Luxembourgh City

We are trying to use our Saturdays to go to places that are within a 2 hour driving distance from Brussels, so a few weeks ago we decided to visit Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. It is so amazing that we can drive 2 hours and be in another country! Luxembourg is a tiny country, only about 100 square miles, but rather rich- it has the highest Gross Domestic Product per capita in the world! The main attraction is the old city walls and several amazing fortresses scattered around the city. It was a beautiful day, perfect for walking around the old wall.

Tons of building were carved into the walls of the city.

Sweet winding staircase into the valley that separate the old and new city.

This reminded me of the trees in the third Lord of the Rings books/movies- awesome! Also, see how tall the walls are?? There are little tiny people walking on the bottom left and that pathway was only half the distance down the total wall.

There happened to be a sweet flee market going on the day that we were there. I was sorely tempted to buy the old Gramaphone...

I was in charge of reading the map and figuring out how to get places- believe it or not, I usually beg Ben for this job when we travel. I love knowing where I am at on the map and then finding my way around to different places. This time I was supposed to be getting us to the path at the bottom of the wall when we stumbled across this old, chained up building filled with statues...It was very weird. It was like a statue graveyard behind bars.... And, by the way, I did get us to the path we were looking for- we just took the scenic route.

Climbing a ridiculously sleep hill...

Amazing view of the city in the valley

Ben under one of the many bridges.

Smelling the BEAUTIFUL flowing trees!

Here you can get an idea of how tall the city fortress walls were- VERY! Ben and I had to take turns scaling this enormous hill to get this picture. After Ben climbed it, he dared me to do it (thinking that I couldn't) and I smoked his time....Booyah...of course I wasn't carrying a 50lb hiking pack, but Ben needed something to handicap him anyway. Going down was actually much worse than going up because it was almost vertical part of the way- I almost fell a lot...really the whole way down.

We found a field of daffodils and decided to take some pictures of Isaiah _ sorry there are so many, I just couldn't choose!

Isaiah next to his future car...

Breakfast

Isaiah loves getting up in the morning and eating breakfast, so I thought I'd give you a little video of the big man working on some talking and breakfast :)

Paris - Day 3 (finally!)

Our last day in Paris was actually spent outside the big city at the castle of Versailles. The site began as Louis XIII’s hunting lodge, but was transformed into a palace of immense proportions by his son, Louis XIV. We arrived in the morning to try to beat Versailles’ notorious crowds and found it virtually deserted (as far as Versailles goes). After a moment of elation at the lack of lines, we were informed that the castle was not open due to a strike by the palace workers. Welcome to France; 35-hour work weeks and 37 days paid vacation (the US has 13) apparently wasn’t enough. The guard told us that the workers were trying to reach an agreement and that the castle might open after lunch. We decided to tour the gardens until lunch and then head back if the castle was still closed. The gardens of Versailles were absolutely amazing! Started in 1661, the gardens were not fully finished until 40 years later! Fifty fountains, 200,000 trees, and hundreds of statues cover 800 hectares (not sure exactly how much that is, but it’s a lot- trust me). I thought I’d be a bit bored wandering the gardens for 3 hours, but it was truly breathtaking! And there weren’t even that many flowers yet! I felt like I was in a Jane Austin novel as I wound through the paths (continually getting lost) and in and out of cozy walkways. Doubtful as we were that the castle was going to open, we figured we would check just in case and to our wonderful luck it was! Well, partially…haha…I guess the strike was only partially resolved because we were only able to see a portion of the castle. We did get a free audio tour out of the deal, so that was really nice. The rooms that we saw in the castle were incredible! Isaiah loved the castle- he was traveling in my baby Bjorn carrier and supposed to be sleeping, but he was awake and loving it the whole time!

The gates of Versailles- the ones that were stormed when the people of France were starving and the royalty was living in opulence.

Isaiah had a great time trying to eat Ben's hair.

Hanging on for dear life!

My two favorite fountains.

A warning sign at a top of the hill in the gardens...I was a bit skeptical, so tried letting Isaiah's stroller go free a bit and it definitely started to roll...haha...good thing I saw the sign :)

The famous hall of mirrors.

Ben's pizza with an egg on top.

Two cute pictures of Isaiah and Ben.

Spring!

It is definitely spring in Brussels! It all reminds me of the song "Spring is bursting out all over" from "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers." Great musical! Spring is absolutely beautiful here- flowers are sprouting up all over, trees are blooming, and, of course, baseball season is starting. In order to commemorate Isaiah's first Cardinals season and Pujols' amazing home runs in their first game, Isaiah is showing how he can palm his STL baseball.

Visiting with our neighbor- Sophia. She was born on November 27th, only about one month after Isaiah and he looks like a giant next to her!