Friday, March 30, 2012
Auntie Bread!
Nathaniel loves learning how to bake! We visited Ken's sister earlier this week and she had some ripe bananas.... which means it's time to make Auntie Bread! He is getting good at cracking eggs and stiring in the sugar. Licking the beaters is the best part though.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Visit with Oma and Papa
While we were enjoying Europe the boys were having a blast with Oma and Papa. Honestly I was a bit nervous that the boys would wear mom and dad out, but they seem to have really enjoyed the week with their grandkids. Sounds like they were very busy with "projects". Nathaniel wanted to stay another night.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Paris
Finding Ken in the train station seemed like a pretty easy thing to do. I've been to the train station here and it's one big open room with one or two trains arriving at any given time. Ummmm, not so in Paris. I came into this massive station with 20 trains lined up, loading and unloading passengers. Hundreds of people were going in and out. Ken knew what time I was coming in and that I was coming from Brussels but he was running late and wasn't there at my train when I got off. I waited for about 5 minutes and then thought, maybe he is waiting outside the station (still not realizing just how big the station was and how it interconnects underground throughout the city). So I wandered off for a few minutes but was being pestered by too many peddlers so I went back to my train and then saw a information desk and had Ken paged. Not that he would have heard anything but his name as the announcement was muted by the noise of the crowd. I finally saw him as he passed right by me. I yelled, he didn't hear me, so I yelled louder. I almost resorted to the Tuttle call (coo-coooooo)which just makes him cringe... but I know he would have heard me. Happy to have found each other we started on our adventure in Paris. We haven't really done anything like this since living in Israel! We found the correct Metro and settled in for the 20 minute ride only to find the train stopped at the very next station. There was announcement which we obviously couldn't understand and groans from passengers, some got off, most stayed on. So we sat and waited, and waited, and waited. We did find out (from someone who heard Ken and I conversing in English) that there was a medical emergency and we were waiting for first responders to assist. Anyway, it was close to 45 minutes and we were still waiting. But by that time, I wasn't about to abandoned my post only to get off and have the train resume service. Eventually we were on our way to Ken's hotel to pick up his bags and transfer to the "free" Hotel we were staying at. Because Ken travels so frequently we had 4 free nights at any Marriott hotel. Granted this hotel was outside the city of Paris, but with the transit system it made it easy to get to. The wheel on Ken's luggage broke off, so getting through the Metro system, up and down flights of stairs was a bit crazy and by the time we made it to the hotel it was after 9pm. I was exhausted and we opted to get some rest after a quick bite at a nearby sandwich shop. I ended up with a curry chicken baguette and a big dallop of mayonnaise for my fries (slight translation error, oh well).
We woke up early on Sunday morning and headed off to Versailles to see the castle, gardens and Marie Antonette's house. Quite an amazing place. The art work was amazing. Every ceiling had it's own painting. Almost every room had a fireplace. The hall of mirrors was quite impressive. The gardens (although it was winter) was quite amazing. I can only imagine how much more it would be in summer time.
On the way back to the train station is started to sprinkle so we ducked inside a little cafe and had a grilled cheese and ham sandwich. It was quite tasty! Once back in Paris we perused the Orsay Museum. (I was glad we had the 2 day Museum Pass and were able to skip the line out in the pouring rain!) Inside this rennovated old train station is the largest collection of Impressionist work. It was quite fascinating and we stayed till our feet could take it no longer. Then off to check out the Eiffel Tower.
The line was terribly long so we took a picture and left to check out if we could "walk on" to the Siene River cruise. I was exctied there were seats available and so we waited in the lobby of a nearby hotel till 8pm. (It was still a bit cold though the rain had stopped). The cruise was a set menu with your choice of steak, veal or salmon. I opted for steak. We had five mini appetizers: Quail egg with celery and apple, Mild Roquefort club sandwich,vegetable velouté, duck breast and foie gras terrine, and tartare with wasabi caviar. Ken ate 3 of mine :-) He is able to just swallow it better than I am. And for dessert we had 3 mini desserts:Seasonal fruit tartlet, crunchy chocolate log, and Cheesecake. I ate some of Ken's since he was full from eating all my dinner :-) We ate our dinner as we cruised passed the Eiffel Tower and many other cruise boats sharing the water. It was a fun experience.
We slept in the next day and then transferred our luggage to a second hotel right down the street from the Arc'D Triomphe. We thought we would be in better position for our day trip on Tuesday and getting to the airport on Wednesday from here. Anyway, Monday we spent a lot of time at the Eiffel Tower.
Had lunch there, climbed up the stairs, waited in line for tickets to the top, looked out over the city, waited in line to ride the elevator down. Lunch was interesting. Good food, but the waiter gave us the menu and said, once you know what you want, take the menu down to the kitchen and order there. Once you order they put your pre-packaged salad in a little picnic basket for you to take back to your seat. The entree comes once it's prepared. I think I would have stayed there longer just to enjoy the view and watch all those "tiny ants" down below running to and from the monument but we still had places to see. From the tower, we took the Metro to the Louve to get a snapshot of Mona Lisa with the other 2000 tourists who wanted to cram in that room. Sheesh!
We enjoyed much of the exhibits and then took the Metro to Saint Chapelle. This small cathedral had the most amazing stained glass windows.
Running up against closing time we scurried off to visit the Notre Dame cathedral
And then on to Sacred Heart.
Here we enjoyed the beauty inside the church and then the sunset over the city. Magical! Exhausted from all the steps we made one more trek to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. What a view of the city!
And of the crazy drivers below. 12 streets coming into 1 roundabout! We stopped at a little dessert cafe before heading back to the hotel. We had the most amazing banana chocolate sundae. I was tempted to try everything on the menu! Back at the hotel we had a complimentarty bottle of wine. Wow.
Tuesday we woke up early in the morning and took a train out to the coast to visit Mont st Michel an abbey which has been around since 700 AD! Over time a small city grew up around it. It was fascinating.
Although perhaps not worth the 7 hours we spent travelling to and from there. We also ran dangerously low on cash which caused a little tension. We tried to catch and earlier train back into Paris but it was going to cost too much so we hung out in Rennes which really had nothing to offer the tourist...well I guess we got to see what real French life is like. We ate a cool pastry and stopped by a creperie. Exhausted from such a long day we came back to the hotel and crashed. Wednesday we packed up and headed home, but first we filled up at a nearby pastry shop with a chocolate torte, eclair, small tuna fish sandwich and orange juice. The flights were pretty long, but Ken and I had aisle seats with no one in between us. The best part of the trip was seeing too cute blonde boys (Oma and Papa too) waiting for us at PDX
We woke up early on Sunday morning and headed off to Versailles to see the castle, gardens and Marie Antonette's house. Quite an amazing place. The art work was amazing. Every ceiling had it's own painting. Almost every room had a fireplace. The hall of mirrors was quite impressive. The gardens (although it was winter) was quite amazing. I can only imagine how much more it would be in summer time.
On the way back to the train station is started to sprinkle so we ducked inside a little cafe and had a grilled cheese and ham sandwich. It was quite tasty! Once back in Paris we perused the Orsay Museum. (I was glad we had the 2 day Museum Pass and were able to skip the line out in the pouring rain!) Inside this rennovated old train station is the largest collection of Impressionist work. It was quite fascinating and we stayed till our feet could take it no longer. Then off to check out the Eiffel Tower.
The line was terribly long so we took a picture and left to check out if we could "walk on" to the Siene River cruise. I was exctied there were seats available and so we waited in the lobby of a nearby hotel till 8pm. (It was still a bit cold though the rain had stopped). The cruise was a set menu with your choice of steak, veal or salmon. I opted for steak. We had five mini appetizers: Quail egg with celery and apple, Mild Roquefort club sandwich,vegetable velouté, duck breast and foie gras terrine, and tartare with wasabi caviar. Ken ate 3 of mine :-) He is able to just swallow it better than I am. And for dessert we had 3 mini desserts:Seasonal fruit tartlet, crunchy chocolate log, and Cheesecake. I ate some of Ken's since he was full from eating all my dinner :-) We ate our dinner as we cruised passed the Eiffel Tower and many other cruise boats sharing the water. It was a fun experience.
We slept in the next day and then transferred our luggage to a second hotel right down the street from the Arc'D Triomphe. We thought we would be in better position for our day trip on Tuesday and getting to the airport on Wednesday from here. Anyway, Monday we spent a lot of time at the Eiffel Tower.
Had lunch there, climbed up the stairs, waited in line for tickets to the top, looked out over the city, waited in line to ride the elevator down. Lunch was interesting. Good food, but the waiter gave us the menu and said, once you know what you want, take the menu down to the kitchen and order there. Once you order they put your pre-packaged salad in a little picnic basket for you to take back to your seat. The entree comes once it's prepared. I think I would have stayed there longer just to enjoy the view and watch all those "tiny ants" down below running to and from the monument but we still had places to see. From the tower, we took the Metro to the Louve to get a snapshot of Mona Lisa with the other 2000 tourists who wanted to cram in that room. Sheesh!
We enjoyed much of the exhibits and then took the Metro to Saint Chapelle. This small cathedral had the most amazing stained glass windows.
Running up against closing time we scurried off to visit the Notre Dame cathedral
And then on to Sacred Heart.
Here we enjoyed the beauty inside the church and then the sunset over the city. Magical! Exhausted from all the steps we made one more trek to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. What a view of the city!
And of the crazy drivers below. 12 streets coming into 1 roundabout! We stopped at a little dessert cafe before heading back to the hotel. We had the most amazing banana chocolate sundae. I was tempted to try everything on the menu! Back at the hotel we had a complimentarty bottle of wine. Wow.
Tuesday we woke up early in the morning and took a train out to the coast to visit Mont st Michel an abbey which has been around since 700 AD! Over time a small city grew up around it. It was fascinating.
Although perhaps not worth the 7 hours we spent travelling to and from there. We also ran dangerously low on cash which caused a little tension. We tried to catch and earlier train back into Paris but it was going to cost too much so we hung out in Rennes which really had nothing to offer the tourist...well I guess we got to see what real French life is like. We ate a cool pastry and stopped by a creperie. Exhausted from such a long day we came back to the hotel and crashed. Wednesday we packed up and headed home, but first we filled up at a nearby pastry shop with a chocolate torte, eclair, small tuna fish sandwich and orange juice. The flights were pretty long, but Ken and I had aisle seats with no one in between us. The best part of the trip was seeing too cute blonde boys (Oma and Papa too) waiting for us at PDX
Belgium
Honestly I was a little nervous not knowing what to expect from my "family" in Belgium. Before I left Mom gave me a list of all her Aunts & Uncles, their kids, and their grandkids so I would know who was connected to who. Most of my mom's cousins children are about my age. They graciously offered to pick me up from the airport (at 6:30 am!) and host me for the night. I actually had met the family back in 2000 when I took a trip with my high school to Europe and Mom, Steven and I continued onto Belgium for a quick visit. So I really shouldn't have been nervous. Boris had visited the USA two years ago and he met me at the airport with his Nebraska shirt to make sure I would recognize him. He drove me around for most of the day, stopping by family so that I could say hello. I met mom's cousin Willy and Marlene (they visited us when I was quite young).
We visited Liesolot at work.
I don't know how you can work in a bakery like that and not eat everything in sight. She sent me home with some chocolate :-) We drove through Hansbeke and stopped by Uncle Antoine's grave.
Finally we ended at Boris's house where they let me take a two hour nap on schedule with Zoe his 17 month old daughter. I had been up since 4:30am our time so a little nap was much needed.
Then we stopped by Walter and Rachel's house. They are relatives from my grandma's side.
In 2000 they took us all around so I remembered them well. I am amazed at the life and energy this couple has! Walter was showing us the latest internet radio gadget while texting his daughter. Seriously, what 75+ year old knows how to text? Both of them were sharper than a tack! We spent our time looking at pictures from their previous visit to the USA and Christmas cards and letters that have been sent from us over the years. They even kept printouts of my brothers blog in their book! That evening we went to my Grandmother's brother's house and visited with Uncle Marcel and his wife Clara.
Clara was very hospitable and I think I ate half of the pastry because the plate kept passing by.
For dinner we got together at Annelies and Peter's house.
She is the daughter of my Mom's cousin Marnix. Her brother (Boris) and sister (Liesbeth) also joined us for an amazing pot roast and french fry dinner. Annelies has two little boys who are full of energy and lots of fun. (Thier youngest looks very similar to my cousin in South Dakota!) I guess they kept asking their parents when the "African lady" was coming. Africa... America... they are close. They also enjoyed seeing thier cousin Zoe.
That night we were supposed to meet at a local Pub, but we were already late and Liesolot called saying no one else was there so we opted to stay at the house and I practically fell asleep on the couch. I slept until 10:30am on Saturday!
Saturday we drove to visit my Mom's cousin Jenny at the store which they run.I got more chocolate there!
We had lunch then visited Aunt Madeline in the nursing home.
This was probably the most difficult get-together for me, since she didn't know ANY English and I only know my toes names in Flemish (Yes, toes have names, but that is a different topic all together). So I basically spoke in English to Peter, who translated for Madeline and then she said something to Peter who translated for me. And then it was off to the train station.
It was too short of a visit. The family was all so very nice and I felt like I could have stayed for quite a while still.... but Ken was waiting for me in the train station in Paris.
We visited Liesolot at work.
I don't know how you can work in a bakery like that and not eat everything in sight. She sent me home with some chocolate :-) We drove through Hansbeke and stopped by Uncle Antoine's grave.
Finally we ended at Boris's house where they let me take a two hour nap on schedule with Zoe his 17 month old daughter. I had been up since 4:30am our time so a little nap was much needed.
Then we stopped by Walter and Rachel's house. They are relatives from my grandma's side.
In 2000 they took us all around so I remembered them well. I am amazed at the life and energy this couple has! Walter was showing us the latest internet radio gadget while texting his daughter. Seriously, what 75+ year old knows how to text? Both of them were sharper than a tack! We spent our time looking at pictures from their previous visit to the USA and Christmas cards and letters that have been sent from us over the years. They even kept printouts of my brothers blog in their book! That evening we went to my Grandmother's brother's house and visited with Uncle Marcel and his wife Clara.
Clara was very hospitable and I think I ate half of the pastry because the plate kept passing by.
For dinner we got together at Annelies and Peter's house.
She is the daughter of my Mom's cousin Marnix. Her brother (Boris) and sister (Liesbeth) also joined us for an amazing pot roast and french fry dinner. Annelies has two little boys who are full of energy and lots of fun. (Thier youngest looks very similar to my cousin in South Dakota!) I guess they kept asking their parents when the "African lady" was coming. Africa... America... they are close. They also enjoyed seeing thier cousin Zoe.
That night we were supposed to meet at a local Pub, but we were already late and Liesolot called saying no one else was there so we opted to stay at the house and I practically fell asleep on the couch. I slept until 10:30am on Saturday!
Saturday we drove to visit my Mom's cousin Jenny at the store which they run.I got more chocolate there!
We had lunch then visited Aunt Madeline in the nursing home.
This was probably the most difficult get-together for me, since she didn't know ANY English and I only know my toes names in Flemish (Yes, toes have names, but that is a different topic all together). So I basically spoke in English to Peter, who translated for Madeline and then she said something to Peter who translated for me. And then it was off to the train station.
It was too short of a visit. The family was all so very nice and I felt like I could have stayed for quite a while still.... but Ken was waiting for me in the train station in Paris.
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