Andrew and I returned last night from 10 days in Belgium and the Netherlands (Holland). Before you start flipping out and getting the wrong idea…this was not that trip. That trip will not be blogged about until the finale of the Bachelor this spring. That trip won’t even be mentioned until then. You gotta wait to hear about that trip. In the meantime, enjoy the pics from this amazing trip :).
This is how Andrew and I work…last spring, Andrew said, “hey, why don’t we go to NYC for the weekend in October?”. That sentence turned into 10 days in Europe. We just start planning and our love for travel takes over and before you know it, we’ve planned a trip to the other side of the pond. This was the first time we traveled without both kiddos in a long time. The last time we went to Holland, the kiddos were 21 and 5 months old. It was so much fun to go with just the hubby but at the same time, we missed them a lot. We really do love traveling with our kids. Thank you to the awesome Lovie and Papa Jay for taking care of our babies (they are already taking care of Sean’s babies too…Lola and Ellie). I’m sure it was kind of like a zoo at their house.
Here we are…about to board our flight to Amsterdam.
Not going to lie…I really, really enjoyed flying without the kids. I love them dearly but having 10 hours to myself to read magazines and cookbooks and watch whatever I wanted on my i-Pad without them was glorious. Flying with kids isn’t the easiest thing to do, so flying without them seemed like 10 hours of sheer bliss.
Oh heavens! As soon as our plane touched down, we were walking to baggage claim and I saw this at Starbucks…in Europe, they have a Apple Crumble Latte! What?! Yes, I had to stop for one. It was a fall delight. Maybe next year, they’ll bring it to the US. It was yummy!
We rented a car in Amsterdam and drove 2 hours to beautiful Ghent, Belgium. This is where we stayed the first 5 nights. Ghent was incredibly beautiful. I loved, loved, loved it. It was a little drizzly the first day, but we totally didn’t mind. We welcomed the cold and drizzle.
A picture of our hotel. Isn’t it in the perfect spot? Right there on the water. It is the Marriott Ghent. I may be the actual travel agent but Andrew picked out everything to do with this trip and he did a fantastic job. This hotel and our view of the water was amazing.
Me and my first Belgian waffle. There are no words. It was like a warm chocolate chip cookie. It was heavenly. It was the first of 3,456 waffles I consumed on this trip. Trust me…keep reading about this vacation and you will gain weight. The food was that good. Even you’ll gain a few just seeing the pictures. 🙂
This was the view from our hotel room.
In this picture, we’ve been up for almost 48 hours. We’re happy and tired. It was a great first full day in Belgium!
Click here for Day 3.
Sheaffer {Pinterest Told Me To} says
SO fun! Can hardly wait to see the next 10 days!!!!! So glad you're home friend!
Brandi says
FUN!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to see more pics!!!
Jodi says
I'm really excited to read your posts about this trip. I have traveled all over but never to Belgium and it is on my short list!
Aubrey says
Gorgeous Ghent! Aren't those waffles to die for?! I think you could do a blog post about the toppings alone.
I am jealous of your trans-Atlantic flight without kids. If I tried to do that, my parents would mutiny. It's completely different when a flight sans kids would mean leaving their grandchildren in Europe! 🙂
Also jealous that I don't even know what you mean by "that" trip. We don't get The Bachelor on this side of the pond. 🙁
Aubs says
confession time. i'm claustrophobic. (which is really annoying) so being in a plane for that long? FREAKS.ME.OUT. I always plan flights w/ layovers so that i'm not in the plane for long periods. ANYWAY…its fun to live vicariously through you for now ~ maybe one day i'll get brave enough to give a long flight a try!
looks like an amazing trip ~ can't wait to hear about more!! =)
Jess :) says
Look at how cute y'all are!!!! 🙂 So glad you had such a wonderful time! It's always nice to be able to spend that special time together (without the kiddos), but as I mentioned in one of my emails…I do know how much you MISSED those gorgeous faces!!
Looking forward to reading more, friend!
Shoshanah says
The apple crumble latte sounds so delicious! Starbucks definitely needs to bring that over here, because I have a feeling I would be obsessed with it. Although maybe then it's better that it isn't here.
Nancy Jennings says
LOVE Belgium!! One of my top 3 favorite places in Europe! I can't wait to see every where you went. I'm ready to go!! I'm also glad you are able to go child-free…it is a totally different experience!!
mel @ the larson lingo says
Yay! I can't wait for you to blog THAT trip. I think your brother is a great guy, I was rooting for him last season!
Kim Kauffman says
I'm not trying to be all stalkerish and comment on all your posts (found you through your friend Shaeffer) but you are just too cute! Love seeing your Europe pictures. I went to Switzerland, France and Germany a few years ago and just loved it over there. Fun seeing where you went, except the concentration camp…that just breaks my heart.