Arrival and First few days in Belgium

Well, we made it to Belgium! After 16 hours of travel time and with PS recovering from an ear infection, I'd say that was quite a feat in itself! (All I can say is thank goodness for Grandpa coming along and also for the on-board cocktails!) All in all, we had a nice travel day and in the end, it was such a joy to finally be reunited with Ray.

The girls seem to fit right in and are acclimating quite well. Aside from the jet-lag we experienced the first few days, we are getting acquainted with our new home. Ray did a great job preparing the house for our arrival. It was such a blessing being able to move in with the bulk of the work already taken care of -- thank you, Ray! For those of you who know us well, Ray always spoils us by making our lives as easy as possible. The Belgium move was no exception. That being said, these past few days have been busy unpacking the remaining boxes (quite a few, I must say) and organizing all of our stuff.

It indeed is quite cold this week in Belgium. I'm not used to being around snow if I don't have a pair of ski's to go with it, so this came as quite a surprise. It's not bad if your dressed for it, but it sure is nice to stay indoors! The girls, however, LOVE it and have enjoyed quite a few snow ball fights this week.

We took GP and the girls to downtown Brussels to see the Grand-Place, Manneken Pis, and the chocolate museum. For those of you who want to know, the Grand-Place was once the civic heart of the city and it is here where you will find the Gothic Town Hall, several guildhouses, cafes, bars, and a few museums. It truly is quite a spectacular feast for the eyes when you step into the square.

Since DS is the boss, she wanted to check out the chocolate museum where we spent some time learning how chocolate is made and how it originated in Europe. Of course we got to taste the samples as well. And do you know that dark chocolate has high levels of anti-oxidants? Pair that up with a glass of red wine and say au-revoir to free radicals!

After a nice lunch at a greek restaurant near the square, we introduced Grandpa and DS (PS was sleeping) to the yummy Liege waffle. It was just as delicious as I remembered it to be. As you can see, DS is having a great time trying the local Belgian cuisine!

The prices here in Belgium can be quite expensive. Just to give you one example, at a local discount grocery store, after careful shopping (you know what I mean, Karen), the prices were not that bad. However, the one item that I did not check the price for until after we paid the bill was the bottled water. We bought 2 cases of bottled water which came out to over 1/2 the cost of the bill at approx 25 US dollars. Yowzers! With beer being less expensive than water here, I think I'm going to have to try the Belgium beer after all!