Bustling Brussels

An 04:30 start to catch an early flight to Brussels. It doesn't matter how early I leave the UK, the earliest I ever get to anywhere seems to be about 10:00 - what with the time zone change for mainland Europe.

A busy day and then adjourning to a central hotel close to the Belgian Stock Exchange before an evening stroll for eight of us to a nearby trendy and bustling bar and restaurant.

fondue time

The house is back to a "card and decoration free" state and the piles of suitcases have been filed away. A routine trip to the supermarket today and then a fresh pack (hand luggage) for my brief trip to Brussels, Belgium early tomorrow.

Tonight we are enjoying a fondue with some German wine and a reasonably chilled evening before full normal service resumes tomorrow.

I even found some time to pluck a few strings on the guitar this afternoon.

blogging resumes

Having taken a couple of weeks away from the blog, it flicked throught my mind about whether I'd restart and if I did, whether I'd fill the gap period with what happened.

When I started this, I decided that a year would be a minimum period, so here I go again. And I've backfilled a few posts from my recent trip to the USA- they can only cover random points and don't have a lot of clever hyperlinks. Next week I'm in Brussels, so it keeps a travel theme for a few more days.


Meantime, its house recovery time as well as time to vote for the bloggies!

twelfth night

Outdoor lights down. Tree, lights and decorations removed. Decorations packed in boxes, ready to lose before next year. Hmm, and what about resolutions?

jam tomorrow

Back to play with the M25 today. At the moment the roads seem reasonable. I guess next week will see everyone else return.

sleep

Modest jet-lag, having grabbed some sleep on the flight. A mystery dream included key-lime pie. Only serious psycho-analysts need apply.

blues

Woke up this morning and the vacation was gone.

Well, time to pack the bags, squish everything into the car and head back to the airport- though not until mid afternoon. Time for a few last shopping and tourist moments and then a final great tick in the box with a lunch time visit to House of Blues.

Out afterwards, back into mid twenties sunshine and clear skies as we strolled back to the car and then hit the road back to Orlando international.

spaceman

Had to do Mission to Space, which is a great simulator and probably my favourite out of world experience ride in Disney.

Strapped into a spaceship, accelerating to 6000mph and flying to Mars via a slingshot acceleration off of the moon.

Great fun and real G forces.

Its the only ride I can recollect where they provide sick bags and you sometimes see little rows of green faced people on the way out.

Happy New Year

We decided to take it easy today, post New Year, but with a pre-arranged dinner at Citrico's in the Grand Floridian, in the evening.

So this was a day for the pool and some time browsing a surprisingly busy shopping mall.

Citrico's has some great dishes, well presented!
Tag: florida

Cirque du Soleil

A New Year's Eve treat was a visit to the Cirque du Soleil. This evening included a champagne reception and a special finish to the show welcoming the new year with special light up wands which had been distributed amongst the audience. Great fun and then still time to get across to Epcot for a saunter around Italy and France before a fireworks finale as the new year was welcomed in, country by country. We stood in Canada and had a great view of everything.

Tag: florida, disney

candle light carols

The carol singing is a feature in Epcot at this time of the year, in addition to the country by country celebrations. Our plan was to do the first part of the park in an afternoon (energy, the land etc.) and then come back to visit the countries on another occasion.

Needless to say, we abandoned the plan almost immediately and revised our tactics to get onto some of the high demand rides on a separate early morning (ie Mission to Space, the crashtest and the new Soarin').

And to keep a Christmas holiday theme going, we all visited the town of Celebration and arrived just as a Florida snow storm started in the main street. Mel and John thinking its not snow as we know it!

Tag: florida, disney

Hello Hollywood

MGM Studios has a combination of interesting rides and insights to the movies. A priority ride is the Rockin' Rollercoaster, which is a limo speed across L.A. to attend a rock concert and great fun - but hold on to loose items for when the car is upside down!

Tag: florida, disney