Day 4 - Brussels by day

Brussels is an interesting city, it has a great mix of the new and old. When you turn the corner of a street you aren't sure if you will run into a EU glass building or a church unharmed from time over the last few hundred years.


This is Manneken Pis, I'd tell you the story of where the statue came from, but there are so many legends that pretty much anything you say could be true. This is all that you need to know...it is very difficult to buy gifts for people because everything either has beer or pis on it somewhere. The picture above and below prove my point.



Yes, Belgium waffles are everything they are cracked up to be. YUM! This is how we finally started to get a little weight on Adelaide. Notice a waffle in her hand in the picture below.



A Golden Beauty, on the pavement is believed to shower you with luck and prosperity. You are supposed to touch and pause for a moment to pray. This is in an alley on the way to Pis leaving Grand Place.

Adelaide and her tongue, she thinks it's funny to stick her tongue out and I agree. My mom keeps telling me that I will regret teaching her that, but so far it isn't true, just makes me laugh.


Yes, that is Adelaide drinking Mommy Juice (aka wine). The entire time we were there she was driving me crazy about the wine, so I let her have a sip and she never asked again.



Grand Place was amazing!

Day 3 - Koln, Germany

Koln, Germany can be found a little less than 2 hours from Brussels, so we hopped on a train and we were off. Adelaide was entertained by coloring books and then eventually throwing all of the cards the rest of us were playing with. With that being said, she was a true champ on the trip between planes, trains, buses, taxis and any other kind of moving device you can imagine (a lot of stroller time) the whining was kept to a minimum by all.


One thing that was truly shocking for me was that you get off of the train in this modern station full of iron, glass and shopping. Before you are even off of the escalator and out of the glass area you see this mammoth of a church. This would be the church we came to Koln (or Cologne depending on if you want to be English or German for the post) for, DOM.

DOM is a Roman Catholic Church in the heart of the city. DOM is one of the largest Gothic churches in Europe and one of the few buildings left in tact after the war.

In the last 2 or 3 years we have spent a good amount of time in Europe and it is still astounding to me that you can walk through and touch the walls of a monstrosity that was built and touched by others for the last 800 years. Granted we have seen older and more impressive, but this site was different. It didn't give you a sense of peace, joy or faith that I have found in other religious sites. DOM made me feel eerie, almost as though I was in a scary movie and I was waiting for something to pop out at me. I do find this ironic in that when we were in St Peters Basilica in Rome a few years ago I had all of the feelings I described above along with a sense this is the kind of place that religion was founded and made to live on except this is where we accidentally turned a corner and found a dead body. No worries, just a well preserved Pope.




We found out in Rome that Kari's anxiety in life is exacerbated when in tight, confined spaces so we didn't invite her on the climb to the top of the church. Grant and I trekked it alone and when we got to the top, not only were we tired but Grant was anxious to get down. You see, somehow I can always convince my husband to do these types of things even though he is afraid of heights.


A few of the 11 church bells to be found, but not quite at the top, must keep going...

After all of those steps (1000 round trip) we deserved some German food. Adelaide fell in love with the apple pancakes and bread.



After roaming the streets with quick stops for pastries and perusing the book stores we went to the Gestapo Nazi Prison. We took a trip down memory lane for those who had to endure all horror of the Holocaust. This was a small prison right in the middle of town. We literally walked right by it because it looked like just another building in a row of shops, schools and well hey, there is a prison.



Last stop before getting back on the train...more food. This is where we ate, laughed and watched Grant judo chop my wine glass into two pieces. Long story short, yet another drink I didn't get to finish and this time it wasn't Adelaide's fault.



The two pictures above are more what I expected our trip to look like. Quaint row homes, little did I know what a happening city Cologne was. These pictures were taken along the Rhine River.




Kari tickled Adelaide so much on the trip that she made her pee her pants we are sure, but no worries the kiddo still wears a diaper.

Day 2 of vacation

We walked a VERY long way to the Chinese Gardens.

Discovered this monument that honored Leopold I which was across the street from a Palace that we couldn't get into.

We were a few weeks too early for the tulips, but we found daffodils all over the place.

These are pictures from Mini Europe, Adelaide is sitting in front of a replica of Brussels Grand Place. Pictures of the real Grand Place are soon to come.

This was the Atomium, you could ride escalators to the top, but Kari is claustrophobic so we thought it would be better not to brave the big silver balls.