Brugges

Brugge was great, sorry for the short post.... on our way to Brussels for waffles, mussels and frites!

Brugge/Bruges

We said our goodbyes to the Wissings & Olbrings Tuesday AM. We could not thank them enough for their hospitality. We had such a great time in Alstatte. Even Ralf and Maria woke up to send us off. Andreas was no where to be found.Heike & Andre took us to Enschede where we picked up our car. On our way to Bruge, we stopped at LaTrappe Brewery near Tilburg, NE. Good beer & food, nice tour/history as well.

We arrived in Bruge about 7PM. We headed out to find our next favorite beer bar... as has been suggested to us several times, we went to Beerstel Beerij. Great beer list and nice people. We met an angry Scot and a man from upper New York, Ron. Ron is good friends with the owner of our B&B and he loves New Glarus beer. Small world, eh?

Wednesday AM, we did a canal tour & De Halve Mann brewery tour. It was good too. We ate lunch and are now off to walk the town more to see the sights.

Can not believe we are expected at work on Monday, no one from THIEL has written on our blog, they must not miss us... ;p

Beer count: since leaving Alstatte, 8

Schutzenfest Day 2

Well... what the party they throw here in Alstatte!! Holy cow. I have never seen so much drinking, dancing, singing and clapping in all of my life. Maybe all the weddings I have been to put together would compare. We 'closed Schutzenfest' at about 2:30am on Sunday night-Monday morning. They have many, many traditions around this celebration. Too many to list here. It has been really fun here, though. Video will follow after we return home...


The party continued this AM with church for the men, and another parade to the Queens house. Then... more drinking. The shooting was also this afternoon. Bill did shoot, but only once, and sadly we are not moving to Alstatte. He did not knock the bird down. A new king was crowned, as well as a new queen and court. Then, more drinking. At the festival, children wait tables, clear glasses and order-pay for more beer for the attendees. Funny....

We had dinner at the local restaurant, where we stayed at the hotel. It was awesome, as usual. Heike and Andres freudin (friends) were all very, very nice to us. Speaking to us in English as best they could, and doing a really good job of trying to make us feel welcome... did I mention we drank a lot of beer? Speaking of which, tomorrow we drive to the Abbey in the Nederland and then on to Brugge.


Beer count: 30fd,whvqq,kvv-d-- or so.

Bill: (and yes, i know i was holding the gun wrong in the picture!)

Willkommen Deutschland!!

We arrived bz train on Saturdaz to Enschede. The Wissings and Olbrings made us a wonderful home cooked meal. We sat at their house and talked all evening. We had multiple meats... (Glenn).... it was verz good. Our hotel is verz nice. Nice to have our own bath-shower. The town is soooo cute. All the houses look the same as the businesses. Most of the town was destrozed in the war.
We met with some distant relatives todaz from Alsteatte. Some German and some American living in Germanz. It was fun and interesting and nice to talk to Americans. :-)
Sundaz, Schuetzenfest began this afternoon. All men met to prepare for the parade to the exiting kings home for a farwell partz. The woman watch the parade. There was a slight accident, a man fell off his horse and was taken to the hospital, but he was fine and the parade continued!!



Bill: I am officially a member of the Alstatte Shooting Club now. I got to walk in the parade. Besides being way too hot, it was fun!

More Sheutzenfest tonight and tomorrow!

Beer count: 20....or so.

Auf Wiedersehen Amsterdam!

Our time here is done... we're hitting a market this AM and taking the train to Enschede (won't believe how that's REALLY pronounced!) Heike knows we're on our way. We're looking forward to some relaxing time now... Amsterdam has a lot to offer, but it's really hustle and bustle here, especially now that it's the weekend and the 'tourists' are here!
Yesterday we hit the art museums, flower market, gift shops, had more beer!! and had a Dutch pancake.... I have to learn how to make these!! So good... We went to the brewery tour at Brouwij t 'ij. Really good beer, tour similar to Lakefront.

See you in Germany!!

Beer count: 20

Beer, Boats & Bikes

Our 2nd day has been great so far... we took a canal tour, rented bikes and have been all over the city. Ate Herring... ummm. Frites... umm Chocolate... ummm Ham and goat cheese sandwich... ummmmmmmmmmmmmm Beers... pretty good. Nothing too exciting yet, that is to come tonight and tomorrow as our bar hopping continues.

We're posting from a '"Coffeeshop" right now.. look it up for Amsterdam. :-)

Beer count: 10
Modes of transport: 6

1st day under our belt

Marcia here...
Beer booze and .... politics? Yeah, great vacation, eh? We just spent over an hour talking with twor really drunk Hollanders? Amsterdamderites?? and one bartender about US & EU politics. They're really, really mad they can't smoke in the bar. No, you don't get it, really, really mad.

We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant, that supposedly cooks meals for the royal family of the Netherlands (bartender told us that). It was pretty good. Not the best I've had, but maybe the best I've had is all 'Americanized'? We toured the Red Light District and the gay district, so Bill was on a tight leash. :-) We're off to bed now, to plan tomorrow's adventures.

Beer count: 4

mmmm... beer.

We're Here!

Whewwwwww..... that is just too long of a trip. Europe should move closer to the US. :-) Flights were fine and on time. US Air... has issues. We brought a Europe ready phone, it's not ready. Weather is good, so far. Hotel is cute. Wow... stairs....
We're going out for beer now -- shocking, I know, and to plan the rest of our evening.

Modes of travel so far: 4
Beers: 0 :(

And it begins...

Parker James Volstorf

This is Parker. He is all of his 10.5 lbs! Notre Dame football, watch out!  Love you!

Well... I'm not really ready, either.

Bill's right, he usually gets all panicked and I wonder to myself "why am I going on a trip with this guy." 

I have to do some shopping for a pair of capris yet. Yeah, fun. We're still organizing what sights we'll see. And we should do a dry run of packing, making sure we don't have to check luggage. Crazy airlines and their crazy rules... I got some drugs for the plane ride!! I can NEVER sleep on planes. As you can see from the last pic posted, I slept AFTER we got to Germany back in 2003.

We have a guest staying with the cats for the time we're gone, they will really appreciate that. Bill and I really appreciate it.

Finally, a bit off subject, Bill and I are new Uncle and Aunt to Parker James Volstorf, born July 10, 2008 @ 7:30pm. He rolls in at a whopping 10 lb 5 oz. Mom and baby are doing fine.

Yikes!

The stress is building! Anyone that knows me, knows I nearly explode with stress before a trip. We actually have most things set to go. We just need a map, a new German translation buche and to make a single source of notes of things we want to see. Some new pieces of tech to make our trip more fun/easier: digital camera, phone, multi-charger. And of course we will have the handy-dandy Rick Steves and Belgian Beer Guide books along. We plan on posting on here daily when we can, so please read and post!

Now I just have to figure out how many shirts and socks to take.

Where are we going?

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It makes more sense on paper.