Escape to Espana

Apparently we cannot get enough of this country--we're approaching the end of our two years living in Europe, and somehow managed to squeeze a third trip back to sunny, friendly Spain.  We picked a week at the end of April/beginning of May to escape the cool Spring in Brussels and hit up the beach in Marbella (Southern Spain.) Grandma and Grandpa King gave us a time share week last Christmas, so we stayed at the gorgeous Marriott with Uncle Dale in tow!

 The beach was still a little chilly for swimming, so we enjoyed the pools at the hotel and just took walks on the sand.  All along the coast was very private and quiet with lots of cute restaurants literally right on the beach. We had so much delicious seafood- even Sofie ate paella and fish!

 We really loved the Old town of Marbella.  It is set back from the beach a little bit, and is basically built on a hill (like most towns around the area)  We found a great tapas place (lets face it, thats one of the main reasons we love Spain!), and Sofie loved the challenge of walking up and down the hilly cobblestone street.

 Another fun day trip was to the town of Mijas.  It was about 45 minutes from our hotel and set much higher in the hills- the views were great!  The day we picked was a little too cloudy, but they say on a perfectly clear day you can see Africa from Mijas.  Mijas had lots of donkeys, which were sort of touristy, but the idea came from not too long ago when the townspeople actually used them to ride up and down the hills.  At some point they realized they could profit from all the tourists who wanted to give the donkey ride a try.  This town was really what I pictured as "southern Spain" with the white buildings, bright flowers, even a very old (and open) bull fighting ring.

We found a playground in Mijas!

The best part about the trip was that it was very relaxing. We took a break from following Rick Steve's "walks", seeing museums and ancient European sights and watched sunsets on the beach drinking sangria. Thanks to Uncle Dale for the extra help, it was a great vacation!

Wine on the Rhine, You just can't say "Nein!"

Happy Easter friends!
This holiday weekend allowed the King's to take a short trip to Germany.  Just a three hour drive on Friday afternoon (mostly during nap time!) and we arrived in Bacharach.  The Rhine valley produces most of Germany's riesling wines as the grapes are grown on the sloping hills all along the river which contain the perfect balance of minerals due to the sun catching reflection to the soil. So basically theres a fairytale looking village with half-timbered buildings, set on the river, vineyards covering the rolling hills in the background, and most towns have a castle perched at the top...Wunderbar! Most of the wine producers set up "weinguts" which are little bars in the towns for people to try a carousel of different wines usually arranged from dry to sweet, mostly riesling.

Saturday we took a morning boat ride down the Rhine to a town called St Goar.  I had my guidebook and we learned about all the different castles that we passed along the way.  Most of the castles were built as tax collection stations for boats that used the Rhine for shipping goods. We had a great table (the boat had a restaurant of course) right at the front on the window.  Out of nowhere, all the Japanese tourists on the boat came running up around us, snapping photos at the cliff ahead, which made us aware of the legend of the Lorelei.  We had never heard of this, but she was a water spirit said to have sung an enchanting song causing ships to crash into the rocks.  Supposedly there is an echo-ing that occurs here which is the "song".  Didn't hear anything..but my book said that Japanese tourists are crazy about this site/legend! True!

St Goar was similar to Bacharach (same formula: cute town, vineyards, river, church, cobblestones and castle!) This castle called Burg Reinfelds was a pretty cool one, massive, and lots of fun dark passageways and arrow shooting holes.  Great view from the top too.

Sofie had her first taste of spatzle.  She loved it! Used her hands and face too :)

Sunday we tried out the new backpack on a 45 minute hike up to the Burg Eltz, a much more well taken care of castle in the Mosel valley. Great castle, pretty hike through the woods and Sofie loved the new backpack. 
That night we stayed in Bernkastle-Kues another really sweet town but this time on the Mosel river.  We went to another weingut where "Jakob" the wine producer chatted non stop about the 6 different wines he had poured us- speaking completely in German while we smiled and nodded. We understood nothing but it didn't discourage him.  The funny Abott and Costello moment was when Chris tried to buy a bottle of wine number "2" or "zwei",holding up one finger to indicate how many we wanted, while referring to it as the "dry" or what Jakob heard as "drei" meaning three in German.  Needless to say we ended up with two bottles of wine- and we aren't sure if they were even the ones we tried :)
Good times, good castles, good streusel!

Bouillon, Beer, and The Burgundian Lifestyle

In the 14th century Burgundy was not a part of France, but its own huge empire stretching from eastern France, through parts of Germany, Switzerland, and all the way up to the North Sea.  Their court was based in Dijon, and was much grander than their French rivals both culturally and economically.  Today in Belgium, the term "Burgundian Lifestyle" means the enjoyment of life, good food and entertaining company.
Well let me tell you, once we found out that relaxing all afternoon in a brasserie, enjoying a beer, coffee, or snack- had a NAME, we have been ALL over it!  With the realization that we are moving back to the States in less than four months, we decided to practice our Burgundian lifestyle on a short weekend getaway in the Belgian countryside, the Ardennes.
Saturday morning (beautiful sunny day btw!) we got up and drove down to the town of Namur, about an hour south in Wallonia.  It fit the basic Belgian town formula: river, citadel, cobblestone, restaurants, shopping, Saturday market.  We walked around, had some lunch and bought Sofie her first pair of shoes!

Boullion castle in the background 

Then on to our destination: Bouillon.  The Ardennes are the forests, hills and valleys in south of Belgium.  There are many WWII battle sites (The Battle of the Bulge, Bastogne etc)  in these parts where Belgium, France and Luxembourg meet.  Actually, if we had made a right turn 50 meters from our hotel, we would have been in France!

Town of Boullion

Bouillon has a castle on a hill with great views overlooking the town.  The town is very French feeling, and set on the Semois river.  We found a Brasserie/Hotel right on the river that Napoleon had once stayed, and enjoyed a Burgundian afternoon with an awesome resident dog!

Orval is the local abbey of Boullion, hence the beer and cheese....not sure why its served with mustard and celery salt- but it worked!

 



   The next morning we set off for Orval Abbaye, which would be our 5th of the 7 Trappiste Abbayes in the world!  Chris might say that this was the real reason for our trip to the Ardennes :)  Anyways, this was definitely my new favorite Abbaye, they had a great tour, really interesting ruins of the original abbey from the 1000's and a nice cafe.  I really like their glass too- so even though we are rapidly running out of cabinet space in our tiny kitchen, two new souvenirs have been acquired!
So I realize that I haven't got a picture of it but the Orval emblem is a fish with a golden ring in its mouth.  The legend is that Matilda of Tuscany sat on the edge of the spring (which is the current supplier of water to the abbey) and dropped her golden wedding ring in accidentally.  When she prayed for the ring to be returned, a trout appeared on the surface with the ring in its mouth- so she declared the site sacred and funded the building of the monastery.

The ruins of the original cathedral

A tout alors!

Cuckoo for Cocoa

One of the ways that I knew I was pregnant last year was the fact that chocolate- my usual obsession, actually made me nauseous.  I mean, seriously, why did we even move here if not to drink the beer or eat the chocolate?!  Ok, so that's easy, just don't go down that aisle at the grocery store, right? Welllll that wasn't exactly an option, because as it turns out, every aisle is the chocolate aisle in Belgium :)

But I'm not pregnant anymore, and back on the (chocolate covered) wagon.  Instead of racing through the store gagging, I can now fully enjoy the deliciousness of a cocoa crazy shopping trip!

Lets start with the cereal aisle.  No exaggeration, but 90% of the cereals are chocolate. We've got your basic puffs, pebbles, and chocolate granola.  "Fitness" brand cereal is sort of like a "Just Right" but with chocolate.  Special K has a whole line of dark, milk, white and even stracciatella (fancy, right!) flavored cereals.

In the refrigerated aisle they have dozens of different chocolate yogurts and puddings but most bizarre, here we find chocolate Philadelphia cream cheese and chocolate butter spread!

Two different flavors!

                                                          

Ok, im not 100% sure this is chocolate butter, but its in the refridge aisle and "Balade" is a brand of margarine

Speaking of spreads, lets take a little look at what I call  the "nutella" aisle.  It has so many shapes, sizes and flavors of spreadable chocolate!


Fun fact: This aisle is also where they hide the chocolate sprinkles... you know, in case you want a sprinkle sandwich!


Chocolate for Belgian babies?  Of course! Baby aisle includes a wide variety of chocolate baby formulas and biscuits.

Going the healthy route? The health food aisle has a ridiculous amount of chocolate options, including my favorite, chocolate covered rice cakes!


And then there is the actual chocolate chocolate aisles.  My usual grocery store has two full aisles, separated into boxed, block, bar and more candy types. Although there are tons of fabulous "fancy" chocolate shops in Brussels, there's nothing wrong with a little grocery store chocolate :)

Carnaval in Aalst

Somehow we missed this last year, but Carnaval is a BIG deal over here!  Although it is impossible to find a halloween costume in Belgium (other than a witch hat or ghost...umm sheet) they sure do break out the big guns for this holiday! After some careful research about which town to spend our "fat" Sunday we decided on Aalst because its parade looked fun and lets face it, its the closest.  This cutie town is about 30 mins away looks sort of like Ghent without the canals, or Leuven without the University.  Anyways, it was bright sunny day, we found a parking spot and headed to the Grote Market (which is always the place to be in any good Belgian town)  We were a bit early and there wasn't too much going on but the town looked ready for some rowdiness! Every store front, building and even the interiors of bars were boarded up like they were preparing for a hurricane.  Apparently the fun goes on for a few days in Aalst, and all businesses are closed until Ash Wednesday, craziness!

Enjoying a festival Brat

So what happens in an Aalst Carnaval, you ask? Well there are LOTS of men dressed as women, there are blood oranges thrown, there is a lively and musical parade that goes on for hours, there is a lot of boozing, and many costumes that we in the King family simply don't "get"
Anywho, we had a great time- surely didn't stay for the whole thing because it was getting really cold.  Sofie was nice and warm in her new sheepskin stroller bag (like an Ugg sleeping bag!) but Chris and I were cold to a point no amount of gluwein could cure.

P.S....Happy Valentines Day!

The hills are alive with the sound of...

Sofie. Screaming. From the backseat.
I'm exaggerating, she actually did pretty well.  But, yes we decided to test our fussy little road-traveller with a trip to the Austrian Alps this past weekend.  Granted we didn't win any awards for speed but I think we can say that she will *tolerate* an adventure in the Audi when given a steady supply of cookies, toys, songs and stop breaks.

It was so worth it though! One of Chris' co-workers had recommended that we go to the Tirol region of Austria, to ski in the Zugspitz Arena.  We did a little research and found a town called Berwang with a reasonable hotel right on the mountain, literally next to a chair-lift. The place was called the Singer Sporthotel and like I told the countless hotel employees who asked constantly how we were doing, I never wanted to leave! Seriously are all Austrians this nice?  They insisted that we bring Sofie to dinner each night in their delicious restaurant which was way to fancy for an 8-month old. We had always had a special table set up with her chair, special food for her, and when she really could make it any longer (they were like 6 course meals!) they gladly sent the rest up to our room.  Members of the Singer family were always stopping us to say hi, it was so nice!  They have a spa, fun daily activities, even warmers for your ski boots! 

Hanging out with our "Singer family" in the lounge

On Saturday morning Chris went out for a little snowboarding while Sofie and I hit up the indoor/outdoor heated pool.  Since we missed our swimming class this week, we made sure to sing all of our regular pool songs :)

Having a few poolside Cheerios

Sunday we got a babysitter for Sofie and Chris and I hit the slopes.  The conditions were perfect, it was snowing lightly all day, and nothing but powder!