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Belgium

Our friends Kate, Jesse and their daughter Mara are in Europe again! They were part of our early adventures last year in Budapest (location of the wedding of Sam and Mara - no guests invited). They visited us in Amsterdam with other friends, Mary and Steve, and then we all (minus Ryan who has a job that I guess he needs to work at) traveled to Belgium.  I had been only to Brussels before and Sam had never been to Belgium.

More Belgium photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jDQGK3W5en3R85sG6

Ghent (August 6 - 9):  This city was a pleasant surprise!  I guess it would be given I did very little research in advance of coming here.  Ghent has the European feel (old-timey as I like to call it).  I know canals should not be that interesting to a person living in Amsterdam but I really can't get enough of them!  They have canals in Ghent and we did a boat tour to get to know the city.  There is a castle right in the center of the city which we toured (amazing and also strange audio tour).  We did a food tour which was ideal for the children since it included chocolate, fries and waffles.  Sam and I went up the Belfry tower because as mentioned previously, Sam always chooses to "go up" things. 






Here is a graffiti art wall that our food tour guide showed us and let the kids add their own art.  Sam drew a croissant (which is also what he told our tour guide was his favorite food - she did not appreciate the Frenchness of that given we were in the non-French part of Belgium).

Antwerp (August 8 day trip): A day trip was a good amount of time to visit this city.  A walk around town, lunch and museum gave us a good taste of Antwerp.

Jesse is the best at interacting with statues and other monuments. 😆 I also like to take pictures of people taking pictures so I got that in with this photo as well.


Red Star Line Museum - good scavenger hunt for the kids. 


Bruges (August 9 - 11):  This has been on our list to visit based on recommendations from other expats.  I think it has caught on because it is a very busy city.  Ryan met us here for the weekend while the rest of the gang went back to Ghent. 

Another photo of someone (Steve) taking a photo - and a really interesting looking beer glass. Two-for-one shot!


Sam got a souvenir fan so that was a fun coordinating activity for these two.



Sam and I did a chocolate making workshop at the Chocolate Museum.  It was a bit stressful since it was a "take what you make" class so the speed at which we could make the chocolate seemed important.  However, Sam felt the quality of his work in terms of shape and design was the most important thing.  We were sharing a pastry bag so every time I got my hands on it I cranked out as much chocolate as possible while he painstakingly designed his masterpieces (which we promptly ate within days!).

Brussels (August 11 - 13):  I had been to Brussels before and I had an idea of what Sam would like and it was mostly the fries and the Atomium.  I thought the various peeing statues would be a hit with him but he was fairly indifferent.  This was also the hottest part of the trip and Sam felt sick one day so it was a little more relaxed. 




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