Belgium without kids

Jason and I finally made a trip without the kids. Being so far away from family meant that we couldn't just leave our children at home. When they were younger we didn't feel comfortable leaving them overnight with someone other than family. Now, however, the kids are a bit older and Iva, our babysitter, is wonderful. We asked Iva if she would be willing to watch the kids for the weekend and she agreed. I was very excited and I told the girls who were also very excited. I wasn't sure if they would be excited or if they would break down in tears. I should have known that they would be happy since whenever Iva can't babysit on a Friday night the kids cry becuase she isn't coming! She really has become part of our family. She is so good with the kids and not only did she take care of them over the weekend, she also brought them into town to see Mikulas (St Nicholas). "Mikulas" also left chocolates on the windowsill for the girls. They were excited to tell us how Mikulas came in the night and left candy for them. These are the special things that Iva does that makes her one of a kind. In any event, becuase of flight times I also had to depend on my friends to help me out with the kids as well. My friend Inge was wonderful and picked the kids up from school on Friday and kept them with her until six when she drove them home (since Iva was getting to our house at six) and then she picked them up again on Monday morning and drive them to school. She is amazing since not only did she do this for me without batting an eyelash, she did with it with three boys of her own to take care of! At the end of the day on Monday my friend Kelly took Sofia and my friend Natalie took Ali and kept them until we arrived home and picked them up around 7pm! Thank goodness for great friends!

With all the logistics taken care of, Jason and I headed to the airport for our flight to Brussels. Flying without the kids is a completely different experience. I fell asleep before take-off then woke up read my book and watched part of a tv show on my iphone. Before I could finish watching my show we were landing in Brussels. We got off the plane and went in search of our bus to take to the train station. With kids this can be hectic but without them it just didn't matter how long it took us to figure out where we were going! We found the bus and headed to the train station where once again we didn't know where to go. We figured it out and boarded our train into brussels where we switched to another train bound for Brugge. The transitions were so easy without having to drag the kids around bus stations and train stations etc. This is actually one of the reasons we chose Brugge as a destination without the kids. It just is not that easy (with kids) to get to since it requires a plane and a couple trains. Anyway, we arrived in Brugge and found our B&B which was lovely. The ground floor was an art gallery and the top floor was the owners apartments. The first floor (2nd floor in the States) was where the B&B rooms were. Our room was small but very comfortable and since it was just the two of us the size was perfect. Jason and I did get a laugh when we arrived though and started to walk up the stairs to our room. Being in Czech for three years has rubbed off and we both felt very uncomfortable wearing our shoes inside and walking up the steps which were painted white! I had to make a quick look down to make sure the owner was wearing his shoes before I stepped on the first step. The owners were very friendly and gave us good tips on what to see and where to go for dinner. We had anticipated spending a lot of time sitting in cafes but instead we spent most of our time walking around and seeing how cute everything was in Brugge. We also went on a canal tour which was a great way to see the town. While we didn't spend our time sitting in cafes we did still take a couple breaks to have hot chocolate and to stop in many chocolate shops. On Saturday night we went to the oldest cafe in Brugge which is really a bar. It is also on the narrowest street in Brugge. Anyway we ended up sitting at a table with two british guys, Paul & Charlie, and two Flemish people, Dieter & Angelique. We learned a lot about the difference between the Flemish people and the people from Waloonia (Waloonia is in the South of Belgium). I'm not sure how accurate the information is but we had a lot of fun hanging with this random assortment of people. On Sunday we headed back to Brussels. We did a lot of walking in Brussels as well. We took in a couple of major sites and went to the Christmas markets. We flew back to Prague on Monday afternoon after a fun weekend. We were happy to see the kids and they were happy to see us.