October 2010 travels

As mentioned in our "Goodbye 2010" post, we took trips in October and November, and we are finally taking the time to journal these trips, only 4 short months after the fact!

With October came another birthday for Ryan, and what better excuse for a vacation than a birthday?! This was our most extensive trip yet, covering 5 countries in 4 days: the UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. The trip started out by leaving very early in the morning to attempt to avoid traffic on the M25, a road that encircles London and turns into a parking lot during rush hour. Fortunately, we missed the traffic, but we were very early for the ferry, so we killed a few hours by detouring through the ancient city of Canterbury, seeing its Cathedral and

famous medieval streets made famous by Chaucer. From there, we arrived at the port of Dover and boarded a ferry boat for Calais, France.

A view of Canterbury, England with Canterbury Cathedral

We arrived in Calais, France and headed east through Dunquerque and arrived in Belgium at the city of Bruges. Bruges is an old, well-preserved medieval town and you feel that you are in Europe when you're there. It has canals, outdoor dining, huge squares and lots of food, beer and Belgian pastries and chocolates. We checked into our hotel which had a separate loft area for Lexie to sleep. We saw the Cathedral of All Saints which boasts one of the few Michelangelo sculptures outside of Italy. Ryan had been here before and he liked it so much that he felt the entire family should see it. We spent a lot of time meandering through the old streets and taking in the town. We woke up the next morning, ate at a lovely pastry shop and loaded the car full of beer to take back to England for a few of our friends who had made requests. Speaking of beer, Lauren even had one (and enjoyed it), despite not being a beer drinker herself.

Our hotel room in Brugge

Brugge

The 'Madonna and Child' (1504 - 5) by Michelangelo Buonarotti

From Belgium, we drove south to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Luxembourg is not really a great place to visit. Not that it's dirty or unsafe, it is neither, it's just there. The next morning we drove over to the American Cemetery in Luxembourg and saw the final resting place of over 5,000 US troops who lost their lives in World War II, many at the Battle of the Bulge. General George Patton's grave was there, at the head of the cemetery. We drove out of Luxembourg and entered Germany in about 20 minutes, since Luxembourg is such a tiny place. In Germany, Ryan had the chance to try his new Volkswagen out on the Autobahn, a highway without a Speed Limit. He was mindful of his family being and the car and kept his speed to a modest 115 MPH. It was a nice drive, especially as we approached the Moselle Valley, with its picturesque winding rivers and valleys.

Moselle Valley

We arrived in Trier, the oldest city in Germany, in the afternoon and checked into our hotel in the city center. Since Trier is so small, it was easy to walk everywhere. We saw St. Peter's Cathedral and the Porta Nigra. St. Peter's is a 9th Century Cathedral and the Porta Nigra is a well-perceived Roman city gate dating from the 2nd Century BC. We also got the chance to have some Schnitzel at a German streetside cafe which was just awesome. Anything beats British Cuisine. We left Germany and took the longer way back through Alsace and the Verdun in France, stopping in Epernay in the Champagne region to pick up a few bottles. All in all, it was a great trip and we got to see some highlights in Northern Europe.