We had a great trip to Belgium, France, and Switzerland. I wrote most of this post from 37,000 feet somewhere over northeastern Canada, but after taking several days to upload pictures, I'm just postin today. I am exhausted, but so happy to have had this vacation. We were away for 10 days and I'm really happy to be home, though after spending the last 5 days with our Belgian family, I am sad to leave. Every time I leave, I never know when I will see them again. I am so glad baby girl got to visit my adopted country before she was even born and that I was able to see my family while pregnant. So far she is quite the traveler - we were in Mexico and California, a week before I discovered I was pregnant, when she was just a bunch of cells, she's visited Virginia Beach, and of course, many trips to NJ. Now she's already hit four European countries.
Here are a few highlights and photos from our trip:
Our first day we went to Bastogne to see where the Battle of the Bulge took place and to visit the World War II museum there. We had lunch in the small town center, visited the museum (even though we were exhausted from the red eye), then went to our hotel, right over the border in Luxembourg. For dinner that night, we had been invited to my host brother Fabian's house, to meet Christine's family. We got to meet their dog Luna and their cats. It was a great night - we had Belgian meatballs and frites - one of my favorite regional specialities. Christine's family was great, we truly enjoyed their company, despite our jet lag.
Chris in front of a tank, in the center of Bastogne
The next day, we were off to Strasbourg. We decided to see a little bit of Luxembourg on our way there, so we drove off the beaten path, through the countryside and visited the small castle town of Vianden. It was rainy and not real nice, but the town was pretty cool. When we left there, we decided to get to Strasbourg by driving through Germany, so that we could hit another country. We got to Strasbourg around dinner time and had a nice Alsacian dinner.
Le Château de Vianden
Town of Vianden, Luxembourg
On day three, we followed the Route du Vin through the Alsacian vineyards and small towns. This may have been my favorite touristing day. We love to get off the beaten path and road trips are a great way to do this. At one point, we accidentally got off the Route du Vin and went up a mountain (the Vosges mountain range). Right before we got to the top we noticed a sign pointing to a castle up a small road. We decided to check it out. After a 10 min drive up this winding, narrow road and a 15 minute hike, we stumbled upon the ruins of a medieval castle, which we explored. The view from there was incredible. It was so cool. Back on the Route du Vin, we stopped to taste some Alsacian wine, before getting back on the road towards Switerland, where we would spend the next two nights.
Strasbourg cathedral
Le chateau de Berenstein
View of the Alsacian Wine Valley
Our hotel just outside of Luzern was a little bit disappointing. It was near the lake, but not as near as I had thought. It did not have air conditioning, and at night, the smell from the neighboring cow pasture filled the room. The nights were cool, but our room did not get much air, so we were warm.
On the one full day we had in Switzerland, we decided to go up the mountain across the lake from our hotel, Mt Rigi. Fortunately, the weather cooperated. The views were breathtaking and it was really amazing being on top of an alpine mountain listening to the cow bells or the cows that roam the mountain tops. We hiked halfway down, before getting on the tram to get to the bottom. From there we went into the city of Luzern. We saw the sights, then had a typical Swiss dinner in a hole in the wall restaurant we found on Trip Advisor. We were pretty much the only tourists in this restaurant. It was a lot of fun!
Top of Mt Rigi, Switzerland
View from the tram
Luzern
On our 5th day, it was back to Liege. My original plan was to take our time, but we got a message Tuesday night that we were being invited to dinner at my first host family's house. In addition, it was raining pretty hard, so we didn't really feel the need to be touristy. We stopped in a small Alsacian village right off the highway for lunch, then continued right onto Liege. We had a great dinner with my host parents, Jean-Claude and Jacqueline, their daughter, Cassiane, her husband, Pierre, and their kids, Pauline and Thomas, as well as my parents. We had another Belgian speciality - waterzoie.
We spent the next two nights in Liege, the city I lived in 19 years ago, when I did my exchange. The hotel there was amazing. It was a restored castle and had been renovated and added to to make a very modern, chic hotel. The bed was really comfortable, there was air conditioning, and they had a really nice pool, which after 5 days of walking several miles a day 6 months pregnant, floating in a pool was very welcome.
View from our room at the Crowne Plaza Liege
I visited a friend, Karine, and her new baby the next morning, then we had dinner at the restaurant at Guillemins, the train station, before visiting a really great expo on World War I. We had dinner that night at my third host parents', Annie and Fernand, along with Jean-Claude and Jacqueline.
Jacqueline, Jean-Claude, me, Chris, Annie, Fernand
More Belgian meatballs....yum!
On Friday, we relaxed in the morning, then walked around town a little before celebrating my friend Karine's birthday. From there, we headed into the countryside, to the chateau where the wedding was to take place, the chateau de la poste. This was to be home for the next two nights. That night we had dinner with Fabian, Christine, her family, one of the groomsmen, and my parents at a small restaurant in the village. It was excellent!
Me, Karine, Kassandra
The next day was the wedding, which in Belgium, is a marathon of a day. The church was at 1, followed by the cocktail hour from 2-5, dinner from 5-10, and then the party from 10-?. We made it to 2AM, which I was pleased with - I never thought I'd make it that late. It was a great wedding, and I loved having the opportunity to see many of my host family's friends. I was surprised by just how many people I knew and remembered me.
Cassiane, Stephanie, me pre-wedding
Chateau de la Poste
The Newlyweds
L'eglise St. Martin
Cutting the cake
Our last day was Sunday. It was a really nice day, starting with a 3 mile run through the country, breakfast in the chateau with the family, a walk the woods, and a post wedding BBQ in the chateau. From there, we were off to Brussels. We decided to stay at the airport hotel, right across from the terminal. I was surprised by just how close it was. Literally a two minute walk to check-in. We dropped the rental car off, then headed into Brussels. We were lucky enough to be there on the weekend of the Tapis de Fleurs, when they cover the Grand Place (which is already beautiful) in a carpet of cut flowers. This only happens every two years, and only lasts three days, so as I said, the fact that we happened to be in Brussels was amazing. I have always wanted to see it, and it was amazing.
Chateau de la poste
Le tapis de Fleurs
Alloys (in the stroller), Geoffrey, me, Chris, Hector, Anne-Sophie in the Grand Place, Brussels
Our last dinner may have been my favorite. We had made plans to meet up with my host sister my third family, Anne-Sophie, Annie and Fernand's daughter, her husband Geoffrey, their kids, Alloys and Hector, and Annie and Fernand. I can't really say why this was my favorite meal, but it was a great way to end the trip.
It never ceases to amaze me how every time I go home to Belgium, it's as if I never left. I am filled with love for the people that cared for me during my stay there and after 19 years, I know this is a lifelong bond. As we said goodbye last night, I was struck by the tears in Fernand's eyes. They are truly family and I am always sad to leave them, never knowing how long it will be until the next time.
That being said, I am happy to be home. I am happily exhausted. My feet hurt and were swollen from all the walking. I was out of clothes. I missed ice cold drinks and am happy to be eating the foods I am used to eating again. I am really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed for more than one night in a row.
And what about baby girl? She's doing good. She enjoyed the trip and has been getting more and more active. And bigger! I feel like I left here ambiguously pregnant and am coming home obviously pregnant. She enjoyed the wedding. Unlike me, she danced to the music the whole night, and even continued dancing well after we left. She was tired from all that dancing on Sunday, but was back to her old tricks quickly, bumping around for the first few hours of travel on Monday. As my due date is getting closer (75 days left!), I was starting to feel a little anxious in Europe being so far away from our doctors, so I am happy to be home for that reason as well.
The week before we left for Europe was filled with doctors appointments. The basic gist of it was that everything looks good. I had an ultrasound to check growth. The doctor said everything looked great and that she was growing and developing well. My amniotic fluid levels were good, and there was no sign of heart failure or fluid around her heart, which is good. The next day I had my last appointment with my midwife, which was emotional. She also said everything looked good. My belly is measuring just right, the heartbeat sounds good, and once again I felt reassured as I left her office. I was truly sad to know I will not be going to back to her with this baby. Later that night, I had an MRI as part of an experiment at Children's to measure brain development in children with heart defects vs normal children. The results came back entirely normal and having read the reports, they looked good. Finally on Thursday, the day before we left, I took my glucose test, to check for gestational diabetes.
Baby's foot (her feet were over her head, so no profile)
Glucose test
Now that I am officially in my third trimester, the more intensive visits begin, so it is the appropriate time to switch over to Dr Ralston. I have my first appointment with him on Monday, including an ultrasound, I think. Next Wednesday we go back to Children's to see the cardiologists again. All this, as well as the return to work. It's going to be a busy week. But first, I am back in Ocean City one last time for a long weekend. I am looking forward to seeing my New Jersey / mid-Atlantic friends at my baby shower today! Looking forward to updating on that soon.
Time to get started on my day. Off to run and to the beach :). But first, a few bump shots from week 27-28. Week 28 she was the size of a head of lettuce, week 29 she is a butternut squash!
Bump in Belgium
Amongst the chateau ruins
Top of Mt Rigi
