A Visit to Ypres Expecting a Sleepy Little Place-Big Surprise!

One Sunday Greg was itching to go see a battlefield, only Kelly wanted to come so we headed out and left the other two home for a movie marathon.  Our destination was the city of Ypres to see the In Flanders Field WWI Museum.  I have been teaching middle school history a few days a week and was happy for the refresher just as we were starting our WWI study.

Waterloo sits in an empty field so I was expecting to drive through fields and come to a dusty museum... instead, we drove into a built up, super cool, old walled city.  We parked in the middle of a massive town square and headed for the In Flanders Field Museum.  The museum is in the old cloth hall which was destroyed during the war, we saw pictures inside as to how it looked before they rebuilt it.

 There is a gorgeous bell tower, you take a break from the museum, climb the stairs and have the most incredible view of the city and the entire area.

The museum was very well done, so much to see and they even had these holographic type soldiers that would tell their story in French, English and German, very helpful!  Kelly and I did a speed trip because we were excited to head out into the little shops all around the outside of the museum.  Greg took his time..perhaps the history teacher should have been a little more thorough...as I have a test paper to share with you at the end...

The city was beautiful by day, but as the sun set and the street lights turned on, it was breathtaking.  These were all captured by Kelly.

The Menin Gate is the entrance to the city and every night they do a ceremony there to remember the fallen soldiers.  We did not get a chance to see it this trip but we plan to go back.

My class just took their WWI test...here is the best answer regarding the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the war...#18.. guess I have some re-teaching to do?

We look forward to a return visit to such a beautiful old city!  I also plan on a future trip to see Versailles and I'll be sure to post some photos so all of you can be sure it wasn't destroyed!

Fall Break Part 2- Double Birthdays

We headed for Delft since we loved it so much our first time there, it was Katie's birthday so before we left we gobbled up her cake...

Charlie & Louna trying out the shoe!

 The old skates didn't look too comfortable!

One of many cheese shops- windows full of cheese!

 We found a Greek restaurant on the beach that started our dinner with Uzzo shots for everyone! Mark had to do his part to finish off some for the kids...Charlie told the waitress it was Katie's birthday and we all got a treat for dessert!

We walked the beach in Schiveningen...before we headed for Amsterdam.

This car was driving in the bike lane!!  I also drove on the mini van on the trolley tracks...we all lived to tell the tale!  They probably still are talking about crazy Americans!

 Central Station, Amsterdam-what a building huh?

 This one is for you Tanya...

 Charlie's dream car! (or Macie Story..not sure who deserves it more)?

Yes, we had to stop!!

We also walked through the Red Light district, much had changed since we had walked through about 15 years ago...mainly now the ladies are all on their cell phones...while they are waiting for customers!  The best part was Charlie was oblivious-really!  Someday we will tell him what he missed, he was on his scooter and so busy whining about how far we had walked he paid no attention!

As the sun was setting we hopped on a canal boat tour.  Seeing the houseboats all along the canals was really neat to see, I didn't realize how many people actually live on them.  Some are in rough shape and others are really luxurious!  

 One cool shot from Kelly's camera.

 Our last night together we fired up the Raclette cooker...we also celebrated Greg's birthday with a pie Katie baked for him.

Happy about his pie!

 The kids really loved having their cousin!

 The best smile on Charlie!

We loved having our visitors and we hope many more of you come to visit & explore with us!

Fall Break-Part One

This post is very tardy as I waited for Kelly to share all the great photos she took...she likes to take pics but getting them off her camera takes an act of Congress!

When Joanne, Mark & Joseph were here we did many trips around Brussels, including Ghent, Waterloo, The Netherlands (Delft, The Hague, and Amsterdam)  The cousins had some great bonding time.

 Here we are on St. Michael's Bridge...we thought about a boat ride but it looked cold in the open boats.  We liked watching this frat party boat dock and all the guys scramble to find a bathroom after many Belgian beers!  They were not quiet in their arrival!

World travellers in the main square in Ghent, right outside the church that holds the famous Altarpiece (we came home that night and Monuments Men was on tv-very appropriate)

We checked out this cute shop-I see people carrying its bags all the time- was a bit like Williams Sonoma-a kitchen store is always nice!

Louna warmed up to Joseph, the first day she wasn't sure about him, but they became good friends!

We checked out one of Greg's favorite pubs in downtown Brussels after a tour of the Grand Place!

 Here is a dress Katie would like to own- all made of fancy Belgian chocolate!

 You can choose your own flavor of chocolate mousse and your topping...Charlie the candyman could not even finish it!

 Getting ready to start the day...Joanne & Charlie coordinated their colors!

 Waterloo Battlefield, which is very close to our house...good climb to the top of the monument to the Dutch Prince who was wounded in the battle.  The lion was facing towards France as a warning, perhaps it should have been facing Germany instead?

Katie and Charlie decided to roll down the hill!

We then headed off on a road trip to Delft, the Hague and Amsterdam... stay tuned for the next post!

End of October Whirlwind!

Oct was fun and crazy for us.  We finally got our own dog...we adopted little Louna, a 3 year old sweetheart and she has charmed her way into all of our hearts.

Charlie is most delighted and says he now is never alone, always has a friend, and he likes to just talk to her!  He carries her whenever he can and she never seems to mind-amazing!

Living in Europe is great because she can go everywhere with us, on the tram, the train, into restaurants, this is good because Louna doesn't like to stay home alone!

We also had our Halloween party, not quite as big as last year, but the word had not got out in Brussels yet...next year-look out.  Even Kelly & Katie's friends that came had fun.  Here was the 2nd grade crowd's favorite costume of the night!

We traveled to Frankfurt, Germany to see Katie play soccer there, on the way we got to see the Barata family who are currently living in the Netherlands with the Coast Guard.  They are renting a very cool old house there...

We also stopped to visit a very cool castle in the town of Eppstein on the way home from Frankfurt.

 From the top of the castle...Greg & Katie being goofy.

Down the town street to the castle...could have been in some theme park-but its real!

Greg's sister Joanne and her family came to visit us for the kids fall break which was Halloween week. Stay tuned for an update on all of our adventures with them! (I have to sort through all the photos)

A Road Trip and Recycling

Kelly and I took a road trip to see our friends in Germany, lucky for us they live near the Ritter Sport Chocolate factory.  So we got to visit the museum, here are pictures of old candy molds from the early days of production.

 Chocolate bunnies...

 Smaller bunnies.

Next stop after this photo was the chocolate factory shop- smiles all around!  We bought lots of chocolate bars to bring home.  We had a good visit and enjoyed some nice fall weather.

While we were away Greg, Katie & Charlie were home playing soccer and visiting with the Barata family-still no photo with all the Baratas-I will fix that the next time we catch up with them. they visited the Musee Herge (cartoonist who wrote Adventures of Tin Tin)..the kids didn't love the museum so we'll cross that off our list to check out...here they are...

I returned home and spent the next day working on a new version of the chore chart...when the cat is away the mice will play and forget to clean up...so now the mice have a full listing of what they are supposed to do around the house.

Charlie is back on recycling duty (he also rocked that this summer in NH)..which leads to lots of entertainment for all of us...

 First just a plain box that was on its way out...

Then he steps up his game and builds his own robot...you will see the finished version in a few weeks for Halloween!

A Visitor from Home-Yippee!

Our friend Eric from the US had to come this way for work, so we were thrilled he came to spend the weekend with us.

Prior to his arrival, Charlie and I had been riding on the tram when a lady got on with a Giant Teddy Bear (sorry no photo).  I began calling it the big pink teddy bear and I dared him to go past and touch it.  He did touch it but didn't know the story of the big pink teddy bear...which is Eric's specialty from years of camping trip ghost stories with our kids and his kids.  Charlie wanted me to tell him the story, but I made him wait for the master...so here is Charlie hearing the Big Pink Teddy Bear...

 Look at the smile!

There is nothing like a good story!

Eric was a trooper and came to school to see Katie's soccer game then in the evening we headed out for an excellently researched pub crawl led by Greg.  We sampled some great Belgian beers in some very unique pubs- each one different than the one before!  I didn't bring my camera along, so no photos to share, but we have a good list for our future visitors that might like to recreate it!  

Greg and Eric also went to see Waterloo, it is less than half an hour from our house.  The museum was redone for 200th Anniversary in 2015 and they reported that it was well done. 

We look forward to when all the Bodenhoffers come for a visit and we hope more of our friends will have work trips this direction! 

The Hague

Greg has been to the Hague many times and he was our tour guide for a quick trip, we plan to go back and spend more time.

We first found a skate park for Charlie where he made some new scooter friends, one kid could speak English well so he would translate for the other one...he would still be there if we had not made him leave!

 We got a kick out of these double decker bike storage racks in the parking garages here-bikes were everywhere!

 The beach was pretty at sunset, we didn't ride the ferris wheel at the end of the pier yet...

Charlie's sand art..it says "I like the ocean".  Now we all know why Greg likes the Hague so much, we look forward to a future visit!