Eliza had a rough night’s sleep last night and kept us up most of the night. I ended up getting up with her around 7:30 and heading off in search of breakfast. We found a farmer’s market right down the street and got a huge bag of bananas and oranges for 5 euros. We then found a patisserie and got some pastries for breakfast as well. I went for a short run up and down the Saone river. The part of Lyon where we are staying is bordered by the Rhone on one side and the Saone on the other. [View Full Entry]

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Ah, France. I was up at 7am and made a pot of coffee and basked in the silence and stillness of the day. It was the only peace I would have until I sat down to write this at 9:45pm. But what a day. The rest of the family got up at 8:10 and we were all dressed and out the door at 8:35. Caught the bus to the train station and a train to Brussels. All smooth sailing. We brought waffles and yogurt drink for a breakfast on the go. We were 45 minutes early to Brussels Zuid station [View Full Entry]

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NOT FOUND [View Full Entry]

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Abigail and Eliza napped while Emma did email and played computer games (we often have to fight each other to see who gets on). When the girls woke we all played Uno and then I made dinner (chicken, onion, pepper & broccoli stir fry with rice). We then walked up to Abdij van Park behind the Phillips Site. It was really cool. I had discovered it a few days earlier while I was out for a walk after the kids went to bed. The abbey and grounds are being restored, but it was still huge and impressive. It reminded me [View Full Entry]

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Happy Father’s Day! The kids got up around 8 and had a bowl of cereal. I got dressed and took Eliza to the bakery to get some special pastries for father’s day. Emma made a card and Abigail made some wrapping paper to wrap his new water bottle up (the metal kind; he was the only one without a water bottle). We were all out the door and on the bus a little after 10am. At the train station we bought our tickets (6.80 euros each for Jonathan and I) and made the mandatory reservations for the Thalys train that [View Full Entry]

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WOW! This is the most amazing park I have been to. It is very reminiscent of Look Park in Northampton, MA, but much bigger and with the best play structures around. Zoe and Henry picked us up at about 3 and we smooshed into their car and drove about 15 minutes to get there. The first play area we went to have all sorts of mechanical "diggers" to lift sand into steel buckets that could be pushed around the area on a series of metal bars. There were structures to climb in that also had mechanical pulleys etc to lift [View Full Entry]

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Today we decided to meet Jonathan close to his office on the grounds of the university We meandered down the street towards the Arenburg Kasteel (Castle). The property currently cover 29 hectacres and are filled with all sorts of walking and biking paths. Before World War I the Arenburg family could supposedly walk from the Atlantic Ocean to the Czech Republic and never leave their own land. After their involvement in WWI they were forced to give away a lot of land which is how KUL came to own this parcel and the buildings on it. The girls found the [View Full Entry]

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We are all getting up a little earlier. Even Emma was up by 9:30 this morning. Abigail and I went to the local bakery (about 2.5 blocks away) and picked up some yummy pastries for breakfast. It is a gray and rainy day but we thought we would head out anyways and maybe go to the flea market. It rained a little bit off and on at the beginning of our day. The kids were initially a little concerned about this but then luckily they found some fun. We walked through the Stadpark (city park) and found some cool sculptures. [View Full Entry]

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We got up around 9am and scrambled to catch the bus at 10:18 to the train station. Everyone had a quick bite to eat and we made it. We bought our train tickets to Gent (11 euros roundtrip for Jonathan and I and the kids were free). We caught the 10:35 train and were on our way. We read a few chapters of Charlotte’s Web on our way and shared some fruit we had packed. The girls had a good time on the train and Eliza made friends with a little Belgian boy her age that shared his ball with [View Full Entry]

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Eliza was up at 9am this morning. So early! I went for a run for about 25 minutes. Still didn’t feel great and can’t seem to get back into my usual routine. At least I am walking a lot during the day. Jonathan went to work around 10:30 and the girls and I had a slow morning around the apartment. A little before noon we took off for the Grote Markt by the town hall. We found some postcards to mail to their friends and sat on a bench to write them out. Then we went and got a warm [View Full Entry]

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