January 2015: New Year Visitors

We rang in the New Year with our friends, Jen, Paul, and Emily, who are living in England right now.  They took the Eurostar train from London, under the English Channel, and were in Brussels in 2 hours.  Pretty amazing!   It truly is an amazing engineering feat. 

Once arrived, we spent the afternoon catching up.  For dinner, we went to one of our favorite French restaurants and enjoyed a delicious steak.

On Day 2, we drove to Bruges and showed them the Belgian city of canals.  While they took most of the pictures, here are a couple we have:

 

It was too cold for a canal ride, but we enjoyed walking through an ice sculpture (brrr!), food at the market, shopping, and the dads and kids even ice skated.    Bruges is just magical when it's all lit up.

 

On Day 3, Mike took Jen & Paul to Ypres to see the WW1 Museum, Fields of Flanders.  I kept the kids around the house to play and in the afternoon, we went out for a walk. 

 

 

 

 

 

On Day 4, we ventured out to Viller's Abbey, a 12th century monastery that is in ruins.  Everyone had a fun time exploring all the nooks & crannies of this beautiful place.  It had been a while since we had been there and so we took lots of photos. 

 

 

 

 

I love the architecture of this place even though it is in ruins.  And that is probably what makes it the most interesting.  To really get an idea of how big this place is, check out the link here and watch the short video. 

 

 

Our visit with Paul, Jen & Emily was a great time!  In between the day trips, we had lots of good food, Belgian beers, and enjoyed so many great conversations.  It was so fun!!  Thanks for coming to visit us!