Grandma and Grandpa Smidt arrived on Friday, November 27th to meet Isaiah. We started out their visit with a birthday trip to Brugge on Saturday. (Kathy turned the big 5-0.) Brugge is a city in Belgium near the cost that is often called, “the Venice of the North.” The ancient buildings and cobblestone streets make you feel as though you took a time machine back to the middle ages. It is amazing how “old” Brugge feels- as our tour guide told us, “There is always something to restore in Brugge.” Brugge was even more beautiful because of the festive Christmas markets scattered across town. The markets are made up of tiny wood stands filled with food, clothes, Christmas decorations, candles, and anything else you can imagine. There was even a stand sold only cotton turtle necks…not sure what the draw was there. There wasn’t anything fancy or different about them, just your average turtlenecks. We tried a potato/cheese dish and a bratwurst at the stands. For lunch we visited a nice restaurant that served traditional Flanders fair. We had meatballs, waterzooli (chicken in a cream sauce), salmon, and traditional Flemish beef stew. Everyone at the restaurant was quite taken with Isaiah. The party behind us was from Italy and we talked to them for a while. As we were leaving, Isaiah was getting loads of admiringly glances from a table of 8 ladies, who spoke English. There were many highlights of the day. One of our favorite activities was taking a canal tour. There is a canal the runs through the city (used to be a moat around the city) and you can see loads of interesting houses and interesting architecture along the way. We also stopped at a renowned chocolate store and bought some delicious treats. We didn’t buy any, but we saw some people drinking amazing hot chocolate. You choose your chocolate, which is in blocks attached to spoons, and then they serve you a steaming cup of milk and your chocolate on a spoon. You then dip the spoon in the hot milk and swirl it around until it has melted…and Viola! You have custom, fresh hot chocolate! At the end of the day, we visited the snow and ice sculpture festival. Called, “Ice Age,” the exhibit was built by 40 international ice sculptors from 300 tons of crystal clear ice and 400,000 kilos (that’s a lot- 1 kilo = 2.2 lbs) of fresh snow in a cooled hall (21 degrees Fahrenheit…we thought it was chilly before we entered the hall…wow…much colder with the ice sculptors.) Characters from the animated movie “Ice Age” were all over the hall as well as a giant ice slide (Ben was the only one brave enough to slide down) and a bar made entirely of ice. Other than being freezing, it was pretty amazing! Isaiah did a nice job- he rode in the sling most of the day and in Grandpa’s arms the rest of the day, so he was a content, sleepy boy all day. Again…too many cool pictures- I’ll post more on facebook J
The Bell tower and main market at night...wow.
There was a neat ice skating rink behind us.
It is very hard to navigate Brugge by car, so many people rent bikes and tour the city that way.
Isaiah being cross-eyed...he's gonna love this one when he's older!
In his cute pea-pod hand made by Pat Long...Thanks Pat! It was a huge hit!
Christmas markets.
Kathy...how old are you again? (we tipped of the church to light some candles for her...haha, just kidding!)
