Brussels, and Amsterdam

     After a long busy day in Paris we were off to Belgium. Shane wanted to stay and go back to the Louvre to see the art. And this would have been alright but we really wanted to be able to see some of Brussels not just the hotel room. And going to the Louvre would have ended up taking at least 4 hours on top of what took over 4 hours to get to Brussels as is.  So instead we got out of town early, and went to a near by town to get some late breakfast/early lunch.

    This town was really cool, it was completely surrounded by a wall, and had some really old architecture. It was called Senlis, and for anyone who happens to be looking for old towns like this, it is very much a cool place to stop. We saw some really cool stuff, from small roads completely paved with cobble stone, to a house that had the biggest courtyard (it reminded me of something off of Game of Thrones), and old churches. We got some really tasty Panini's and fruit for the Kyra bug. The weather was actually nice here and we enjoyed walking around a bit before moving on!

This was their Hospital, it kinda creeped me out idk why just weird vibe

Dad was fascinated by the car on the chair!

Town square

Side alley

The cool courtyard

   After this we headed straight toward Brussels with the occasional rest stop break for diaper changes, and snacks. Once we got to Brussels we were once again GPS less and trying to find our way to our hotel with simply a map. This was not as bad as Paris but once we were close to the hotel we ended up going through a tunnel that went all the way through town with no exits, so we had to back track quite a ways! But sure enough we navigated ourselves to a parking spot not far from our next hotel.

Crossing into Belgium

Neighborhood our hotel was in, It was adorable.

    When we checked in to this hotel we were highly concerned as the entire lobby was torn apart and being rebuilt. But were pleased to find that our rooms were the nicest ones on the whole trip. HUGE carpeted room with nice lighting, a perfect cubby for Kyra's pack and play and a nice shower with a bathtub!! Which is good as we were in a wierd area and couldn't find much to look at, and it was cold so we spent most of our time in the hotel just relaxing. It was vacation after all.

    We did make it out for dinner, at a nice restaurant down the street. We all had some authentic Belgium food, sausage, and potatoes!! And they were very family friendly also. They didn't have kid seats but Kyra was happy and talking to all the servers.

She was loving it!!

Statues in Brussels

    After Dinner we went down to the park and let Kyra play a while. She loved the bouncy toys, and slide with Dad! But it was cold, so it was only a short stop and back to the room. But she had fun in the room too, as she was able to crawl around and play as she pleased.

   After a quick stop at a bakery where we got really good truffles, and nutella filled crescents. And daily fresh squeezed juice!! We were up and on our way to Amsterdam, which we were all very excited to get to.

    We were on our way when a town that sounded familiar popped up on the map Antwerp. We pulled in to grab some lunch. It was a pretty city. We ate at a local English pub type restaurant!! And it was very good!! Than we grabbed a new memory chip, looked at some diamonds( Antwerpen is the diamond trading place in europe) and than booked it to Amsterdam!

Hot Cocoa is delish when its cold!!!

Crazy hair, this happens when we forget soap on a week trip in Europe, mom's hair was equally messed up.

Headed to get some Belgium Ibuprofen that worked so fast!!

Diamond store in Antwerpen

    So I said how Driving in Paris was crazy, take that thought and double it and thats how driving in Amsterdam. It seems to have no road rules what so ever, people just drive where they please and do watch out for others. And if you have ever been to Boulder, there are about 3 times as many people on the road with bikes and they are all over. But the great thing is they have built in bike lanes that have a curb between them and the road, and them and the sidewalk so there is no confusion of if they should be there or not.

Crazy traffic

The waiter got the birthday girl a balloon!

   Once we navigated our way to the hotel which took forever with the traffic and people just going everywhere, we headed to get some dinner at Hard Rock Cafe! I know not so authentic but one of those things where you can say you've been there. But it was super cold and started to snow so we booked it back to the hotel to get Kyra out of the cold.

    Later that night my Dad was awesome and stayed at the hotel with Kyra so my brother, and us could go downtown to get some beer, and see what the red light distract was like. I don't know if it was all that big of a deal. Not something all that new, I mean it was women in windows, but to me seemed just like a lingerie store with people rather than mannequins. But we did find a cool bar that sold cheap beers and it was decorated like an American Biker bar. And after we had braved the cold long enough we headed back to the hotel by Taxi because the walk ended up being far longer than expected.