Six Snaps

Notting Hill

Marylebone Sunday Farmers Market

Soho

Sunset on Regent Street

"In memory of fallen friends"

Remembrance Sunday

Chihuly at the V&A

xx

Brussels Day 3

We started out with breakfast in bed on my last day in Brussels. Of course, the nutella beignets were present.

We dropped my bag at a friends house and I fell in love with this piece from Ikea…look at those shadows! 

gorgeous colors of autumn en route to the Horta museum

Soph had been to the museum before and mentioned to me what I was in for. I won't lie, Art Nouveau is not my exactly my speciality, nor did I know anything about Horta's life or artistic style and contributions to the Art Nouveau movement in Brussels.

The building is jammed in the middle of the block, next to all other residential houses, yet Horta's is unique in the attention to detail of the stone and iron facade. 

Unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside and in a way, I'm almost glad it is not welcomed because I don't think it would do the house justice. He truly transformed his own residence into the style that he was pioneering, making the interior a piece of elaborate art with marble flooring and intricate ironwork throughout most of the rooms. The kitchen is probably my favorite room, with a swirling mosaic tile floor, floods of natural light, and tiled walls.

Horta designed and built the house from 1898 to 1901 and lived and worked in the house and studio downstairs until 1915, when he sold both separately. They were bought by the city of Brussels and created into this wonderful museum. For only 4 euro, I really recommend taking 30-45 minutes to walk through this 

Afterward, we walked to grab some frites, salad, and more Belgian beer.

In some ways Brussels reminded me of San Francisco, especially with the tram running alongside you, the amount of young families everywhere, the houses all stacked on top of one another that still manage to look different than one another, and of course, the love of good, fresh food.

Of course, Brussels is Socialist and has a deeper historical life than San Francisco, since it has been around since the 10th century and has experienced both World Wars. It is also a historically Dutch speaking city, that also speaks French and English.

This stunning building is now an Abercrombie & Fitch...

a quick & delicious hot chocolate

I picked up some chocolates to bring back for Kelsey and headed to the train back to London! A great, but short trip, I was still happy to see London Saturday evening, as I always am upon returning to this world class city. 

Hope you had a great Monday!

xx

Brussels Days 1&2

Thursday afternoon I took the train to Brussels to see Sophie and explore Belgium, a country I'd never been to before. I settled into her cozy apartment, unpacked, and made dinner, then wasted no time and were immediately out the door to try some Belgium beer!

Le Grand Place

So this happened…

We had a good laugh and ended up snacking on some frites with samurai sauce! 

The next morning we started our day off properly: visiting a bakery to grab a quiche and nutella beignets…who knew those existed?

heaven

While this lovely lady went to class, I got lost on my way to the museums & happily explored the city.

Once I found the museum, I spent the entire time in the Magritte Museum. 

Soph came to meet me to cover the rest of the museum, which I also thoroughly enjoyed.

Afterwards, we headed downtown and had to get some waffles on our way.

After walking around and doing a bit of window shopping, we popped into an oyster bar to sneak out of the cold.

The man who served us told us he's been working there for 50 years. We had the place to ourselves and were two happy chicas when we walked out.

We headed home to freshen up, nap, and then back out for a traditional dinner of moules-frites at Scheltema.

crab & lobster ravioli 

my lovely date

sorry for the poor quality on some of these pics-only had the phone at some points- but you get the gist. A huge steaming pot of mussels smothered in white wine sauce and some veggies accompanied by a trough of crispy fries. Delish!

xx