New York - with the crowd in central park

Introduction

I can never contain my sense of excitement when thinking about going to New York City. I was fortunate enough to go there recently and the number meetings meant that it made sense for me to have a weekend there. While the day is conducive to anything more than work the evening prove invaluable in seeing the city. Now I've been to New York City before and know my way round it. But this time the trip was different. Here are some of thing I got up to.

Central Park Circuit.

I had warm evening when the office emptied at 6pm and I went back to the hotel with nothing much to do. So I put on my shorts and thought it would be worth while running around the Central Park circuit. Being the middle of spring the day was warm and the number of cherry blossom trees and the evening light were magical. But I think every man and woman on the west and east side must have had the same ideas and me as there was a bevy of different New Yorker running along side me.

Cherry Blossoms in Central Park (April)

Looking out over to the west side

A little fitness while taking pictures

Chrysler Building

Here's a photo looking up at the Chrysler building from just behind Grand Central station. Magnificent building but sadly you cannot go up to the observatory of this phenomenal building

Chrysler Building - Day time shot of the Art Deco façade

Empire State Building

The Empire state is still a building that takes your breadth away to build something so tall nearly a hundred years ago and still a functional building to this day is something. This does have an observatory but next time baby!

Grand Central Station

A beautiful ambient train station the home to many a movie and handy location for a Apple store too. No I didnt buy anything from this one.

Times Square

Times Square is always happening and you cant beat the buzz around this place. I've noticed that most places in the world have a Times Square, even out local shopping centre has a times square but nothing compares to this place.

Eye Catching H&M lady

Times Square - Circular Panorama

St. Patricks Cathedral

Here's a view of St. Patrick's cathedral sandwiched between commercial mid tow and the shops of Fifth and Madison.

Top of the Roc

This is the view from Bar65 at the top of the Rockefeller Centre. I would say this is the best way to spend your money if you're going to the top of the Roc. Yes the drink prices are extortionate but there are every where else in the world where you have a view like this.

Other places to visit

For a few evening drinks and watching the sun go down over Jersey head to down town and the Standard Hotel roof top bar.

Just across from the Standard Bar is Hog and Heifers bar - if you've seen Coyote Ugly this is the place in NYC. Sadly the place was dead on the day I went but interesting for the visitor. It looks like a biker crowd hopefully they are not territorial

Conclusion

Hopefully will be back in the Big Apple soon enough with the family in tow to properly visit the sights again and get some better pictures with proper focus and more light! Until then adieu.

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Brussels for the day - sprouts and all

Introduction

The first leg of our European trip started in Brussels (Belgium). We arrived late at night with the intention of having a full day's sight seeing around the city. We stayed just outside the centre of town a short bus/tram/metro ride away from the centre of town.

Brussels is easy to get around and convenient from a transport perspective generally. We started our day at a leisurely pace and headed to the central square. We managed to cover two area the centre of town and the atomium.

Brussels Town Centre

The mails square is where most of the key buildings and façades are to be seem. A number of other landmarks spoke off the mail square and are generally walking distance in proximity.

Galeries St Hubert's

Brussels Town Hall

Town and Main Square

Other attractions in the area are the Chocolate museum, we had a bunch of chocolate aficionado's who who wanted to go and go they did. Strangely that came out sick of the smell of chocolate and in ended up indulging my self in the perpetual chocolate tap and biscuits.

Mannequin Pis

The other attraction in the are is the Mannequin Pis, if you ask me it's pissing your time away going to this attractions. The kid is the size of a baby having a pis - I didn't see the fascination with this especially not the legions of selfie sticks busy with people taking pictures in its proximity. Take the kid to a toilet please! Just for your viewing pleasure I've add a picture of the desperate young chap.

Maison Dandoy

So you don't really want to eat Brussels's sprouts when you're in Brussels but you do want to go to one of the mail Belgium Waffle places while you're are there. The key place to go is the Maison Dandoy. Fortunately this place is right between the Grand Palace and the Mannequin Pis - so you wont have pissed your visit to the mannequin away if you stop by this place. Downstairs is a shop but they serve phenomenal Belgian Waffles there. Unfortunately we had a bunch of sick kids who were put off the chocolate but that didn't stop me stuffing my face. Hopefully they will read this in the years to come and remember to go back.

Atomium

Our visit to the Atomium was really a three hour queuing experience with a 25 mins view across the city. There is really not that much to see so unless you have bags of time on your hands you can skip this. The Atomium park is a lovely attraction and on a clear day you'll get great pictures of this marvellous building.

Have some chocolate

Definitely the place to have chocolate and if the museum doesnt get you so pop into one of the shops in the main square and indulge.

Chips matey (Fritland)

The other thing to make sure you try is the local chippy - in Belgium the chip is a big deal and you have to visit Fritland. We visited their shop behind the main square and every other local mush have had a frites fetish that very hour as I had to queue for my portion of chips. But queue I did and I joined the locals for hots chips on a cold day. It did wonders to dispel the sickly sweet chocolate overdose.

Conclusion

There are a probably a few other things you can manage to squeeze into your day. But a great place to visit especially in the summer when you can relax in the cafe culture around the centre of town.

Here is my short photo blog of 3 minutes in Brussels from Flickr.

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Amsterdam : You gotta go and drop it like its hot

Introduction

If Snoop Doggy Dog goes to there there's going to be something about the place. Given that I was travelling as a family, dropping like it hot was slightly difficult to say the least. But here goes a more conventional trip to "the Dam". 

The key thing to understand if you're driving to Amsterdam is PARKING - there is a serious art to parking. Parking in Amsterdam is pretty expensive hotel parking in the center can easily be in the EUR 30-50 range. Parking in hotels outside the city centre maybe cheaper. But do factor it into your budget.

I got a nasty surprise with my parking bill coming to EUR 155 for 4 days whereas I thought I had parked in a car park that would cost me in the region of EUR 25. Needless to say it took a long time to negotiate it to a more reasonable EUR 50. But parker beware!!! Look up P+R parking for the best rate but do watch out they are restrictive

What we did ?

We were in Amsterdam for about 4 days. Given we went there during Easter driving in from Luxembourg. Our days were spent as follows:

1. Kuekenhoff Gardens
2. Rijks Museum, Canals and Dam square and surroundings
3. Van Gogh Museum, Ann Franks House and Red-light district and more city centre stuff
4. Drive through the flower route and Kinderjik

So here goes a quick tour of the sights of Amsterdam that we saw.

Keukenhoff Gardens

The garden are open from April to the end of May and showcase daffodils, tulips and other spring flowering plants. The gardens are set over a very large area and will take you half the day to cover at normal pace.

If you do go this is what you will see:

Amazing flower displays as you walk around the gardens

Magnificent tulip colours

Phenomenal varieties with every size and colour

No this is not a painting - these are the actual flowers.

Keukenhoff has a lot of facilities and going around the gardens is easy for anyone. Behind the gardens are some very colourful tulip fields. Ideal for photographs. The fields at Keukenhoff weren't as well developed when we visited there were limited flowers in bloom.

So we had to wait for few more day for the classic tulip fields.

Rijks Museum and Canal Tours

The biggest museum in Amsterdam was the Rijks Museum. The museum is located just outside the centre and but very accessible by trams / buses that serve the city. If you are a Rembrandt fan this is the place to go with a number of his works of art on display including the famous "Night watch". Key advice is either go early or book on line. We had an hour wait and we were queuing from 9am.

This advice goes for all the museums in Amsterdam you need to book early to have an chance of getting tickets. We were lucky we booked the tickets over the phone while queuing for the Rijks museum. With the benefits of free wifi we planned to go to the Van Gogh and Ann Franks museum the following day and booked the tickets. Here are some of the things we saw around the city.

Row houses along the canal

View from the Canal Cruise

Dam Square

Ann Franks House, Van Gogh Museum and Red light district

No pictures in this section as its largely museums and the Van Gogh's museum does tell Vincent's life in a great deal of detail and takes you through his extensive works of art.

Our visit to Ann Franks house is an educational trip down memory lane. Just the sheer gravity of what's happened there during WWII is enough to make you think about your decision making and prejudices. We had a bunch of kids of varying ages and its makes for an intriguing visit for them. The key piece of advice is plan the visit and book the tickets. The queue for the Ann Frank museum is over 2 hours on a good day.

Now to the Snoop Doggy dog topic the streets adjacent to the red light district are safe for children. There are side streets where there are curtained off rooms - if your kids understand the meaning of this then by all means take them. Its educational for girls to see what some people do for a living and its educational for boys in teaching respect irrespective of people professions.

A number hemp products are available to purchase for myself I steered clear apart from the shear infused hemp flavoured lollypop. Believe me it was more sugar than anything else.

Flower (Bloemen) Route

We started our journey back home via the famous flower route in Holland. The route starts off in Harleem and is sign posted from the start so follow Bloemen or Bollenstreek route. You will follow the route south and you'll see tulip fields either side of the road at regular intervals. Take your time to stop take pictures / have a picnic. We followed the route in this link until the Hague and then veered off home.

Kinderjik

We veered off the main connection road between Amsterdam and Antwerp to look at the Kinderjik windmill farms. This is a great area with a number of picturesque windmills that are still in operations.

The best thing about going to Kinderjik is that you can rent bikes from a store and cycle along the canal look and visiting the windmills that are open. The path run between town in the area and is easy to navigate. The main windmills are located in the first 750m strip along the canal. Other are slight further a field but well worth the bike ride out there. Bike are cheap to hire but be aware you'll need a hefty deposit (Cash) and some form of identification.

Conclusion

I'm reliably told that Snoop Doggy dog goes to Amsterdam twice a year to do his stuff given its legality in the city. You don't need to go for the cannabis the city has a lot to offer across the range of ages.

With that said, myself and the Mrs do have a visit to pay there and do a Snoop when the kids have flow the nest. But lets see !!!!

In any case a visit is well work it whatever shape or form it takes.

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Going where ?..Luxembourg. Where's that ?

Introduction

Most people know of Luxembourg but have rarely thought to visit or know much more about it than the name. As a banker Luxembourg is a key centre in Europe for its secrecy laws, tax haven reputation the fundamental foundations of a key investment centre.

We travelled there without our investment centre hats although as someone with a banking background I was intrigued by what lay within its borders. Our visit to the medieval city was a short day trip with an over night stay. We cross into Luxembourg from Belgium which is a seamless transition.

Luxembourg Town Centre

The town centre hangs across a deep gorge along a valley with the town build up along its walls. Luxembourg city is relatively small so very easy to navigate around. We stayed out of town and took a bus to the city centre. Buses are straight forward and the easiest mode of getting around town.

Luxembourg : A view across the town

Looking down stream

Panorama across the lower level

City Walls and Castle looking down at the Grund

Notre Dame Cathedral

Streets

Things to do and see

We visited the city on Sunday and there was a bustling Sunday market in progress with lost of things for visitors. Some of local items were fascinating to browse. The most intriguing are the pottery birds see everywhere in the markets. We seemed to have timed out trip perfectly given its was Easter and close to the Emaischen festival.

We also went to the Luxembourg museum which was great and took you through the history of the city and the relevance of Luxembourg. The museum is an easy hours browse to give you the background of the region.

The city has a lower level ("the grund") which seems to be the old part of town there are paths down to the lower level and a lift service which was interesting to take.

The Bario Grund

We also went to visit the Notre Dame cathedral which was majestic both inside and out.

Due to a lack of time in Luxembourg we missed visiting the Vianden Castle. Which is meant to be very beautiful but a good one hour drive out of town. Need to leave something for the next visit.

Conclusion

Stop by Luxembourg a very picturesque city to spend the day. There is an out of town modern side to Luxembourg too where you will find the great financial and European institutions. No picture here they weren't interesting enough for me.

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