My Little Brussel Sprout: 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!