It has been a month since my last posting. Let's just say that making a full recovery from international travel is a little more complicated with an infant! We joke that we need a vacation from our vacation, but truly, our great voyage of 2009 was absolutely wonderful! We have always enjoyed traveling but we anticipated a much different experience with little Ben in tow. The trip was indeed different....we had to plan ahead a little more and leave a bit more time for getting from point a to point b. But we fully expected to skip some of the sights, take breaks for Benji's sake when he was tired or unhappy, or go back to the hotel for diaper explosions or other mishaps. Nope. Not at all. Not even once did we change our schedule because of Ben. He was totally content, totally interested and totally agreeable for the two weeks we were away. Long plane rides are tough for all of us. Did he fuss? Yep, but calmed down with rocking and songs from his parents. He then proceeded to sleep for the other 5 and half hours. Did he adjust to the time change? Yep, by the second night, sleeping from 10pm until 6am. Overall, Ben was simply amazing and it was the perfect time to enjoy a vacation together.
We started our trip in Rotterdam with Christianne, who gives the Ritz-Carlton a run for their money when it comes to hospitality. She had a bed and toys and food for Ben (and us!). She cooked delicious meals for us each night and showed us the town. And then she delivered us to the train station for the next leg of our journey - to Amsterdam and then Belgium. Our hotel in Amsterdam was so large that we were able to move Ben's "baby cot" into the alcove with the bathroom. The video below is Kevin entertaining Ben at mealtime in our beautiful hotel room in Amsterdam. The rabbit, Flanders, was a treat from Christianne and a very dear member of the household now. Hopefully, you can catch a glimpse of Amsterdam in the background on a bright sunny day. Ben saw all the sights, or slept through all the sights, including the Rembrandt House, the Anne Frank House, the Rijks Museum, and the Van Gogh Museum to name a few. The one museum he refused to sleep through was the museum of Dutch Resistance....so appropriate, don't you think? We went from Amsterdam to Bruges, but not without a bit of trouble on the train, having to transfer FOUR times with Ben, stroller and two heavy bags in tow. Bruges was as beautiful as the pictures, and Ben enjoyed a boat ride and a horse and buggy tour. Kevin and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We left Bruges for Brussels, a town that Kevin knows from his crazy college days. We enjoyed the chocolate and the fries and the waffles and the European city life. Ben had his first french fry and learned to love Belgian baby formula because we ran out of the American stuff. And then we returned to the comforting home of Christianne in Rotterdam for more cozy dinners and touring with Christianne and her family. After two weeks, we were beat, but quite pleased with ourselves for keeping Ben safe and happy, fed and clean, and now well-traveled with a stamp in his little passport. We can only guess what he really thought of the trip. I have a feeling that when he is old enough to tell us what he wants and does not want to see, he'll also be old enough to enjoy a week or two with the grandparents while his parents go on vacation without him!
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