Brussels, Belgium

We arrived in Brussels, Belgium tonight.

Everything is great! No problems at the airport or with the flight.

Found the hotel/apartment fine.

Went out already and bought groceries for breakfast and suppers through the weekend.

What we saw from the train on the way into the city from the airport was beautiful! Looks like a fun weekend in store.

The Romanian Easter Bunny?

When Maria and I were on the tram today coming home from gymnastics, I noticed an older, slightly overweight man carrying a basket of eggs. I got tickled and whispered to Maria, "look that must be the Easter bunny in disguise". She just looked at me and shook her head.

Well then in true "Fowler fashion" I started singing the song that popped in my head...

Here comes Peter Cotton Tail

Hopping down the bunny trail

Hippety-hoppety Easter's on it's way.

That's when I got the, "Mamaaaa, hush" comment!

This was just the funniest thing to me today. Maria thinks I'm odd...but I think that comes with being an eight year old!

(In Romanian it's actually fairly common to see people carrying eggs in bags or baskets that they have bought at the farmer's market. The baskets are beautiful here and I'm already wondering how I can get mine home with the new airline restrictions.)

Maria's 8th Birthday

We started the day by opening the last of the presents. They were matching t-shirts for her and her doll and two books. She's almost finished one of them! Yipee that means I can read it next.

Then we headed to church. It was a great sunny day so the kids were all running around outside after the service. From church, we headed straight to the Bucur's house. Today is also Florin's "name day" so they invited us to eat with them. The food was awesome. I love all the different ways that Romanians prepare vegetables. I seem to always just steam them, because it's quicker, but I think I'll start branching out some more. Mihaela had made the dish with leeks and tomatoes that was great. Of course there was a cabbage dish...there's always a cabbage dish here it seems. Potatoes too!

After leaving there we headed home and grabbed our rollerblades. Maria's birthday request was to rollerblade together. I managed to stay on my feet and out of the hospital so I would judge the afternoon a success!

We leave for Brussels on Friday so stay tuned for lots of posts this weekend!

Happy 8th Birthday Maria!

We went to dinner tonight for Maria's 8th birthday. Her choice was a little place right down the road so we walked there and she ordered the chicken and mamaliga. I love that McDonalds isn't her first choice!

For some reason during the dinner we were talking about laughing and smiling and I said, "I think it makes you healthier so you live longer". Then I said, "Granny should live for a long time". To which Maria added, "she might live as long as Methuselah!". I just love the fact that she can add meaningful conversation!

She opened two presents today. One was a pair of pink tennis shoes for her doll and the other was an add-on for the computer game Zoo Tycoon. She loves running and managing a zoo.


Tomorrow we have church and then a get together at the Bucur's house. Tomorrow is Florin's "name day" and it's also Palm Sunday.

A Photo to Smile About

I love to keep a photo on the desktop of my computer here, to remind me to smile and that life at "home" is good!

The photo below is my current favorite. For those of you that don't know, this is my Daddy and my dog, Jill. She is staying with them while we are here and she and Papa have become co-workers. He is semi-retired and so she helps him with all his projects around the house. She lays in the sunshine close by while he works! And she definitely takes all the snack breaks with him too!

In the photo Papa is checking on the neighbor's house to see if he knows the car in the yard. (He is our own personal neighborhood crime watch). Jill is looking too, but probably for a squirrel. I think it's hilarious that they are in the exact same position!

Happy Birthday Papa!

Let the Party Begin!

Maria's 8th birthday is this Sunday. Yesterday we made cupcakes. They were much better than the ones we made last year!

We took some to gymnastics this morning and the girls and coaches sang the Romanian Happy Birthday song. They were going to sing in English, but we asked for their version. We can hear the English for all her other birthdays!

Farewell to Vienna

We got an early start this morning to make up for missing the day on Saturday. We headed over to the Schönbrunn Palace for the Imperial tour. It is a beautiful palace. You can read about the history of the palace on the website. Maria thought it was cool to hear about people on the audio tour that we had studied in school. For example: JFK met with Kruschev at this palace and we had just read about them the past few weeks.

They were also having an Easter Market on the grounds so we walked through it and looked at all the neat stuff and bought a pastry to share.

Then back to the apartments to pick up our stuff and head to the airport. We arrived over 2 hours early. Steve had looked at the map of the airport online this morning and already knew which gate and everything. To quote him, "we aren't even going down the wrong hallway this time!"

We made our flight and it was a wonderfully short return trip to Bucharest. Flight time was 1 hour and 5 minutes. Sure beat the 24 hours to get there!

Baden for the Day

We took the train to Baden today. This is a small town outside of Vienna. The scenery was very pretty on the ride out there.

We just strolled around the town. We went through a park and found a playground. We played for about 30 minutes or so.

Then we went to this neat little cafe for lunch. You can see the restaurant in the background of the lake. We tried two Vienna specialties, a chicken dish and a beef dish. Both were very good.

Then onto the big surprise. We headed toward the Romertherme. You can see the building in the background in this strategically placed photo.


When we started going in Maria asked what it was and I said something that Daddy wanted to check out. She said later that she thought it was an airplane museum or something.

We walked in and she said, "wow, it's a big swimming pool"

Me - "Should we go swimming?"
Her - "We don't have our suits!"

Me - "Oh, yes we do!"

Her - "Cool"

We bought tickets and headed to the unisex changing room. Yes, you read that right! They had these "changing closets" but everyone was in one locker room. You gotta love Europe...or run screaming to find something to gouge out your eyes with!

The pool was awesome!

Afterward, we headed back to the train station with a short stop in the Gruner Markt (Green Market) for a snack to eat on the train.

Quick stop in the grocery store for a roasted chicken and salad and we're back in the apartment.