It's the simple things

Ely dog walk

Like how shopping carts are called trolleys and don't just move forward and back but can go any which way.  Or how you can always find a market. Or how the bushes are called hedge and they are always nicely manicured. 

It's been a month since my last post and things have been adding up. We haven't been sitting around. Although some weekends are great when we do that. I love snuggling as a family on Saturday or Sunday mornings. It's the best! But we have been on the move and preparing for journeys that will come.

Sophie and Brian in our backyard aka Garden

With Spring and our 1 year anniversary of moving to England fast approaching Mike and I started thinking of all the things that we will miss when we leave England. It's amazing how fast you become acquainted with a place and make it your home.  Now we take things for granted that we see as daily life.

Like how a vacuum cleaner is called a Hoover. No matter what brand it is.  Or how a Stroller is called a Pushchair, Pram or Buggy. Or how you can get tea no problem anywhere! Life is a little slower and everyone seems to enjoy themselves. Garden center's have more than just plant supplies and nothing like Home Depot! Picnics are a daily activity on a nice day, and let's not forget tax free shopping on the base.

Ely dog walk

It's been 10 months and a new job and a new baby since we left the US and just now am I realizing that it will be hard to leave all this behind in 3 to 5 years. (there I go thinking of the future again) I already think about the friends we have made here and miss them. Don't get me wrong I miss everyone from home too. And I can't wait to come back to the states to see our family and friends.  But it's so interesting when you leave your comfortable home to travel outside of your comfortable box.  Maybe you'll learn something interesting about a culture. Like when you order water sometimes it's assumed you want sparkling water.  Or if you want a pickle and cheese sandwich it's not always pickled cucumbers that are the pickles. And the cheese is almost always shredded. Or why almost everyone wears a red poppy pin.

So now we have broken in living abroad and at first it was hard. But given the opportunity to go any where else in the world, we will take it. After living in the same place for 29 years I almost regret not living and experiencing other cultures. Not that I'm any smarter for living in a different country but now I'm beginning to understand a different group of people and a different set of traditions that will ultimately shape our family.

I have a feeling that I will barely make a dent in my personal goal to see as much as I can before I die. But at least I can say that I tried and I wasn't afraid to take those first steps.  And with any luck, Sophie will learn that she doesn't have to be afraid either.

Traveling with a Baby! Aunt Mandy and Uncle Charlie visit!

Sophie, Me, Aunt Mandy and Uncle Charlie in York, UK

Us at some Ruins on the way to the North Sea

So Aunt Mandy and Uncle Charlie came to visit!  We decided to show them around as much as we could with the baby in tow. What a fun adventure!  Our song when the baby was sad was... "We are having a good time, we are having a good time..."

So where did we go and what did we do??? Well.. we hit up the North sea coast and York. York was Sophie's first hotel over night stay. And she really enjoyed it! We did pretty much everything (even breakfast in the morning)! Except when it came to feeding time. Me and Sophie would hit the car or a coffee shop or the York Minster to feed her. For some reason church is really accommodating to breast feeding moms. (see previous blog post for picture).

Charlie & Mandy on the York Minster  tour

Any way, travelling with a baby wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. We ended up driving everywhere since I wanted to always have the van available for feeding time. But really we could have taken the train and been fine.  Of course, we packed the whole kitchen sink. Aunt Mandy and Uncle Charlie only had one bag to the babies 5 or 6. :)  In any case, we really didn't need that much. Sophie was fine as long as she had a clean diaper, a full belly and a warm place to hang out. (the sling works perfectly for a warm spot)

Charlie's Ruins! York

So travelling with a baby is harder on me than on the baby.  She doesn't care where she is as long as she is with us. And that's how we like it!

Thank you to Mandy and Charlie for coming to England and helping us out with the baby! We hope you had a great time and will come back soon!

Belgium

Back in 2009 when we went on our Honeymoon 28 day backpacking adventure through Europe we stopped at a place called Brugge in Belgium.  Our Rick Steve's guidebook told us that 1 day is adequate for this town so we did just that.  The problem was I was sick the whole day and it happened to be Monday. On Monday everything is closed! (very common throughout Europe)  So Mike always said we will just go back and see all the things that we missed. So we did! 2 years later we stayed in the same hotel on the canal and we saw everything that Brugge has to offer.

Bike riding on the canals

Brugge is featured in a Colin Farrell movie, "In Bruges".  It's a sleepy town near the coast of Belgium and about 30 minutes away from Brussels.  It's a place that was forgotten for a bit and because of that still has a lot of it's small European town charm. It's also called Venice of the North for all it's canals.

Madonna and Child by Michelangelo 

climbing the bell tower

So how do you get there you might ask?!?!  Well Mike and I drove 2.5 hours through the UK to the very bottom of England. Gas is really expensive here but our Panda gets something like 60 miles to the gallon. Unheard of gas mileage in the states. We took our car on a Ferry from England to France. Only a 25 mile trip but by boat took 1.5 hours and costs about the same as the Cape May ferry in Jersey.  Once across you drive back on the right! (woo hoo - for me. I love driving on the right!) Then we drove from France to Belgium which is only about an 1.2 hour drive.  Once in town we ditched the car at the train station parking garage for 1.5 Euro and rode our bikes the rest of the way.

Chocolates
 So what is there to see and do in Brugge?!?!?  Well lots of stuff: Biking the canals, visiting the bell tower, visiting the only Michelangelo sculpture to leave Italy in his lifetime, visit Jesus's Holy blood relic, visit the Chocolate museum, visit the local brewery, visit several art museums, take a canal boat ride, visit the flea market and the square and don't forget to eat the Frites, Moules and Chocolates. 

Frites

Moules - aka Mussels

So we finally got to see everything that we needed to see. And then we drove back to France and took the ferry back to England and drove home. All in one weekend - Done and done! If you ever have the opportunity to go to Belgium I highly recommend it, not only for the amazing selection of Beer with high alcohol by volume but to see an authentic European town that has older architecture than anything there is in the US.