Brussels, Belgium

For our second weekend trip, we decided to go to a different country and check out Brussels, Belgium. It is only a two-hour drive from where we live, and it was a city we both had never been to before, so we packed up our bags and went. Because it was so near by, we left Saturday morning and only stayed one night there before heading back home.

Brussels is a crazy international city. Not only do they have two official languages for the entire country (Dutch and French), but Brussels is also home to many European Union offices as well NATO offices. Every sign is posted in at the minimum two languages, but often times more. It was pretty easy to get around in the city and most everyone we spoke to spoke English. Well, I should say that it is easy to understand the signs in the city. Actually getting around we found a little difficult since the streets twist and turn and it is hard to see where they post the road names most of the time. When we were driving in to the city and trying to get to our hotel the GPS kept telling us to turn on certain streets, but it was almost impossible to tell what streets we were on. We made it to our hotel after a few wrong turns and circling around.

Our hotel. They built the new hotel around the old city gate tower. Our room looked out over the tower

Mikayla trying on my sunglasses around her neck

Mikayla saw this empty cupboard and spent about a half an hour getting in and out of it

Peeking over the door of the cupboard

After we checked in to our hotel, we went out walking. Neither of us knew very much about the city, but we looked at the map our hotel concierge had given us and thought it would be interesting to head towards the cathedral. The bells in the bell tower went off about every 15 minutes and would play some pretty music in addition to counting out the time.

St. Michel's Cathedral in the center of town

A window in the cathedral

Darren relaxing on one of the lounging chairs available in the park in front of the cathedral. We stopped here to have a picnic lunch in the shade of the trees before heading on.

The Grand-Place, a fun square that is surrounded on all sides by gilded houses and museums.

A crossbow competition in La Grand-Place that was taking place while we were there... not sure who won, but it was fun to watch for a little bit.

Darren and Mikayla in La Grand-Place

Downtown Brussels

Mmmmm.... Belgian chocolate

Museum of Chocolate

The sign for the Museum of Chocolate

The "Chocolate Master" at work, showing us how he makes his wonderful creations

The Musical Instruments Museum

A close up of one of facade of the Musical Instruments Museum building

L'Arc de Triomphe du Cinquantenaire - built to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Belgium's independence.

The Royal Palace

Gardens of the "Mont des Arts" and a view over Brussels

A Shopping Gallery

The Atomium. It was built for the 1958 Worlds Fair and represents an elementary iron crystal enlarged 160 billion times.

Darren at the Atomium

Taking the subway. Mikayla loved riding on the trains. She now points out trains wherever we go, and knows that they go "fast."

They love their comics in Brussels. We saw stuff like this everywhere. They even have a whole museum dedicated to comic strips.

A fabulous little store that I went into and found some delicious biscuits, chocolate-covered almonds, and many other wonderful things.

Yummy biscuits. You can buy them in bulk and try out the many different flavors

A display of candies

The little cafe that we ate at on Sunday before we headed home. We had to walk a little ways to get here, but thought that we couldn't leave Belgium without having some authentic Belgium waffles

And it sure was worth it! It was delicious.

On Sunday morning, we looked out of the hotel window and saw that it was raining. We thought about waiting for it to let up, but we only had one day to see all the rest of the sights of Brussels and didn't feel like we had time. The one thing that Darren had been talking about that he really wanted to do while in Belgium was go on an "Art Neveaux" walk. He had read about it in a book and saw the suggested walk on our map. We hadn't gotten to it on Saturday because Mikayla was starting to melt down and my feet were hurting (I had definitely worn the wrong shoes for the amount of walking we did), so Sunday was our only chance. So, we set out in the rain to see what we could see.Mikayla and I ready for our walk. We were sure glad that the hotel had a big umbrella we could use!

Darren all geared up for the rain. The stroller was along for the ride in case it ever stopped raining and if Mikayla got tired of being in the backpack carrier. She did get tired of being on my back, but it never stopped raining. So he had to carry it the entire time.

A street in Brussels that we saw during our rainy walk

A heron that we saw during our rainy walk

We really enjoyed the time that we spent in Brussels. It was beautiful and a fun place to go.

Heimbach

On the first Sunday that we were here in Germany we decided that we wanted to drive around the area a bit to get oriented. We went on a long walk around our villages and to several of the neighboring villages the day before, so we felt like exploring a little further. We first went to Nigedden, which is a bit larger than the village we live in, Embken. The address of our house actually says "Nigedden" since our village is incorporated in the city of Nigedden, even though it is about 8 km away. Nigedden is supposed to have a nice castle you can hike to and tour around in, so we decided to start our day there. Unfortunately, it was raining really hard when we got into Nigedden and didn't show any signs up letting up. So, we continued driving past the town and into the Eifel Wilderness area. It was a very beautiful drive up and down mountains, through picturesque little villages, and over and around the river Rur. We enjoyed the drive, even though Mikayla got a little stir crazy being cooped up for so long and she hadn't yet adjusted to the time zone here.

And then we got to the village of Heimbach. We drove into it by accident, looking for the right road to get us back to Embken, and we were glad to have stumbled upon it. It is nestled along the banks of the Rur, in a little valley that offers many hiking trails. When we first drove into the village it was having some sort of festival that looked like a lot of fun. We thought about stopping, but we needed to get Mikayla back home and into bed. So, we put it on our list of places that we needed to get back to and really explore.

We ended up getting back to visit much earlier than expected. The next Thursday we went back in the evening after Darren got home from work and had dinner there. Going back to Heimbach was great, not only because we wanted the chance to explore the village and its surrounding areas, but also because it gave me the chance to get out of Embken. I really enjoy the village where we live, but I had been going a little stir crazy that week. It was Darren's first week of work, so he was gone all day with the car and tired when he got back. I think that was the first time in my life where I had been truly stuck in a place and not able to get out and do something if I wanted to. It is amazing how trapped I felt, even though Mikayla and I went on a walk every day for at least an hour. But not being able to communicate with most of the people that I saw and not being able to get out of a few-mile radius got to me after a few days, especially since at the time I didn't see any other options for the time that we are here.

So, getting out and going to explore Heimbach and eat out was a very exciting thing. We still need to go on some of the trail hikes that are offered around there, but we had fun walking all over the village and looking at the castle that sits above the city.

Darren and Mikayla with Burg Heimbach in the background

The River Rur at Heimbach

Fiddler Statue by the river

We had a wonderful dinner at a little restaurant called "Zur Alten Muhle", which means "The Old Mill". The building, when it was built in 1657 was a mill and even has the old water wheel on display inside. We ate outside in the patio area since the weather was nice and it gave Mikayla a place to run around. I enjoyed my Jagerschnitzel, which was the first truly German food that I had had since I had cooked most of our meals since we arrived. Mikayla ate most of her sausage and fries, and Darren enjoyed his meal, though neither of us could remember the name of it after he ordered it.

Darren practicing German phrases so he could talk to the waiter

Our meal

Mikayla

Mikayla wandering in and out of the restaurant after the meal. The waiters were really understanding about a little one underfoot and even smiled and tried to get her to talk to them.

Cooking My First German Meal

I have cooked quite a few meals since we came to Germany, but hadn't really tried to cook anything authentically German. We have had bratwurst, but Darren grilled those on the little barbecue that is in the courtyard of our apartment. So, today I talked to Mary, our landlady, and asked her the best way to cook weinerschnitzel. And even though every time we talk about weinerschnitzel as German food somebody chimes in and says that it really isn't German - it's Austrian- I am going to count this as my first German cooking experience. You can get the dish in many restaurants here, so I think it counts. And it turned out very well. I rounded out the meal with homemade mashed potatoes (Kartoffeln), berry sauce, and steamed fresh green beans (grune Bohnen).