Euro 2017 - Epilogue

Overall a fantastic trip that went off according to plan.  Some summary thoughts and statistics.

Exceeded Expectations

1. Weather.  A few unsettled days when we first arrived and a couple other spots of rain but nothing that every impacted our plans.  To get three straight sunny days in London is relatively rare.  As we did not have A/C in any of our place - it was nice to have daytime temps in the 70's and cool nights to sleep.
2. Language Barrier.  I have traveled enough to know that English is spoken by a large percentage of people in Western Europe but have had some issues at restaurants.  We had no issues with language and able to navigate without any issues.
3. Health.  Outside of Kelsey's back issue that impacted the last day in London everybody was healthy and happy.  My migraines were minimal and I was glad everybody could enjoy the trip.

Below Expectations (had to work hard to think of things for this list)

1. Soccer.  Really wish I could have pulled off tickets to the football (soccer) game in Ghent. Spent lots of energy trying to make that happen and did not work out.  Also wish we had a bit more of a Premier League experience in London - although the Brentford game was very fun. 
2. AirBnb London.  Although it worked out fine - having to deal with a late cancellation and not getting my primary choice was annoying
3. Morning Start Times.  I think everybody else in the crew was happy to have the ability to sleep in and take our time to get out into the world.   I did my best to not drive the agenda too hard but would have liked to have gotten out a bit earlier and have the ability to do a few more things.

A few stats on the trip.  Number of segments on each type of vehicle.

✈  Airplanes - 3

🚆  Trains - 12

🚋 Trams - 2

🚡 Cable Cars - 3

🚇 Subway - 14

Family Memories

	Dad	Mom	Jake	Kelsey	Brett
Favorite City	Ghent	Maastricht	Pairs	Ghent	Ghent
Top 3 Attractions	· Boating in Ghent · Brewery Tour · Indoor Skiing	· Concert · Brewery Tour · Seine River Cruise	· Disney · British Museum · Caves HM: Brentford, Antwerp Brewery and EU Musuem	· London Eye · Caves · Boating in Ghent	· Disney · Caves · Griffin Park
Favorite Restaurant	Le Bistro - Porte de Hal - Brussels	Carnal - Maastricht	Comic Sans (Ghent)	Carnal - Maastricth	Eetcafe de Preuverij Maastricht – (Pitcher of Water)
Favorite Meal	Eetcafe de Preuverij (Maastricht)	Salad (bacon/goat cheese) in Ghent	Steak in Cologne (Maredo)	Salmon in Cologne (Maredo)	Steak in Cologne (Maredo)
Better in Europe	Everybody Bikes !	Outside Seating – People watching	Biking	Public Transportation	Trains
Better in US	Beverage sizes	Toilets everywhere !	Drink Selection and Size	Free water and bathrooms	Wendy’s !
Misc Favorite Memory	Playing hearts on trains (Shooting the Moon!)	Try to go bathroom in pub packed with chanting soccer fans	Trapped in Lift	Concert in Maastricht	Getting my Belgium Hat

Euro Day 23 - Bump in the Night

The best thing to do when you go to a late movie and get to bed at 1 AM is to get up at 6 AM and go for a run through Regents park -  highly recommended.  It was a beautiful morning and a nice run with the exception of the aforementioned birds hanging around the pond like vagrants.

The rest of the morning was consumed with packing and debating.  The debate was centered around the relative merits of getting bumped from our flight and potentially getting home a day later.  The airline (Norwegian) air had notified me via text that the flight was oversold and they were looking for volunteers to take another flight for a compensation of 200 euro.  That compensation had subsequenty increased to 400 euro.   We had a few different camps taking various viewpoints.  In one camp was Brett who was absolutely in favor of taking the money and spending another day in London.  I was on the other extreme - as I had to get back to work on Monday.  The rest were in the conflicted middle - as there would be additional hassles associated with spending another day in London (accommodations, luggage, etc).  In the end we decide to play it by ear and show up to the airport and see what happens.

We left a little extra time to get to the airport due to Kelsey's sore back.   Our Airbnb location proved valuable again - as we were able to hop a train from the station right down the street out to Gatwick airport.  Since we did not have a table to pass the time playing cards the troops were reduced to thumb wrestling.

We got to the airport to check-in and the agent told me that they did not think they still needed volunteers but would take our name down in case anything changed.  When they got to the gate we heard our name being called over the speaker.   At this point we had come to a family consensus where the 4 were on board with staying as long as the airline set them up in a hotel near the airport to make logistics as easy as possible.  When I approached the desk, they informed me that they were looking for 5 volunteers.  They would provide each us $500 euro compensation and they would put us on a British Air flight leaving Heathrow in 3 hours !  Bingo !   So they put us in a taxi and we headed to Heathrow (an hour away).   We arrived with no issues and had plenty of time to spare - as the flight was delayed 30 minutes.  The only significant downside of this scheme was we lost our exit row seats on our original flight and stuck in middle seats on the new flight.  The flight was delayed another 20 minutes when they could not extract the stairs from the plane and we ended up getting to Logan at 11:15 - 4 hours after our original plan.  We booked an Uber XL for the ride home and our awesome EurO adventure ended just before 1AM. 

Euro Day 22 - (Wo)Man Down

We have done a tremendous amount of walking.  One of the regrets I have on this trip is not having a pedometer that would have tracked steps and mileage but I would guess that we have logged 75 miles or so during the journey.  Just the 6 walks to the train station and back in Ghent would total 10 miles.

This may have been a contributing factor to Kelsey starting to have back muscle spasms over the last two days.  On Friday is was only an irritant but yesterday became a major impediment to her movement.   So she stayed back to get some summer school work completed and watch Netflix.  

The rest of us went down to Picadilly Square - the uber-tourist square in London with such cultural touchstones like the world's largest M&M store.  The boys enjoyed going through Lillywhites - a sporting goods store with a large selection of UK soccer gear. 

After lunch we hit the Tube to go out to Brentford to watch the Brentford-Nottingham Forest soccer match.  These teams are in a league a step below the Premier League but it is very difficult to get tickets to Premier League games without being a member of their club.  Brentford is a great experience because their stadium Griffin Park is very much Fenway in Boston.  It is situated in the middle of a neighborhood with a pub on each corner and has been there since 1904.  

Although my beloved Brentford Bees ultimately fell to Forest (4-3). It was a good English football experience for the family.

We got home at dinner time and Brett had enough of family togetherness and decided to stay home while Jake, Karen and I went to our farewell dinner in London.  We had a nice meal in a traditional English Pub and watched the Track and Field Championships on TV that were in town this week.

Jake and I decided to hit a late night showing of Dunkirk at a theater down the road.  We both thought the movie was OK but not worth the hype that we had heard.  On the way home we decided to pop back into King's Cross Station.  We had visited earlier that morning to see the famed Harry Potter track 9 3/4 but there was an enormous queue (I have been in Europe too long) to simply take your picture in front of the sign.  The gentleman managing the line estimate the wait to be 50 minutes. Now,  I am no stranger to waiting in long lines for very stupid reasons but this was off the table for me.  So it was nice to see no line at 12:30AM.  So that is my London's visitors tip for the day - go to platform 9 3/4 after midnight. 

Euro Day 21 - Transportation Smorgasbord

We learned yesterday that we need to get down to the London Eye earlier in the day to ensure it is not sold out.  Our goal was to get out at 9:30am to make it down their by their opening at 10.  I knew that goal was overly ambitious for this crew but we ended up getting there at 11 and got tickets for 11:30. It was a glorious day and nice to have the beautiful views of London.

We then boarded a boat to take us down the Thames to a redeveloped area where the O2 arena is located. 

The O2 arena has a bunch of shops around it and we ended up having a late lunch at a buffet restaurant that I am slightly surprised did not give us some level of food poisoning. 

We then boarded the Emirates cable cars back across the Thames.  Our second cable cars of this trip. 

We then boarded a train back towards our home base.  The original plan was to check out the British museum but Jake and I were the only ones who had the energy to go and do it.  It is a fantastic collection of artifacts from around the globe and as Jake noted, a side benefit of England's imperialism.

There was an Arsenal-Leicester City game being played in the evening but getting tickets to the games is nearly impossible - especially for opening night of the season. So Jake, Brett and I took off to find a pub to watch the game.  It was surprisingly difficult to find a pub with the game on and the one we did find - the patrons did not seem to be all that into the game.  Maybe we were in the wrong section of the city but were hoping for a better atmosphere. 

Euro Day 20 - Look Kids... Big Ben...Parliament

Although European Vacation is a very distant third behind the original Vacation and Christmas Vacation (ahead of that abomination Vegas Vacation) it does have the classic scene of Clark getting stuck in a roundabout telling the kids to look at Big Ben and Parliament.

Fortunately I am not driving and we are leveraging London's excellent public transportation system to get around.   We are just steps from the station that Harry Potter made famous, King's Cross.  You can see it at the end of the street in this photo that I took just outside our apartment. You will also noticed that yesterday's rain had cleared out and it was a glorious day.

Before we got the kids moving Karen and I got coffee and walked through the enormous Regents park.  They have a display of modern art throughout the park that proves that I don't get modern art.  For supposedly creative people - they have the most boring names for their art.  Many of them are "Untitled" or the one below is "Red Wheelbarrow".  I would have gone with something like "Eternal Struggle".

We got the kids mobile and headed down to the station for some sightseeing.   We first walked through Hyde Park and the Princess Diana fountain.  One thing that struck us immediately was the love affair  that many people have with all manner of diseased creatures of flights.  People were letting pigeons land on them and getting up close and personal with geese.   Hyde Park and many other places in London are in desperate need of a little circle of life action via a few hawks or falcons cleaning up the joint.

We walked around Buckingham Palace.  We missed the changing of the guard a bit earlier - so not much to see other than the guards occasionally moving back and forth.

We then headed over to the Imperial War Museum which was absent from Karen's list of things to see but Jake and I wanted to check it out.  Turned out to have some very interesting things - especially on WW1.

We then walked over to the Southbank area to check out the scene.  Unfortunately the London Eye was sold out for the day and we had also missed the Thames river cruise - so we put those on the list for the next day.  We then stopped over at Westminster Abbey but it was past their closing time as well.

We hit a local pub for a late dinner and had a lively political debate to end a long day in the city.

Euro Day 19 - Tough Transition

Woke up to glorious sunshine - so decided to rent a boat and cruise around the canals.  Karen was not overly enthusiastic about this plan as she envisioned me sinking the boat or colliding with a large passenger ferry.  She preferred to go on a guided boat cruise ("let's leave this to the professionals").  However I had the kids on my side so was able to barely override the veto.

Turned out to be a great experience as the boats were very easy to operate and there was very little traffic on the canals to worry about.  It was nice to see Ghent from a slightly different perspective.

The train to our final leg (London) was at 3pm from Brussels so we did a final sweep of our lovely 3 level flat at hit the tram.  When we arrived in Ghent we schlepped our luggage from the train station to our airbnb so everybody was happy that I had a tram pass to get us directly to the train station with ease.

The 2 hour train ride from Brussels to London was smooth.  Only slight hassles were the British border agent with the aggressive cross-examination.

Agent:  "Where are you staying in London"
Me: "An Airbnb by Kings Cross Station"
Agent: "Where is that ?"
Me:  "Ummm, it is the international train station..."
Agent:  "THIS REPRESENTS THE BORDER TO THE UK - I NEED THE ADDRESS OF YOUR AIRBNB !!"
Me:  "You want the address to my AirBnB ??  
Agent:  "I think I am entitled to your address"
Me:  You can't HANDLE the address of my AirBnb"

OK - so the last three lines is what I wanted to happen instead I frantically scrolled through my phone to find an address that this guy had no way of verifying if I just made it up.

The other hassles were a guy across from us that had two separate 20 minute animated self-phone conversations in some foreign tongue and Wifi slower than molasses.

The morning was characterized by a tranquil ride through the canals and we stepped off the train into one of the busiest train stations in the world at rush hour with a cold rain falling.  It was a shock to the system.    The blessing of my Airbnb reservation being cancelled was the new place I reserved was just a block outside the station.  So we were able to get to our pad with being just moderately miserable.

The new place was also a contrast to our last palatial home.  It is a cozy little place with a great location - steps from the station.  It has two bedrooms but the living room also has a bed and it has a small kitchen.  The sleeping arrangements work out alright but there is really no common area for us to hang out or eat together.  The reality is that we have a long list of things to do in London - so I don't expect to be in here much so expect it will work out fine.

We went out for pizza and the place was packed and due to the rain nobody was anxious to give up their table and head out into the night.  We were not anxious to go out and search for an alternative - so we squeezed into a table with two young girls and made the best of it.

It was an early evening as we looked forward to brighter days ahead.

Euro Day 18 - Ghent

Started the day with a ride around the city on my bike which confirmed that my sense of direction is lacking as my 60 minute ride turned into 90.   I should not have been worried about getting back to soon as our pad was still quiet when I returned.

A bit of rain was forecast for the afternoon - so we decided to check out the local museum that had exhibits on the history of Ghent.  It was really done with an English audio tour.  You could probably spend an entire day going through all the information but Brett lost all interest at about the 90 minute mark.

We spent the afternoon catching up on laundry.  We then headed out for a farewell dinner in Ghent.   In the city center of Ghent there is a comic book themed bar (Comic Sans) that Jake had wanted to check out - so we popped in after our dinner.  Kelsey was pleasantly surprised that it was not "too geeky".  The boys were excited that there was a room to play xBox games and renew their FIFA rivalry.

It was very late by the time we headed home and there were no gelato shops open anymore.  So we just did out last night time stroll through Ghent.

Euro Day 17 - Brussels

Another leisurely morning - where Karen and I walk down to the city center to grab coffee and pastries while the kids sleep in.  We finally made it down to the train by mid-day for the 30 minute ride into Brussels.

Brussels is one of the seats of the EU and they have a very impressive exhibit on the history of European unification.  It is not a huge exhibit but so dense with information that you could likely spend 2-3 full days there absorbing all of the audio, video and other information.

There is a big Brussels music festival that starts today but really starts to ramp up towards the weekend.  So there was a bunch of activity setting up stages and other infrastructure to support that event.  Many of the other big museums are closed on Mondays - so we had plenty of time to walk around and just take in the sights.

We then headed towards the Grand Plaza - a very impressive space that has some nice shops and restaurants surrounding the area. Including my favorite Tin Tin shop.

One of the main tourist attraction statues is a 17th century sculpture Manneken Pis located just off the main square.  It is a very small sculpture of a little boy pissing into a fountain.  Can't really catch the spraying action from this pic but gives you a sense of the size.

I had identified a restaurant that I wanted to go to in Brussels but it was about a 20 minute walk from the city center and was a bit surprised when the gang was amendable to that plan and not opting to just pick a closer spot.  I think they initially regretted the decision as our Google Maps route took us through some more 'colorful' sections of the city before winding through a pop-up carnival along the a side street.  We eventually made it to our destination and had a wonderful meal in front of a castle that was built in the 14th century.  Although I was disappointed that nobody went for the Rabbit Stew. 

We were back in our 'home town' of Ghent after 8pm and Jake, Kelsey and I walked down to the City Center and grabbed a gelato before retiring for the evening.

Euro Day 16 - Heaven Ghent

Given the relentless pace of the Paris trip, we had a planned down day in Ghent - at least for the girls.  I had my eye on attending the Ghent-Antwerp soccer match that was being played that day.  Their stadium Ghelamco Arena holds 20k and their supporters are known to be enthusiastic.  The team is referred to as the Buffalo - apparently due to a visit that Wild Buffalo Bill had to the city back at the turn of last century.  I had been stalking their website and Twitter account for the last two months waiting for tickets to go onsale, as these games generally sell out. They finally went on sale two weeks ago but unfortunately discovered you had to be a registered user before April 1st to be eligible to buy tickets (I registered in June). The restriction is apparently some security measure which leads me to believe that they think terrorists are terrible planners.  

So Jake and I rode our bikes down to the stadium when the ticket office opened at 10am to see if there was anything availble but it was complete sold out.  We returned 3 hours later to see if there is anybody selling tickets but there as zero scalping activity around the stadium.  So we left disappointed.

I convinced my dear bride to go on a bike ride out into the countryside.  We had a great ride - although I took a wrong turn on our way back and ended up in the middle of the city - which is a bit hectic on a Sunday afternoon and riding bikes on cobblestone is suboptimal.

We ended the day with a dinner out and walk around the city.  The lighting in the downtown area is spectacular and provides some really amazing reflections along the canals.   The only disappointment was that we had such a late dinner that all the gelato places had closed up shop for the evening.

Returning back to our apartment I had to deal with an issue that arose yesterday.  Our Airbnb reservation was cancelled for our next stop and I had to scramble to find an alternative.  This trip is my first Airbnb experience and our first two spots have been fantastic.  This trip would have been nearly impossible trying to stay in hotels.  Our place is Ghent is spectacular with three floors, three bedrooms, great views of the canal and street and 10 minute walk to train and downtown.

View from our apartment in Ghent

However this is the second reservation that I have made that was subsequently cancelled.   Although I do not have much latitude to cancel without losing most of my money - it seems like the property owners have much less incentive to keep reservations.   I found another place without too much issue but certainly a hassle and risk of using Airbnb.

Euro Day 15 - Real Paris

Our train out of Paris was at 7:30pm but knew the troops needed a little fuel (sleep and food) to make it through the day.  Luckily our hotel had a very nice buffet and we all had a leisurely breakfast.

We were staying in the La Defense area of Paris which is the most modern section of Paris with some interesting sculptures.

We took the subway a few stops down towards the Arc De Triomphe  Paris has a nice efficient subway system but it can be pretty crowded - especially when you have tourists and all their luggage trying to cram on the train.  Karen was relieved to be off that train.

We walked down Avenue des Champs-Élysées where Kelsey gave me a much needed education on fashion and style.It was a very nice Saturday and the atmosphere was relaxed bu you know you are at a high security level when you notice there is a bag check at the McDonalds.  There was excitement around the the local clubs signing of Neymar Jr - as there was a line a block long to get into a store to buy a jersey.

Next was the Eiffel Tower which, like great art, looks spectacular at a distance but some of the shine comes off when you get too close.  First you are hit will all the security fencing and new security trailers that everyone must past through to get underneath the structure.  Then you are accosted by all manner of "vendors" trying to sell you crappy trinkets, booze or engage you in a game of 3-card Monte.  Seems like the worst of both worlds from the government - all energy put towards security and a laissez-faire attitude towards all the illegal activity.  I have no idea how the security makes you any safer, as it just seems to centralize people into places to make them easier to target. 

Summer crowds make matters worse with lines to buy tickets to climb the tower and then there was announcement of a 45 minute delay to get down once you ascended.  So we decided not to climb and just hang out in the adjacent park and enjoy the sunshine for  bit.

Next stop was a cruise down the Seine river.  A Karen favorite as it allows great views of many of Paris attractions with commentary in English.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around Paris snaking our way to the train station that would take us back to Ghent.  A spirited round of Hearts made the 90 minute journey to Brussels go by in a flash.

Certainly a whirlwind tour through the City of Lights but gave the kids a small taste of Paris.

Euro Day 14 - Disney Paris

You know when the day starts with a 5:00 AM wakeup call that I am likely in charge of the itinerary. The fact that we were heading to Disney that day made getting everybody pointed in the right direction a bit easier.  We had a 7:00am train from Brussels direct to Disney but needed to get from our place in Ghent to the train station and then a 30 minute ride to Brussels.  Everything went off without a hitch and we arrived at the park (located an hour outside of Paris) about an hour before opening.

There are two parks at Disneyland Paris and Jake led us in planning to make sure we could hit all the attractions on the top of our list.  Overall I wish Disney would retain unique elements for each park - rather than trying to replicate successful attractions at one park to all the others.  One unique attraction here is the Ratatouille ride.  So we hit that first knowing it is one of the more popular rides. Leveraging good planning and fast passes, we were able to accomplish all of what was on the top of our lists by 8pm.  So now we had to decide if we were going to stay for the Illuminations finale at 11pm.  As we were transitioning from one park to another I observed a heavy flow of people exiting the park and was perplexed a the cause (bomb scare ?  killer bees ?).  Kelsey noted "Dad I think most people probably think spending 10 hours at Disney is enough for one day".  Fair enough but we did stick it out to see the majority of the illuminations show before hustling off to take a train into Paris.

We like our Disney and have been to both Disneyland and DisneyWorld a few times. I know it is not for everybody but we enjoy the atmosphere and overall experience. Disneyland Paris is very similar to DisneyLand in California and lacks the scale and elegance of the Florida property.  The only way you would know you were in France is due to people openly ignore the smoking rule and lighting up like it is 1961.  Some of the workers also must have slept through the Disney customer service training as they looked like they were in a labor camp.  Reminds me of the foreign workers that they import to our local Six Flags every summer ("I have made a terrible mistake ! This is not anything like the brochure !")

This trip has been in the planning for awhile and I likely booked our Paris hotel 8-10 months ago.  One of the reasons that I chose this particular hotel was it was on a direct line from Disney.  However  I never got the memo that starting on Aug 1st - there was maintenance on that line making the end of the line 4 stops short of where our hotel was located. I really wish I had the temerity to take a photo of my lovely bride's face when this fact become apparent at 11:30pm when we had been going almost non-stop since 5AM.  Turned out to only cause a 20 minute delay in our journey as we had to change to a different line.  Everybody's tank was on E (or below) when we finally got to our hotel at 1 AM.