Take a look!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Our Artist
Yesterday, Grace did some painting.... and it was really the first time that her masterpieces actually looked like what she was telling me they were. We were super impressed!
Take a look!
Take a look!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Chatting with Audrey
Audrey, Grace and I were chatting at the dinner table tonight - Matt's in London. She was being so cute doing her signs and some pseudo words. As soon as I got the camera out though, her attitude started...... but it is still cute to see her 'chatting', and especially when she settles down to look for her sister. She LOVES her.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
A day trip to Bruges, Belgium
The forecast called for a pretty decent day on Saturday so we headed to Bruges. Bruges is about an hour away, so we headed out just in time for Audrey's morning nap. Matt had never been to Bruges before, but Katie and I went almost 10 years ago. I think it looks the same, albeit much more crowded, as it was a lovely Saturday versus a dreary day mid-week when Katie and I visited.
Some people call Bruges 'the Venice of the North', or 'Belgium's Amsterdam'. But it is one of Europe's best preserved medieval cities.
It's really a beautiful town to visit. It's full of old, cobbled lanes and canals. We didn't do a boat tour, but it is a big attraction. Maybe next time. The lines were long yesterday, and our little travelers are not good line waiters. I think we should save that for a week day visit when things aren't so busy!
Bruges is also well known for it's chocolate. There are quite a few 'artisan' chocolatiers in Bruges. One I've been wanting to try for a long time is Dumon. Of course, she is featured in Rick Steves. And he does not steer us wrong. Madame Dumon is featured in Rick's PBS episode on Bruges, and I recognized her immediately when I stepped in the shop. She was very gracious, and even offered Grace a piece of chocolate for free. It helps that Mama was buying the mother load! :)
Actually, I didn't get the largest box..... but maybe next time! It is divine! I am going to need an intervention after this is all said and done. I can't even eat Godiva anymore! Even though it was originally Belgian, it's now owned by a Turkish company and much too 'mainstream' and mass produced. The smaller shops, like Mary and Dumon are so much better!
For a link to all of my Bruges pictures, click here: Bruges June 2012
Some people call Bruges 'the Venice of the North', or 'Belgium's Amsterdam'. But it is one of Europe's best preserved medieval cities.
It's really a beautiful town to visit. It's full of old, cobbled lanes and canals. We didn't do a boat tour, but it is a big attraction. Maybe next time. The lines were long yesterday, and our little travelers are not good line waiters. I think we should save that for a week day visit when things aren't so busy!
Bruges is also well known for it's chocolate. There are quite a few 'artisan' chocolatiers in Bruges. One I've been wanting to try for a long time is Dumon. Of course, she is featured in Rick Steves. And he does not steer us wrong. Madame Dumon is featured in Rick's PBS episode on Bruges, and I recognized her immediately when I stepped in the shop. She was very gracious, and even offered Grace a piece of chocolate for free. It helps that Mama was buying the mother load! :)
Actually, I didn't get the largest box..... but maybe next time! It is divine! I am going to need an intervention after this is all said and done. I can't even eat Godiva anymore! Even though it was originally Belgian, it's now owned by a Turkish company and much too 'mainstream' and mass produced. The smaller shops, like Mary and Dumon are so much better!
For a link to all of my Bruges pictures, click here: Bruges June 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
First Day of Summer!
Brussels cooperated with the weather for the official kickoff of Summer, and the girls were able to wear sundresses!!! Here's an impromptu photo shoot after music class today.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Audrey's Hangout
Good thing our fireplace is faux.... it is Audrey's favorite place to hang out.
I love this face! It's her 'ooooo, what is that?' face.
Hanging with her posse.
I love this face! It's her 'ooooo, what is that?' face.
Hanging with her posse.
Apparently someone was getting out of line!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
Gymnastics Show
Last Monday Grace had her 'show' at Little Gym. The show was introduced by Grace's favorite teacher, Margali in both French and English. There are at least 3 English speakers in the class, so they try to repeat back in English as much as possible to help.
I cut this video off thinking Grace wouldn't be taking her turn for a little while... and what do you know, she came busting out and dove over the cylinder mat, catching Margali off guard, and face planted. Not a great way to start her show!!
But after awhile, she demonstrated all of the sections.
Not sure what to call this section...
Uneven bars
Too shy to receive her award
Her class
I cut this video off thinking Grace wouldn't be taking her turn for a little while... and what do you know, she came busting out and dove over the cylinder mat, catching Margali off guard, and face planted. Not a great way to start her show!!
But after awhile, she demonstrated all of the sections.
Not sure what to call this section...
Uneven bars
Balance beam
Too shy to receive her award
Her class
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Castles & Wine, Mosel & Rhine - The Last Installment
On Tuesday we finished off our visit with a walk around quaint little Beilstein, and a climb up to Burg Metternich. Like I mentioned, Beilstein only has about 180 residents. And apparently all 180 run the 30 hotels and eateries located there. Our hotel was fabulous. Not only was our room perfect, but the restaurant was also really good. And the wine was good, too.
The castle above Beilstein is known as Burg Metternich. It is just a ruin today. But the views are wonderful.
Climbing up...
Above the castle is an old Jewish cemetery. For 700 years leading up 1942, Beilstein had a Jewish community. Today, however, there are no longer any Jews living in Beilstein.
Looking back towards the castle....
On our way back down, we stopped off at the church, and ran into some Georgia Bulldog fans from Marietta. They snapped this picture of us. They were riding the equivalent of 180 miles on bike along the Mosel River.
Lots of pictures of our entire trip in this album: Mosel & Rhine 2012
It was a great trip! If we cross off all our other places to see, we would love to go back!
The castle above Beilstein is known as Burg Metternich. It is just a ruin today. But the views are wonderful.
Climbing up...
Above the castle is an old Jewish cemetery. For 700 years leading up 1942, Beilstein had a Jewish community. Today, however, there are no longer any Jews living in Beilstein.
Looking back towards the castle....
On our way back down, we stopped off at the church, and ran into some Georgia Bulldog fans from Marietta. They snapped this picture of us. They were riding the equivalent of 180 miles on bike along the Mosel River.
Lots of pictures of our entire trip in this album: Mosel & Rhine 2012
It was a great trip! If we cross off all our other places to see, we would love to go back!
Monday, June 4, 2012
Castles & Wine, Mosel & Rhine - Part Three
On Monday, we went to Burg Eltz. It is Rick Steves most favorite castle in all of Europe, so of course it topped our 'Must See' list.
Burg Eltz has been left in tact for over 700 years, and is furnished as it was 500 years ago. Eltz means stream in German, so it means Castle on the Stream.
So this castle we got to walk down to.... it is hidden deep in a forest. A mostly pleasant walk down hill. Especially since I was attempting my first time with Audrey on my back in the Ergo carrier. But as you can imagine......quite the workout on the way back up, and she made sure I knew exactly how she felt about it!
My other hiking companions......
Unfortunately, you can't take any pictures inside. But if you watch the Rick Steves Rhine and Mosel episode, it looks exactly the same!! It was well worth the visit. They have an English language tour every 30 minutes or so, so we waited patiently for that. I had to keep passing crackers back to my little koala, and bouncing around to keep her from screeching too much, but it really was worth the visit. The castle itself is compromised of 3 separate buildings. We were able to tour 2 of them. The third is still inhabited by the Eltz family! Could you imagine?! There was a modern day family photograph on display with children. "So where do you live?" "Oh, just that castle down on the stream over there...."
Burg Eltz has been left in tact for over 700 years, and is furnished as it was 500 years ago. Eltz means stream in German, so it means Castle on the Stream.
So this castle we got to walk down to.... it is hidden deep in a forest. A mostly pleasant walk down hill. Especially since I was attempting my first time with Audrey on my back in the Ergo carrier. But as you can imagine......quite the workout on the way back up, and she made sure I knew exactly how she felt about it!
My other hiking companions......
Unfortunately, you can't take any pictures inside. But if you watch the Rick Steves Rhine and Mosel episode, it looks exactly the same!! It was well worth the visit. They have an English language tour every 30 minutes or so, so we waited patiently for that. I had to keep passing crackers back to my little koala, and bouncing around to keep her from screeching too much, but it really was worth the visit. The castle itself is compromised of 3 separate buildings. We were able to tour 2 of them. The third is still inhabited by the Eltz family! Could you imagine?! There was a modern day family photograph on display with children. "So where do you live?" "Oh, just that castle down on the stream over there...."
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Castles & Wine, Mosel & Rhine - Part Two
Sunday morning we went down to breakfast in the dining room, where we learned our little mini-Audrey is a huge lover of German breakfast cold cuts. Girlfriend must have downed several pieces of some kind of wurst! She may actually pack some pounds on now......ha! She doesn't sit still long enough!
This picture is from the website of the hotel, but I wanted to show how neat the room was. I think it was once a Knight's Hall.
After breakfast, we headed over to St. Goar, Germany, which is along the Rhine River. It was a perfect hour drive for Audrey to sleep off her cold cuts as we winded through the mountains that separate the rivers.
We parked at Rheinfels Castle with the intention of ending up back here in time to do a tour before it closed for the day. According to Rick Steves, it is one of the best castles in the Rhineland. So we headed down hill (on foot, mind you!!!) to St. Goar.
That descent (and future ascent on the way back up) should have been our first clue that we would not be touring Rheinfels Castle.
We decided to do a river cruise. Rick Steves describes the hour long stretch between St. Goar and Bacharach, Germany as the best for castle viewing. So that's what we did. We traveled on the Goethe. It was a paddle wheel boat (pic below stolen from the company's website). And we thought would be a perfect way to see the sights....
Not so perfect. It's almost fully enclosed. There are a few small viewing decks. But from inside, it's really hard to see anything...... so on one of the first stops when people got off, we made a quick beeline towards the deck on the back so we could have a better view. It ended up working out pretty well. There were a bunch of friendly Americans out there that let us weasel our way in and get some good shots.
Pfalz Castle is shown in Rick Steves show on the Rhine and Mosel areas (can you tell yet that we are big fans?), and is described as a ship shaped castle built by a "Robber Baron" to levy taxes on ships as they made passage up and down the river.
We bid farewell to our paddle boat in Bacharach, Germany....about an hour away (by boat) from where we started, and we were greeted with this site:
Isn't that almost what you envision when you think of Germany? Timbered buildings and castles on the hill? If there had been a guy walking by in liederhosen carrying a beer stein, it would be almost quintessential!
Bacharach was a cute town. We wandered around for a bit, and decided that maybe we wanted to wander a bit more, and maybe not see Rheinfels castle back in St. Goar after all. It probably wouldn't have been any fun for the girls anyway..... and that climb!! So we ordered our first scoop of Riesling ice cream, and it was surprisingly very good!!
Once we were done wandering in Bacharach we caught the 10 minute train back to St. Goar, and found a place for dinner. Matt ordered Pork Knuckle!! It sounds scarier then it was. It was pretty much ham. So you know he was happy! He worked it off retrieving the car while the girls and I wandered on flat ground along the river. He's so good!
We made our way back to the hotel, put the girls to bed, and retired to our beautiful terrace. Sunday night's entertainment was brought to us by our nesting Mama swan.
Someones dog got off the leash and made a mad dash at Mama swan and she went ballistic! She proved to me why I am really paranoid about the girls around swans!!
This picture is from the website of the hotel, but I wanted to show how neat the room was. I think it was once a Knight's Hall.
We parked at Rheinfels Castle with the intention of ending up back here in time to do a tour before it closed for the day. According to Rick Steves, it is one of the best castles in the Rhineland. So we headed down hill (on foot, mind you!!!) to St. Goar.
That descent (and future ascent on the way back up) should have been our first clue that we would not be touring Rheinfels Castle.
We decided to do a river cruise. Rick Steves describes the hour long stretch between St. Goar and Bacharach, Germany as the best for castle viewing. So that's what we did. We traveled on the Goethe. It was a paddle wheel boat (pic below stolen from the company's website). And we thought would be a perfect way to see the sights....
Pfalz Castle is shown in Rick Steves show on the Rhine and Mosel areas (can you tell yet that we are big fans?), and is described as a ship shaped castle built by a "Robber Baron" to levy taxes on ships as they made passage up and down the river.
We bid farewell to our paddle boat in Bacharach, Germany....about an hour away (by boat) from where we started, and we were greeted with this site:
Isn't that almost what you envision when you think of Germany? Timbered buildings and castles on the hill? If there had been a guy walking by in liederhosen carrying a beer stein, it would be almost quintessential!
Bacharach was a cute town. We wandered around for a bit, and decided that maybe we wanted to wander a bit more, and maybe not see Rheinfels castle back in St. Goar after all. It probably wouldn't have been any fun for the girls anyway..... and that climb!! So we ordered our first scoop of Riesling ice cream, and it was surprisingly very good!!
Once we were done wandering in Bacharach we caught the 10 minute train back to St. Goar, and found a place for dinner. Matt ordered Pork Knuckle!! It sounds scarier then it was. It was pretty much ham. So you know he was happy! He worked it off retrieving the car while the girls and I wandered on flat ground along the river. He's so good!
We made our way back to the hotel, put the girls to bed, and retired to our beautiful terrace. Sunday night's entertainment was brought to us by our nesting Mama swan.
Someones dog got off the leash and made a mad dash at Mama swan and she went ballistic! She proved to me why I am really paranoid about the girls around swans!!
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