Monschau, Germany

We took Cynthia and Maryanne to Monschau which was recommended by one our Belgian friends.  It turned out to be exactly the “German town” experience we were looking for. I was so pleasantly surprised and am now in the process of booking our Christmas market trip.  It was Leavenworth but "German". I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures to post... (Click on the pictures for a better view)



The drive in to Monschau was so beautiful!

 

Monschau from the road above

Bronwen on our hike in the hills around the town

Gentse Feesten 2011

The BIG summer festival has begun! It has taken over the entire city, not just the Graslei canal like I had thought, so much fun!!! There is something for everyone at all hours of the day/night with tons of family and kid things to do too. There is no better place to be in the world during summer time:) Steve and Cynthia are still out at 1 am as I right this...good times!

Here are some pictures from the last few days...

The first 2 days started off very wet, booooooo!

Sun finally!!!!

Outdoor concert venue, not sure what the puppets are for.

Pole Pole at De graslei canal last night (the canal where the marriott is)

I love that grin!

This is a picture that Steve sent me earlier tonight with this note:

 "Gentse feeste! Pole pole beach party 2011. We just started, see you in the morning."

London

My old boss from LABiomed was in London for two nights on her way back to California from Italy, conveniently, Steve had two meetings scheduled in the London area so we all headed over for a few nights.  It was so great to see Rachelle and her family, I am so lucky to have such and incredible friend and mentor.

We took a car, train, bus, and metro to get into London ...

Bus ride to Heathrow airport

Metro to Covent gardens

B adored Rachelle's girls, Milanadea & Jordana

Rachelle, B, and Milanadea

Cute little cupcake shop in Covent garden area

Alex's new love :)

Dinner at the beach...

Parkkaffee in Mariakerke

There is a park cafe set up in Mariakerke (about 10 min drive for us) in a wooded area that may be someone's back yard, I'm not sure.  Its a little bit "hippie" and a lot awesome!  There are fancy little cafe kiosks set up around the property as well as the cutest retro trailers with fortune tellers and face painters.  It’s kid and parent friendly so everyone can have a good time and relax (for the parents).  I really can’t describe how incredible the ambiance was, there were candles, string lights, star lights, tikki torches and several bonfires around the park.  It goes on all summer from late afternoon until late night (we left at 10pm) so we will be there most nights.  I love summer in Gent!!!

Tapas trailer

Fortune teller trailer (so cute with fire place and all)

The boys play'n

Our friend Diana offered to take a photo of the four of us and I told her not to bother because it's impossible to get us all smiling or even looking in the same direction.  After taking a few photos she looked at me with this "oh my...you weren't kidding" look.  This was the best we got...

Typical family portrait

Fun pics...

A & B in front of Sint Baafs cathedral

Cynthia making chocolate-raspberry mousse for the margarita party

Ceviche made by Maryanne

cupcake take-away gift

Bronwen decorated the gift boxes

Kids decorating their cupcakes

"Margarita party" with chicken fajitas and carne asada

Purple rain, pur-ur-ple rain...

Steve and I went with some friends to the Prince concert at Sint-Pietersplein, a huge outdoor square just up the street from us. It was the best concert any of us had ever been too. He played an hour after he was supposed to end the show and seemed to be having so much fun! At one point he said "do you know how many hits I have? We could be here all night!" You're so modest, Prince. He played mostly new, funky, awesome stuff the first half of the show and then spent the rest of the show humoring the audience with samples of all of his greatest hits. Purple rain was the best, towards the end of the song millions of little pieces of purple tissue paper shot up into the sky over sint-pietersplein; it looked like a purple torrential downpour.