Siena, Italy

We took a day trip from Florence to Siena. This was on of my favorite stops. The city had charm, good food, relaxing and great wine :) Siena is welll know becuase in July and Aug every year they race horses around the square. There were also numerous pottery shops with very beautiful bowl and plates. I wish now I would of invested in some of that or at least took some pictures. But they do sell the same stuff at the bazaars here so I'll be going home with something.

Having lunch just outside the square. We had great food....wild boar sausage and white beans. Yummy raviolis and salad.





This was a great place to just sit and people/bird watch. The weather was beautiful

Lucca

After we went to Pisa we made a stop in Lucca on the way to Florence. The city (the old part) is completely walled in. What makes it unique since alot of cities here have walls around them is you can walk the top. The day we went there was hardly anyone there, it was nice to stroll around and be almost the only ones!

View of the city from atop the wall




Church in main square

Walling and playing on top of the wall

Pisa

This was one of our favorite stops! The icon of Italy and so worth seeing. The kids (and us too) just loved it. Unfortunately we couldn't go up to the top, you have to be 8...I would of loved to climb the stairs. Oh well!
The plaza has 3 main buildings, the leaning tower, Piazza del Duomo and the Baptistery. Each one is beautiful and unique. I was very impressed on how much the tower really does lean. I guess during construction they tried fixing it, but made it worse. It was then tried to fix several years later, but they still couldn't straighten it out. Just since the mid 1990's they they finally stabilized it enough, that it was reopened for tourist to climb.

Along the River at nightThe Baptistery

The Duomo

Our attempt at "holding up the tower" we are not very good and the kids didn't have the patience for us to take a million pictures.

Cinque Terre

Next stop on our trip was Cinque Terre. Not sure driving there was the best idea, the roads were very windy and narrow! I was feeling sick all day ( think I had a little of the bug that the kids had, and car sick!) We ended up only going to one of the towns.
The Cinque Terre is made up of 5 towns which you can take a train from one to the next. If I had planned better we might of stayed and seen them all, but just gives us an excuse to go back!
It was very beautiful and we enjoyed our short stay.

Milan, Italy

The end of March Justin took a week off and we drove to Italy!
First stop after a 7 hour drive was Milan. As we walked up from the underground subway there was this huge cathedral, a local band was playing and lots of people it was really neat. Our stay here was short, but was for the best because Cassidy got really sick. She caught the bug that Preston had a few days before we left.

3rd largest church in Europe
One of the guys in the band put his hat on the kids head after they finished playingInside roof of this big shopping mall

Not sure who or where these guys were from, but they sounded good.
Entrance to the shopping area

Lots more pictures to come!

Belgium

Last month we went to Brussels, Bruges, and Tongeren over Justin's 4 day weekend. We make the trip up with our neighbors across the street. We really enjoyed Belgium and would like to go back when the weather is a little warmer. We had some really good food, I enjoyed the steamed mussels in garlic sauce....with a side of fries and mayo. And the chocolate was as good as everyone says along with the beer and waffles. The cheese Croquettes were yummy also!

Our first stop was Waterloo we had the whole place to ourselves. It was very foggy that day so we couldn't see much at the top, but the kids enjoyed hiking ALL those stairs.

We then went to Brussels, saw the little boy going "potty".... he was so small, we were expecting a life size baby. Brussel's main square was very pretty with everything trim in gold, but the city didn't have a great feel to it....next time I'd skip over this city and head straight to Bruges.

Bruges was beautiful even in the cold and rain. We took a horse drawn carriage around the city and it was the best way to see it with the kids! All the canals are really neat and the roof tops are so unique. We really enjoyed the city.

Our last stop was Tongeren. The town in it self doesn't have much except a very pretty church. But they have a huge outdoor antique market. Lots of good stuff to look at and buy, but our day got cut short because a sick little boy :( So we headed home.

Waterloo

Ella, and the kids sitting atop the pyramid

Chocolate fountain in Brussels
Brussels main square


Manneken Pis
Bruges
Alec, Ella and Michelle I don't have a picture if us in ours
Kids in the carriage
Preston "flying"
Soon it will get warm and we will have a family picture not in our winter gear :)






Yummy waffle and coffee in Tongeren. The piece of chocolate that came with the coffee was the best. We all got a second cup just to get another piece.