A-DAM fun birthday weekend!

When I realized that Chris' 30th birthday was going to fall on Easter weekend, I "hopped" to planning a little getaway.  Not being able to fly anymore (34 weeks prego!), we decided on going up to Amsterdam- just a two hour drive north.  I know what you're thinking, IS there a better party spot for a 30th birthday?!!? What with all the tulips, pancakes, windmills and canals!  Well the answer is no!  We had a blast :)
                                      

First stop on our mini road trip was the world famous Keukenhof in Lisse, Holland.  This is an amazing indoor/outdoor botanical garden, open mid-March to mid-May every year.  You could spend the entire day here walking around the perfectly designed and planned flower beds- mostly tulips but other pretty flowers as well.  There is a classic old windmill that you can climb up to the top of, and on this really windy day it was whipping around like crazy!

A hedge maze!

For my swollen prego feet!

The outside of the Keukenhof was maybe the best part, just field after field of different colored tulip in lines stretching as far as you can see.
After that it was back in the car and off to Amsterdam (just 30 more minutes or so)  We stayed in a nice hotel right by the museum district and one of the major canals.  We checked in then went right out to explore.  Just crossing the street was pretty terrifying.  Living in Brussels we are used to crazy drivers and even trams coming from all directions, but here we found a new insane danger....the BIKES!  People in Amsterdam FLY down the "bike lanes" which are completely indistinguishable from the sidewalk- with just a tiny little bell as a signal meaning "get the hell out of the way or I'll run you over!"  For the birthday dinner we went to a restaurant my friend recommended called Balthazar's Keuken (kitchen) which was SO good.  Just a tiny place run by a couple with a set menu (all you chose is your main course between two options) The owners were really nice, food was delish, we would love to go back.  We got great news that night that the Herron's had their baby earlier in the day.  Little Olivia and Chris share a birthday!

Easter Sunday we got up and had some delicious Dutch pancakes.  They are almost like a thicker crepe, with the filling (fruit) baked right in.  It was such a sunny nice day, we booked a canal cruise that started right outside our hotel.  The "blue boat" took us all around the city, past some really cool looking house boats, Anne Frank's house, through a lot of the historic districts and even to the harbor.  After that we headed over to the Van Gogh museum, which was funny because my parents had just seen a lot of his work in Philadelphia the weekend before.  So we missed a few of the more famous paintings, but still got to see his self portraits, the sunflowers and a lot of less famous, but impressive paintings.  After lunch we walked over to the Heineken "Experience" which is a tour of the old Heineken brewery.  Chris probably enjoyed this more than me, but then again he got to drink my beers (you get two with your ticket!)

Monday we had reservations for a Dutch cheese tasting at the Reypenaer cheese house.  This was very cute, set up like a little classroom where we sampled, graded and analyzed a bunch of their yummy cheeses.  Chris and I are both horrible at identifying what a cheese smells or tastes like....um cheese, hello?  But we still passed the course :) We bought some to take home and along with a Guillotine cheese slicer- which is super fun!

It was great weekend, we love all things Dutch!

And now that you know what the guest room in House #1 looks like...

Michele and I in a sea of bikes

...it's time to plan a visit!
We've actually had four fabulous visitors so far, and are starting to get the hang of our guest "routine"- but also enjoy seeing new things ourselves each time.
Our first visitor was my Dad, who was in the area for business back in September.  UNFORTUNATELY this was the weekend that we moved from our temporary housing to our new apartment.  It was great to see him, but we put him to work, lol.
Next was a visit from the Herrons in early November.  Josh was here on business, Michele just for fun- and we had a great week together!  We started doing the basics around Brussels, discovered the Museum of Musical instruments which was okay- but in a beautiful old art-deco building downtown.  Next we took the train out to Ghent where Chris met us for lunch.  Ghent is a really cool medieval city with canals, castles and some great old churches (kind of like Bruges, but the Belgians tell us MUCH less touristy)

St Baafskathedral build in 1290

Over a canal in Ghent

Josh with his Kwak (minus one shoe!)

We all really enjoyed the medieval castle, Gravensteen, right in downtown Ghent complete with many torture chambers, the classic castle walls and stone rooms.  Afterwards we went for a beer at Dulle Griet which serves over 250 types of beer.  If you order a large Kwak, like the boys did, you have to give one of your shoes as collateral so you don't steal with the really cool glass that its served in!

  

Gravensteen castle

The next day we headed off to Maredsous Abbey for some authentic monk made beer and cheese.  Any Belgian beer that says "trappist" on it, is brewed by Belgian monks, and they pretty much only make it when they need money for the Abbey (not to make a profit) Not far from the abbey is the town of Dinant, which has an old citadel (fortress) which you have to take a cable car up the cliff to see.

Maredsous Abbey

After a really fun weekend the boys left for Amsterdam and Ireland (for work) and Michele and I explored Antwerp and drove down to Luxembourg for the day.  It was so great seeing the Herron's we miss them so much!

Finally, our most recent visitor was Brill who came for a very short weekend trip to Brussels.  He got here pretty late Friday, so him and Chris went out for a "bromantic" dinner at Belga Queen and the obligatory visit to Delirium bar downtown.  Saturday I had to drag them both out of bed- it was sunny, 70's and we had a lot to see in one day!  Brill enjoyed the House Hunter's walking tour (complete with the shop we "practice our french in", a stroll by House #3, and a walk through "big decision" park)

 We went down to the Grand Place, had lunch at one of the outdoor cafes, bought chocolate, boys had beer, and stopped by the Mannekin dressed in scrubs? This was the first time I've seen him in costume, but apparently he has over 100 that he wears throughout the year.  Anyways, it was great to see Brill. He had to leave early Sunday, and even missed getting waffle (truck must open in the afternoon) I guess he'll have to come again!

House Hunters

A few weeks ago our episode of House Hunters International finally aired in the States.  Ironically, I met a lady at the American Women's club shortly after who had just moved to Brussels, and was considering being on the show as well.  If you are thinking, "isn't it too late for her and her family who have already moved abroad?" that's a GREAT question, but no, in fact it's not too late- but one of the reasons I cautioned her to think carefully about doing this crazy show!
We filmed here in late September, two weeks after we'd moved into our new place (House #1!)  We had taken a trip to Belgium earlier in the summer where we had our "real" house hunting experience- which, let's just say, consisted of more than viewing just three apartments- and no cameras!  Day 1 of filming was  actually the last part of the show where we were in our new place, furniture and all.  Day 2, if you can believe it, movers came at 8am to move all of our stuff out which in Belgium, by law, means a truck with a lift taking EVERYTHING out through the second story window.  Once our place was empty, we toured through with our "real estate agent".  She is an actual real estate agent in Brussels, and very nice, but in reality this was the first time we'd met her, ha!  The rest of the weekend was full days of filming, you wouldn't believe how long it took to get through each room of each apartment that we saw.
The camera crew was a really great group, and it was funny to film down by the Grand Place- people kept taking our pictures- looking confused like "who ARE these people?"  Anyways, seeing the final product was worth it in the end- it was a really fun experience and we had a good laugh at ourselves on TV.

The site of the big decision and bike scenes

A few things to clarify, that people have been asking:
Q: "Do all the stairs really bother you that much?"
A: No! I'm guessing in order to keep the suspense alive, they made it seem like the stairs were a deal-breaker for the apartment.  In fact our beloved old apartment in Hoboken had many more stairs, including a spiral staircase which we managed just fine on.

Q: "Are you happy with the apartment that you chose?"
A:  Yes, we are happy with #1, but of course there other two weren't actually in the running when we picked it.  #3 was also nice, and the kitchen not as bad as I made it seem, but c'est la vie!

Q: "Why did you guys keep saying the same things over and over?"
A:  We have NO idea!  There must have been 40 hours of film used to create this 23 minute show, so repeating clips three times over was totally crazy.

Better late than never

Well, it's been seven months since we moved to Brussels and despite promising to keep friends and family up to date with our movements, this is the first (of many!) blog posts.  Chris and I were discussing how our poor Brussel Sprout (now just 7 weeks until his/her due date!) will have been to so many places, both as a fetus and infant, and most likely will remember nothing.  We were laughing about a future conversation with Sprout where they ask to visit Madrid, Rome or Paris- when we remind them that they've already been there, sorry!  So, if nothing else, Sprout can read all about its early adventures here one day.  I'll try to recap some main events

Pictured here is the Sprout at around one or two weeks old (in fact we didn't know even know it existed!) at the gardens down by the Grand Place in Brussels. First Belgian lesson: it's important to bring many items with you on a day out including multiple layers of clothing, umbrella, sunglasses, sunscreen- weather can change dramatically and quickly!
One of the first big adventures for the three of us was our trip to Sorrento, Naples and Capri.  We went at the end of October and were thrilled that this time of year was warm, sunny and crowd free!  We stayed in a hotel built literally into a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean sea.

Chris standing outside (on top of) our hotel

Most delicious pizza, and sun!

The baths at Pompeii

We also spent a day exploring the miles of ancient ruins of Pompeii which was preserved when Mount Vesuvius erupted and blanketed the city, freezing it in time.  You could walk inside what were the houses, marketplaces, baths and temples- totally amazing!  We just loved our short trip to Italy, the Sprout was very well behaved (around 11 weeks) and allowed me enjoy pizza, pasta and of course GELATO without too many of its first trimester antics.

Picasso's Guernica

Chris taking us for a ride in Retiro Park

 November in Brussels was very chilly and rainy so we headed south again, this time to Madrid.  This was a work trip for Chris, so the Sprout and I did a little exploring of our own- just loved the Reina Sophia art museum and the architecture in general of the city.  On the weekend we checked out the Royal Palace, Retiro Park and the Prado museum- stopping for tapas everywhere we could! Lots of jambon was consumed!