Ready for the holidays!

Our original holiday plan was to take the girls on a trip. None of us really need any gifts. The most important thing we can give each other is our time together. After living in Europe for all those years, we really got used to traveling and we are good at it! Bob and I hatched a plan to surprise the girls with a trip to San Fransisco. But....Bob cannot keep a secret and right after Thanksgiving he gave the girls so many hints that they could easily guess our destination. I knew this would happen. After 27 years I know that Bob has never been able to keep exciting secrets to himself. So I fooled them all and changed the vacation a little. Our Christmas plan would now include a stop in Breckenridge, CO, to spend 3 days with my brother and his wife, their 3 kids and our mom and dad. As I write this, that part of the vacation is over and we are now heading to San Francisco.

Again I realized that no gift can ever be as important as the time we spend together. Our pictures from that leg of the trip are so special and we all had so much fun. The pictures below are just a few teasers from the many I will post later

Mom and me in the great outdoors

Some of the cousins getting ready to go dog sledding

The traditional Christmas puzzle

My brother and me taking selfies!

Bob and Julie in BRU

Grande Place at night

One of our favorite places for mussels in Brussels- Ches Leon

Bob ready to to eat Flemmish stew at another favorite location on Grande Place

Tony and Winnie in Ghent. Bob and I got to help Winnie celebrate her 50th birthday. 

Overall our trip was fabulous! We didn't have luggage until the last day of our trip but we survived.

Brussels!!!

I had a wonderful lunch on Thursday with 15 great ladies. I knew a these characters when I lived there.

More musings on Zurich

It's quite odd to be back in Europe.  Truthfully it feels like I never left. It makes me smile to see huge pilies of croissants laid out and ready to sell early in the morning. I giggle when I see all of the businessmen hurrying to catch the train looking extractly alike in their skinny pants and scarves. And I look on with jealousy as I see people shopping for veggies at the outdoor market. I miss it!

Right now Bob and I are flying to Brussels. He will go directly to a meeting and I will go directly to my old friends and enjoy their company for an entire day. I can't wait! I won't list here all of our Brussels activities but I will let them unfold through pictures in my next few posts. 

(Note: it's day 5 of our trip and we still don't have our luggage!!) 

I took the photo below from my seat on the airplane. If you look closely you can see a big pile of pretzel croissants. These were part of our very civilized Swissair breakfast!

Zurich at Christmas 2013

Bob and I arrived in Zürich a day late and with no luggage but we're still making the most of our time. We have bought some very trendy European clothes and we're seeing the city we already love in a completely new way.

We drank some Swiss Gluhwein. (I know the picture is bad but it's the best I could do.)

We went to the most beautiful Christmas market I have ever seen. That big tree is covered in Swarovski Crystal snowflake ornaments.

I shopped until I dropped!

And then I shopped some more!

And of course we ate pretzels!!

It's time to start blogging again!

That's correct. The desire to blog has finally returned and boy have I got a lot to say! 

Why now after a year of no blogging? There are 2 reasons...

1. I just figured out how to make blog posts using my phone.

2. I have been stranded in Washington DC for 24 hours and I have nothing better to do.

On Sunday Bob and I left for a trip to Zurich, Switzerland and Brussels. He had to work in both places and was kind enough to bring me along. We made our first flight from Indy to DC easily. But once we got to DC flights were cancelled and delayed. United thought our flight would still take off. After an hour delay we boarded the plane and then just sat and waited. 5 hours later we were still waiting! United finally decided to cancel our flight but then the door of the plane was frozen shut and we waited another 45 minutes to get out!! 

I won't list all of the gruesome details but as I type this we are back at the airport a day later waiting for another flight that will take us to Zurich. We don't know where our luggage is but they have promised us it will arrive in Zurich when we do!

This is how we spent out bonus morning in Washington.