Best Girl's Trip Ever, Part 2

The first morning in Brugges we got up early and walked to a Market. We ended buying a few things, nothing big.  But this was our view as we rounded the corner from our apartment.  It was beautiful.

We grabbed some pastries for breakfast and walked through the city center.

And we walked through the narrow streets.

And then we jumped on SEGWAYS! 

Yes, we took a segway tour.  We had so much fun, and our tour guide was a funny little interesting man.  We look pretty awesome, don't we?

Some of the sights we saw on our tour...

We stopped here for chocolate, tried a few samples, then we each bought a bag of something to share.  And yes, we went back the next day for more.  It was the most amazing chocolate I have ever had.  In fact, I am so scared to be done with the chocolate that I bought, I still have some.  I have been eating it so slowly, enjoying it as long as I can.

I watched this guy play for about 30 seconds, took a picture and as I walked away, he said "thanks for nothin."

Okay.......

Taking a break....

We ended our morning with famous Belgian Waffles topped with speculoos ice cream.  Oh my gosh.  I could have had these for every meal.  Amazing.

Best Girl's Trip Ever, Part 1

The first weekend in September (I know, forever ago) I went on a girl's trip to Belgium with 5 other girls from my ward.  I am lucky enough to have a fantastic neighbor who was willing to watch my kids for the entire 4 days, since Pete had already left for his residency. 

On day 1, we drove to Spangdahlem, one of the Air  Force bases here in Germany and stayed over night.  It was a half-way point for the rest of our trip.  When we woke up in the morning, we filled up the tank and then locked the keys in the car.  Oh well.  We got to hang out after the gas station for two hours.  And don't think we all didn't try our best to get someone to unlock it for us- I think we all tried our charm a few times.

Our first stop was Brussells, Belgium.  We only spent an afternoon here, but that was really all we needed.  The first place we stopped was the Atomium.  This is a huge "building" built back in the 50's ( I think. I am totally typing this without my information book in front of me) for a World Expo.  It was built to resemble a giant Atom, hence the name Atomium. 

My beautiful friend, Lydia.  We took more than a few pictures like this.

Each sphere is a different room and exhibit, and the tubes that connect them were like portals into another world.  Well, at least one of them was.  The others were just escalators.

This was my favorite sign of the day.  I'm pretty sure it meant,

"Don't let anyone reach inside you and steal your kidney."

The view from the top of the Atomium.

Maratee, Lydia and Jeannete.

Inside one of the spheres.

This was the coolest tunnel we went through.  The colors changed constantly.

We decided that Belgians aren't very good at math...

Our first glimpse at chocolate.

This is when it pays to have the info book in front of you.  I can't remember what this is called, I'll have to go back later and figure it out.

Don't worry- we didn't get lost.

Chinese Pavillions.

This is an amphitheatre.  Lydia sang a little song and I did a little dance.  It was magical.

That's Angela.  I think we were scaring her with our performance, so she was staying as far away as possible.

The city was setting up for a car show while we were there.  We saw some amazing cars.

Then we drove one more hour into Brugges.  This was our hotel.  We had three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, as well as this awesome living room and a kitchen.