Ilumine

Littlejen22 · August 2013

Which countries did you visit when you were in Germany? Just curious which towns or cities you would most recommend for traveling with kids. I have no idea what we will really do but we like to dream, lol. We plan on going to Aruba next year and the following we will likely visit the inlaws in England and then visit Paris. We were talking about if we would spend more time in Paris or add in time in Belguim. As I write this I realize we would probably be better off just really visiting Paris. Talking vacations is almost a hobby in our house.

Ilumine · August 2013

I liked Paris ok...but honestly it was just EH to me. And I WANTED TO LOVE IT. This is really a grown-up city. Most of the cool things are in museums that you can LITERALLY (not saying WHO did this... ;;) ) can get lost in.

Now, if you want to stay in France, I highly recommend going to the Normandie region. Yes, its more WWII related, but the kids can run free along the beaches while you look at the history. And I have an amazing Gite to stay at.

I love Belgium. Brussels is very nice, but very modern (un hq and all that). But you really should visit Brugges. Beautiful and yummy and they have the ONLY Michelangelo statue outside of Italy and a great brewery. Ghent, about 45 min out from Brugges, has this amazing old old old castle / fortress. Its more of the square, battle castle. Very cool

But for us, I lived and loved Luxembourg. If I could live in Lux City or Vienden (home of Victor Hugo) or Echternach I would. An amazing mixture of French and German and Flemish sensibilities.

And Luxembourg is still on the Mosel River. Which if you have to go to Germany, that is where you want to visit. The BEST WINES EVER. And tons of beautiful castles.

Littlejen22 · August 2013

I was looking at Luxembourg last night too. We usually stick to Marriott hotels and use points or award certificates. There is a hotel in Belguim that we could use certificates and then daytrip to Brugges. We won't have more than 15 days total and some would be spent in England and I will embarrassingly admit we will do Disneyland while in France because we would stay at a Marriott timeshare right there and the kids have been to Disney in Orlando and Hong Kong.

Maybe I can homeschool my kids and travel Europe, lol

Ilumine · August 2013

DO BRUGGES. And get some Leonidis chocolate ON TOP OF a small chocolatier. And save up for some lace.

ambrvan · August 2013

Just butting in... Littlejen, if I can picture anyone on this board (with my probably drastically inaccurate imagination) to be able to homeschool their kids while traveling Europe, it has to be you... Don't know why. Don't ask questions. Just go with it.

>-

mccall0113 · August 2013

Hyjacking post, I visited Paris in June. Wish we never spent the money. All the pick pockets took away from any beauty there. City was dirty and ppl are rude. We LOVED Edinburgh, Scotland. Wish I could move there. So peaceful, clean and beautiful. Every city we visited in Scotland was noteworthy

ambrvan · August 2013

mccall0113 said:
Hyjacking post, I visited Paris in June. Wish we never spent the money. All the pick pockets took away from any beauty there. City was dirty and ppl are rude. We LOVED Edinburgh, Scotland. Wish I could move there. So peaceful, clean and beautiful. Every city we visited in Scotland was noteworthy

DH went to Paris in high school. He and several classmates were also pick pocketed. Luckily he had done money stashed in his boots.

Littlejen22 · August 2013

ambrvan said:

mccall0113 said:
Hyjacking post, I visited Paris in June. Wish we never spent the money. All the pick pockets took away from any beauty there. City was dirty and ppl are rude. We LOVED Edinburgh, Scotland. Wish I could move there. So peaceful, clean and beautiful. Every city we visited in Scotland was noteworthy
DH went to Paris in high school. He and several classmates were also pick pocketed. Luckily he had done money stashed in his boots.

See, all of this is making me think 3 days in Central England, 2 days at Disney, 2 day trips into Paris then Brussels and Brugge. Probably end with a day in London. Hmmmm. Maybe. The kids will be 8 and 6 then. That might be crazy but the kids love traveling.

Ilumine · August 2013

Littlejen22 said:

Hyjacking post, I visited Paris in June. Wish we never spent the money. All the pick pockets took away from any beauty there. City was dirty and ppl are rude. We LOVED Edinburgh, Scotland. Wish I could move there. So peaceful, clean and beautiful. Every city we visited in Scotland was noteworthy
DH went to Paris in high school. He and several classmates were also pick pocketed. Luckily he had done money stashed in his boots.
See, all of this is making me think 3 days in Central England, 2 days at Disney, 2 day trips into Paris then Brussels and Brugge. Probably end with a day in London. Hmmmm. Maybe. The kids will be 8 and 6 then. That might be crazy but the kids love traveling.

DO IT!!!!! Honestly, I would kill to go back to Germany or Luxembourg. Like, I would almost sell my soul, but a souless person would not appreciate it.

I love being an american, but I love the lifestyle of rural europe more for my children. I LOVED having DD being able to walk down the road a feed sheep. I loved being able to buy GMO and Corn Syrup free foods without having to check labels. I love the wine (did I ever mention the 16 cases of wine I brought back?).

I do not love the weather, the kitchens and lack of closets, but I learned to live with it.

Rent In Bruges. It is a graphic movie about hit men. But it showcases the city. We took a horse carriage ride (we did that in every city we went too). It was amazing. We did a canal ride. We did Half Moon Brewery tour with Monkey (amazing beer). I bought lace. I ate chocolate. I was pissed at DH, so I took almost no pictures and yet I still want to go back.

I really think the kids will like the Ghent Castle/fortress. Especially Nathaniel.

Littlejen22 · August 2013

Like I said if we did it we would not go until 2015 so we have a while to figure it out. We definitely plan on doing Paris and England so I do not know if we would do Belguim or more of England. While I would love to do Belguim it might just make more sense to do more time in England. We will do 3 days near my MIL and then could do a few days in Cambridge and London or something like that. The kids loves London and I really wished we had more than one day in and around Cambridge. Then the next time the kids and I go to Emgland we could add a trip somewhere else in Europe. It would be very hard to do any trip over there and not stop to see my MIL and BILs since it is the only time the kids see that family since they don't come here which is a different vent. Oh and I too am so torn on city versus rural.

Littlejen22 · August 2013

ambrvan said:
Just butting in... Littlejen, if I can picture anyone on this board (with my probably drastically inaccurate imagination) to be able to homeschool their kids while traveling Europe, it has to be you... Don't know why. Don't ask questions. Just go with it. >-

Lol. I do love the whole idea of it but am too mainstream to probably ever do something that crazy. DH and I did talk about eventually going back to Hong Kong in a few years and him staying two weeks and me and the kids doing an extra week just to immerse the kids in the culture but I will only do it if DH helps them learn Cantonese and we enrolled the kids in classes for next year so we will see. I wish we had the money to spend an entire summer somewhere.

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