Winter in Brussels

One of the best things about winter in Brussels is the availability and variety of "chocolate chaud." I just love that most events for Belgians somehow involve drinking a hot chocolate.  The best I've found was a cafe near Chatelain where they give you a cup of hot milk with a huge block of Belgian chocolate on a stick for you to mix yourself.  It. is. Amazing.
Even though its cold out, we haven't stopped going to the park.  Our lovely Parc Cinquantanaire is just up the street and there is always something to see or do.  The latest new discovery: there are BIRDS in the park and they like to eat Cheerios! Actually this was my nightmare because I hate birds, especially pigeons, but Sofie was so excited we stayed for a while.  She had dropped like ONE cheerio, and instantly 10-15 pigeons showed up.

Hanging out in the Park

Last week to get out of the cold for a bit we stopped in at the Musee Royeux D'art et d'histoire.  They were having a exhibition on Marie Josee, the Princess of Belgium.  My French is still not great but I was able to gather that she was a daughter of King Leopold, born in the 1920's, married an Italian prince. Mostly I took away from it that she rich, pretty and fashionable, and many of her great evening gowns, and her wedding dress were on display.

A little dusting of snow

Sofie came back from Christmas in America with a new skill: crawling! I found a really nice place on avenue D'Audergeim called L'Espace Famille which is basically a huge room filled with toys, games and even an indoor slide.  It's free to go, and open most days.  Sofie was mostly interested in standing up on a little activity table, a barn toy, and the noisiness in general (she even let out a few random squeals to join in!)  One little girl kept running over and zipping her hoodie zipper up and down- but Sofie didn't blink an eye, in fact she really didn't interact with any of the other babies at all. Maybe next time

We are still swimming and singing on Fridays which Sofie is loving. The pool is really warm and she just lays back and relaxes. I have to bring my camera one of these days!

Happy New Year

One of my resolutions this year was to stay on top of my blogging, as it was starting to become ridiculous trying to recall details from a trip 5 months ago. Hopefully I'll find that New Year, New camera and Newly predictable napping baby will be a good combination and keep us in the present!
But before I can close the door on some of the posts I'd been meaning to make from 2012, I thought I'd do a quick recap from our first full year in Belgium.

January: We escaped the cold and headed to Rome for a long weekend. We stayed right by the Spanish steps, ate delicious Italian food outside in the mild weather, visited the Vatican, Colosseum, Trevvi fountain and toured the Roman ruins.





February: Had a chilly weekend in Paris, our "baby moon" trip. Spent the day in the Louvre, and had a wonderful dinner at Le Maison Blanche, overlooking the sparkling Tour d'Eiffel




 


















March: Chris goes on a boys only snowboarding trip in Switzerland...no photos are returned...;)

April: Chris' 30th birthday trip to the Netherlands.  Saw the Keukenhof gardens, Van Gogh, canals of Amsterdam.


May: Sofie Mai Arrives!


June: The King family visits. Fun times around Brussels, Bruges, and Waterloo


July: The Thompson family visits. Had a blast hanging out around Brussels, Ghent and Grimbergen.

Our Anniversary trip to Ireland where explored Dublin, Galway, The Cliffs of Moher, Ring of Kerry and more




















August: Chris and I headed to the Olympics in London for a day.  The Andiolas visited us for a few days.

Finally we got to see the Flower carpet! Happens only once every two years!

 Next was our true European "holiday" a 2.5 week road trip through France,Barcelona, Nice, Monaco, Montelpulciano, Lucerne and Strasbourg!

Guell park, Barcelona

Our beach in Nice

Cortona, Italy

September: Cherron visits, had a great time in Brussels and Bruge, and even a girls trip to Champagne!


Had a fabulous time in Prague


October: Janine and Christine visit Brussels, and football season

Football season! Go RU

November: Paris to see the Musee D'Orsay, Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysses. Megan visits for Thanksgiving!

December: Stockholm and New Jersey :)

Czech Please!

I was just reading another blog about Prague and reminiscing about our trip there in September-so I thought I'd better post something before I forgot!
Sofie and I took our first plane ride together (sans Daddy) to meet Daddy who was in Prague on business. Since Chris had been there before, I didn't do my usual trip planning/research which was a very fun change with surprises around every corner! The first night we got there, we headed out for dinner hear the hotel, we ended up on a row of Italian places, so Italian in the Czech republic it was! They seated us, brought a bottle of wine, and Sofie cooperated by napping in the stroller.  About a hour AFTER we had concluded that we were SO European in the way that we waited patiently for our food to arrive- we noticed the wine was almost gone, and yes, the waiter had forgotten our order.  The patience was over, we were American and starving once again!
The next day we took the metro to the downtown area.  The subway was the only non-beautiful aspect of the entire city- very dated, wooden super fast escalators, trains that looked like they were from an old communist movie.  We headed for the "old city" which in Europe, always seems to be the best part.  I never knew how into architecture I was before coming to Prague and seeing the most colorful, intricate buildings, bridges, streets, and palaces.

We saw the astronomical clock, and took a tour of the underground which remains from before they literally built the city higher to avoid flooding.  This tour turned out to be a private one (no one else signed up for our timeslot) which was great- although Sofie was babbling (loudly) over the poor guy's commentary making for a very distracting tour.  
We saw lots of pretty etched glass, puppets and mannequins, and drank Pilsner Urquell which was good, but not as good as Belgian beer ;)

One of the hundreds of little alleyways lined with artsy shops

Delicious street food! Cinnamon buns cooked on a rod

 The next day we stayed on the other bank of the river and visited the royal palace with amazing views overlooking the city, and the Charles bridge. For lunch we found a fabulous Czech pub and had goulash and beef stew. Delish! My beef stew was served with some kind of berry topping (interesting) and whipped cream (surprisingly good)  They served all dishes with dumplings in them, which were kind of like huge slabs of white doughy bread. Very filling!

A look back at the city from the Charles bridge

 

A view over the city from the Palace

Anyways, we couldn't have asked for better weather and would love to walk around Prague again.