Paris France, May 13th 2011 (day one)

The long awaited trip had finally come.. Cathy and I were in Paris together, and yes, can't forget Sean and Mason. We couldn't of gotten there without them.

Our trip in Brandy (our 1994 BMW station wagon) was uneventful.. which is a good thing when you are traveling.. It took us about 6 hours to get there from our home. Went on three toll roads that weren't expensive. Cost about 30 euro's each way... Not Bad! and drove right into the heart of Paris.. It was a nice day with lots of sunshine.

We didn't have to much trouble finding our hotel but it was another story trying to find the parking garage.. WOW.. it took us just over an hour to find it and it was right around the corner from the hotel. We've never seen an entrance to a parking garage like that before. Anyway, our hotel was right down town Paris, we checked into our rooms which were small but clean and headed out for some adventures..

Metro here we come...

First stop... Notre Dame. It was a short line into Notre Dame so we walked in took some pictures and admired the fabulous decor.

(Sorry, no pictures inside Notre Dame. They didn't turn out)

It was great fun walking down the streets of Paris, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of the city..

Next stop the Louve...

Ever wonder who all these people are that end up in your photo's and how bad you look in theirs....

Sunset on the court yard at the Louve








After leaving the Louve, we walked over a bridge that had thousands of locks on the fencing... didn't find out why, but thought it made an interesting picture... lots of them were dated, some with names and some have been there for years...

We decided to start heading back to our hotel and fine a place to eat dinner... that ended up to be quite a challenge... it was around 10:00 at night by this time and you would of thought there would of been lots of places to get a bite to eat... but no there wasn't... by this time the kitchens

close down and everyone just serve's drinks...

We were starved and ended up at this little place not far from our hotel.. We sat outside, had a couple glasses of wine, some cheese, bread and some weird meat stuff... I didn't eat much. Even though I didn't care for the food, just being there was fabulous.

Did I mention that it was Mason's 60th birthday that day... Nice to be able to spend it in Paris...

End of day one... we had a great time wandering around the streets of Paris, but tomorrow is another day that promises to be full of new journey's...

Nighty night....

Brugge Belgium May 11th 2011

After the four of us checked into our rooms, we ventured out onto the streets of Brugge for a bite to eat and to stretch our stiff leggs. It was just starting to get dark and the streets weren't crowed at all. We walked to the central courtyard and found several nice restaurants open for weary travelers.

We didn't stay out long after dinner. We were all tired and wanted to get up early to explore this lovely city...

After an okay night sleep, we met Cathy and Sean downstairs for breakfast in the hotel and talked about the game plan for the day. Sean needed to round up cash for his treasures so he and Cathy headed off in one direction while Mason and I went in another.

It was Wednesday morning and in the central courtyard they were having a wonderful farmers market with beautiful flowers, fresh fruit, vegetables and hot fresh Belgium waffles. Mason and I had to share one... Can't go to Belgium without eating a Belgium waffle... Right!!!!

I'm not sure what this amazing building is, but it's beautiful...with all it's statues, arched doors, steeples and windows.


There are cute little shops one right after another that you can pop into and find unique treasures.

Belgium is also known for it's lace, chocolate and beer. Cathy and I spent some time in one of the lace shops and talked to a man that has worked with lace for years.. he showed us the art of lace making.. it was amazing to watch him. He is so fast!

Cathy picked up several bags of chocolate for friends in Anchorage and I picked up more for my Mom... I try to send her some from each country we visit.. The chocolate in Belgium is wonderful.. I'm not a big chocolate lover, but for those of you that are, you don't know what you're missing unless you've had chocolate from Belgium.



We really enjoyed Brugge and would like to go back, but there are so many places to see before we return to the States that we probably won't make it. Here are so more pictues I wanted to share with you of Brugge.

After walking through the town and enjoying all the sights, we found a beautiful church and went inside.

There is a lot of very pretty statues to see inside the church, but the one I liked the best is the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo done in 1504-1505. It's carved from Carrara marble.













We must of left Brugge around 2:30 pm and headed back to pick up Sean's barometers. We arrived there at 5:00 pm and tried to get all four boxes that were the size of small coffins into our station wagon. If one was watching I'm sure they would of thought we were crazy.. Poor Cathy and Sean. They ended up in the back seat with Cathy sitting on Sean's lap...it's a 4 hour drive home so I'm sure it was't comfortable for either one of them... one box had to be shipped to our house.. it just wasn't going to fit..

On the drive home, the Germans had a check point set up on the Autobahn.. we thought for sure we were going to get stopped for not having enough room in the car for everyone. But they let us go through.. We were all very thankful....

It must have been around 9:30 pm when we got home.. Mason and I had to work the next day so we unpacked the car and got ready for bed...

Our next adventure with our guest... Paris....

Sweet Dreams...

Beverlo (Beringen) Belgium (May 10th 2011)

Cathy and Sean have been here for a couple days and we are on our way to Belgium.. There is a factory in Belgium that makes a curtain Barometer that Sean wanted to pick up and take home. The factory was about a four hour drive from our house so we decided to drive there, pick up what he wanted and then go on to Brugge.. it's about another 2 hours in the car.



Well, everything went great until Sean went to pay for all his treasures... Turns out they don't take credit cards or debit cards... In fact Sean couldn't find anyplace in this small town that could give him cash... WOW.... not only was getting cash a problem but getting the four boxes into our station wagon along with four adults was interesting... We decided to go onto Brugge, pick up cash there and drive back to get Seans stuff the next day... worked out better anyway.. there just wasn't enough room in the car for everything...



























We were given a tour in the factory.. it was interesting and I learned about barometers ..



























This lady is good.. it was amazing watching her work...










We didn't get to our hotel until around 7:00 at night and we were all ready for a nice dinner and a glass or two of wine... It took us around two hours just to find the hotel when we got to Brugge. Even with a GPS is was very difficult... so let me tell ya, we were ready to get out of the car by the time we found the hotel...


The hotel was nice.. more like a bed and breakfast...
More on Brugge on the next blog..

Nighty night...

Rudesheim Germany (May 8th 2011)

I remember when Mason and I first started talking about moving to Germany (about March 2010). I called my sister Cathy and told her... Guess what... I've moving to Germany.. Her first questions were... when and when can I come visit... We decided right away she would come in May 2011 and she did...

I was so excited to have the opportunity to live in Europe and then to have Cathy come visit was going to be fabulous... and then the time finally came and she and Sean showed up.

Mason and I picked them up in Frankfurt and we hit the ground running as soon as we left the airport.. Cathy had said for us to plan to start sightseeing as soon as they got here, so Mason and I planed our first adventure with them...

We visited a quaint little village called Rudesheim... It is such a cute place.. It wasn't to far out of our way from the airport so it didn't take to long to get there... you have to cross over by fairy.

This little street is very, very narrow. The story is that one can stop at all the wonderful bars along the street and just kind of bounce along from one bar to the next without falling to much... the sides of the street will keep you on your feet....

It is beautifully decorated with all the German charm of a small village..

We weren't on the narrow street long before we found ourselves a bar with open doors just waiting for us to come in and have our first drink... It was quite a cute place with lots of musical instruments hanging all around...

I try to take in all the beauty around me as we walk through the village.. the cobble stone streets, all the grape veins growing from the smallest unpaved piece of ground it can find to grow in. The wonderful old roofs that look all crocked and very old. Beautiful old windows, lamp post,window boxes full of bright colored flowers... there is just so much to love about the villages...




on the hour, these bells played a wonderful song and the people turned round on the turn table. It was quite beautiful to see and hear.

After spending time in the village we decided to take a cruise down the Rhine River, so we walked across the street, found the ticket shop and waited for not to long before we found ourselves sitting on the top deck of the cruise boat. I think we were on the boat for about an hour and a half. We passed by about a dozen castle set up on the hill sides of the very beautiul German countryside.

The cruise boat took us to a little village called Bacharach were we got off and spent some time walking around. We walked up to the top of a hill where you can see for miles around and enjoy a great view of the Rhine River. At the top of the hill is this very old church. It's in ruins but the view is worth the walk... lots and lots of stairs to climb.. I thought I was going to die!!!!

We walked around Bacharach for about an hour and then got back on the cruise boat and headed back to Rudesheim.. It was a little cool on the way back so we sat inside the boat to get out of the cool breeze that was blowing... After docking we walked back to the car and drove home. Cathy and Sean were tired after their fist day with us. They hadn't slept since leaving Anchorage so it had been quite a long day for them.... It was Great spending time with my Sis.....

nighty night....

May Fest in Steinalben

I'm going to try to catch up on all our travels, so my blogs might get kind of short for awhile..

The Germans love to have Fest so why not have one on May 1st.... Ruth told us about a fest that was on the outskirts of our village in a nice little park area.. There was lots of food, music and of coarse beer.... The weather was nice that day, a lot of people walked there. I guess Mason and I were lazy, we drove..... Mason and I went by ourselves, I can't remember why we didn't go with Ruth, Steve, Rebecca and Sarah. I think everyone had other plans that day so we were all going in different directions...

We ordered our lunch which was Hazen mit Krautsalat. I think it was pork... but it was really good what ever it was... and I'm always impressed with the ladies and their fancy cakes they bake. There are amazing..... After getting our food we went and sat down at one of the picnic tables with everyone else... It was kind of different though, no one talked to us... it was like we didn't shower that morning or something... Mason knows enough German to be able to communicate with them but I guess no one was interested in us... so we didn't stay to long...

I always try to learn somethng about the German culture where ever we go and bring something out of the experience...

love to all....