Logan and Anna's Visit

The tail end of our visitors was Logan and Anna (my brother and sister-in-law)!

We try to pack a lot of fun into the short time that people come to visit. I'll admit, we were tired from the constant site seeing that started back in August, but we still manage to have a fun time.

After dropping off their stuff at our house, we walked over to the Evere Outdoor Market (open each Wednesdy morning) to wander and most importantly to enjoy the best waffles you can find in Brussels. Anna found some boots she had been looking for and Kheington rode on a pig (plastic pig that is).

We also visited the Cinquantenaire. It was my first time up the arch (which is free to do, I just hadn't done it).

We did another whirlwind trip to London. London is HUGE and I have not yet figured out how to see the sites without stressing. We did the best we could. We got off the tube at Piccadilly Circus which is right where Rippley's Aquarium is. Kherington loved dancing to the music and running around the car...i just wish it wasn't so crazy expensive so we could run in for a quick look, but when you only have a day it's just not at all worth it. We did the Westminister Abbey walking tour (from the Rick Steves book...and backwards b/c we were already at Piccadilly). At the end we ended up on a bridge that has some awesome views, but the most interesting thing for me was the street people out doing that find the ball game was they move it under 3 different things. It just amazes me that people will whip out 20 pounds just to guess (and then lose the 20 pounds).

Since we got all day bus/tube passes, we caught a bus to take us to Buckingham Palace then chilled on the steps to take a much needed break. Kevin enjoyed his biscuits...it amazes me how much of a mess he can make with a solid cracker and Kherington liked being free (out of the backpack). Next was a quick bus ride to Hamley's toy store. At the toy store I let Kevin down on the ground to play and he loved it (yeah yeah, the ground is dirty, but I don't worry too much about that and neither of my kids get sick so I guess for them it really just help them build up their immunities).

After grabbing some dinner, I took the tube back to our hotel with the kids while Log and Anna stayed for a night bus tour. The tube was PACKED (as in people getting stuck in the doors b/c there were too many people), but there was a nice man that held a seat for Kherington so I just had to worry about Kevin. We made it home, headed to the Tesco for some ice cream then got ready for bed and had an ice cream party :).

Day two we headed out to Windsor. We lucked out that it was a "Changing of the Guard" day and we were there are the right time to watch the guard parade through town and into the castle. On the way of out town I took Kherington into the McDonald's for a potty stop and found fun Guard Statues to take pictures with :). And of course Log and Anna didn't want to leave London without giving Fish n' Chips a try.

Next up was Greenwich. I had looked at the location and figured the GPS would route us around town, but no such luck. I ended up driving right past Buckingham Palace and on the opposite side of the road. Not my idea of fun when I'm behind the wheel. Greenwich is home to the Royal Observatory which has an enormous park and the meridian line.

On the way back to the Eurotunnel, we did our customary Costco and Temple stops.

Saturday we headed to Brugge. It was a low key day where we weren't trying to see a tons of stuff, which made it so much more fun. In the main square someone came up trying to hand me and I said no and walked away b/c typically that is a technique used for scams. Then we figured out they were actually just handing out chocolate, so Logan too Kherington back to get some and she was so happy about her little cookies n cream chocolate bar :). Kherington, Kevin and I stopped for quite awhile to listen to some street performers (Kherington was literally rolling on the ground 'dancing').

Sundahy we did a quick drive by the Atonium after church, but it was much too cold to want to get out of the warm car to walk around. Monday we toured downtown and the chocolate outlet before dropping Logan and Anna off at the airport s0 they could head off to Madrid for a couple days. They had a blast and it was nice to be able to relax and spend some time letting the kids run wild.

Our last trip before was just 3 day long.

Day 1 was Paris. This was our 3rd trip to Paris, but this time we got a 2 day museum pass and actually went IN to some of the museums. We spent some time in the Louve, at lunch outside the Notre Dame Cathedral (Kherington ran around chasing the birds) and explored the Saint Chapelle (beautiful stainglass).

We took the metro to the Arc du Triumph and when we got there we found they they were setting up for a big parade for the next day (Armistic Day). There were 285 steps to the top of the Arc so after a little debating we decided to go for it (we had already walked a lot, but out pass covered it and we were already there so it made sense to do). Log went to enter and person stopped him, asked if he was with us and told us to go around to the other side so we could take the elevator to the top...having kids definitely paid off on that one. The views were amazing. I would definitely recommended it especially if you are not planning on going up the Eiffel tower (plus there was no line). We ended our downtown pars trip at the Eiffel tower. We got there just as it started to get dark. Kherington got to ride the merry go round while I took pictures of Log and Anna.

Day 2 we went to Versaille (our 2 day museum pass included admission and audio guides at Versaille). The only downer of the visit was that it was FREEZING so we only spent a tiny bit of time in the gardens. On the upside, that meant we were able to visit some Normandy sites before they closed at 5pm.

After checking in to our hotel, we decided we wanted to go see Mont Saint Michel at night. It was just about 10 minutes away so we figured it wouldn't be a huge problem, but was we got closer we noticed that all the cars were going the opposite direction. It's a good thing we decided to cut our losses and turn around (we stopped momentarily to take night pictures) because the next morning we figured out that everyone was going the opposite direction b/c the tide was coming in and the parking area gets covered by the water so either you leave our your car covered in water.

Ah the last day :). We wandered around Mont Saint Michel which included LOTS of stairs. I was the lucky one who got Kherington and man does she feel heavy after carrying her for awhile.

We had planned on going to the parachute museum...I guess you could say we did...we found the house (Dead Man's Corner), but it wasn't what I was expecting, so instead of spending a bunch of time there we moved on.

Next up was the US Disembarkment Museum. My parents did the British one, but we didn't go in with them. It was amazing to learn more about everything that went on to prepare for D Day (aka J Jour). The museum had recently been redone and they had a flight simulator which we all took turn on.

We finished off with Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery...both of which we had already been to but are definite must sees if you're heading to Normandy.

On their last day here we went over to Aachen, Germany. We did some shopping downtown (I love the euro store), tried some new breads/pastries, went into the dom (church) to see the stain glass and finished off the day with Kebaps from my favorite place (Log and I were in charge of ordering and kinda messed up, but everything was still delicious as always).