Venice of the North

The next stop on our journey was Bruges, Belgium. It was another one of those fairytale European cities. I've never seen so many beautiful brick buildings. The canals made it even better and we were fortunate to have the weather on our side. The food was delicious and we saw a lot of the city on our canal boat tour. The kids were happy because they didn't have to go inside any museums and they were able to eat fries for a snack and waffles for lunch.

Henry's first look at Bruges

The streets of Bruges heading toward Market Square

The first thing we did in Market Square was stand in line for some fries

Pete and the kids sampling Bruges' famous fries with gravy

The Bell Tower in Market Square has 366 steps up to the top.
Pete was up for the challenge but unfortunately had no takers.

Henry, Pete and Christina in front of the Bell Tower

Market Square

We stopped for lunch to try some real Belgian waffles

Strawberries and whipped cream, yum!

Bananas and whipped cream, double yum!

There are plenty of chocolate shops in Bruges.
Alex had a good time taking pictures of all the interesting treats.
Here you can see a giant chocolate Easter bunny.

Chocolate fondue tower

I thought this was the coolest one.
It is a giant Chinese dragon made entirely of chocolate.

The chocolate shop we stopped in was Dumon.
The chocolate there was amazing.

A family shot on a canal boat

Pete and Ruby

Henry

Alex

The Church of Our Lady which is home to Michelangelo's sculpture "Madonna and Child".
After our boat tour we headed over there to check it out for ourselves.

Going under an extremely low bridge

Loved the brick work...

...and the windows

A shot of the bell tower

Henry, Ruby and Alex with the bell tower in the background

Family shot in Bruges

7 cities in 7 days

We had already planned a trip for Spring break, but after finding out it would probably be our last, we added a couple extra stops. When we arrived home a week later, we had logged 2400 km, been through 4 countries and stayed in 4 different hotels.

Our first stop was Reims, France. This amazing cathedral greeted us upon our arrival.

Unfortunately, due to a tunnel fire that parked us on the freeway for an hour, we didn't pull in until 11pm...long past our kids' bedtime.

The next morning we headed out in the rain to get a better look.

The cathedral in Reims was the place for the coronation of 25 French kings and queens.
Construction began in 1211 and after WWI it was so severely damaged that it was completely rebuilt.

The stained glass in this window was removed during WWI in order to save it from destruction

It was really beautiful inside and out but I think Pete and I were the only ones who could appreciate it. The kids were more interested in heading to McDonald's for breakfast.
Side note: they don't serve breakfast at McDonald's in Switzerland...it was delicious!

The hunt is on

Before our kids' spring break started, our village had an Easter egg hunt. It was pretty American except for the giant, scary Easter bunny and the free wine available for parents. Luckily they had areas separated off for the younger kids, otherwise Henry would have been mowed over by some candy hungry 10-year olds.

While the kids were looking for eggs, the Easter bunny came out to help and offer more candy

Henry with his eggs

Ruby, Henry, Alex and Ethan
Side note: check out the size of Ethan's Easter basket. This is what everyone's basket looked like. Of course our kids had the American super-sized baskets which was a little embarrassing.

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate

One weekend, while Pete was out of town, I took the kids to the chocolate festival in Versoix. They sample lots of chocolate, including some yummy fondue. Their favorite part of the festival was the construction of a ginormous chocolate Easter bunny. It was going to be 5 meters (about 16 1/2 feet) tall when finished and the next day the local hockey team was coming over to break it with hockey sticks and pass out chocolate to the public. Alex and Ruby were mesmerized and wanted to keep watching until it was finished.

Alex and Ruby with the partially finished bunny in the background

Here you can see them working on the head of the bunny

Carefully placing a giant chocolate panel on the bunny's body

There were also lots of displays of chocolate-all with a circus theme

A chocolate clown

Henry, Alex and Ruby in front of a chocolate three-ring circus

A chocolate monkey family

The next day my friend Alma went with her family to watch the destruction of the bunny.
She was nice enough to pass on her pictures to me so the kids could see the final product.

The giant chocolate bunny

Breaking the bunny

Handing out chunks of chocolate bunny

In this picture, my friend's daughter is holding a piece of the bunny.
Can you say stomach ache?