Thursday, July 14th: Brussels to London to Chicago to HOME!

We had to get up before dawn and leave the hotel in Brussels to walk to the train station with all our luggage in tow. Fortunately, the weather was nice and we were all up and ready in good time. We were even able to walk by the famous Manneken Pis on the way to the train station for the boys to see it! This pretty skylight window was at the train station! Unfortunately it was too early to buy coffee or breakfast at the station, none of the shops were open yet at 5:00 am!

We took the train to the BRU airport (which we were feeling quite familiar with by now). I assumed we would have time before our flight to take a nap or at least get  breakfast. As it turned out, even at 5:30 in the morning, there was a huge line at the British Airways counter! We had to check in one bag, so we had no choice but to stand in it. There were only 2 desks open and the pace of processing each passenger was terribly slow. After over an hour in line, we started to get worried (as were other passengers) that we were going to miss our flight. After we finally checked in our suitcase, we still had to go through security, which was not as bad, but still took some time.  Some of us had to use the bathroom, and once we found our gate, the flight had already started boarding and we were some of the last passengers to get on! Crossing the English Channel, it was interesting to see a lot of wind farms down below in the middle of the water!

 As we approached London, the views were beautiful! Daryl had the window seat and was able to take some fantastic photos of the city. It made me want to visit London again sometime! If you look closely in these photos, you can see the famous "London Eye" Ferris wheel, tower bridge, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment, even Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace! 

Westminster Abby & Big Ben on the left, London Eye on the right

We flew right over Kensington Palace; what a great photo!!!












And also over the Olympic Stadium!















Once we got to London, it was more of the same... long lines to get through security and we barely got to the gate in time to board our flight! Our rows were towards the back of the plane and had already been called when we arrived! Again, we never had time to stop for food or anything!

When first entering the Virgin Atlantic plane, this is what you see: The First Class Luxury Bar. The flight attendants were busy pouring champagne and orange juice for the first class passengers! Nice!     Even the Economy seats were nice, though with the individual media screens to watch whatever movies you want throughout the flight, pillows, blankets, unlimited drinks, good food, snacks, etc. It was a pleasant flight, though I never did get that nap I wanted so badly!

They really did serve cute snacks. One of them were these adorable little Popsicles! 

 When we arrived in Chicago, everything went very smoothly. We got our luggage quickly, called the long term parking place where we had left the van and they sent a shuttle for us in about 10 or 15 minutes. The van started right up and we were on our way home.

It was a long drive and when we got home that early evening it felt like 6 hours later European time. So actually, when we got up at 4:15 am in Brussels, that would have been 10:15 pm the night before here and that's how long we had been traveling that day!!!

One thing I did was go out and check the garden. Even though Elaine said they had already picked quite a few cucumbers just several days earlier, this it what I picked that day!!! Needless to say, we had a lot of cucumber salad over the course of the next few days! I also gave some away to family, neighbors, friends, and colleagues.

One thing I did NOT do was go down to the basement at all! I just did not even want to face it yet. I knew I had a few more days off and decided to wait and survey the water damage later.

Overall, it was another FANTASTIC trip!!! We are so fortunate to have family in Europe to stay with for free! We would have never done a 3 week trip like this if we had had to stay in hotels and eat out the whole time. People sometimes comment that we must be rich to afford trips like this. Well, yes, compared to most of the world's population, of course we are rich. But compared to most of our friends and out kids' friends, our income is probably on the lower end. We live in one modest home, drive used cars, don't have cable TV, i-Phones, or the newest devices, appliances, or furniture. What we do chose to spend money on are vacations! I think that is money well spent for the quality family time, seeing family members who live far away, exposing our kids and ourselves to other cultures, and all the fabulous memories! Thanks for reading our Miller Europe Trip 2016 blog... God bless you!

Wednesday, July 13: Good bye, Barcelona and good bye Charlotte! :(

The morning was a bit hectic. Our flight to Brussels did not leave until 11:30 am, but Charlotte's flight to Germany left at 10:20 am and so we planned to leave at 8 am. We were getting the last dishes washed and writing a note to whoever did the cleaning to keep the leftover food. We still had the last trash to take down to the dumpster, and we expected the taxi to arrive at 8 am sharp. Well, at about 7:50, the driver rang the door bell and we were NOT ready. So we scrambled around and hoped that we had done everything we needed to do. We sent the kids down to tell the taxi driver we were on our way. Then we locked up and dropped the house keys in the mailbox as instructed by the host. Seconds later, Charlotte flew around the corner into the hallway and yelled "don't return the keys yet", but it was too late. She could not find her cell phone, and thought she might have left it in her room.

On our way to the airport we decided if worst came to worst the host would have to mail it to her in Germany, but thankfully it showed up and all was well! Upon arrival at the airport we did have coffee together and then waited around at Charlotte's gate for her German Wings departure. It was so sad saying goodbye and not knowing when we might see her again.

Bye, Charlotte! We had so much fun and were so glad you came along!

Ben's last stop at FCBotiga store at the airport.

After she left, it turned out our gate was just the next one over for our Ryanair flight.

Catelonia, Spain, and EU flags at the airport

Bye bye Barcelona!!

We will miss you!

We arrived as planned in Brussels and after retrieving our luggage we had left there in a locker, tried to contact the Augustin, the hotel we were to spend the night at. It had been advertised on Orbitz or Travelocity or one of the hotel booking sites as having an airport shuttle, so we asked about it at the shuttle desk, but they were not aware. Since our phones were not working well for calls, but there was free airport wifi, I sent a Facebook message to the hotel asking for an airport pickup asap. The hotel clerk replied quite quickly, saying that no drivers were presently available, that arrangements had to be made in advance for airport transport and that they would try to find something for us. I expressed frustration, noting the reason I chose this hotel out of many others was that it included free airport shuttle service. They told me they do have transportation, but it is certainly not free, and since no drivers are available, we might as well take a taxi for 50 Euros. Another option would be a train for 34 Euros. Since we had already left the airport area, we had ta walk quite a distance to get back into the airport to talk to information. It was frustrating, since we had to go through a security checkpoint all over again just to re-enter to get some help. We sat at the airport, ate $15 french fries and discussed our options. It was disappointing to have to travel so far to the hotel, too, knowing our flight to Chicago left at 7:30 am, meaning we had be be back at the airport by 5:30 am! I had falsely assumed we had booked an airport hotel. We looked at prices of some actual airport hotels, but in Brussels it is difficult to find a room for 4 people. We asked the Augustin if because of the miscommunication about the airport shuttle, we could cancel and get a refund, but they said no. 

It did not help that we were out of cash and when I tried to use the ATM, it declined my transaction. It turns out that for some strange reason Belgium is on a list of countries where Mastercard debit cards are blocked. This short list includes places like Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Russia, and a few more. We had had no trouble in Germany or Spain, but now in Belgium we were blocked from getting cash!

Fortunately the airport train station accepted credit cards and we were able to buy round trip tickets to cover the morning, too. The train was really nice and clean and comfortable and the ride was about 15 minutes. 

 Then, with all our luggage in tow, we had to walk another 10 minutes or so across the city to the hotel. Many of the roads and sidewalks were cobblestone, making it a bit difficult to pull wheeled suitcases, but we made it. This fountain was at the corner closest to our hotel, which is behind the trees on the right.

The hotel was really nice and clean and the room was big.  The boys just wanted to stay in and chill. They were comfortable watching cartoons on TV and wanted to relax. 

 Daryl and I wanted to see Brussels, which is a nice city with famous buildings and sights. Also, we all needed food for supper. So Daryl and I ventured out into the Grote Markt (grand market place), which was not far to walk to.

We soon found some of the beautiful buildings, the royal palace, park and cathedral. The park was really nice.

 It was a beautiful evening to walk around the city. Unfortunately after the stress of the day, we were not in good moods and did not enjoy it as much as we could have.

Then, of course there is the famous Manneken Pis. I had imagined this statue to be so much bigger than it was! Not sure what the hype is, but this little boy peeing is all the rage in all the souvenir shops, tourist guides, etc. I guess it was put in place in 1618, so that's pretty cool!

We went into a beautiful chocolate shop across the way from the statue, which had a giant chocolate statue of Manneken Pis in their front window. There, we bought authentic Belgian Waffles with Nutella to take back for the boys. Instead of eating out as we had originally planned, we decided to just take out pizza from a Pizza Hut and go back to the hotel to eat with the boys. They were glad to have real food and of course the famous Belgian Waffles! Since we had to get up so early (4:15 am), we tried to go to bed kind of early. 

Tuesday, July 12: Shopping and beach day

Charlotte wanted to do some clothes shopping and our family wanted to shop for souvenirs, so we decided to split up in the morning and go different places. It worked out nicely. We went back to the La Rambla shopping street, also passing by the famous cat statue, El Gato del Raval.

Yes, the cat has a really long thick tail, and yes, it also has testicles, which explains Ben's goofy
grin! :)

 We also stopped at the Placa Reial again, which was lovely during the day, too!

Then we visited the St. Josep De La Boqueria market, a fabulous fresh food market selling everything from candy fresh fruit smoothies to spices and herbs, to the most unusual seafood you have ever seen! It was very crowded and the smell of the fish and other seafood was quite unpleasant to me, so we did not stay long. It was a very impressive place, though!

 

On out way back to the apartment, we stopped at the corner street sign to take a photo to remember "our" street, Carrer Del Comte D'Urgell. Also a building just a block or so down the road on our walk to the metro station with a cool mural  of a balloon painted on it.

 Later in the day, after we all met back at the apartment, we all decided to go to the beach once more. Alex and I were a bit sunburned from the kayaking trip the day before, so we waited until later in the evening to go out into the sun. We took the metro to a different beach, hoping it would be a bit less crowded and maybe cleaner. It was a nice looking beach, but unfortunately there was a lot of trash floating in the water and it was still pretty crowded.
We hung out there for a while, walked along a rocky pier, and relaxed for a bit.

 Daryl smoked his obligatory one per Caribbean vacation cigar. Hey, it's a strange tradition, but he likes it!

After that, it was out intention to find a nice Spanish restaurant to eat some authentic Spanish food.

 For some reason, we had a difficult time finding something suitable. In hindsight, we should have looked up recommendations on TripAdvisor or something like that for the best places to eat.
We wound up at a restaurant called "Colom" (as in Christopher Colom) back in the Gothic district. We sat outside with a lovely view of this beautiful pink and blue apartment building with lovely balconies. 

 It was a pleasant place to sit and watch people. The food was mediocre. The paella that Daryl and I both ordered (his with seafood, mine vegetarian) looked pretty in the pan, but was nothing special to write home about.
I guess, that will be a good reason to come back to Barcelona another time, since we never really got to eat GREAT Spanish food while we were there!

When we got back, sadly, it was time to pack and clean up and get ready to leave in the morning. Daryl ordered a taxi online and 3 times in a row, after entering all the information and ordering it for 8 am  the confirmation e-mail said 3 pm! it was so frustrating, we eventually wound up using a different company!