Its been over a month since I posted here on biblicone.com. I have not been sitting under a rock, or in a cubicle hiding. I have been pretty busy as a matter of fact. I even have pictures to prove it. Imagine if you could see the pictures. What do you see?

We took a little trip to Europe to see Brussels and Amsterdam. Brussels was very nice. It offered a great deal of old architecture, lots of different winding roads and alleys to walk through, and some good food. We tried their famous fries slathered in mayonnaise served in a paper cone. We tried some of the famous Belgium chocolates. We even bought some from the same shop that the Pope gets his chocolate from. Maybe you could call it divine?

Many Belgium beers were consumed via .25ml glasses. There seemed to be quite a variety of beers to try. One of the bars we went to actually had a menu of over 400 beers you could order. Even the beers I did not like were still better than they typical beers we have here in the states (ie Coors, Busch, Miller…). The two stand out beers I have held in my memory are Juplier and Bush. Juplier seems to be the common beer of Brussels. Its everywhere, cheap and tastes is mild enough to drink a few. Bush beer on the other hand I tried based on its liquor content. It is a 12% amber ale. A small glass was pretty powerful. I read that it is touted as the strongest beer in the world. I don’t think it is even able to be sold in America (mainly because Americans are not allowed to make decisions for themselves).

Check out the photo set of Brussels:

Amsterdam was awesome. We had beautiful weather to match the beautiful city. All the roads seem to circle around the center of Amsterdam. It seems pretty hard to actually get lost, probably because you dont really need to travel far to find a myriad of coffee shops, pubs, restaurants, stores, whatever you want…

The standout meal in Amsterdam was the Caprese Intense at Barneys Uptown. It was basically a thin pancake (or crepe) wrapped in a big ball of buffalo mozzarela, covered in pesto, pine nuts and basil leaves. To top off the meal and to give it the Intense name, it is then sprinkled with chunks of some savory marinated chicken.

Bikes Everywhere! Bikes here, bikes there. I loved it. Small cars, small bathrooms, small roads, small living spaces, small food portion sizes, and tiny drinks. What more do you need? It felt very comfortable to walk anywhere in the city. I didnt notice any shady parts. There were occasional drunk people, but they pretty much stayed to themselves.

There was a police presence but it was not in your face like any popular US hangout city. You should see the cops that are out on a Friday night on South street downtown Philly… The people also behave more like adults in Amsterdam. Maybe its because people are allowed to make their own decisions? In the US, decisions are made for people. There are strict laws over such minuscule things in the US (and many other parts of the world).

I really enjoyed Amsterdam and would gladly go back. I am sure there is way more I could say about it but just take a look at the pics.