Basilick Sint Servaas and Sint Jan Kerk, this one is the longest church in the Netherlands. It is very pretty.
This one also has a tresure room. So of course this church you have to pay to enter. So it was about 4 rooms of church tresure items. From here we walked across the street to this cute little restaurant and had lunch. In the Netherlands they speak Dutch, and we didn't have a clue what anything was and they didn't have a children's menu. So the kids each got a hamburger. They came out on a hoagie roll, open faced, mayo, salad like lettuce, sliced tomato and a whole burger (not well done) sitting in the middle with a toothpick holding it on there. Jason had one of the tradational dishes. The waiter knew a little English and was trying to explain what it was. So Jason got these 2 big fried balls of something. It looked like melted darker cheddar cheese, but not sure. Then it came with a hoagie roll and some tiny little cold cooked shrimps. Mine was delicious. I got a potato and leek soup. After lunch we walked around the square and saw a lot of bars all getting ready for the carnival parties.
This is one store selling Carnival costumes.
Even the streets already had remanents of confetti and things. At a couple of bars we saw children playing outside or inside all dressed up in elarobrate costumes.
Some funcky statues in the square.
Then we left as the kids were getting cold walking around. It was a misty, kind of colder windy day. We had trouble trying to figure out how to pay our parking ticket to get out of the garage. Once we got that paid we drove over to see the old city gate- Helpoort. Just a neat, narrow passage way into the city.
Here even thought the weather was bad there were many people on their bikes.
We drove down a street, we were just kind of following a bus and didn't see any signs about not going down the street, that was not meant for cars. It was a narrow brick pavered road, but I guess ok for buses. One guy on his bike started waving his finger at us and shaking his head. Then we were wondering how to get out b/c it had one of those pillars up over the exit. So we drove up to it and it sensed us and went into the ground and we got outa there!
From here we drove about 1:15 minutes to a Center Parcs Resort in Belgium. These are family orientated resorts. They have some in France, Germany and 3 in Belgium. So we thought we would do this for the kids since the rest of our trips are always sightseeing and walking around. So these resorts resemble maybe something like the WI Dells.
I had printed out our E-ticket for this place. So when we get there we just drive up to this window and they give you your packet of info and the keys to your cottage. We drive down this narrow one lane path to the cottage. Unload ALL of our stuff and we are looking around and are not that pleased with this cottage. It is fairly small for 5 of us and it only has 4 beds. I open our packet up and it has someone elses name on it. Crap- they gave us the wrong package at the check in! So Jason calls to complain and they say we have to pack up our stuff again and go back to the check in lady and get the right package. We barely got all the stuff to fit in the car the first time and now we have to put it ALL back in and Jason is not happy! We get the stuff and everyone back in and go back and get the right package. We go to the other cottage and are a bit happier to see that it is bigger and has 3 bedrooms. But these places are pretty basic. And they both even came with ants- yuck! I just kept walking around killing them and praying they stayed out of our food! The cottage has 3 bedrooms, each with 2 single beds, a small kitchen with a mini fridge, a eating area and a family room. It has a bathroom with only a tub and 2 sinks by the bedrooms. But if you need to use the bathroom you walk out the door to the inside of the cottage into like this little foyer area that has the main door to the cottage and a storage closet and here is the potty room. I kind of feel like this is an outhouse!
Once we got settled we pack up everyone's swim stuff and walk over to the center with everything. Of course not before Sean had tried to plug in the portable DVD player with the right plug but not the voltage converter. So he blew that up! That is 2 for him and one for Jason now!
I had requested a close cottage and it wasn't too far so that was nice considering it was cold, raining or snowing most days. And once you unload you have to drive your car back to the main parking lot at the begining of the resort and walk back to your cottage. That took Jason a bit!
In the center area is where they have 3 restaurants, pool, stores, and kids clubs and activities.
We ate dinner at the buffet restaurant which was having an American buffet night. Not really sure what was American on the buffet but we all found something to eat. When the waitress comes to deliver the drinks she completely dumps a whole sprite on Sean and his food. Poor guy. His plate looked like soup and he had sprite from his head down to his pants. So after we got him dried off Jason and Sean when up to go get some more food for him.
After dinner Jason took the boys to the pool and Amber and I ran to the store right there for a few groceries. It was quite a large grocery store. We ran the food back to our cottage and then went to the pool. The pool has a couple of body slides, a kid's area and then a wave pool and a lazy river, but no tubes. And then a rapids river that was so crowded with people. Here there are no lifeguards. You have people placed a few places, but fully dressed not like they are going to jump in the water. And even at the top of some of the slides there is no one there either. It has a lot of trees in this dome with a glass top so it was nice during the day if it wasn't cloudy to see out.
The kids enjoyed the pool. Only one problem- you have to bring your own towels. I had called earlier in the week and asked if we needed towels for the pool. The lady told me "You don't need to bring towels for the indoor pool, but you do need them if you do the outdoor pool" Ok that is fine we don't plan on being outside so I didn't bring any. They have this area in the pool that has soft pads and you can lay down on them and there is some light shining on them so like a warming area, so we dried off that way tonight.
When we got back to our cottage they had delivered a little gift basket with some things inside to apolize for the mess up with the check in so that was nice.
Saturday- Last night Amber fell out of bed. I wasn't suprised. The way that girl sleeps I don't think I will ever be able to get rid of her bed rail. Luckily her bed was close to the ground and her bag was right there as well so she was ok. When I leave her room I notice a huge black spider outside the boy's room. It was about the size of a 50 cent piece! What is it with the spiders here in Europe, they are monster size, steroid looking spiders! So I woke Jason up to kill the spider. Even he thought it was big- yuck!
Today was the day most everyone else left to go skiing around the Alps. This is the most popular ski week of the year.
The whole trip the kids slept in great. Today they all slept in until 8am when they heard me in the kitchen. This morning Jacob was doing a Rapid River kid's class. Unfortunatly, all the sports activities you had to be 8 for and Sean is not quite 8 yet. This place has a ton of activities for kids, and families to do it is overwhelming. Since it is winter all the outside activities were closed which is probably half of their program. The resort is built around lakes. So it is out in the forest with these little cottages spaced around the lakes. Then in the summer they have swimming and a lot of water activities as well.
So I went into the store today to buy some towels for us, only to see that each towel costs around $45! I was just starring at them, are you kidding me! Then the lady in the store says you can also just rent them down at the activities desk. I thank her for letting me know. I wish they would have that posted someplace!
So for an hour Jacob got to take a boogie board and a helmet and go down the rapid river before the pool opened. He loved it! After this we met up with them at the indoor pirate ship play area. It is a huge half of a pirate ship that the kids can climb up, down and all around. It is in the sand with a mote around it. Amber didn't like being up on the ship, so she stayed down in the water and sand.
A lot of kids didn't wear their suits and so ended up running around in their underwear since they got soaked.
So in this area was a high ropes adventure course only Jacob could do. He loved it as well!
We stayed here and ate lunch and then headed over to the pool. One area in the pool you put on your googles and you swim outside and go underwater and they have an aquarium there.
For dinner tonight we had ordered the fondue package. So they bring all the stuff to your cottage in a refridgerated bin and then you cook it when ever you want. It was like 3 big packages of meat. It was way too much. I don't know how they thought we could have eaten all of this. It came with a ton of sauces and yummy potato salad. I thought it would have included a cheese or chocolate fondue, but all we got were 2 loaves of bread and pudding cups for dessert.
After dinner the kids were seeing how many ants they could each squish- gross!
.
Sunday morning I heard Sean get up around 7:30 and play quitely in the family room and then around 8am the lovely rooster we had seen on Friday night was making its morning rounds cock a doodle dooing! Damn rooster.
This morning the boys did a 2 hour cooking class where they made pizzas and ate them for lunch there.
While the boys did this, Jason took Amber to the pool, and I got to go and get a back and neck massage and a mini facial. It was lovely! We then all went back to the cottage for lunch. After lunch Amber did the Princess and knight kid's class. It was so cute. Once the girls got there they went into this castle looking room and all got dressed in the same pink dress. They all got their faces painted. When I peeked in they were getting their crowns on and all looking in the mirror.
They then went and saw a puppet show. Then they got to race around with horses on a stick and do some other activities in the room.
During this time that Amber had this class Jacob was signed up to do the zip line, but it was outside. So we went outside where they said they were still having it this morning when we signed up. The zip line is from a climbing tower at the edge of the lake and you zip to an island and then take a boat back. As I am standing there I am wondering how they are going to be taking a boat back since the lake is frozen. Soon the instructer comes over and says b/c of the frozen lake they can't do the zip line today. Like they didn't know this this morning? So instead she said they would open the indoor climbing wall for the 3 people who had signed up to do this zip line. So we walked inside and Jacob spent the next 1 1/2 hours doing the climbing wall. He did a great job and just shimmed up the wall.
During all of the Jason took Sean to the pool and then when the other 2 finished their activities we went and joined them. We stayed until dinner and just had dinner at one of the restaurants there in the market place. After dinner Jason and the boys signed up to rent a tennis court and played tennis.
Some things Amber did while the boys were playing tennis.
By the end of the days here the kids are exhausted and easily go to bed! Although not without killing some ants first.
Monday- last night was not very peaceful. I went to bed at 10:30. I woke up when Jason came to bed at 11:30. Then Amber started coughing at 12:30 so I got up and got her some water. 1am Sean came in crying that his ear hurt. I think he got swimmer's ear. I didn't have any ear drops, so I gave him some pain medicine. At 3am he came back in and asked if it was time to get up-ugh! Get up, I have hardly been to sleep!
About 7:30 we got up and started getting things packed up. Jason had to walk back to the main parking lot and pick up our car. Around 10am we left and as you follow the one lane traffic path and there is a guy standing there with a bucket that you just drop your keys off in. This type of resort if you check in on Friday you have to check out on Monday. So everyone is on the same schedule.
From here we drove to Antwerp about 1 hour away. Here I booked this a little later and couldn't get us a room in the historic district so we were in a central location but about 20 min. walk from the historic district. Here we stayed at the Radisson. We had to have 2 rooms to get us together. It was nice to be in an American hotel. It had a big elevator that we could all fit in with our luggage! It had king size beds and underground parking.
Antwerp is a bigger city then I realized. I read later that it is Belgium's second biggest city, and one of the world's largest ports. This is where our sea shipment arrived as well. This city hosted the Olympics twice in the 1920's. So the story goes that this town got its name from a solider who challenged a giant that was attacking ships on the river. The solider cut off the giant's hand and threw it in the river. This is why the city's coat of arms is 2 severed hands. The word handwerpen means to throw a hand and it eventually got turned into Antwerp.
Our hotel was in the diamond district and across the square from Centraal Station, very pretty building.
Right in front of our hotel was busy. It had bus stops, tram stops and the underground subway. So we got on the tram and went to the historical district and the Grote Market, had lunch and walked around.
These buildings in Grote Market where built in the 16 and 17 century.
This statue is in the center of the square and is of the solider throwing the giant's hand into the river.
We saw the Cathedral of Our Lady Church. This church took over 169 years to build. It is the largest in Belgium. It was suppose to have 5 towers but only 1 and 1/4 got built.
We stopped and picked up some Belgium chocolate squares. We just walked around that area, but it was pretty cold out so we headed back, about a 20 min. walk. From here Jason took the 2 younger ones back to the hotel and Jacob and I went to the Diamond Museum. Antwerp is know for its diamonds. They say that 8 of our every 10 rough diamonds come through Antwerp. We learned about how they mined them and saw some on display. Jacob played this computer game they had called Steal the Diamond and he won, so when we left they gave him a tiny real diamond! From here we walked through Centraal Station, very pretty. It remined me a bit of the train station in the Hugo Movie. Next to Centraal Station is the diamond district with all the shops. So it is a bunch of stores selling gold, jewerly and diamonds. We walked along a bit but kind of a seedy area. I think the nicer stores were a few streets over. This street was actually being torn up and was a big pile of sand. They were laying new cobblestone. So we just walked back to the hotel. Once back in the room we picked up Amber and went to the aquarium place right next to the hotel. It was really neat. At one point you take an elevator down and it looks like you are going into a shark's mouth.
After this we went back to the room and found a restaurant for dinner and made reservations. People in Europe love their reservations. It is also harder here to sit 5 people if they don't know we are coming since they are smaller places. Jason wanted Thai and we had seen an ad for a nice looking place so we called and made reservations. We walked about a 1/4 of the way and stopped at a park for the kids to play at.
Then headed over to the restaurant. We wanted to get a cab, but never saw any. Here as well they have a red lane that is for bikes only. With all the bikes, trams, buses, and subway they probably don't have a need for many cabs.
The streets here are crazy zig zag, little narrow cobblestone and the tram goes down one side and there is only only one other lane. For traffic going which way we have no idea. And a lot of the streets are under construction. So we just ended up walking to the restaurant. It was a cute cozy place and had great food. After dinner I didn't feel comfortable walking all the way back to our hotel b/c some of the streets just had no one around almost a creepy feeling, and it was really cold out. No carnival partying here. So we ask the waitress where can we get a cab. She says just go either way down the street and you will see them. Ok the way we came we didn't see any, so lets try the other way. Some of these streets by the center sqaure are pedestrian only so we need to get back to a main street. We walked a bit and end up down by the port and saw the fortress there. Jason luckily spotted a van taxi so we hopped in it and headed back to the hotel. I am glad none of us get car sick b/c with the just have eaten dinner, the bumpy cobblestone roads, and the sudden stopping and going would have definately gotten us!
Here all the signs are in Flemish, but everyone can speak English.
Back at the hotel I took the kids to the pool. It had a hot tub and a nice pool that overlooked the Centraal Station square- very pretty at night. And Jason was able to finish up some work.
Tuesday. The nice thing about staying at a big hotel is they serve a big American style buffet breakfast that is included with your room. So we had a wonderful big breakfast, even though it didn't stop Amber from asking as soon as we got in the car if she could have a snack!
The boys must have gone up to the buffet like 3 times for more juice and food.
Before we left last week Jason decided he needed to go to Paris for work this week, so we decided just to go with him. So today we drove to Paris. It was about a 3 1/2 hours to Paris. Of course Jason seems to not completely understand the exact distance when the GPS is telling him to turn left and he passes it as we are trying to leave Antwerp! So after 5 min. of trying to find our way out of the messed up streets and almost getting hit by a tram, we end up back where we missed the turn.
We got to the hotel, it is on the outside of the downtown Paris area since Jason needs to go to work not too far or easier to get to from this side of town.
So we took a cab then to the Eiffel Tower- this was one of Jacob's things he has on his list to see in Europe. The Eiffel tower was built by Gustave Eiffel in 1889. It took a little over 2 years to build. He built it for the 1889 World Fair. Supposably the people of Paris didn't like it and wanted to take it down after the Fair. Of course it never got taken down and now look at what tourism it brings! It wasn't too crowded, but out of the 4 legs that go up the tower only 2 were open. One is for the lift which is a 3 hour wait, the other for the stairs. So we chose the short line and did the stairs.
To get to the first level not too bad probably took about 8 min. Jason had to carry Amber a bit.
Can you tell we are getting hot after walking up all the stairs as our hats, mittens and some coats have now come off!
Then we walked around and went up to the 2nd level- great views!
So the total number of steps from the ground to the 2nd level is 704! The very tip top of the tower was not open.
Going down all the stairs was much easier. Amber was counting, but would only get to 20 and then would start over again also missing some in between. When we get to the bottom I told her I think she missed a number. She said "Oh, did I miss 60?". I told her, "Yeah, that would be one of them!"
From here they have a red hop on hop off bus tour that stops here, so we hopped on.
We toured on the bus for a little over an hour and then got off at the 7th stop the Arc de Triomphe. It was built to honor those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It was started sometime after 1806. We just walked around it. You can go up to the top of it, but Jason thought it might be more stairs and the kids were done with the stairs for today.
This is one of the most crazy intersections here. 12 roads all come to this Arc and there is a roundabout for people to get from one street to the next. I should have taken a picture of it. It is a mess.
Here is one picture from the internet on world wide traffic intersection photos. So this is just one of the streets coming into the roundabout, there are 11 more! There are just way too many cars in this city for the roads. There are no lanes at the big roundabouts. It is so crazy, you have cars all over the road in the roundabouts. I was in a cab here and I was scared and I wasn't even driving! On some of the larger roads there doesn't seem to be an official left turn lane b/c you have people going around the person who is turning left to go wait in front of them just further out into the intersection, and it will be like 4 cars deep like this. A lot of honking going on. Basically it seems like a traffic nightmare!
So we walked down the street famous Champs Elysees Avenue, all the shopping you could want. We were only a block away from the Disney store when we finally found a cab that would take 5 of us. We went to this American Grill place that Jason had seen to try and have dinner, only to remember nothing opens before 7pm. Rats, it is like 5:15. So we end up going to some sandwich place down the street and then got a cab back to the hotel.
Wednesday Jason went to work, so I took the kids to finish exploring today. I got a cab and we went to the Louve. This is one of the world's largest and most visited art museums.
We got there around 9:30 and it wasn't too crowded. We easily got our tickets and went in. The Louve has the glass pyramid out front and that is where you enter and go down the escalator to buy tickets.
It consists of 3 buildings in a U shape.
Here is a beautiful night picture of it from the Wikipedia web page.
We only covered part of the musuem in about a little over an hour as that was all Amber could handle.
We saw a lot of the Eyptian exhibits. When we came out of the Louve it was very crowded and there was a long line to get in.
From here we walked down about 4 blocks and crossed the Seine river to pick up the hop on bus going in the direction we wanted.
We took this back to the Arc and got off. I had seen a McDonalds over here the day before. Hate the fact we had to eat at McD in Paris, but better to keep them happy while sight seeing. McDonalds is quite large here with 2 floors. It was packed, not with many children either. After this we walked over to the Disney Store. This is a 2 level store as well. They don't have a Disney store or any of our stores in Luxembourg.
After this we walk back and get back on the tour bus and finish the last couple stops on the tour.
The Opera House.
Notre Dame. It is beautiful inside and out. This is just the front picture. It is a long church. Jason and I had done the tour of it last time we were here. It took about 182 years to complete the whole thing, crazy! It has beautiful blue stained glass windows on the inside.
The last stop on the bus tour was across a bit from the Eiffel tower which is great for pictures of the whole tower.
Everytime Amber sees the Eiffel Tower she says "Look it is Paris!" Too funny. So here we took a few more pictures. Then right next store was a naval museum so we did that.
It was full of big model ships and paintings. The boys loved it. After this we got a cab back. A nice day of touring, and the kids did really well. Jason got home for a late dinner we had at the hotel. They give you a little appetizer that was wonderful. It was a little dish with duck pieces on the bottom and a mashed potato puree on top. It was so good. All the kids ate theirs as well.
We actually got some sun on our faces today sitting on the top of the open tour buses. A little chilly, but a great view.
Here in Paris we saw the Police people in their cars, always could hear sirens going off, on motorcycles, on bikes and on these huge beautiful horses.
Tonight I finished that Playing With The Enemy Book. It was very good. I didn't realize this but in the book they talk about the German sub the Americans caught in WWII. This is the sub that we have seen that is on display at the Musuem of Science and Industry in Chicago! It was very interesting how the rest of his life turns out. I cried many times in the last half of the book.
Thursday Jason left to go on to another town in France. We hung out at the hotel for a bit, then took a long, very long, cab ride to the train station. I think we might have spent half the time in the cab not actually moving, just waiting in traffic.
Here they have a speed train that goes between Paris and Luxembourg in 2 hours. Once at the train station I was suppose to pick up my tickets at a machine using my credit card here. Well it was asking for my pin and it wasn't working or I have the wrong pin code. So I go and find the ticket office, not very well labeled. And tried to pick up my tickets and she said I couldn't and would have to rebuy my tickets- ugh! They will refund the first one back to my card. So now I go to use my debit card and it isn't working either. Thank goodness I had enough money on me to pay for them. The train station is huge, 2 floors. But not very nice. They have one set of bathrooms way in the bottom corner and you have to pay for them. What is it with Europe and its lack of bathrooms? We wait out by the covered area before you get to the train where there are still some food places. We sit and have lunch. This station is kind of creepy. There are security guards walking around and then these 3 guys dressed in army garb with their hands on and ready with their machine guns- nice! About 20 min. before our train leaves they post which train it is. I have to validate our tickets at some machine and then find our right car and seats. All is well and we make it back. A cab takes us back to our place. We are glad to be back. Unfortunatly since we took the train we only took our back packs and I took one small bag that had mostly clean clothes in it. So Jason had all the stinky clothes and I needed to wait for him to come back to start all that post vacation wash.
Friday we ran to the store early to get some food. I vowed I would never take all 3 kids to the store after my experience about 1 1/2 years ago with them, but I had no choice today. But 1 1 /2 years ago I had to take all of them to Target shopping. I had a full cart and I turned away to get something. Amber was standing on one side of the cart. Sean went and stood on her side as well. The next thing I know I here a crashing sound and the card has tipped over on top of Amber and Sean. My groceries are just rolling out of the cart. Thank goodness they weren't hurt. The cart fell resting ontop of Sean since he was bigger. After that I decided no more store with everyone we will eat peanut butter and jelly until I can get back to the store!
Later in the morning I took Amber back to the dr. office. We were just there a few weeks ago and now she has a type of bronchitis. We had been doing so well staying out of the dr. office. I think the last time we went was in May for the boy's check ups. Of course I think she has passed this on to me as well. So when I go to the Pharmacy and waited like 30 min. for someone to help me b/c it was so crowded, I asked them what they recommended for me. It definatley helped.
Later in the afternoon, Jacob had a friend over. His friend had just come back from his vacation in Dubai. Then Amber and I were busy baking things. We made some donuts for the weekend, chili and corn bread muffins (import).
Jason got back later and we were all exhausted.
Saturday was a lazy day, spent doing laundry, making some cupcakes for Amber's b'day, getting the goodie bags ready for school and just hanging out! I now seem to have come down with an awful head cold.
Out of the Wall Street Journal an article talking about the new McDonalds sandwich they are bringing to France said this:
"France's national Bread Observatory, which studies and promotes bread, says the French each consume about 150 grams of it a day, or roughly 55 kilograms a year. Many of them eat it with most meals, viewing bread almost as an extension of the knife and fork in pushing food around on the plate. French research center Credoc found that 98% of French people eat bread every day."
I must be turning into a French person, now if I could only speak it!
