Hey all,

Sorry it took so long to get the pictures of our last EU trip to chilly Stockholm, Sweden. Maybe one day we can all go there together, since we haven't had time to put in any comments on the pictures.

We had a great trip visiting one of the interns Joe worked with last summer from Madison. He's over there on an exchange program, so we got to have some locals show us around the town. It is beautiful during the day and fun at night.

Click HERE to view the photos.

Joe and Jackie

Ciao!

Well, things here in Brussels are really starting to wrap up. We have been savoring our last few days in Brussels and also continuing to get out for some more weekend trips. In the past week we enjoyed the nightlife in Brussels with a few dinners and starting to say goodbye to the friends that we have made in our last few months here. We traveled the past weekend to Venice for another taste of Italy. We really enjoyed our time in Venice and had awesome weather for February. The skies were blue with temperatures at about 35 farenheit. So not warm, but the sun made a big difference if you could find a spot sheltered from the wind. We found Venice to be an absolutely gorgeous city and we were glad to not have to battle with many other tourists. I can't imagine how insane it must be there when the temperatures are warm. The streets are very narrow and winding, but we did go a whole weekend without seeing one car! Just a lot of boats! We had a great time and even happened to find a sports pub that was able to get the Superbowl and stayed open late for us and other tourists alike, including a whole group of students from Boston. So it was a lot of fun, especially since Pittsburg won!!
We had an amazing time and of course took plenty of photos as usual. If you'd like to check out our photos they can be found at:



http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=d3mrqfc.ag9vnng&Uy=ceqvo5&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

We hope this post finds you well and we look forward to getting back to the US to catch up with everyone in one week! yikes!!

Ciao!
Jackie and Joe

Hello everyone!

We hope this post finds everyone well. So sorry it has been so long since our last post. I got out of my groove since we slowed down our travels in the past few weeks. We actually spent two weekends in a row in Brussels and I must say it was nice to relax a bit. The first weekend we were just plain lazy and wanted to hang out in Brussels. I think the biggest fun we had was watching that incredible Steelers and Colts game at our local English sports pub with friends. The following weekend we had our last visitor in Brussels, one of Joe's friends from GE in Milwaukee. We had fun hanging in Brussels with him and easing another rookie into Belgian beer and of course watching the Steelers beat the Broncos to make it to the Superbowl!

But, realizing that our time is quickly coming to an end we have gotten back on the horse and scheduled our last three weekends with some trips. This past weekend we flew to Glasgow, Scotland for a quick tour of both Glasgow and Edinburgh. When I say a quick tour I mean a quick tour - I think we spent more time in route than we did walking the streets. Because we flew into and out of smaller airports for some cheap flights we had plenty of train travel. But, seeing some of the countryside of Scotland was really beautiful. Plenty of green and hillsides filled with sheep! We also enjoyed going to another english speaking country and getting to guide ourselves through the streets without the added pressure of not knowing the local language. We also decided that with our few encounters with the locals, the Scottish were by far the nicest we have experienced in our travels in Europe so far. I guess it is easier to judge since we understood the language, but it was pretty obvious just by the facial expressions and acknowledgements that we have not seen in other countries. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh were beautiful cities of Georgian architecture and rich in character. We first toured Glasgow, running quickly through the streets to the Necropolis (a massive cemetary). Then we hopped the next train to Edinburgh and were able to tour the streets and the Edinburgh Castle. As the sun went down we enjoyed just hanging out in some pubs and taking in the Scottish culture.
And so we had to fly back to Brussels Sunday afternoon, glad that we had the chance to take in some sights, but still hoping to end up back in Scotland to see even more of their famed highlands and coastlands. If you care to check out our pics you can find them at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=d3mrqfc.jiup3as&Uy=8x5s2&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=983080004398_39163444708

So, I guess I have blabbered on too long and should wrap it up! We are in our last two weeks as of today and are starting to pack up our belongings and get ready to head back to reality. We have some more fun packed in for our last two weeks including a few going away dinners with friends and co-workers and two more trips: to Venice, Italy and Stockholm, Sweden. We look forward to those and also to getting back home!

Au revoir - Take care!
Jackie and Joe

Bonjour everyone and Happy New Year!!

We hope the holidays treated everyone well! We had a fairly quiet Christmas in Brussels. We got together with a few american friends we have made out here for Christmas dinner, which was really nice since we were all so far from home. Other than that we just relaxed and awaited the 26th and 27th, when our 5 holiday guests arrived! We were lucky to have our sister Jessie and four MU friends take their Christmas vacations out to visit and travel with us! It was a good thing we were all comfortable with eachother as 7 total in our apartment was quite a squeeze - but everything worked out great and we had a LOT of fun together. With almost two weeks to spend (except we only had Margaret for a week :( ) we were able to tour Brussels, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brugge, Dublin, Ghent, Namur, Dinant, and Barcelona - in that order!
We celebrated New Years together in Dublin - it was great to celebrate in a country that spoke english, served a lot of beer, and knows how to party! We had three full days in Dublin and even got to spend one day touring the countryside south of Dublin, including a 45 acre garden - which was lovely - even in January!
The following weekend we were able to head to Barcelona and see even more than we had in our first tour of the city!
All the days in between our international cities, we toured the major Belgian cities. Of course the country was in a cold spell during their visit (temps in the 30's with flurries), but the snow made for some great pictures and reason to sneak in the many pubs to warm up! And of course now that our visitors are gone... it is back in the 40's and sunny - go figure!
Our pictures can be viewed at:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=d3mrqfc.rrru82w&Uy=nzf2q9&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

Well, since we had a full two weeks of action, this past week has been really slow for us and we even spent this weekend in Brussels! It has been nice to catch our breath and relax for a weekend. But, we are realizing how quick our time is going and with only one month left we hope to get in a few more trips!
We hope this post finds everyone well and hope to hear from you soon!!
Happy New Year!
Jackie and Joe

Merry Christmas - Joyeux Noel - Vrolijke Kerst !!

Bonjour everyone and we hope this post finds you having Happy Holidays with all the joy you can handle!! We are actually spending the holiday weekend in Brussels. We have two other American couples who we will be having Christmas dinner with in Brussels - so we will have others to celebrate with! Otherwise we are just enjoying the down time and waiting for our next visitors! As of the Monday after Christmas we will be hosting several friends and our sister Jessie for 12 days at our place! We are so glad to have the company and are looking forward to showing more friends and family around some of Europe!

Last weekend we got the chance to experience Budapest, Hungary. One of Joe's GE work mates is living in Budapest for his 6-month rotation of the same program Joe is a part of here in Brussels. He was so generous to offer us to stay with him and he also showed us around. So it was great not to have the stress of being a tourist for once. Especially since the hungarian language was so different from anything we have experienced as of yet. We thought Dutch was strange, but I must say Hungarian was a huge challenge and was way beyond my capabilities!

We had a great time seeing the sights and enjoying the Christmas season in their festive markets. Pictures of our tour of Budapest are at the following link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=d3mrqfc.10kth32g&Uy=yjpdji&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=595164734118_13729584608

We are wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a Happy and Healthy New Year!!!

Jackie and Joe

Hello there!

Wow - look at me getting all caught up with our photo travel log this week! I am sure everyone is too busy this week with the holidays and all, but I had to get caught up before it got out of control! Plus, Joe is super busy with work this week, which has left me with a lot of time on my hands.
Pretty much right after we returned from Barcelona, Uncle Scott and Aunt Mary arrived in Brussels for a visit. We spent one day in Brussels touring the Christmas Markets and getting caught up - which was so nice. Then, we rented a car and headed to the wine country of France. We checked out the Burgundy and Champagne regions. Needless to say we had great fun with amazing food, wine, and great company. Having known very little about wine, this was a great opportunity to learn from the French how it's done. The wine tours were similar to the beer tours we are accustomed to, living in Milwaukee and all, oh yeah... except some of them only spoke french! We made it through the barrier and had a great time getting such great hospitality from the wineries and managed to get a lot less intimidated by those french wine labels. We started our tour in the Burgundy wine region, which is southeast of Paris, and finished off the tour in the Champagne region. So, not only did we learn about wine, we learned about the champagne process as well. And I think the most amazing part of the whole week was that none of us ever got a headache or hangover! I think that is attributed to all the cheese and gourmet meals we devoured along the way! You can check out the photos at the following link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=d3mrqfc.18gk2cmw&Uy=d0069t&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

Well, with the holidays practically here, we are thinking of all of you a lot. We will have our first Christmas without our families, which will be strange, but we only have to make it until the day after, since Jessie arrives in Brussels on Monday and four other friends arrive on Tuesday to celebrate the New Years holiday with us in western Europe! We are really looking forward to it all!
We wish you all a wonderful holiday season full of health, happiness, and lots of love!
Jackie and Joe

Bonjour!!

Our apologies, as it has been way too long since we have updated our site. It was not due to a lack of interesting events that we haven't been posting. We have been having some technical difficulty getting our photo website to work, but finally got it running - whew!
The weekend following our Thanksgiving visit with the Dorband family we headed for a weekend in Barcelona, Spain. We had a great time and truly enjoyed our stay there. It was a nice change after the snowy and cold week we had in Belgium. The temperatures were at 60 for a high and in the 40's for a low - sooo nice. The weekend (as with all of our trips) flew by and we caught as much of the city on photo as possible. The most fascinating aspect of the city was with their most famous modernist architect, Antonio Gaudi. Not knowing the origin of the word "gaudy" we were convinced that the word originates from his name. As you will see, his architecture is in fact - gaudy! However, we did some research upon our return to find that this thinking is a common fallacy, as the word gaudy originated in the 16th century, well before Gaudi's time - 19th century.

You can view the photos at the following website.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=d3mrqfc.qy9r1yc&Uy=-bjfsrg&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=525537242719_68499583608

We hope this message finds everyone well and not too overwhelmed with the holidays quickly approaching!

Au revoir!
Jackie and Joe