Technopolis is Totally Awesome!

Ever since we first arrived in Brussels and met Ali & her daughter Reagan (who we miss tons :o) we knew that someday we just had to pay a visit to Technopolis...kind of a cross between a science center and the magic house (for those of you from St. Louis).  They loved it so much they had annual passes.  And today, we FINALLY made it there!

It was our weekly adventure, and although it was just the two of us...we had a great time!  The place is huge and there is so much to see and do.  We really just scratched the surface and I can see why a pass is a great idea.

 Time to fill the tank...luckily this gas was free!

 Shopping anyone?

Don't forget the ice cream!

On to the construction site!  Hard hats required!

I've never seen such big legos!

Driving the ambulance...

And that was just the start...Autumn's favorite things were definitely...

The water exhibit...it was awesome and you could get all wet!

Pretending to be a Rock Star!!

 The drums were her favorite.

And training to be a track star!

It was so much fun and we were both wore out by the time we had to head home.  It was a great day and I would totally recommend it to any Brussels Mom's who haven't visited it yet.  There is so much to do and see! 

One Heck of a Date Night!

Thanks to our wonderful friends Andi & Ben, Jacob and I got to go away for the weekend...just the two of us!  One of his favorite bands, Ben Folds Five was playing in Nottingham, UK so it made for a great birthday present this year.  We flew our ever favorite airline (Ryan) and headed to Manchester for the concert last Saturday.  The weather was rainy and gross, but it still made for a nice drive through the UK country side...and it totally reminded me of our trip to Ireland a few years back.  

We were able to walk from our hotel to the concert venue which made for an easy night.  I just love traveling to the UK...it is so easy, probably mostly because the language thing, but everyone is just so nice.  I wish all our trips were that easy.

On Sunday the rain cleared up and there were blue skies so we wandered around Nottingham for a bit. The town was so cute and there was a Christmas market going on...yeah!

 Check out the crazy swings...if it wasn't freezing it might be fun!

And we of course had to go check out the Nottingham castle and Robin Hood Statue.  The actual castle is no longer standing so we didn't pay to go in the grounds, but the outside was nice.

It was a fun trip and although we missed Autumn like crazy it was so fun and easy with just the two of us!  It's a weekend we'll always remember.  Thanks Andi & Ben for giving us one heck of a date night across the pond :o)

St. Nicholas and his helpers!

We did it again...not sure if you remember, but last year I wrote this post about going to see Santa and his helpers arrive in Brussels via boat!!  And after going last year I couldn't pass up one more chance to get a rare glimpse of Santa and his unusual Spanish helpers ushering in the Christmas spirit to Brussels.

The funny thing is, the only thing that feels Christmas-y about this is Saint Nick himself.  There was music playing, but none of it was Christmas...there were helpers, but they definitely are not the elves you are used to seeing in the story books or on TV...they are grown-ups with their faces painted black wearing black curly wigs (and Autumn was completely petrified of them...she wouldn't let me put her down for fear one of the "black Pete's" as they're called, would swoop her up and take her back to Spain...which coincidentally is what the legend says they do to bad children).  But even if it wasn't the most festive of events we still had a blast hanging out with our friends!  Here are Autumn, Grace, and Brooklyn waiting for Santa to appear (and before the scary helpers went by).

Here comes the boat!!

The helpers bringing in some clementines.  I can't imagine why Autumn was so scared...ha!

And the best part of the day, getting our faces painted!

What a cute lion & butterfly!

Another interesting Belgium tradition that we got to experience.  And even if it was a cold rainy day, I'm still glad we ventured out to enjoy it with our friends.

And keeping with the holiday spirit, we visited the annual American Women's Club Holiday Bizarre last weekend to check out the goodies.  We didn't buy much...a book for Autumn, an ornament, and a beautiful book of Belgian photos from the author of Cheeseweb...a website about Belgium and European travel.  But it also was another chance for Autumn to have her face painted.  She's becoming quite the little face paint model :o)

We are definitely in the holiday spirit now!  Bring on the Christmas markets!!

Spain & Morocco! Oh my!

We have been planning this trip for a long time...really, ever since we found out we were moving here and I found the crazy travel girls blog, I had decided that we were going to go to Morocco and ride camels just like they did.  Unfortunately Jacob's been working a new job for the past few weeks and his busiest and most stressful times just happened to fall over the same weekend as our trip.  So that made things a little tricky, but we still managed to have some fun.

We arrived in Malaga, Spain early Friday morning and headed straight for Seville.  We were thinking of making a quick detour to Granada, but it was pouring down rain and we were worried we wouldn't make it to Seville in time for Jacob's meeting that afternoon, so we'll have to try and get there some other time.  We stayed at a charming hotel right in the middle of town that was close to everything, especially the famous Sevilla Cathedral.  Once the rain stopped we headed out in search of food and the sites.  And the first thing we found was the Cathedral...this is said to be the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world.

It was stunning on the inside.

The tomb of Christopher Columbus.

 

Here's another picture of the cathedral on the next day...when it was nice out.

 Check out this street performer...Jacob and I could not figure out how she did it!

The next morning we decided to finally take a horse drawn carriage ride...Autumn always loves the horsies so we decided this would be the perfect place to ride around the city in style.  Here is our lovely white horse...and some of the sites we saw along the way...

And my absolute favorite part of Seville had to be the Plaza de Espana...it was so big and beautiful and all the tile work everywhere was just beautiful!  I could have spent all day there taking pictures if Jacob would have let me :o)

And I just had to snap this picture...it was a Saturday afternoon and we saw all sorts of people dressed up like the ladies below...with big hats, fancy outfits, etc.  I don't know if they were all headed to weddings or what was going on, but it was fun to see them all dolled up!

We headed out on the road again to our next destination...Tarifa, Spain to catch a ferry to Morocco in the morning.  Tarifa is a small town without much to do or see, but it proved to be the perfect spot to stay since the ferry port was a five minute walk from our hotel.

So if any of you out there are planning a trip to Morocco from Spain I highly recommend you don't do it in November (or February from what I understand) if you get sea sick.  I've never been sea sick before in my life, but even I was feeling quit green on our one hour trip across the Strait of Gibraltar.  Somehow the three of us made it without losing our breakfast though and we were in Morocco!!  Our guide met us at the gate and we were quickly off to see Tangier.  Now Tangier is definitely not like a tourist destination.  Rick Steve's calls it the Tijuana of Morocco, but if you've only got one day it will do.  And the main point of the trip...was our 5 minute camel ride. Ha...I know that's a heck of a journey for five minutes, but honestly I'm glad it didn't last much longer...camels are kinda awkward and hard to ride...especially if you are holding on to a two year old for dear life as Jacob was!

 Jacob's face here pretty much describes how said he felt the entire time!

This picture is so blurry...I forgot to put my camera on manual for the guy...

but I don't know how they all turned out blurry...oh well.

 One of the baby camels.

 Hercules Cave

 The cats were out of control!

A market where the locals shop....I didn't take any pictures of the nasty rabbits, chickens, etc.  

Ugh...I about threw up!

And that was about it.  We were back on the boat to make the quick ride back to Spain.  I'm definitely glad we made the trip, but if we ever go back to Morocco...we will definitely be heading to one of the more touristy areas.

The next morning we were up early and off to see the Rock of Gibraltar.  It took a bit to get in since you have to go through UK border patrol, but it was fun to be able to go up on top of the rock.

And one of the first things you notice when you get to the top of the cable car lift is there are Apes everywhere!  They warn you not to get close with food or bags or they will take them!

 The view from the top was really pretty!

And lastly I had to show these pictures of the runway that runs right across the road in town. They said about 6 planes a day land/take off from here going to the UK.  And we got to experience two of them landing right when we were heading out.  The last picture you can just see the plane driving across while the road was shut down.

And that is about it.  It was a pretty good trip over all...one I'm definitely glad we did.  If you wish to see all the pictures from the trip click here.

And we'll be back next week with more Wild About Wednesday activities.