Hello from Luxembourg

So it has been a while since we updated, we are still finding it hard to locate internet cafes. Now we are in one with a silly keyboard with no punctuation marks.

I had planned to have longer posts, describing everything we have been doing but that looks not possible with Paul sitting over my shoulder whispering "enough with that, tell them it is SNOWING!".

In short then:

Tokyo last day was fun.

Flight to Amsterdam sucked but we made it.

Amsterdam is the same as always. We ate falafel at Maoz, went to the Rijksmuseum at last, ate Pancakes at Pancake Bakery, took another canal boat cruise, wandered around in the rain and hail and Paul finally saw what all the fuss was about at the Red Light District [eww].

Train to Belgium was packed and when we hopped off at Antwerp to change trains there was a tiny bit of snow. Then we went to Gent which was lovely, but still in Belgium so it had the crazy mix of baroque and urban decay.

We both had colds, mine in my chest, and Paul's producing some horrible man flu symptoms such as fevers and really bad hair.

Brugge as a day trip was a good choice as it is wayyyy too tacky to stay there. But we did our bit for the chocolate industry, as well as indulging in frieten and waffles {with chocolate sauce of course}.

We took a lovely train ride to Luxembourg but were suprised to see so much snow in the Belgian countryside.

And now, Luxembourg. We are staying at a modern and swanky Novotel with an excellent buffet breakfast that for the first time features BACON. I am so happy about this.

Last night we wandered around the town centre for a bit before having another early night to try to sleep off our afflictions. This morning {having joked about it last night} we awoke to SNOW! After the breakfast {with bacon and sausages wrapped in bacon} we headed across to town to enjoy the snowy fairytale wonderfulness of it all.

For the first time ever we actually bought tickets for the hop on, hop off tourist bus, mostly because it was snowing and our feet were cold. Good thing we did, we discovered the lovely modern art museum, a beautiful building designed by I.M. Pei {of the Lourve pyramid fame}.

Back in town we stopped for our usual refreshments, coffee and hot chocolate, before we wandered through the markets {today seems to be a holiday here too} and entered the casements, the caves inside the city's fortifications, dating from the 10th century.

So that's it for now, expect there will be more snow to come as most of Europe is covered in a cold front. Tomorrow we head south to France where we will stay in Strasbourg for a couple of nights before we hit Switzerland.

Au revoir!