First Roadtrip

We just returned from our first official roadtrip as a family of three. It was a great success. Peter is starting research for his thesis and had the opportunity to do an interview at the NATO base in Belgium. We have friends from Jacksonville who are stationed there currently and offered us a place to stay, so we decided this weekend trip would be a perfect trial run for our weeklong ski vacation at the end of February. Our friends have two adorable children who were so sweet to Susannah. We loved staying with them and catching up so much that we forgot to take any pictures. Oops. We did manage to take some shots of the other parts of our adventure though, so here are a few.......

We decided to cut the 5 1/2 hour drive in half by stopping at Ramstein Airforce Base. Usually Peter and I stay in the great new fancy hotel there(okay, fancy may be a little too far...maybe fancier than most military lodging is more appropriate.), but when we tried to make reservations, we were informed that families with children had to stay in the "family lodging." Welcome to parenthood. :) It turned out okay though because we had more room to spread out the carload full of necessities that traveling with an 8 week old includes. We had a full kitchen, living room and bedroom for the same price as one of the small rooms in the new hotel. Here we are hanging out after dinner.


Susannah loved the family apartment........lots of room to stretch out and watch a little TV.


Daddy even let her choose what to watch......


Since we were staying only a 25 minute trainride from Brussels, we decided to head into the city and meet up with a fellow Olmsteder for some sightseeing and lunch. Parking at the station was tough though, so we ended up missing our train. We spent the 30 minutes until the next one in the café across from the station where we discovered that Belgian café s do not serve croissants, or any breakfast for that matter. Only coffee and beer. It was 9 in the morning and the only other customer was having a cold one as his breakfast. Luckily Daddy came to the rescue by walking to a gas station to buy us a snack and some water.

Despite the lack of food, it was a fun spot because of the scary guard dog, snoopy, that met us at the door before resuming his spot at a table next to the window.


We managed to catch the second train. Susannah slept through the first part of her first trainride.


But woke up halfway through the ride, ready to check things out.


Our Olmsted friend Brian met us at the train station and we started our tour with the Brussel's cathedral:


It was beautiful inside and out:


Brian showed us several more of Brussel's main highlights. Here he is explaining that this beautiful arched hall is actually just a fancy shopping mall.


We saw the stunning Hotel de Ville (town hall) in the Grande Place


And the famous Manneken Pis, a Brussells landmark that is actually just a little statue of a little boy peeing......


On our way to lunch in the Petit Sablon area we were rewarded this great view of the city. (Peter and Brian earned it by carrying Susannah and her stroller up all the steps.)


We had a delicious lunch complete with two things the Belgians are famous for: french fries and beer. (Susannah is having her lunch in this picture.)


After lunch, we bought some chocolate and took the metro to check out the European Commission. Peter has studied so much about this, he had to have a photo in front.

I mention the metro only because it was a rather bizarre experience. The machine didn't take bills or credit cards that weren't Belgian. Nor do they have a ticket window or a coin machine. So if you don't have enough coins to cover your fare, you are walking. Luckily the security worker was nice enough to go over to the homeless xylophone player and ask him if he could break our 10 euro bill. He agreed and we managed to buy our tickets.


Robert Schuman is from Strasbourg and another focus of Peter's studies, so we had to snap a shot in front of this as well.


Overall, I would say the trip was a great success. Peter had a successful interview, we caught up with old friends and met a new one, and managed two train rides and 11 total hours in the car without any major drama. Thanks to the Flecks and Brian for your hospitality! And thanks to Susannah for being such a calm and happy baby. (most of the time at least.)

Stay tuned for Susannah's two month birthday blog coming soon. She has a doctor's appointment next week and we can't wait to see how much she has grown.