Wandering Browns

I love turrets- this was in Rotterdam Delfshaven was one of the last must-see things on my list for Rotterdam. This part of the city was spared from the bombings during WWII, and so it has the look of other old European cities instead of the new, modern downtown Rotterdam. Landon fell asleep, so I wandered through the streets enjoying the beautiful canals and old buildings.  Pilgrim Church Delfshaven old buildings along the canals I stumbled upon the one thing I did want to locate within Delfshaven- the Oude Pelgrimvaders Church. Englishmen who left the Anglican church left England for the Netherlands before deciding to seek their fortunes and religious freedom in America.  In this church, some of the original Pilgrims met for the last time and knelt in prayer before boarding the Speedwell bound for Liverpool. From there, they joined the English pilgrims aboard the Mayflower and other ships headed for the New World. It was not a big or elaborate church, in fa...

Pretty gold! From the Easter service, we wandered through the charming streets of older Brussels until we reached Grand Place, the main square of Brussels. It was a beautiful and impressive square, with building facades accented with gold. With limited time in the city, we were happy we picked this square to see! Boys in the square This square is the historic main square of Brussels- so it includes the "Maison du Roi," or King's house, and the city hall. Around the other sides of the square are guild houses of all different types of merchants. It was the center of trade in the city for many years. King's house- also known as the Bread house The King's house is now used as the City Museum of Brussels. Inside the courtyard of the city hall, there were sculpture and flower gardens that were so picturesque. We tried to get some good Easter pictures in front of the flowers, but two-year-olds are not known for their patience with picture taking, so we j...

Brussels approach Approaching the bustling metropolis of Brussels, we turned onto this road and a GIANT cathedral came into view. It was smack dab in the middle of the road and so imposing. Turns out, it is one of the biggest cathedrals in the world! The road curved around the cathedral and down into a tunnel that kept diving further down in the earth. We thought we would never come back out. Eventually we did, and everyone rejoiced! We also missed a whole lot of traffic as we drove underneath the city.  National Basilica of the Sacred Heart Soon, we were at our hotel, right in the heart of Brussels. We stayed at the Marriott Grand Place. We appreciated the Marriott beds and the lounge had guacamole, which made me happy! We rested up from our day in Ghent and watched the first session of General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We heard messages on how to be better people and follow our Savior, Jesus Christ. It was a great start to our tim...

St. Bavo's Cathedral under scaffolding St. Bavo's Cathedral was on my short list of things to see in Ghent. This cathedral was undergoing external renovations, and pictures were not allowed inside, so above is my only picture from our time there. The whole piece, open, with a neat article  here One of the main reasons I wanted to visit St. Bavo's was to visit the altar piece "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" by the Van Eyck brothers. Hubert Van Eyck was commissioned to do the painting, and then Jan, the younger, more famous brother, finished it after his brother's death. Their paintings are very rare, and this specific piece has been through a lot since it was painted in the 1400's. It is a giant altar piece with many panels. Landon was getting fussy and needing a nap, so Austin, being a wonderful husband, took him for a walk in the stroller while I purchased the extra ticket to get in to see the altar piece. With ticket purchase came a fr...

Gravensteen Castle means "Castle of the Counts" in Dutch. I don't know if I have been living under a rock, but in Belgium, the top part of the country speaks Dutch, and the bottom half speaks French. I'm not sure when I missed that memo. So, during our time in Gent, things were mostly in Dutch, and as we made our way to Brussels, I started to be able to understand more as it switched to more French.  Climbing the tower! I was so excited to visit this particular castle because it looked exactly how I would draw a castle, with the square top battlements and all old stone stacked on one another. This castle was built in 1180 by Count Philip of Alsace. As we entered through the gate of the castle, the modern ticket booth with bathroom facilities came into view. That was the only modern structure in the whole castle compound! This attraction was not stroller friendly, so we parked our stroller in the ticket office and climbed the stairs to the gift shop/aud...