Bon Voyage Once Again

822 - The number of days since we returned from spending two months in Eastern Europe
821 - The number of days that I've been planning our next trip to Europe.

After months of planning, we're about to embark on a very brief jaunt to Europe - Belgium and Luxembourg specifically.  Until recently, I didn't think that Belgium and Luxembourg constituted "strange" or "unusual" destinations, though I've been assured they are.  I shutter to hear what people would say when they find out that my top five destinations are (in order): (1) Iran; (2) Cuba; (3) Madagascar; (4) Greenland; and (5) Russia.  Regardless, I'm excited.

This trip is so different from our last trip.  We're still backpacking, but we're staying in pretty nice hotels (not seedy hostels).  More significantly, we're only going for five days (not two months).  I've been told that the secret to taking a weekend excursion to Europe is to fly somewhere and immediately get on a train for several hours so that you can sleep through your jet lag.  That's our goal, to test this theory.

We'll arrive in Brussels tomorrow afternoon at 11:50 a.m.  Then we're going immediately hop on a three-hour train to Luxembourg City.  We're only staying in Luxembourg for two days, so we're going to have to make the most of it.  We'll be spending our time brushing up on World War II history and sights (including stopping to pay hommage at General Patton's grave) while enjoying gourmet food.  On Sunday we're going to rent a car - which, I must admit, I'm rather nervous about - and explore the country ourselves.  In particular, we're going to be driving through the Moselle Valley, the smallest wine region in the world.  Luxembourg is famous for its white and sparkeling wines, many of which are made with unique varietals that are rarely seen in the States.  If there's time, we're also going to stop in and explore Schengen, the namesake for one of the most famous European agreements in modern times.

After our short stay in Luxembourg, we're going to catch a train to Bruges for three days and celebrate New Year's Eve.  This second leg of our trip will be consumed (literally) with eating chocolate and drinking beer, with a good splash of culture and winter fun thrown in for good measure.  To prepare for our trip we watched In Bruges, which turned out to be one of the stranger movies I've seen in some time.  Five days is not nearly enough time to explore these two cities, but it's certainly better than nothing, and I couldn't be more excited.