We are back in Apache Junction

We arrived here in Apache Junction, AZ last Thursday and have immediately jumped into the thick of activities with friends. It was such a pleasure to return. Nancy picked us up at the airport and as soon as we arrived at our rv site, everyone came out and welcomed us. There were about 6-8 friends jumping up and down and hugging us and telling us that they missed us. We feel we have returned home. We are so fortunate to have such good friends here. They are really good people.

Chihuly Exhibit at St. Louis Botanical Gardens

There is no need for explanation. I am just posting pictures from the exhibit. Chihuly has created exhibits around the world, in Paris, Israel, Scotland, Las Vegas (The Belagio). We feel fortunate on two accounts, first off that he selected the St. Louis Botanical Gardens and second that we were in St. Louis at the right time so that we were able to see it.


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Quick Catch Up on Where We Are

I have really not written anything for the past two weeks. We have been in St. Louis and have been running like crazy to get all of our appointments and visiting done. Barb, her mom and I all had doctor appointments and other kinds of appointments so every day was scheduled from morning until evening. And I of course had my regular St. Louis cough and cold, so sleeping at night was tough. By evening (5:00 pm) I was worn out from coughing and Barb was worn out from running errands. So we just collapsed, had dinner, watched a bit of TV and were in bed by 9:00 pm.

We did go to one outing at the Botanical Gardens here. There was a Chihuly exhibit. Chihuly is the artist that creates magnificient figures by blowing glass of many colors and many shapes. His exhibit was in the gardens and blended in with the plants and ponds. It was truly magnificient. I will attach photos in the next writing. If you ever have a chance to see his work, do not miss it.

And that summarizes the rest of our visit here. We leave for Apache Junction on Friday.

Love and hugs to everyone. Wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

Linda and Barb

OUR DAY IN BRUGE

From Brussels 2006

I think Bruge was our favorite city. The main area of town is a wonderfully large plaza with the architecture of the buildings surrounding the plaza looking like they were right out of a magazine or a movie set. Only, of course, we realize that the movie sets were designed with Bruge in mind.

At one end of Bruge is this great clock tower. Both Nicolas and Caroline climbed to the top at a previous visit and loved the climb. We did not do the climb.

From Brussels 2006

But we did stop at one of the food stands and get brats for Nick and new gloves for Caroline.

From Brussels 2006

The streets were crowded with Christmas shoppers so all of the small shops were packed. What was so exciting and delightful was to peak in the windows of some the shops; our favorites were the sausage shop,

From Brussels 2006

the Dumon chocolate shop, and the Vinegar and Oil shop.

At the time we were there, Bruge was having an Ice and Snow Sculpture Show. The theme was characters from the Ice Age 3 movie.

From Brussels 2006

It was cold walking through the exhibit but the workmanship was magnificient.Each character, whether crafted from ice or from snow, was sculpted with great detail and delightful to see. Afterwards we warmed up with hot cocoa and hot tomato soup.



So as the day ended and sun started to set, left the plaza of Bruge and headed home to Erbaut.

From Brussels 2006

Sightseeing in Paris

During the rest of our week in Belgium, we went on two more one day trips. Our original plan was for Susan, Barb and me to take the train to Paris during the day on Wednesday while the kids were in school. But you know, like all good plans............Susan's house is 20 minutes from the train station, so we left about 45 minutes early to allow time to park and buy tickets. But what we did not figure on was the early morning rush hour traffic. The inconvenience of all of these people trying to get to work while all we wanted to do was to get to Paris to play. As you have figured by now, we got to the station too late.......so Susan drove the 2 hours to the Paris airport with the intention of taking the train from there. The deGaulle airport is a maze and a zoo with construction and closed roads everywhere. Once we found the right terminal and a parking place miles from the train station, we became hopeful that the rest of the trip would be smooth.
We walked the entire length of the terminal, arrived at the train ticket window to be told that the trains were stopped due to a "suspicious" package on the tracks. After several minutes of debate and indecision, the good news was that the package was cleared and we could get on the train. Next event was that the tracks were bad part way to our first stop at the eiffel tower so we needed to depart and go a circuitous route on 2 two other trains.........



BUT FINALLY at 1:00 p.m.,
WE ARRIVED AT THE EIFFEL TOWER..............AND IT WAS A WOW!












Our only other priority that day was to go to the Louvre.










Of course we viewed the "famous" pyramid.








We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the galleries of the Louvre
and did see what Susan called the "famous 3"..........Winged Victory,Venus de Milo, and the Mona Lisa.









We then wandered around several other galleries.

We only had a few more hours in the afternoon ; by 5:00 o'clock we left the Louvre and headed back to the train to leave Paris and go home to Erbaut.





We had a great day and will some day go back.




Love to all of you.

A Day Trip to Amsterdam

Pictures of our day trip in Amsterdam

The Plaza. The canals

Susan, Peter, Caroline, Barb, Nicolas

Walking in the rain. Susan and mom.....how about that hat!

Eating pannekoeken (?). We had apple and cinnamon and banana and chocolate.

Getting Out of St. Louis

Our flight to Brussels was scheduled to leave St. Louis on Nov. 30 at 8:30 in the morning. We had planned as we always do when flying out of St. Louis, to spend the night before at Harrahs. The advantage to this arrangement, aside for the opportunity for Barb to play poker, is that we can leave our car in their lot while we are gone and that they will shuttle us to airport in the morning. So on Wednesday afternoon we checked in at Harrahs, Barb played poker and won and I played penny machines and lost the $40 I had won the week before.

Thursday morning, we awoke at 4:30 am to be ready for the 6:00 am shuttle to the airport. All of these plans went very smoothly and we were all checked in and through security by 7:00 am. We knew that the forecast was for sleet and ice to come in to St. Louis between 10:00 and noon, but felt sure we would be gone by then.......................NOT!

We boarded the airplane and discovered first of all, it was one of those small ones, you know, two seats on one side and one seat on the other. Fifteen minutes before departure, the captain announced the takeoff would be delayed because a bracket on the emergency medical cabinet was broken. The maintenance crew would be arriving soon to fix it. At nine, they had not arrived yet. At ten, they had arrived and were working on it, but in addition, the sleet had also arrived. We deboarded the plane. The flight was delayed until the sleet turns to snow...................which, unfortunately never happened. The 8:30 am flight was delayed but the 10:30am flight was still scheduled to go so we rebooked onto that flight. Hoping for the best, we sat down and waited. Eventually at 3:00 pm, this flight was also cancelled and we had to reschedule again for 10:30 am the next morning.

Okay, now what I have not mentioned is that when the 8:30 flight was cancelled, we had to go to baggage to get our luggage, lug it up to the ticket counter, to recheck it in for the 10:30 am flight. Now at 3:00 pm, when the 10:30 flight was cancelled, we had to again go to baggage, get our luggage and hold on to it until the next day when we were rescheduled to go out again on the 10:30am flight.

We were not worried about a hotel since I had reserved a room around noon at the Comfort Inn in Westport as a back up. So at 4:00 when we got our luggage again, I called for the shuttle and stood outside in the sleet and ice with hundreds of other folks waiting for shuttles to hotels. All the other shuttles came, but ours did not......................finally after 1.5 hours, I called them to find out that the shuttle was in a ditch, would not be coming and that taxis were on a 2-3 hour wait list. So we cancelled the hotel room and "checked into" the chairs at the airport. Yes, we spent the night on a chair in the airport.
The airport delivered the pillows and yellow plastic blankets.
What a long night that was! I think I may have slept about 2 hours in 15 minute intervals and I think Barb did not sleep at all.

At 4:30am we took our luggage to the check in counter again and checked in for the 10:30 flight and put our names on a wait list for the 8:30 am flight. We figured that way we should end up going on one of them. The ice had stopped and St. Louis ended up with 9-12" snow. And so we went to the gate and waited. By 9:00am, neither airplane had arrived at the gate. And to make matters worse, pilots and other airport personnel showed up and demanded (that is another story) to have the stand by seats because they had to be in another city to fly planes. Since there were 12 of them , all stand by seats were gone! Thanks goodness, we did have seats on the 10:30am flight, if it ever did arrive.

At 10:05am, the 10:30 plane arrive, we boarded by 10:45am and actually took off at 11:00. Hooray, we made it to Washington DC at 2:00pm; Washington had tornado forecasts so our landing was quite bumpy.........the plane had to circle three times before it could land.........and we bounced and swayed inside the plane. It was really quite scary.......thankfully, we landed safely. Then we waited for our 5:52pm connection to Brussels. By the way, when we left St. Louis at 11:00, they were still waiting for the 8:30 plane to arrive..........apparently, it was stuck in the ice and they could not get it out. Do not know if the plane ever left or if all of those folks had to reschedule again.

Everything went smoothly after that..................only exception was the fact that some man brought a cat on board. He had it in a carrier; the entire trip I could hear the cat meowing. Had to turn up the earphones and play music quite loud to ignore it. Had visions of the cat escaping and jumping all over the plane and into my lap!

We arrived at the Brussels airport at 7:30 am Saturday. So to give you an idea of the time we spent traveling..........we arrived at the St. Louis airport at 6:00 am on Thursday and arrived at the Brussels airport at 7:30am Saturday.

Susan and Nick met us at the airport and drove us to their home in Erbaut. Peter and Caroline were waiting for us there. We spent the rest of the day visiting.

Next post will be about our trip to Amsterdam on Sunday.

Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb