Happy 10 year anniversary to us! We had a good rest last night as Eliza actually stayed in her bed! Unfortunately with the hour time change the kids were up before seven (visions of our January return haunt me now!). The dining room at the hostel didn’t open until 7:30 so we got the kids dressed and then I brought them down while Jonathan caught an extra hour. I think I now have his cold. There is a full kitchen we can make use of and free tea and coffee. I made the girls and I a pot of tea and [View Full Entry]

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It was a miserable night. The big girls, of course, did great, but Eliza was up every half hour or so. Because Jonathan has not been feeling well I nominated myself to try and deal with her which left me a little more than exhausted once morning came round. After a nice quick run around the castle grounds though I felt like I was able to tackle the day. The girls got dressed and watched tv in their room while we showered and packed up. I can’t say enough about how great this set up was with the family suite. I [View Full Entry]

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I have written it before but feel I must repeat myself: travel days feel like six days rolled into one. I got up at 5am after a pitiful night’s sleep. Eliza was, once again, in bed with us and between her tossing and my anxiety over sleeping through my alarm I was up about every half hour checking the clock. When 5am rolled around I got dressed and made some tea. I packed the backpacks into the saddle bags on my bike and took out the recycling. Jonathan got up at about 5:30 and showered. We packed up the computer and [View Full Entry]

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The second or third week after we arrived in Leuven the head of the department that Jonathan is working in asked us and another family over for dinner. We had a great time and got many of their opinions and observations on traveling around Belgium. They said that the best castle in Belgium was in Bouillon and that really stuck with us. So, after our day of driving to Luxembourg yesterday we decided to stay in Belgium and finally see what this castle was all about. But first we would hit a castle even nearer to us. We found this amazing [View Full Entry]

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We rented a car for the weekend and set out with a plan to explore a little more of Luxembourg and see one castle in particular in Belgium. By the time we got going this morning, got the car, situated the girls in the car and scoped out the map for the eighth time it was almost 10am. We set out towards Luxembourg and the little town of Esch sur Sure. We anticipated about a 2 hour drive; what we didn't anticipate was Abigail puking two times on the way there. Ugh. Luckily she warned us and didn't get herself too [View Full Entry]

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I would hate for anyone to think that we have been sitting idly by letting the time pass away on our life in Belgium. While Jonathan was back in the states last week the girls and I had quite a few adventures of our own. One day we had quite the bus adventure to the indoor playground in nearby Herent. Another day we went to Brussels to the Scientastic Museum and with over 90 “experiments” the kids did enjoy themselves thoroughly. As we welcome in the month of October the girls and I had another adventure today and went to Aachen, [View Full Entry]

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Got up around 7:15 this morning and made lunches. Jonathan took today off so we could do a family trip before he left for the states tomorrow. We caught the 9:33 train to Ottignies and changed for the train to Villers la Ville. About twelve minutes later we were dropped on the side of the tracks, no ticket counter or anything, and I was glad I wrote down when the return trains were. The guidebook was a little obscure about the location but claimed that the ruins of this 12th century abbey were the most spectacular sight in Brabant-Wallon. Of course [View Full Entry]

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First solo adventure. I was up and we were dressed and packed and ready to go by 9am this morning. Not bad. Took the bus to the train station, where I got a cup of coffee for the road, and bought a 10 ride train pass for 69 euro. It is so much cheaper to travel on the weekends, but I know we will make use of the pass. Caught the 9:33 train to Ottignies, where we would have to change for a train to Dinant, our goal for the day. Oddly the Belgian train web site suggested traveling into Brussels [View Full Entry]

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Before we left for Europe in June I took our dog Gus to the vet for a check up. My youngest brother Tim was going to watch him for us while we were gone and he was staying in our house and commuting to college. The trip to the vet proved to be more than just a routine visit and we discovered that he had cancer. It was a horrible few days trying to cope with the news that he would most likely not be around when we returned. The vet gave him a prognosis of 4-6 months. We told the [View Full Entry]

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...or Day Two in a Baby Country...We all slept soundly in some very comfortable beds at the Novotel Hotel in Luxembourg City. I woke around 7:45 and went out for a quick run. I ran back down the route we took walking last night because I wanted to see the viaducts from below. There was a fog over the city but the views down there were spectacular. It was a whole new look at the city and the bridges so I cut my run short and ran UP, UP hill to get Jonathan out of bed to take some photos. He [View Full Entry]

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