Luke's First Europe Trip

 Jessica writing today. Happy Friday All! We woke up in our favorite B&B (Barbaras in Bruges) and had a nice, slow start to the day. I went out to get some breakfast from a nearby bagel shop, the same one we went to last week. I ordered a delicious egg, bacon and avocado bagel, some fresh fruit, and coffee. Adam and Luke were very pleased when I returned. We all fueled up, got dressed, and then made our way into the city for some sightseeing.  The first stop was the Basilica of the Holy Blood. This church houses a vial that is said to contain some of Christ's blood. As we arrived, they were bringing out the vial for the daily veneration. The interior of the church was very nice as well. After Luke had enough of the church, we walked around the city for a while until we found an operating canal boat tour. Luke seemed to be excited to go on the boat and was very anxious as we waited. Once we were on, we sat in the back and he was pointing out the ducks and swans in the water...

Good evening from Belgium once again!! After a very long travel day we made it all the way back to Bruges in Belgium from Rothenburg in Germany (see map below). The GPS said the trip was supposed to take 8 hours without traffic. So, we were a bit worried that with traffic it could be much longer - especially since we would potentially be driving during both morning and evening commuting hours. We knew we would need at least one break in the middle for lunch and we had two routes planned - 1) further north through the city of Cologne, or 2) through the Rhine/Mosel Valley.  At our last breakfast in Rothenburg we enjoyed our final meal in the town while we pondered which route to take and chased Luke around the dining room. In the end we decided for option 2 because we were worried there might be too much traffic going in and out of a major city like Cologne. Plus, there is a small town in the Mosel River Valley called Cochem which we both really enjoyed on our first Europe trip toget...

 It's Jessica writing today :) We slept in a bit today, until nearly 8am! That was perfect timing though as our breakfast reservations were at 9am. We leisurely got ready and made the short walk to the Guesthaus Viktoria. On the menu today was extra pretzels (for Adam), an apple pie pastry (for me), lost of fruit (for Luke) and meat, cheese and eggs for the table. Freshly brewed coffee and apple juice rounded out the meal. It was divine. The breakfast was so filling that we needed a short break back at the BnB before heading out into the city.  After 30 minutes, we were bundled up again and on our way out to explore. The weather today was 40 degrees and clear (ish) skies. The forecast called for rain, but it was dry when we went out. We walked through the city, the cobbled streets, the main square and even let Luke run around for a bit. It was fairly empty and very peaceful. We found our way to the famous Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas store. This store is known for all of their Ch...