Belgium - Brussels and Bruges!

Belgium! 

 

 

Our hotel was about a mile downhill (uphill back!) to the city center which made for a good walk each day hence the 32 floors and 17,000+ steps that day. 

 

Here we are on the way to the city center. 

In the interest of transparency, I'll just tell you that Caleb cried the whole way there that morning because he wanted to ride in the stroller.  Turns out 3 year olds are 3 year olds even in Belgium.  There was lots of drama over the stroller that weekend.  Lots of opportunities for character building for us all lol! 

 

On our walk, we found the most quaint little place to eat breakfast in.  Croissants, jam, hazelnut spread, eggs, and bacon and hot black tea. 

So wonderful (especially after our emotional and cold rainy walk there). 

Timothy also is in the little finger foods stage while still eating some purees to make sure he still gets enough food.  Its made restaurants soooo much better as he really could sit for about an hour eating little finger foods.

 

Some of the city

 

This is Caleb in the Grand Place - the old town square.  We forgot diapers and jackets and the first day it was rainy and cold so we bought this blue striped jacket for him. 

 

Without knowing it, we ate at the same restaurant in a different location on Sunday. 

Wonderful breakfast. 

On accident, I got the almond croissant.  Oh my - this is my new favorite pastry. 

It has some amazing almond yumminess inside and they have it here in Germany too at some of the pastry shops. 

 

Its hard to see in this picture, but this is the Manneken Pis which is exactly what it sounds like it is...a statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain.  Yes its actually one of the main attractions of Brussels.

 

Family pic in the Grand Place!

 

Next up...Italy!

Germany: The First week

We made it to Germany!  We flew out on Tuesday, June 23rd on the 3:55 flight. 

So we've been here just about a week.

Before we left, we sold our house, our cars, and the majority of our furniture. 

Over the past few weeks, we gave away several truck beds full of stuff and are storing mainly kitchen items, a few pieces of furniture, and just general décor and other keepsake items in our families' attics.  It was hard to let things go but now that we're here and all I have is what we brought in our {6 large} suitcases, I barely miss it.  We have a shipment of 1000lbs coming and there are several things I'm looking forward to having for convenience sake but other than that, really I don't miss the stuff.  It feels good and free.

 

The flight was interesting...Caleb did great for the first half but then was sooo excited to be on the plane, he didn't fall asleep until 6 hours in at 10pm.  He kept insisting that it wasn't a bed! 

That left only about 3-4 hours of sleep for him {and me!}. 

Timothy and Ben got about 6 hours of sleep.  We all were very tired when we got off the plane.

Every time we got in the car over the first few days, both boys were instantly fast asleep. 

One day this happened right before bedtime and it was disasterous.  Both boys up until 11:30pm. 

 

This was the first morning in Germany. 

Caleb and Timothy woke up and came and laid in our bed and fell back asleep. 

That would NEVER happen on a normal day.

 

 

We moved into our apartment on Thursday.  It was the least eventful move-in ever.  Just carried up our suitcases and started putting things away.  After we got our keys, we went to ikea and bought a crib, a high chair, a blanket, and some hangers.  Here's a picture from driving around the city.

And this is our street and our apartment building!  And that's my bus!

This is our new building, top floor with the balcony.  Caleb still doesn't quite understand that the whole building is not his house, just a part of it.  Its not put together yet inside so I'll post pics of that later but we are loving the space.  1000 square feet (100 square meters to be exact) is not feeling as small as I thought it might.  The boys sharing a room has gone fine so far mainly because Caleb is an amazing sleeper and sleeps through all of Timothy's waking up.  

The view from our balcony - it looks out onto a park and soccer field and in the distance are some hills/mountians. 

Beautiful at sunset!

Our first days in the apartment were busy and full with getting set up, going to Ikea and grocery store to get some essentials, registering with the city, and going to the immigration office. 

So nice to have our own space after several days of hopping around and after a month of living in between house showings and packing. 

Our apartment was new bed #6 in a row.  And the final one for a while!  We were in Katy, then Dallas, then Arlington, then the plane, then a hotel in Germany, then finally our German Apartment!  

Caleb in his new "brothers" room.  Calling the landlord at some point to make those into bunkbeds to give us more space!

 

This is from a few nights ago at about 10pm. 



 

It's 7 hours ahead here so our day is just winding down.  Daddy's about to be home and dinner's about to be cooking.  Another Germany day in the books!