Monday, November 12, 2012

Going to the 'Russels

We got to visit Brussels ('Russels as G says) a few weekends ago, timed nicely to escape the sights and smells of the Eid here in the "Rocco".

Sweet friends of ours from Virginia have been posted in Belgium for 2 years.

Not only have we missed out on 2 years of each other's lives, but there are 2 new whole PEOPLE.


Many of our friends and family were shocked that we would travel less than a week after our difficult sojourn back from the States (J, I'm looking at you).  However, getting to Belgium only requires a 2hr 45 min nonstop flight, and trust me, at this point we could've done that standing on our heads.



Belgium was clean and orderly and beautiful.  It was a bonus to see the fall colors- my absolute favorite.


I believe Nick and Maren are THE most thoughtful people on the face of the earth.  Not only were we greeted by homemade signs, but also with handmade gifts for all.



They showed us all the tricks of navigating a Metro system with strollers in a country that is not handicap-friendly.



On a train to Brugges for the day.  Doesn't it all look so cozy and pleasant?  Yeah, this was T-2 minutes before J's EPIC vomit episode of 2012.  Followed by the great clothes switcheroo of 2012. Of course Nick and Maren jumped up and probably cleaned up more of it than we did.  I'm serious when I say that they deserve friends of the year award.

Thankfully, J took a nap in the stroller for a few hours and we were still able to spend time in Brugges without him being miserable.






Later that evening, after all the little kids were snug in our beds with a babysitter watching over them, the big kids got to go play.

We had frites.


We had waffles.


We had beer.


We had the mussels in Brussels.


It was all AMAZING. (Also, none other can compare to Belgian chocolate)



And then we bid them goodbye for another year and stepped right into Morocco upon boarding our Royal Air Maroc flight at the Brussels Airport (blaring Arabic music, hot, crowded, stinky).

Oh, and did I mention that not only did we show up, wreck their house, manage to go through just about every towel/sheet/piece of clothing they own, but also made sure that our kids got theirs terribly sick?  We are really great guests.
 

 Thanks for showing us a great time Nick, Maren, Julia and Baby J and for taking such great care of us! xoxo