Another trip down the road to Ghent

My cousin Keith and his wife Amy are living in Dresden, Germany for the next few months while he works on a project with the University there related to his architecture doctorate....and we were lucky enough to have them come visit us this past weekend. I should start by saying the weather here the past week has been absolutely amazing! Which totally stinks because I have been feeling absolutely miserable and unable to enjoy it (stupid cold) :o(

We are talking days of mid 70's temps and perfectly clear skies...not a cloud in sight! Really unheard of around here! But when we found out Keith and Amy were coming there was no way I was going to sit around the house....so we decided to venture back to Ghent, Belgium. As you saw in my last post, Ghent is a charming little town about 30 minutes outside of Brussels...filled with waterways, beautiful old churches, and quant little restaurants and buildings. We headed there for lunch as soon as they arrived (well after we gave them the tour...and Autumn emptied her underwear drawer for them...haha)...although as we learned getting any where fast was going to be the challenge of the day. Our quick half hour trip turned in to at least an hour drive as we sat in traffic on the highway due to an accident...oh well, it gave us a chance to chat :o)

We finally got to town around 1:30 I think and found a little restaurant to dine at. There wasn't anything going on in Ghent on Sunday, but the town was sure buzzing...everyone...and I mean EVERYONE was out enjoying the sunshine! We found a table outside and enjoyed some sandwiches while we watched the streams of people passing by. I think Keith and Amy got quite a kick out of our hungry little girl...Autumn showed them her famous shovel move...meaning shoveling handfuls of pasta in to her mouth at a time...it's quite a site!! It is just amazing how much food this girl can consume! Unfortunately meals in Europe are never a quick venture...so by the time we finished up it was already after 3 PM and we had promised to have them back on the road by 5 so we had to hurry!

After lunch we did a quick tour around the town and then headed out as it was already nearing 4 PM and we still wanted to show them Grand Place in Brussels. We again (thanks to our GPS) took the long way to get there and so pretty much ran in and out of Grand Place quickly...grabbing a waffle on the way of course. Even with all our best efforts we didn't get back to the apartment until 6 PM...so much for getting on the road by 5...sorry Keith and Amy! They did e-mail and say they made it to their next stop in time to check in to their hotel thank goodness! And even though it was a rushed day and we spent more time in the car than we hoped we still had a great time with them and are so glad they were able to stop by for the day! Hopefully we'll be able to make it up to Dresden in the next few months so they can show us around!!

Here are a few pictures from the day!





Oh, and these aren't from Ghent, but I just had to post these...a few pictures I took of my little cutie today...

Our New Home - Brussels, Belgium 2011

Ok, so as promised here is a before and after video of our new apartment (down at the bottom). I split the before one in to two videos for some reason so the first half is the front part of the apartment and the second half are just the bedrooms in the back (ours and Autumns). Honestly I'm pretty shaky while carrying the camera around...it kinda even made me a little queasy watching it, so for those with a weak stomach, maybe just stick to the pictures below...haha! It's hard to get the full picture of the layout, etc, but you still get a good idea :o) And if you really want to watch a video I recommend the one of the finished apartment...it's pretty boring without anything in it!! :o)

Entry Hall

Family Room

Dining Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Spare Bedroom

Autumn's Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Our First Visitor

Last weekend we were lucky enough to have Jacob's Dad Eldon come spend the weekend with us as our first guest in Brussels. Eldon travels to Europe a couple times a year for work so when a trip to France came up he was able to make a detour to Brussels for the weekend! Autumn was so excited to see her Grandpa and she had a great time showing off her new walking and talking skills!

Autumn doesn't say that many words clearly yet, but sometimes she will talk for what seems like hours straight. Just walking around the house gabbing away...to herself or anyone that will listen...it's so cute! The words we know for sure she says are: Momma, Dadda, hi, nini (that's her binky), quack, and doggy. We also sometimes think we have heard thank you and welcome...she's so polite :o)

Anyway...back to our weekend...we decided we would venture over to Ghent Belgium to check it out. It is supposed to be similar to Brugge, but a little less touristy...and a little closer to home...it was only about a 40 minute drive. When we arrived we weren't exactly sure where the main part of town was. Our "501 Must Visit Cities" book talked about the beautiful old architecture along the waterways and three churches as the main attractions. So when we found the river we just went ahead and parked and headed off towards the steeples. We came to find out later we were a bit far away from the main drag, but we have fun exploring the town while we searched for it. We had lunch in this cute little pizzeria called Pinnochio's. And one thing I have noticed so far when we do try and eat out with Autumn...everyone has always been so nice and welcoming...they always want to love on her and call her "belle" for beautiful, but they also are so formal all the time and don't seem to understand that's she's a one year old. Haha! Like at the pizzeria, we had brought some food in for Autumn and were feeding it to her off a plastic saucer...and the waiter quickly came over and insisted we put her food on a GLASS plate and give her a paper napkin. As you can imagine within minutes she was picking up the fine china threatening to toss it to the ground and had the napkin torn into a thousand pieces. I love that they treat her so well...I just hope our table manners improve soon :o)

Ok sorry...this has become the tangent post. So back to Ghent...it was a great town to explore and it definitely was alive on this lovely Saturday afternoon. There was a music festival going on...with opera music, these crazy guys playing horns and blowing glitter (see the picture below...they kinda freaked me out a bit to be honest), and this crazy lady floating down the river on a bunch of umbrellas. And of course we got to see lots of awesome old beautiful architecture. My cousin Keith and his wife Amy are coming to visit this Sunday and since they are both Architects we might just have to go back to have another look. Below are some of the pictures from Ghent.









On Sunday we had quite an interesting day...it was "no car Sunday" in Brussels...which meant you were not allowed to drive in the city between the hours of 7 AM and 7 PM (unless you have a permit or were a cab driver since it's their livelihood). From what we've heard they do this once a year in Brussels and people can take public transportation for free...and essentially "play" in the streets. There was bikers, roller bladers, strollers, and even a crazy guy windsurfing down the street! It was quite a scene!!

Here is the view out our window...

And a few more from the street...

It turned out to be a pretty neat idea...and we're looking forward to participating in it next year...maybe even riding on the street! We decided though to opt for the free tram rides this year...so we hopped on and headed down to Grand Place. We indulged in a delicious street waffle...yum! And checked out manekin pis. All the regular tourist stuff. I made the mistake of taking a picture of these men dressed like statues...who then quickly came out of character to demand that I pay them 2 euros. What...there was no sign! I obliged...I'd hate to see a mad statue! And they then proceeded to force me to pose for cheesy shots with them. Ugh...I just wanted out of there! Last time I take a shot of street artists :o)

Eldon was able to stay through Monday so we headed over to Atomium and BruPark Village for some lunch (both mentioned in previous posts). After lunch we drove over to Waterloo to visit the Butte de Lion...a mound that was built to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo where Emperor Napoleon and his army were defeated. We discovered you had to pay to climb the giant mound so we just walked around the outskirts and snapped a couple of photos. We will likely venture in sometime when we have more time and energy to climb the 300+ steps :o)



Thank you Eldon for coming to spend a fun weekend with us! We look forward to your next one and to our next visitors this weekend!!

Three Countries - One Day

This past Saturday we headed to "Drie Landen Punt" or (3 Land Point in English). It is located on the outskirts of a quant little town in the Netherlands called Vaals. It is, as the name suggests, where Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands all meet up. I have to say, probably the best part of the trip was the drive. This was our first trip heading East out of Brussels and it was a much more scenic drive. Some rolling hills, flower fields, etc. Nothing too spectacular, but it just felt nice...I'm sure it had something to do with the blue skies stretching as far as the eye could see. Once we got off the interstate the little towns we passed through along the way were as cute and charming as could be...I felt a little like we were back in Ireland.

We had a little trouble finding the actual Drie Landen Point because all we knew when we left the house was that it was in Vaals. Occasionally there were some signs, but we mostly just followed the GPS map to where it appeared the three countries met up. We thought we had arrived at it when we saw this look out tower.

So we pulled over and had some lunch. Ginormous hamburgers piled high with all sorts of junk and some delicious frites...served with the famous mayonnaise. I'm sure we could have ordered something a little more exciting, but the menu was all in Dutch and we had no idea what anything was...oh and the waiter did not speak any English. So when we saw hamburgers on the menu we just went with it...especially since those are usually safe for Autumn to eat with her allergies.

After lunch we decided to head up in the lookout tower. Autumn was having fun running around, but then started getting a little unsure of walking on anything where you could see the people below you.




The views were quite pretty from up there too...

We headed down the tower and went looking for the actual point. Turns out we weren't as close as we thought...after walking down the road a ways we finally found the actual area...with it's own lookout tower and shops and eateries. We had just gotten a little excited and pulled over to early I guess. We of course then had to pose for our picture...each of us in a different country. So here Autumn is in the Netherlands, Jacob is in Germany, and I am in Belgium.

In this next one I'm sitting in the Netherlands with one hand in Germany and one in Belgium.

Unfortunately before we could snap Jacob's picture sitting in one country with his hands in the others a huge crowd of people came and kinda took over the spot...so we decided to move on.

On our way home we took a slight detour and visited the town of Maastricht, Netherlands because of a recommendation from our new friend Ali. It is supposed to be the oldest town in the Netherlands. We didn't have much time to explore, but what we did see was very charming! There was a river running through the city. A large shopping area where we saw some young kids having a blast entertaining the crowds with music and their funny outfits! Winding streets with old churches and cute shops. It was a great little town...one we will definitely have to head back to sometime when we have a little more time for exploring!

A few more pictures I just had to post before I go because I know this is getting long...the first is a picture of a dog in a store. I've been telling everyone that dogs are allowed anywhere here...so I thought this picture showing a dog taking a nap in a fancy women's clothing store pretty much summed it up :o) And the second was a bike lot in Maastricht, Netherlands...have you ever seen so many bikes?!? And you should have seen how many people were riding their bikes...I'm sure partially because of the nice weather that day, but seriously there were more bikes than cars on the road!! It was crazy!

All in all...I'd say it was a great day!

Turned up with nil in "Lille"

Well that's not entirely true...we did buy a pack of 50 blank cds...haha!

So as I mentioned in my previous post we headed to Lille, France this past weekend for their annual flea market. The promise was lots of "junk", lots of people, and fabulous moules et frites (mussels and fries)...Jacob was excited about that last part :o) although he ended up eating a sandwich instead because we didn't want to take the time for a sit down lunch.

And it was just as promised...








After finally getting through traffic and finding a place to park (people were parked everywhere...on the sidewalks, on the medians, even in the middle of the road) we headed off to the market...which pretty much took over the entire town. It was kind of a cross between a garage sale and a flea market....there was a lot of crap, but also some really cool items that had we had a dolly and a truck I totally would have taken advantage of. Unfortunately though we did not really think it through very well...our car was no where near where most of the booths were so if we found anything we wanted we would have to carry it (baby in tow as well) back to our car. And although our car is not as little as we originally expected, it is also not huge...so it would only fit a few small treasures...like blank cds...ha! So although we did enjoying walking around and taking it all in on this gorgeous day, we did come home basically empty handed and will continue our search for some cool antique items back home in Brussels.

In other news...we are official members of the American Women's Club now...woohoo!! We also signed up for their "Hints for Living in Brussels" course which starts in a few short weeks! We also joined the Brussels Childbirth Trust which has play dates in each of the Brussels communes. And we will be attending our first play date next Tuesday thanks to our new friend Ali (pronounced "Eli") who we met at the Women's club yesterday. It turns out we are nearly neighbors and both have little girls close in age (I was beginning to think everyone here only had little boys so it was great to find another girl Mom :o) Unfortunately she will be moving back to the US in December, but hopefully we can plan some outings together in the next few months. It's just so great to meet someone nice who understands what it's like to be new here.

Lastly, I know I promised a "tour" of the apartment and it is still coming...the movers finally came back and collected the boxes yesterday...so after a little straightening up I'll be ready to show it off...so check back soon.