Well, after almost 3 months of being "bus-people," we now have a car. I love having a car for one reason... grocery shopping. Picking up Anna (30 lbs) in her stroller with 2 or 3 heavy bags of groceries and getting her on and off the bus was my least favorite activity in Luxembourg. Actually, grocery shopping while it was raining, that was the very worst. Aside from that, the buses here are really quite excellent. Clean, modern and there are many convenient stops for all our needs.
But now, we have a beautiful carriage in blue (Renault Megane) with a manual transmission. Hmmmm. Manual transmission. Let me take you back to my high school days, when my friend Christina tried to teach me how to drive her stick shift car. After several failed attempts in the hill lesson, I got out of the car and threw the keys across the street. I said I would never drive a stick again and this was stupid (or something like that). Well, Christina... it wasn't stupid. ME, I was stupid. Oh well.
So, now I have been a slowly moving traffic blockade in the west part of the city. I have gotten much, much better. The night we brought the car home, I stalled and lurched so much that poor Anna was crying in the backseat "All done, All done!!!" I know all of you that can drive a stick are smirking right now and thinking 'just get the right timing/balance and you'll be fine.' I'm sure I will eventually be fine, but my lack of coordination will probably make my learning period much longer than most.
If you have a moment, please pray for our protection in our little blue Renault. We're driving 3 hours to Stuttgart, Germany next weekend for a holiday and so James can go to a football match. Insanity.
By the way, James is pretty good at driving a manual, for never really doing it before; but since I have more time to practice, I'm our designated driver for now--- Ahhh!
May we drive with angels on our wings!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Brussels or Bruxelles visit
We took a road trip to Brussels the weekend before Christmas with James' mom. It did not start off well.
The 2.5 hour drive to Brussels was fine, but once we got to the city, our driving directions were lacking the specificity we needed to accurately find our hotel. When you reach a dead end and it says to 'continue on' the new road--- what exactly does that mean--- left or right??? We tried left 4 times before we realized it meant right. It took us over an hour to navigate these cryptic instructions. So... nerves frazzled... we arrived at the hotel Bedford, which was nice and very close to the Grand Place and Christmas Market. Anna and I fell exhausted into an afternoon nap (driving under high stress for that long makes you tired!) and James and his mom set off to explore the city Trish remembered from her trip there as a 16 year old.
So, that afternoon and evening we all explored the Grand Place which had lighting with synchronized music on our night there. The interesting closing number of the show was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody... not quite the usual Christmas finale, but good with flashes of color and lights. The Grand Place is a large square with amazing old buildings. I think it was the most interesting part of the city.
Also, we also took in the full Christmas market, which was quite large, but also very crowded, as it was the Saturday evening before Christmas. As an aside, all major European cities hold Christmas Markets in December. They sell food, drink, and items that you can give as Christmas presents. The decorations and fun of the markets are a wonderful thing to experience. James hit all the major food vendors: beignets (soft and chewy, fried dough-nut type balls covered in powdered sugar); frites (french fries) with a spicy sauce; roasted chestnuts (which taste terrible!!! yuck. really. a horrible taste that linger in your mouth for a long period of time. awful.); vin chaud (hot mulled wine, we had lots of this!) and Belgian waffles (wow are these really good! a hot waffle covered in sugar that carmalizes on the top covered in thick whipped cream & strawberries or chocolate. totally worth the 2000+ calories that I'm sure are lurking inside). Also, at dinner we discovered raspberry Belgian beer... so good. We did do some non-culinary shopping at the market as well. We got some beautiful ornaments and Anna got a Santa hat from Grandma with pigtails included.
On Sunday morning, we took a walk to see more of the city. Nothing special to report. It was winter so the parks weren't pretty. All in all we were glad we visited in December, since the market made it a special memory for us!
The 2.5 hour drive to Brussels was fine, but once we got to the city, our driving directions were lacking the specificity we needed to accurately find our hotel. When you reach a dead end and it says to 'continue on' the new road--- what exactly does that mean--- left or right??? We tried left 4 times before we realized it meant right. It took us over an hour to navigate these cryptic instructions. So... nerves frazzled... we arrived at the hotel Bedford, which was nice and very close to the Grand Place and Christmas Market. Anna and I fell exhausted into an afternoon nap (driving under high stress for that long makes you tired!) and James and his mom set off to explore the city Trish remembered from her trip there as a 16 year old.
So, that afternoon and evening we all explored the Grand Place which had lighting with synchronized music on our night there. The interesting closing number of the show was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody... not quite the usual Christmas finale, but good with flashes of color and lights. The Grand Place is a large square with amazing old buildings. I think it was the most interesting part of the city.
Also, we also took in the full Christmas market, which was quite large, but also very crowded, as it was the Saturday evening before Christmas. As an aside, all major European cities hold Christmas Markets in December. They sell food, drink, and items that you can give as Christmas presents. The decorations and fun of the markets are a wonderful thing to experience. James hit all the major food vendors: beignets (soft and chewy, fried dough-nut type balls covered in powdered sugar); frites (french fries) with a spicy sauce; roasted chestnuts (which taste terrible!!! yuck. really. a horrible taste that linger in your mouth for a long period of time. awful.); vin chaud (hot mulled wine, we had lots of this!) and Belgian waffles (wow are these really good! a hot waffle covered in sugar that carmalizes on the top covered in thick whipped cream & strawberries or chocolate. totally worth the 2000+ calories that I'm sure are lurking inside). Also, at dinner we discovered raspberry Belgian beer... so good. We did do some non-culinary shopping at the market as well. We got some beautiful ornaments and Anna got a Santa hat from Grandma with pigtails included.
On Sunday morning, we took a walk to see more of the city. Nothing special to report. It was winter so the parks weren't pretty. All in all we were glad we visited in December, since the market made it a special memory for us!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Apologies
Sorry all, that it's been so long since my last Blog posting. The Christmas holidays, a visit from my mother-in-law ("ma belle-mere" in French, literally translates as my beautiful mother), 2 trips out of the country and being completely addicted to reading Harry Potter books has slightly distracted me.
Christmas was great. There was snow on the field behind our place-- truly a white Christmas! Anna opened presents ALL DAY LONG. Amazing what her 'monga' (that's how Anna says Grandma) could fit into her two suitcases!
We were very blessed to have James' mom here for Christmas, as it somewhat lessened our sadness for not being with the rest of our family. We did see the rest of the family on Christmas eve and Christmas--- Skype is an amazing, free video website. This is a photo of our Christmas Skype with the California Melcher-Anderson crew.
Hmmm... still have to report on our trips to Brussels (Bruxelles) and Salzburg over the holidays, but Anna's nap is over, so I'll do that later.
Happy New Year.
Christmas was great. There was snow on the field behind our place-- truly a white Christmas! Anna opened presents ALL DAY LONG. Amazing what her 'monga' (that's how Anna says Grandma) could fit into her two suitcases!
We were very blessed to have James' mom here for Christmas, as it somewhat lessened our sadness for not being with the rest of our family. We did see the rest of the family on Christmas eve and Christmas--- Skype is an amazing, free video website. This is a photo of our Christmas Skype with the California Melcher-Anderson crew.
Hmmm... still have to report on our trips to Brussels (Bruxelles) and Salzburg over the holidays, but Anna's nap is over, so I'll do that later.
Happy New Year.
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