Nonstop November!

It is a whirlwind here, all good but hectic! 

For the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War One, we went to Mons, Belgium to see the ceremony there.  Mons had many Canadian troops there, so there were many Canadians in attendance and tons of flags!

They had a very big ceremony with tons of units marching, a grand stage and lighting, and beautiful music.

 The  ceremony was in French and English so we could understand some of it...

 These guys paraded in and then sat in the white seats near the front of the official party.  We saw all the dignitaries arrive.

Luckily the rain held out until the end, and Charlie was itching to go so we got to our car before the rain started!

Since Thanksgiving is our holiday, the Christmas things are kicking in all around us.  We heard that the NATO charity Christmas bazaar is pretty amazing, and this year it was held in the brand new NATO headquarters.  It is really a most impressive building.

Here is what the new building looks like from the front:

On the walk into the main entrance you pass some important things:

Piece of the Berlin Wall

Piece of the World Trade Center

Both are fitting reminders of why we need multilateral organizations in our world!

Booths from all around the world were set up and they had some traditional costumes and dancers.  We saw this lady and Charlie said, Mom I didn't know elves were real...

Here is Charlie at the Netherlands booth

I wish this thing would have had the keys in it, then I might have actually been able to shop, Charlie rushed me through the actual shopping part of the bazaar!

The US Mens National Soccer team was in Genk, Belgium (about an hour away from us) for a friendly match against Italy.  

We went with the Barata & Estramonte families.  We sat in the US fan section, which was completely separate from all the other fans, boy were we happy we did!  Our section was filled with die hard fans that follow the team to their matches and they lead cheers and chants.  It had the feel of a high school hockey or football game where everyone was totally into it.  We were reminded of how proud we are to be Americans, even when our team lost in the final 30 seconds, after a hard fought game!

GENK, Belgium (Nov. 20, 2018) — Fielding the youngest lineup in the team’s modern era, the U.S. Men’s National Team battled hard, but a strike from Matteo Politano deep in second-half stoppage time saw the U.S. fall 1-0 to Italy at Luminus Arena in Genk, Belgium

The Italian team had some great names, but our favorite was a player who subbed in during the second half, his name was Kevin Lasagna!

Our kids were all delighted to be together, even though we all new the school wake-up in the morning was going to be rough!

Loved Bella & Annie jumping in the background!

 

We set a family record for our biggest Thanksgiving, we had 25, 15 kids and 10 adults...awesome to have old friends and new ones join us for a great feast.

Only a photo of the kids table because everyone knows that is the most fun table of them all!  Charlie is too busy pouring his gravy to lean in!

Neighbors, friends and an a very international mix!

 Our kids will always remember it because the Barata & Estramonte families also slept over so it was fun to have people on couches & rooms all through the house!  When couch space was short...2 chairs will do...right Marissa?

We had a great walking tour of Brussels with the Baratas & Estramontes before the fun had to end...

Next stop is waffles & frites!

We have so much to be thankful for, especially the chance to host such good friends in Brussels & we hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Final Madrid Memories

I find that my time to post has greatly increased in the time I've been keeping this blog!  I used to be so speedy in getting all the writing done, now it seems like it takes me forever!  Yet, I don't want to leave out the good stuff...so here are some final things from our Madrid trip.

We went to the telephone company building because it had an Instagram exhibit.  Kelly and Katie are big Instagrammers so we had to see it.  It had some nice photos, but the best part was the rest of the building. It had amazing things on each floor.  The top floor was all about Artificial Intelligence, and it had a part where you stood in front of the camera and it analyzed you.

I'm sure the analysis said this poor girl has a Crazy Little Brother!

Inigo got analyzed too, not sure what the computer thought of his dancing moves!

Charlie looks like something right out of his spy books!

The next floor had an amazing robot exhibit, it had every robot you can think of and most exciting for me they had the Nao robots that I had come to the Wakefield schools back in the day.  After I had them come to the schools kids would stop me in the halls and tell me they were saving up for one!

A Nao robot, from Aldebaran Robotics-I went to their Boston office!

I had a Mr. Machine and I was excited to show Charlie my robot!

 The next floor down had a whole exhibit of phones from the early days to today.  They also had a section on military communications, which included a few Enigma machines. I don't think I've ever actually seen one before, so that was cool to see! 

Enigma, through the glass case....sorry about the reflection!

Inigo told us about his favorite place that according to him was "more Spanish than the King of Spain".  That was our next stop...

Outside Inigo's place

Again just so amazing to see him after so many years and hear all about the great things that he has been up to!

Inigo ordered enough food for an army...we couldn't even eat any more by the end.  We loved trying it all and we discovered that Charlie is a huge fan of paella...

I had to get a few pictures of just the decor, it was awesome!

Inigo had to go and we were sad to say goodbye but we hope to see him soon in Brussels!  Now I'll have to be on a hunt to find a place that is "more Belgian than the King of Belgium"!  

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find some basketball shoes for our birthday girl, we didn't have much luck but we did like this giant department store...

No, this is not an amusement park...this is the outside of the big department store a lady in a shoe store sent us to!

Charlie heard there were toys inside!

We struck out on finding girls basketball shoes...just like our experience in Brussels last year, they do have basketball shoes, but only Mens shoes...basketball is big in Europe, but any girls that play have to buy Mens shoes!  (or ship some in from the US...that was our new plan)

We wandered and snacked for the rest of the night and finally went back to our place late, we stayed out and knew that we had a very early trek to the airport in the morning, we were all sad to say goodbye to Madrid-what a fun city!

Our own guided walking tour & Halloween in Spain

Aitor was able to finish up his work at the University & take us on a wonderful walking tour of the city.  Here we are setting off with our tour guide...he had an umbrella as it rained that day in Madrid and apparently that is very rare, coming from Brussels it seemed like a normal day to us!

Our first stop was a Tesla dealership for Charlie, he got to see how the doors open & sit in one..

Look at the detail on this place-incredible!

We went to a beautiful tapas place and then followed with a trip to the food hall market, it was great to see all the different things on display.  Greg & Aitor tried the Tio Pepe, which has a famous sign in the Sol square, here is the sign at night.

Just about a perfect drink menu for me...Sangria & Cider...and a new thing I've discovered, Aperol Spritz..

The cheese counter at the food hall!

We said farewell to Aitor, he was off to Munich in the morning, but we hope to see him in Brussels soon!

Our next stop was the Royal Palace, which we read was one of the most elaborate in all of Europe and the guide books were correct!  Most impressive were the working old clocks in most rooms, the Stradivarius room-4 instruments all made by the master,  the Throne room, and the china collection...

Sisters!

We caught the tail end of a procession inside.

A little different than the last lion that was that close to him!

I liked the sea shells in the window high up in the main entrance hall!

 

Picture of a painting of the royal family. A few weren't smiling, must not be that much fun?

I liked the arms on the beautiful bench.  The carpets were incredible throughout.

One of the clocks...

No longer just from our history books...but here is their china set!

A sphinx table that they signed lots of agreements on...

He already thinks he is the king...just ask his sisters!

A gorgeous state outside the palace.

Next stop, I was most excited about...Churros y Chocolate (which was the title of my high school Spanish book) I have never had an official churro, so we went to the famous place that has been selling them for over 100 years.

There is always a line outside, day or night...

The chocolate was as thick as pudding that you dunk them in.

Is it too late to ask for extra credit from my Spanish teacher?  I guess so as I can't even remember her name!

We do miss American Halloween, so I planned our trip to a country where they celebrate Halloween.  I found an area of the city that had "Trunco y Trato".  It took me a few days of google searching "Trick or Treat" and coming up empty to think of trying to search it in Spanish...turns out the neighborhood that had it was only about a ten minute walk from our place.

We stopped at a cool old costume shop that was right by the churro place and bought some last minute items, the only person that packed a costume for the trip was Charlie.  They sold flamenco outfits there and it was fun to see racks of the dresses and fun shoes.  The place was a zoo, full of last minute shoppers frantically flipping through costume books figuring out what to be.  We were in a hurry but they had all night,as we learned that most of them just stayed out all night long!

Last minute shoppers!  

Our stop paid off and we headed off prepared...

Sadly most people couldn't tell it was a costume!! I had him keep it to wear to work some day!

 

Some of the bars had creepy guys outside scaring kids!

These ladies had quite the makeup jobs!

This place was the BEST full goodie bags for each kid!

A few beautiful places we walked past before it got too dark.

Just gorgeous, huh?

 

We stopped in this store in our walk back to our place, was fun to see all the American products on sale, the prices were crazy too!

The kids were happy to have found real trick or treating, Katie later told us that was her favorite part of the trip.