaroon for 3 euro. Not as chewy as I would like but still good stuff.

 To digest the food, I walked around the city quite a bit. I hope you can see the difference between the Netherlands and Belgium. The architecture is more similar to France (prettier).

This is one of the buildings at the famous squire. There were a lot, I am a lot of people (tourist). After all it is already summer holiday season (as it is JULY from Monday, while I am still wearing a jacket as it is COOL/chilly.)

Williamsburg Saturday

It was a nice and warm Saturday, and we went to a hip neighborhood in Brooklyn to visit a FOOD flea market. A few snacks out of a lot of vendors.
Cinnamon and chocolate ice cream from a famous truck too.

After 10 pm

Still bright. A few more days the day time gets even longer. I feel like going to bed really early.

Boat Tour

As my friend's request, we had a one hour canal boat tour. I thought that I know everything about the town by now, but not true.
Many new canals and interesting views from the water level.
Our lunch was at a famous pancake place. Savory and sweet versions. Unfortunately we could not finish...

Italian Dinner

After coming back from a day trip to Haarlem, our dinner was at a higher end Italian restaurant. We could have gone with four courses dinner but not that hungry... As a result, two dishes per person.
Pasta dishes were more unique...
On the way back to the hotel, there was a rainbow as a stray of shower just passed.

Dutch Food

Went to Haarlem to show my friend around. This originally church brewery was fun place serving local Jopen beer. We were sitting next to an famous ESPN analyst Digger Phelps and his family. He was a super nice guy...

Friday Dinner

I have a friend visiting Amsterdam this weekend. After a full day of work, we went to a cafe nesting at the cancel. A nice light meal with glasses of wine... Outside was bright till 11 pm.

Before I Leave

Last meal at home before leaving for another 12 days trip. Chicken was marinated in lime zest and others.

Healthy Lunch and...

After the heavy rain, at least we did not have rain today and nice out.
Egyptian food for lunch close to the apartment. It was nice to be eating at outside table.
My Korean friend shared some BBQ meats after we stop by her house. Shame that we could not stay longer to catch up, but we had a nice time.

Easy Dinner

A quick preparation gave up what I wanted - Japanese style BBQ. Each country has its own style and our sauce is of course soy sauce base.
A lot if vegetables were not forgotten.

Sunday in Dusseldorf

Before catching the train in the afternoon, morning walk in the old town. As suspected, majority of stores and shops were closed.
11 am but people were drinking beer...
Found this bakery at the corner and I could not refuse my urge to buy one. Only this season to have this type of pie.
Another short trip to the Japan town to another Raven shop. I liked this one better.

Weekend Trip to Dusseldorf (Germany)

2nd time to Dusseldorf without any expectation but just go somewhere not Amsterdam (after being there for almost 2 years, staying at the same hotel room during the weekend is not that much fun).
I took a train on Friday after work, and express train took just about 2 hours (39 euro for 1st class, so not too bad).
I wanted to go to this famous German food restaurant to have white asparagus which is in season (only for several weeks). I thought I took the picture but nice fat asparagus with sausage, which was a great way to start the Saturday.

While working around the old town where all stores and restaurants are located, I found this bread shop - I still remember first time ever I had German bread in Tokyo and it was "sourer" - for kids it was sensational. I did not have a room to buy/taste these but they know how to make good bread.

Dusseldorf is not a famous city for Japanese, but it has one of the biggest Japanese population in Europe, 1% of population is Japanese, I heard. Because of that, there are many authentic Japanese restaurants, and my dinner was Ramen... They claim that they import the noodle directly from Hokkaido, and it was good.

On the way go back to the hotel, many people were eating ice cream (and I recall ice cream in Germany was good when I lived in Cologn for 3 months), and yes it was good...

My hotel was located on the river side and this section has interesting architectures.