B is for Belgium

Every community has a celebration or festival, even the very small villages will have one day set aside during the summer to have a celeration. We were invited to go to the Bernkastel-Kues celebration. The Bernkastel-Kues celebration was really spectacular. The setting is the valley forged by a river with large hills surrounding it. Situated on top of one of the mountains was a castle overlooking looking the valley below. When we arrived the carnival atmosphere was in full force. They had games, rides, sugary sweets and every other item to make a kid go absolutely insane with excitement. For the adults, it is about the wine, since the setting is surrounded by vineyard. Now with that being said, even though there is a lot of alcohol it is not a drunken party. The people do very well to drink in moderation and not become annoying. We roamed the streets while the kids stayed behind. There were probably 15 families from our ward there with all of their children. So the adults ventured out while the kids stayed behind and played games, saving our spot. Since this was vineyard territory we decided to buy some non-alcoholic wine (grape juice). It was very good so we bought a couple of bottles of it. When we got back it was the kids turn to go and have some fun. After it turned dark they held a spectacular fireworks show that lasted quite a long time. They had fireworks that they shot from a barge in the river and they also had fireworks that they shot from the castle above the river. It was supposed to represent the fight they had here hundreds of years ago between the castle and the boats below. After the festivities were over we packed up and headed for Belgium. I was able to find a hotel, which in the loosest sense of the word, this place qualified. It was basically an inside cruise cabin set on land. But it served the purpose of providing a place to stay. Our first stop was Brussels, a very international city, which serves as the center for the European Union. We bought Belgian chocolates and Sharma bought a very pretty foot stool. We bought the normal fare of trinkets and such. Oh and we also had a Belgian waffle...I mean you have to since you are there, right? We went and saw a famous statue called Manakin Pis, if you are curious look it up. We took many pictures that day one of which found its way onto our Christmas card this year. Next we drove to a small town called Ghent to stay the night. I think for me this one was my favorite stop in Belgium. Funny how an after thought turns out to be your favorite place. Why did I like it so much? It was very quaint with several large churches and buildings that were very pretty and then it had this nice canal meandering through the middle of it...and they had Speculoos ice cream. For those of you who don't know what Speculoos is....heaven in the form of ice cream. We ate at pizza hut that evening...I know, I know. After spending the night in Ghent we made our way to Brugge. This was supposed to be the best part of the trip from the people that I talked with, you know...it just wasn't. But it was a nice city with a canal through the center of it and a nice town square. We bought some lace because you are supposed to do that in Belgium, not that we are into that sort of thing and I am not sure that it will ever see the light of day, but we did our duty. We were told to buy tapestries here as well, but just couldn't find one that we liked so we passed on it. After spending a day roaming around Brugge it was time to pack the family into the van and drive back to Germany. Our first full fledged family vacation in Europe, under our belt, and oh so many more to come.

Nancy/Metz

My landlord worked at Ramstein AFB but actually lived in Nancy, France. He offered his home to us for the weekend, as they were going to be gone. Now this really intrigued me because my oldest brother served his LDS mission in this same city. I couldn't imagine something as neat as to walk the same streets that he may have walked. Even though I took French many years ago in school I was still able to communicate, albeit on a limited basis. I just felt more comfortable in France, I was at ease because I could understand and speak a little french. We followed our GPS to where the apartment was supposed to be, but all I saw were these buildings without a way to get your car inside. I parked briefly and started hitting the remote to open the door to drive through. I walked the street where it was supposed to be and then it happened. These two doors that didn't look like they would be big enough to fit a mini cooper in opened up. Now I was left with the daunting task of driving our behemoth...I mean van through. After some skilled driving that Mario Andretti would be proud of we parked the car and unloaded it. We opened the door to his building and this wide, winding staircase opened up to us. We found his house on the second floor. We unlocked two large wooden doors with intricate details and entered in. Just a very classic french house, wood floors, moldings around the living room, high ceilings and just oozing character. We walked down to the main square and found a nice pizza joint...because nothing says France like pizza. We strolled in the square and just took in all of the sights and sounds. I wish every city, big or small, in America had a square to gather in, it just makes the city so homey. I guess I like the idea of centralized entertainment. The next day we walked to a nice park/zoo area and took a bunch a pictures and just enjoyed the day. Then we went back to the town square that evening for dinner and a laser light show that told the history of the town and the area. The place was packed. We walked home late after the laser light show and never felt a sense of danger. It is nice to be out at night and feel relatively safe. Next we went to Metz, France. We loved this little town. It had this huge catholic cathedral. Every town not only has a town square but every one has a catholic cathedral, some huge, some small, some very ornate, some plain but all very interesting. Metz had a church with the most stained glass in all of France, as well as the oldest church in France. Not too bad for a tiny town in France. Metz had a little canal that flowed through it which made it very pretty. I enjoyed visiting the Knights Templar building which wasn't a church, but a building that the knights templar used as a means of congregating in. Soon this excursion had to come to an end and we needed to get home...until our next one.

The grand arrival

I got home from Munich/Dacau at 1am and needed to be up by 6am to pick up my family. After getting to bed and a few hours of sleep I drove to Frankfurt airport with much nervousness. I had heard horror stories of driving to the airport due to the construction and just difficult nature of getting into and out of the airport. Luckily I drove right there, found a parking spot and camped out in front of their gate. The plane landed early, which didn't hurt my feelings as I was very excited to see my long lost family. I waited...and waited...and waited. Everybody else on the flight was coming through the door but no sign of my family. Then finally they came, looking very tired and a bit frazzled. We were finally together again. We had a great drive back to our apartment and tried to catch up on as much as we could, in between kids falling asleep in the car. Since it was Sunday I told them we are going to church, and go to church we did, they lasted an hour...in fact not even an hour. My kids and wife slept through sacrament meeting...McKay was on the floor at least he wasn't snoring. We decided go back to the apartment and let the kids sleep. The next day I dropped McKay off to go on a week long scout camp. Now this wasn't just any ol' scout camp. He got to go to Kandersteg, Switzerland (in the Alps). So lucky! So I decided we wouldn't waste our time eithe, I took the rest of my family to see The Tour de France as it passed through Spa, Belgium (a mere two hours from us). What an awesome experience that was, although we waited for three hours to see the riders pass in about 20 seconds. C'est la vie.

Munich/Dacau

The day before my family was to arrive I scheduled an USO tour to Munich and Dacau Germany. A co-worker and myself left on a bus at 4am and drove straight to Munich...5 hours later. Now normally the drive wouldn't have taken quite so long in a car, probably more like 3 hours or so but the bus has to go 80kph (about 50mph) the whole way. We arrived in Munich and and were given a tour of the city on the bus. We saw things like BMW and Mercedes Benz HQ, olympic park etc. Then we got off of the bus and walked with our tour guides while she explained more about the city. Then we were on our own for a while to explore the city. We had lunch at the world famous (because of Oktoberfest) Hofbrauhaus. McKay had expressed interest in a Vuvuzela (horn) that the world cup fans could be seen blowing on the tv. I told him I would find one for him in Germany, I noticed one of the boys in our group had purchased one. So on the way back to the bus prior to leaving I asked him where he got it. He told me that he had bought it at one of the shops that we had passed. Risking missing the bus I decided I would try to get one for McKay. I ran back to the area that he said and looked frantically for this horn. No luck, I could not find it and here I was a ways from the bus, knowing I was running late to catch it. Back I ran, in the heat, after a long day of walking...thank goodness I made it, but I was the last one on. Then we stopped at Dacau concentration camp. What a very humbling experience. I felt like I needed to go to one of these concentration camps and pay my respects to those who needlessly lost their lives for their beliefs. I wanted to do it before my family came as a means of checking out the appropriateness for my kids to see it and also knowing that my wife didn't want to see this place meant that I might not be able to once they arrived. Again, I can not reiterate how moving this place was. Just a feeling of heaviness filled the air. They had rebuilt a couple of living quarters, but you could see the concrete foundation for all of the buildings that existed. It was moving to think how many people actually passed through this compound and how many lost their lives. We walked through the gas chamber area, interestingly enough the gas chamber was never used here, but these gas chambers were the prototype for the other concentration camps. In fact interestingly enough, this concentration camp was the prototype for all others, generally speaking. I did get to see the ovens where they killed many...so sad. The sign at the entrance to the doors to Dacau read "Work will make you free"...I guess in a very negative sense of this statement they had it right.