Blake is the best husband ever! He agreed to stay home with the 4 older kids and play "mom" while I continued to play with Eric, Cindy and Erika. I am so grateful I have a husband who is willing to let me leave for 5 days and stay at home with our children. And not only does he stay home with them, he cooks, cleans, organizes, and does laundry and the best part was that he enjoyed it! I missed them all while I was gone though.
Cindy, Erika and I left the morning after Christmas bright and early at 5:00am to go see as much of Europe as we could in 5 and a half days. We did pretty good. We spend the day in Brugges. They climbed the Bell tower while Kelsi and I wondered around. Then we all wandered the streets, had some Belgian waffles with cream, strawberries and nutella, french fries with curry ketchup and onions, watched chocolate and candy demonstrations and enjoyed some street entertainment. We bought some chocolates and enjoyed them in our hotel room that night in Cologne, Germany. We would each take a tiny bite of each chocolate so we could taste all the flavors. They were delish!
Friday morning we had breakfast in the hotel and walked to the cathedral in Cologne. It was so big! I have seen a lot of churches in Europe and this was was huge! I can only imagine what Cindy and Erika thought of it. It was fun to travel with them because everything was so amazing to them. I think I have become so used to the things I see here because I see them all the time. We tried finding an ice cream shop to get some Spaghetti Ice, but no one sells ice cream in the winter. So we headed to Spangdahlem Aif Force Base. We got a movie at the Library and some pizza, garlic bread and ice cream and had a relaxing night watching Letters to Juiliette and eating ice cream.
Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Cochem, a little German town with a castle. The drive was beautiful and it was so neat to come around the mountain and look across the valley at a big castle right on the top of a hill. Cindy and Erika were impressed, so were Eric and I. It took us about an hour to figure out how to get to the castle. A few wrong turns and narrow roads and we finally arrived at the parking lot by the trail head. There was one point in the road where we had to pull in our mirrors and only had about 2 inches on each side of the van. It was a little tight, but with the encouragement from the random American behind us, we made it.
The tour guide was so funny. She spoke a little english and would do little bits in english so we could understand the tour. The castle had trap doors and even a door built on one side of the room that let to nothing, just to make it symmetrical. The guide told us that if we touched the mermaid's belly and make a wish it would come true. So we all touched her belly. It was so funny house she said mermaid though. It was more like mmmuuurrrrrrmaid. Her accent was very entertaining.
I thought this wood was really neat. So detailed.
After leaving the castle we drove back to the town and walked around the streets, walking through some of the shops. We came across a bakery with some yummy looking desserts and bought some for after dinner. Then we went to a restaurant recommended to us by a local. It was a cute little restaurant and the schnitzel was yummy. After dinner we went back to the hotel to enjoy some more movies and our dessert. We struck out with movies. We tried watching 5 movies and only 1 of them was good. 2 of them we turned off they were so poorly made.
Sunday morning we woke up and headed to Paris by way of Luxembourg for church. The ward there was so friendly. They had translators for us so we could understand, but most of the members speak english. It was funny because there was a baby blessing and the man blessing the baby had family in town and one of the men in town just happens to work for the same company as Eric. So Eric knew him. Small world!
After church we headed to Paris. We checked into our hotel and relaxed for a minute in our 10 foot by 10 foot cell, I mean room. It was tiny! We had fun with it though. Then we drove into Paris and found a parking spot right by the Arch De Triumph. We had fun walking the street leading up to the Arch De Triumph. We got some dinner then headed back to the hotel looking for a gas station. Eventually we found one after we took a detour for some crepes!
The next morning we took the train into town and toured the streets some more. We saw Notre Dame, the bridge where everyone locks their love, then on the the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. We didn't go inside the Louvre, but enjoyed taking pictures outside. Eric, Erika and Cindy went up the Eiffel Tower, while I found a small cafe out of the rain and played with Kelsi while drinking some hot chocolate. When they got down we took some pictures and tried to find a good place to eat that was reasonably priced but struck out, so we headed back towards the hotel hoping we could find a cheaper place to eat. At the end of the underground line we had to catch a bus. We asked a bus driver where to catch it and he said it just left we would have to wait, or we could take another bus that would take us in the general area. There was a girl who said she lived right there, she would show us where to go. So, we got on that bus with her. When we got off none of us knew where we were. We put full trust in this girl as she led us through the dark streets and neighborhoods. At first I was a little nervous because our hotel seemed to be in a sketchy area. But as I started looking at the neighborhood we were in I realized it was a really nice neighborhood for European standards. Eventually we found our hotel. Our guide recommended we eat at the restaurant in front of our hotel called the Hippopotamus. She said it is an inexpensive restaurant with good food. So we went in and sat down. We started looking at the menu and realized it was more than any of the other restaurants were that we looked at. So when the hostess was busy we left. We found another restaurant that was just a little cheaper, but it was a buffet, so we could eat as much as we wanted. It was pretty good chinese food and the best part was they had like 10 kinds of Gelato that was also all you can eat. Lots of food and 16 bowls of Gelato later we left feeling a little too full.
Tuesday morning we woke up and headed to Versailles. We walked around the gardens enjoying the scenery and of course getting one more crepe before we left France. The gardens and fountains of Versailles were amazing and it is winter time. I can't imagine what they look like in the summer when there are flowers everywhere and all the fountains are turned on. I hope we can go there again before we leave.
We made one last stop at a McDonalds so Eric could send an important email. I thought it was funny that everyone was staring at their cell phones. So I gave Kelsi one too so I could take a picture. After we left McDonalds we were off to England to celebrate New Year's Eve with the family before Eric, Cindy and Erica headed off to Italy in the morning.
We had a fun celebration with the family watching the 2012 time square ball drop at 10:00pm and doing our toasts and drinking our fancy drinks! What an amazing year we had with lots to celebrate. We have seen so many new places, had a new baby, all gotten older and hopefully wiser too and we celebrated our health! Broden made the toast and said to our family. Perfect!
We were sad to see our adult kids go in the morning, but happy we get to see them all again in the summer when we move home, if not before.
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