Exodus to Amsterdam Göteborg

Last weekend, Shannie and I took advantage of the fact that European countries are small, relatively close together, and connected by high-speed rail lines and spent two days in Belgium with two of my co-workers and one of their significant others. On Saturday morning we met up at Amsterdam Centraal Station with Matt, Kim, and Kyla and hopped a 4-ish hour train ride to the city of Brussels.

The next two days were filled with many walked kilometers, delicious beer, waffles, peeing statues, delicious beer, giant atomic structures, good food, subway rides, chocolate shops, and delicious beer. The weather, which was forecast to involve monsoon-like downpour, held out very nicely and actually gave us a mostly sunny day on Sunday other than some morning showers which mostly took place while we were eating breakfast (waffles, obviously).

Overall, Shannie and I took over 300 photos, a smattering of which are found below. Click on any thumbnail below to view the full photo.

Also, in other news, tonight was supposed to be my international rookie debut as a field hockey goalie on the company team, but unfortunately this evening’s match was cancelled. I like to think that it’s because the other team had to forfeit for some reason, granting us a technical win and, as such, making my lifetime record 1-0. Now the world will have to wait one more week.

you big tourist Belgium, Brussels, churches, pubs, rain, RIOT, statues, travel, walking

Hooray for Scottie coming home before 3am! The pose he struck was one of sleep but lucky for him I did not capture the moment on film. Instead I wanted to show you a few statues I’ve found in and around Scottie’s office on Herengracht. Naturally there are copious statues all over so this is but a smattering in one concentrated area.

These are the loungers with a head bust. Scantily clad men surveying their dominion below with half a person in the middle. Perfect.

King Triton and his fish. This statue adds a very cool look to the overall building.

I’m looking across the building… window, brick, window, what? Right in the middle of the building is this righteous looking man carved into the wall. I loved it! I had to get the full look of just how much a part of the wall he truly is.

Don’t mind us we’re just holding up the balcony. I was quite taken with these two. I can’t find their feet, can you?

Last but not least a statue of kiddens in the windows. No, wait a minute! Those aren’t statues, those are our kiddens in our windows! Hee, hee! Vargos, our 7 month old male kidden, is the grey one on the left and Poe is the grey and white cat on the right. She is 6.5 year olds who once upon a time belonged to my sister.

There are plenty of statues to be documented so I’m certain I will have more as time goes on especially since they’re not going anywhere!

amsterdam cats, Herengracht, statues