Our First Adventure to the Continent

In light of the cheap and short trips to Europe, we hoped to see the Continent a few times while we are here. For our first adventure, since every place would offer something intriguing, we opened the airfare map and chose the cheapest ticket. The winner? Brussels, Belgium! We couldn’t think of a better way to start than to see the capital of the EU.

From Edinburgh (a lovely little airport) the flight to Brussels was just a little over an hour.

We arrived on Friday evening to our super cool Bed and Breakfast, the King Leopold II Inn.
Housed in a 1905 five-story house, our apartment included a kitchen and living area on the fifth floor
as well stairs to the attic turned into two bedrooms. The best part? The kids each had skylights over
their beds where they could see constellations as they fell asleep.

On Saturday, we took the very comfortable train to the medieval town of Bruges. It was as all the travel
books had described, a picturesque town with cobbled streets and canals. We first stopped

in the Church of Our Lady, which dates from the 13th-15th centuries. It is the tallest structure in Bruges, and the second tallest brickwork tower in the world. Inside the church is beautiful art, among it a statue of Mary and Jesus made by Michelangelo in 1504.

We then toured the town by canal, and though it was cold, we enjoyed the trip as we listened
to our trilingual guide point out the ancient features of the town. Our lunch offered great views of
the town center, but not quite equal to the views Kate and I discovered from the top of the
Belfort Tower (Yes, that tower if you’ve seen In Bruges, as Lance and I dutifully did the night before
we left). We even saw a parade coming into town, and ran down to catch some candy. While we did this,
the boys stopped in the Basilica of the Holy Blood and then saw some fabulous medieval
art in the Groeningemuseum. A trip to one of the leading chocolate stores and frittes and
waffles for dinner completed our bucket list.

On Sunday and Monday, we focused on Brussels itself. The musical instruments museum
(Maxson made sure he listened to every single musical instrument), the Belgian Chocolate Village,
and the Comic Strip Museum provided hours of learning and fun. We took a bus around the vast city
to see all the sights as we didn’t want to walk to in the cold, and had several more delicious meals.
Mannekin Pis was (no surprise) Kindred’s favorite part of the trip, and we all agreed the waffles next
to him were well worth the wait in the cold.

We returned home to St. Andrews about 1:00 am on Monday, a bit tired, but very thankful that
we had made it before Scotland was hit with a giant snowstorm for which the kids have, so far,
gotten three days of school off. The waves were also 20 feet high during the snowstorm (continuing
into the weekend!). Most of all, we are so grateful for this sweet time of discovery as a family.

We hope you enjoy our pictures and we are open to suggestions and advice for our next trip!