Friday, May 9, 2008

Spring has arrived

The weather here has made an amazing turn for the extraordinary. For nearly an entire week it has been 65 or higher and sunny. It does not seem anything like the Belgium I have lived in for the last 11 months.

Due to the weather, the imminent return to the States, and me trying to get as much lab work done as possible, my posting has been infrequent. I apologize. Here are some excerpts of things of late.

Mindy's parents dropped in for a week. Since they are trying to establish themselves in Italy for a 3 year stay, they figured they would get some high quality used furniture from us since we have no more use for it. Mindy's mom had not met Carmen yet, so they had lots of fun. She managed two grand-daughters very well.



To make their drive to Italy a little shorter, we booked a hotel in Hauenstein, Germany and all stayed there on Thursday night (May Day means no work in Europe). They left the next morning with a car packed of our Belgian belongings.



Mindy, me, and the kids stuck around for a second night and took the opportunity to play in the West of Germany. We found a zoo small zoo and a fair going on in Landau in der Pfalz. It was a great time. This was a very non-touristy region, so I got to use my German some!



That evening back near the hotel we went hiking in the hills/mountains of the area. Very beautiful and Mia even enjoyed the 4 km hike which she managed all on her own two feet.



On Saturday we drove back to Belgium, stopping in Trier, Germany, and St. Vith, Belgium on the way. Trier is known as the oldest city in Germany, and St. Vith is a city where the Battle of the Bulge took place. One of Mindy's uncles actually lived with a Belgian family for about 6 months during this part of the war and we found the house where he stayed and everything. The family didn't live there anymore though.

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