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!

Rothenburg ob de Tauber

This past weekend, we took our first overnight trip to Rothenburg ob de Tauber. 

It was a beautiful preserved old city with cobblestone streets, outdoor cafes, and a watchman's wall all the way around the city that you could walk.

We stayed in an adorable little old place called the Romantik Hotel.

 

 

Ben has been wearing Timothy in the Ergo carrier a lot on our little trips.  I'm glad they're getting a little bonding time since the sweet boy doesn't take bottles and therefore he and I are rarely separated.  

It gives me some time to walk around with just Caleb which I enjoy.

 

Walking on the wall - lots of stairs climbed that day. 

32 floors worth to be exact (according to FitBit).

Here, Caleb is pretending to be a soldier looking for the enemies!

 

We went to the Criminal Museum which was really gruesome and creepy.  Most of it went way over Caleb's head thank goodness but it was all about torture and punishment in the past of the city.

Not my favorite to say the least but maybe more of a guy thing?!

 

In the afternoon, Caleb, Timothy and I went back to the room to take a nap and Ben did some more exploring. 

This was glorious. 

It was wonderful to be stuck in the room with two sleeping boys having the really rough choice of taking a nap myself or reading. 

I did both and it was fabulous.

 

In the evening, starting at 8, there was a Watchman's tour in English. 

He had a great old timey accent and a sense of humor. 

He took us (and about 100 other Americans) around the city giving history and other interesting details. 

Towards the end as you can imagine, Caleb was uninterested so we stayed toward the back so he could walk around.  I met another mom there doing the same thing who actually is a mutual friend of one of the 3 friends I have here! 

God is so good to give me that encouragement and another potential friend. 

 

It was a gorgeous city that I would recommend to anyone!  This weekend, we are staying in Frankfurt and just being normal people.  Going to the mall for new work pants for Ben and maybe some Birkenstocks for me.  Eating in and finding some local fun maybe at a festival or the Palmengarten.  

Look and See trip (and I'm back!)

Hello again!!  Its been a 2 year hiatus of blogging and I'm ready to start again.  Caleb is now 3, and we now have our sweet Timothy who will be 8 months next week. 

 

And in case you haven't heard we are moving to Frankfurt, Germany for Ben's job! 

 

 

Two weeks ago Ben, Timothy, and I went to Frankfurt for our "Look and See" trip to look for housing.  It was my first taste of Germany and a good dose of reality. 

 

The 10 hour flight to Germany isn't too bad. 

You leave in the afternoon, make yourself go to sleep early by like 7pm or 8pm central time and then you wake up and you're in Germany and its 9am. 
 

Timothy slept well on me and although I didn't sleep that great (not helped by the man that was throwing up halfway through!) the excitement was enough to keep me up and trick my body into thinking it really was 9am instead of 2am. 
Maybe also helped by the fact that I haven't had a full nights sleep in 8 months so I've learned to function tired. 

 

 

 Our first stops were Heidelberg Germany (castle! below) and Strasbourg, France (above)

 

 

   

 

 

Timothy with us while looking for apartments and on the train

 

We looked at 4 apartments and chose one with 2 bedrooms (yay for baby/toddler room sharing!) (tips welcome!), one bathroom, up on the 6th floor with a covered balcony, heated flooring, a washer/dryer combo unit in the bathroom (in two of the others, you had to go down to the basement for laundry), furnished, stocked with kitchen supplies such as plates, cups etc, and a microwave (not included in most others).  Also its 100 square meters which is a little more than 1000 square feet.

  I'll post pics when we get there!

 

 

 The flight back was rough.  This picture happened in the last 20 minutes...of course!  I was by myself because Ben needed to stay an extra week and it was during the day.  Timothy slept very little and I was on the inside by the window which made it harder to get up and walk around.  At one point I tried to jump over the man next to me because he was sleeping and I bumped him in the leg and woke him up.  Awkward!

 

I learned many valuable lessons on this flight back. 

Mostly what NOT to do.

 

I cried when I saw Caleb waiting for me in the airport.  Partly just because I was so thankful to be off the plane and because I missed that little guy so much!

 

We leave Katy June 21st in the morning and then fly out of Dallas June 23rd.  2.5 weeks.

 

And then we live in Germany!