Brussels with Aunt Nell

23 December - 24 December

Christmastime is bringing a new stream of visitors our way and Aunt Nell kicked things off for us arriving the week before Christmas. 

We were able to fit in a short trip somewhere and it came down to Paris or Brussels and Cornell picked Brussels. Our train from home to London was at 517am so we were up super duper early to get to the train station in time. Our Eurostar train from St Pancras was to leave at 650am. So we had from arriving in London at 620am to get to Eurostar and check-in. We were a little worried about it because they recommend allowing at least 30 min to check-in prior to leaving but we got there a little early and were on the train with plenty of time to spare. It took about 2 hrs to get to Brussels, with stops in Calais and Lille before then. We arrived in Brussels around 10a with the time difference. We took the metro from Bruxelles-Midi to the central part of the city. After spending the next day and a half in the city, we realized we could have probably walked to the central part of town as Brussels is very walkable.Their transportation system was very easy to navigate but it seemed more expensive than other places we’ve been. When we got above ground, it was raining. Being the stellar mom that I am, I forgot Norah’s fleece snowsuit and hat, so we stopped in a cafe to put an extra pair of socks on her as that was the only part of her body exposed outside of the carrier. She was otherwise nice and toasty all snuggled up against Cornell or I as we walked around. At the cafe, we were given menus and spoken to in French. We didn’t really want anything and pretented to look at the menu and then got up to leave. The manager approached us and asked why we were leaving and if it was because we were waiting too long. We just kind of nodded and smiled and then afterwards felt bad that the waitress was probably going to get yelled at for not waiting on us even though we didn’t even want anything. 

We spend the afternoon wandering. I also forgot my guidebook that I had checked out of the library that included a map. Cornell said she was going to count how many times I mentioned, “If we had my book ..”. We did have our smartphone though and were eventually able to use the GPS to find our hotel. Things were laid out pretty easy to find though and seeing that Cornell and I are both severely directionally challenged, we did okay. Belgium has a lot of really great architecture. 

It was also a plus that it was Christmastime and lots of markets were to be found with lights on a lot of the old buildings we were seeing. 

We ate lunch at a little pizza place. It wasn’t anything spectacular but it filled us up for the time being. We got our first taste of Belgian waffles and decided to go with nutella as a topping. 

It was delicious. I made the decision right then and there that Aaron and I would be back, just for the waffles. 

We went and checked into our hotel. I booked the NH Atlanta through Hotwire and got a really great deal. The room was huge by European standards. I had called ahead and arranged for a baby cot for Norah, so that may have been why our room was so big. The bathroom had a shower and a tub and there was a couch plus Norah’s play pen. Plenty of room. Cornell took a nap and Norah quickly followed and then I nodded off eventually too. We woke up reenergized and ready to see Brussels at night. 

We fought the frenzied holiday shoppers to buy Norah a hat and then re-traced our steps from during the day and saw most of the buildings we saw during the day all lit up. The one thing that I wanted to do was see the sound and light show at Grand Place. 

But since I didn’t have my book and we weren’t completely sure when and how often it happened, we kept returning to the Grand Place site hoping to see it and never did. Later I found out it only happened once every hour. But you can see what it was like here, 

We did get to see a lot of lights though and managed to stuff ourselves with frites and chocolat chaud. 

We found a chocolatier too, and bought a box of chocolates and some waffles to take home. Norah was telling us it was bedtime for her, so we turned in for the night.

The next day was Christmas Eve and the forecast was calling for rain. We decided to walk around for a bit in the morning and then see how the weather was after checking out. We found a patisserie where Cornell successfully ordered a pain au chocolat in French. 

We also got another waffle, plain this time and it was still just as good. By the time we checked out of the hotel it was densely misting. We decided to take the metro to the Atomium. 

By the time we got there, the weather hadn’t really changed but we decided to explore the structure, gift shop and surrounding area for a bit. 

Then we returned to Bruxelles-Midi to catch our evening train home. We had quite a bit of time but were content with all that we had seen. We went to a brasserie for a little bit and Cornell got to have her Belgian beer which she said tasted the same as it does in America, go figure. We thoroughly explored the train station and got in line to check-in for Eurostar as soon as we could. It’s a good thing we did too, because we were held up at the UK border patrol window for quite some time. Norah’s passport took quite awhile to arrive and by the time it did get to us in the end of November, I knew I wouldn't be able to complete her visa in enough time to get her passport back for the trip we had planned to Brussels. We’d been told that we had 6 months to complete the paperwork and seeing that Norah is only 3 months old, I knew it was okay to travel with her without a visa to enter the UK. I was still nervous though because we were traveling without Aaron and after being detained in January of this year after going to Rome, I know how strict they can be. So I made sure I had both of her birth certificates, a copy of Aaron’s orders, a notarized letter stating I could travel with Norah on my own and her passport, of course. When we got to the window, the agent questioned where her visa was and when I told him she didn’t have one yet, he exploded and wanted to know who told me I had 6 months to get one. He even picked up the phone at one point to call the Lakenheath hospital where Norah was born. What information he was going to obtain from them, I don’t know, but it was terrifying. He basically said Cornell was good to go, I was good to go with my visa but the baby would have to stay in Belgium. He told us he was going off shift and the oncoming agent would have to deal with us. He put us in the detainment area and walked away. I was a mess. I knew we would be able to prove my story if need be, but it was Christmas Eve, no one was going to be able to help us and we would more than likely be stranded in Belgium. The oncoming agent took over and pushed our paperwork to the side and started taking care of the people waiting in line. He was even more rude and mean than the first guy! At one point, I heard him saying to someone coming through line, “I’m not sure what’s so difficult about the question I’m asking you, it’s yes or no and there are a lot of people waiting behind you so answer faster.” We waited and waited and finally the original agent came up to us and gave me back all of the documents I had brought. Total attitude change, sweetest guy there was. He told me Norah does indeed have 6 months to obtain a visa, he would stamp her passport indicating this and we would be good to go. I was so shaken about the entire thing, I almost didn’t believe him. Cornell said she had been praying about it. The man returned with a card for us to fill out, escorted us through the line and wished us a very Merry Christmas. We boarded the train in time and were on our way back to London. Talk about nerve-wracking! 

Otherwise, Brussels was a major success. I missed traveling with Aaron, I don’t think we would have gotten quite as confused with where things were with him along but I really enjoyed traveling with Cornell and experiencing her excitement over learning the metro system and examining her growing set of passport stamps! Our next time to travel would be Martin Luther King Jr weekend, but guess what? We’ll be taking care of Norah’s visa, so that we can travel in February! Until then, we hope all of our friends and family - near and far, have had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. We’ll see what 2015 brings!

Thanksgiving Travels: Scotland

November 27-30
We booked our trip to Scotland pretty last minute. We were waiting on Norah’s passport to make any definite plans.

After weeks of waiting, Norah's passport arrived!

We were hoping to go to Poland mainly because airfare was so cheap but by the time Norah’s passport arrived, airfare had skyrocketed. So we decided to stay within the UK and plan a trip to Scotland instead and ended up not needing our passports to travel anyways. We took the train from Peterborough, which is about a 40 min drive from our house. Our train left at 7:46 on Thanksgiving morning, so we were up bright and early. Who am I kidding, I’m up bright and early most days anyways. I never truly go to bed. Norah is quite the morning girl. She is full of all kinds of smiles for us in the morning, which make those long nights a little bit easier to recover from. It was about a 3.5hr train ride to Edinburgh. Our last trip before Norah was born, was to Edinburgh - so we were familiar with the train ride and couldn’t help smiling when we recalled sleeping almost the entire way there last time and booking the “quiet coach”. Now, we were just trying to keep Norah quiet enough not to disturb the rest of the coach and figure out the fastest, easiest way to the train car with changing facilities. Parenthood has certainly shifted our focus, but we are absolutely loving it and determined to share our travels with Norah! Thanksgiving dinner for us consisted of ham sandwiches on the train.

All tuckered out on her 1st Thanksgiving.

   Once in Edinburgh, we caught another local train to an an area outside of the city to Edinburgh Park to the car rental place. We booked a car through Arnold Clark and were able to get a 10% discount through the tour itinerary we bought before the trip. Typically, we decide where we are going and I check out a book on my kindle or at the library and start doing research on where we want to go and what we want to see. Since we weren’t able to do that this time around, we bought an itinerary through Secret Scotland. I found the site through a travel group we are part of on Facebook as it was recommended by someone that had gone to Scotland and used it. We bought the “Crazy Tour” - an itinerary for 3 days from Glasgow to Edinburgh. They called it the crazy tour because it was not recommended to try and see so much of Scotland in that short of time, but we knew 3 days was all we really had and decided to try to see as much as we could.
Once set up with our car, we headed for Glasgow. We decided not to stop in Glasgow. Now that winter is upon us here in the UK, we truly felt like we were chasing daylight the entire trip with sunrise after 8am and sunset between 3 and 4pm. Once through Glasgow, we headed along the itinerary route towards Glencoe - our destination for the evening. We weren’t able to see much of anything as the weather was quite dreary with dense fog and mist and then eventually darkness from sunset. Our initial goal was to get to the Loch Lomond area and try to see Loch Katrine in the Trossachs area. We must have missed a turn at some point because we couldn’t seem to find it. It was okay though, we ended up at another recommended place, The Scottish Wool Centre in Aberfoyle. We took the time for tea for 2 and explored the touristy shop.

We made some purchases here and were impressed by the really great prices of things. Aaron found Norah a sleeper that said, Baby-ness on it with a little Loch Ness monster for £5! The employees of the store just loved Norah (and her blue jeans) and she was handing out smiles to them, so naturally they loved her even more after that!
The first night, we stayed at The Glencoe Inn. They had a restaurant at the hotel but the chef was feeling ill, so we ended up getting something eat from the fish and chippy nearby. Our room was nice and simple with a playpen for Norah to sleep in. We had a difficult time finding rooms within our price range so last minute which is odd now that we have traveled there and back because things were pretty quiet in Scotland with tourist season seemingly over. I can’t imagine what the prices of rooms are like during peak summer season. The next morning, we made sure to go to breakfast as early as possible so that we could get started on the road towards Isle of Skye! Breakfast was a traditional English breakfast which we have yet to grow to really love. Lots of salty things! Aaron was able to try haggis and I had a small bite too. According to Wikipedia, haggis is the national dish of Scotland and is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours.

The view from our table at breakfast was great and a good indication of the sights we were about to see! We’ve quickly learned that having a baby often draws all kind of attention our way. Norah is constantly marveled at and this trip certainly didn’t disappoint! We packed things up and headed towards Fort William and then onwards to the Lochalsh area.
The awesome part of this itinerary is that it took us on the “back roads” of Scotland. We didn’t spend much time at all on the main motorways which was exactly what we wanted. The drive towards Fort William was foggy in areas and then it would clear up in others. We stopped at the Commando Memorial which commemorates the elite WWII soldiers who did their intensive combat training in the hills around Spean Bridge between 1940 and 1945.

Because of the fog, we missed out on seeing Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland and the UK. We drove on towards the Lochalsh area and took a short detour to Ratagan Pass.

 One of the best viewpoints in Scotland is the Ratagan Pass. From the Pass, you have a panoramic view of the mountain range known as the Five Sisters of Kintail. The local legend behind these mountains tells the story of seven sisters. Two of the sisters were married to two Irish brothers who promised that their brothers would return to marry the remaining Five Sisters. When it became apparent that the remaining sisters would have a long wait, a local witch turned them into stone to preserve their beauty. The views were absolutely amazing and the pictures that Aaron captured could easily pass for postcards!
                     
                           
 From Ratagan Pass, we continued onwards and stopped for a little bit at Eilean Donan castle, one of the most photographed casltes in Scotland. For good reason too, Aaron was able to get some pretty good pictures here too!

Once crossing over the Skye Bridge onto Isle of Skye, we decided to attempt to get to Old Man of Storr before sunset. Once there, we realized we would have to do an awful lot of climbing to actually get there but we were able to see it from a distance just fine. Old Man of Storr is an unusual geological feature, which has created a sharp pinnacle of rock. Nearby was Lealt Falls and Kilt Rock. The sun was quickly disappearing on us so we went to Kilt Rock first.

Once there and out of the car, we noticed a search and rescue team with a distraught couple. I overheard one man say, “He was just trying to get back up off the ledge.” I also saw someone offer the woman a packet of sugar to help calm her nerves. We weren’t sure what happened and hoped it wasn’t anything serious. Later that night, Aaron searched for a news article and found this. https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/islands/western-isles/415722/dog-falls-200ft-death-skye-cliff-plunge/ The poor dog was off his leash and plunged over the side of the cliff. We got some really nice pictures here and Norah was able to get some fresh air. She spent a lot of time in her car seat on this trip but I must say, she had the life and enjoyed every bit of all the napping that she got to do!

Lealt Falls was next, I took care of feeding Norah while Aaron explored and got some more really great pictures.

We headed to Broadford and settled in to our hotel for the night, Dunollie Hotel. There was no wifi in the rooms here, so we spent some time in the lounge and got lots of looks while trying to entertain Norah. We ordered pizza for the evening. Having Norah with us at such a young age makes it tough to eat a sit down meal. She’s often a ticking time bomb and goes from smiling and content to screaming in a matter of seconds some times. So we looked at it on the bright side as we were saving lots of money not eating out as often as we usually do while traveling!
On Saturday, we wanted to take advantage of being on Isle of Skye and get to see a little more of it before heading onwards to Inverness and Loch Ness. So we drove to Glen Brittle and stopped to hike to the Fairy Pools which are a series of smoothly rounded rock pools carved by swirling boulders.

I hadn’t packed any sneakers for the trip and for good reason. I was able to fit all of our things into a carry-on suitcase and two backpacks, so there wasn’t any wiggle room with packing an extra pair of shoes. It made for the hike to the Fairy Pools quite rough though in my flimsy white canvas shoes. We crossed several brooks and I was convinced that I would slip and fall by the end of things. Aaron had Norah in the carrier seeing that his footing was a lot more secure than mine. We hiked for quite a long time and could have even went further but decided to turn back after seeing the first set of fairy pools. Our pictures don’t really capture the beauty of them but they were pretty spectacular.

After leaving Isle of Skye we backtracked for just a bit and then headed towards Inverness. We stopped briefly at Urquhart Castle, which is the castle that appears in all of the iconic images of Loch Ness. Then we went to the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre, which we both enjoyed very much.

It really left you to wonder what is really out there in Loch Ness; however, it also disproved some of the more common myths. No sightings of the monster but Aaron was definitely on the lookout.

We passed through Inverness and ended our day at our destination for the evening in Carrbridge at the Cairn Inn. We were able to eat at their restaurant and had some really great, fresh food from there. The breakfast the next morning was pretty great too! We were actually the only guests at the inn that night, which was pretty neat and nice to know that if Norah was crying at any point, she wasn’t disturbing anyone.
The next morning the owner of the inn was able to give us some suggestions on things to see on our drive back to Edinburgh. We were grateful for his suggestions because the intinerary was overwhelming with all of its things listed to do. We had a tough time picking what we wanted to see most. First, we took a short walk to see Carrbridge’s “Packhorse Bridge”.

The bridge, built in 1717, is the oldest stone bridge in the Highlands. It was severely damaged in the "muckle spate" (whatever that means) of 1829 which left it in the condition seen today. Then we drove towards Bruar and stopped at the House of Bruar, an upmarket shop specialising in country clothing, woollen wear, tweeds etc. We also took a short walk to the Falls of Bruar, where there was an arched stone bridge and waterfall.

After that, we went onwards to Queen’s View which offered amazing panoramic views of Loch Tummel.

By then, we had to start thinking about getting to Edinburgh to catch the train home. We really wanted to go to Hermitage where some of the tallest trees in the UK can be found along with some waterfalls but decided to start heading for Edinburgh. Almost 30 min from our destination, we got caught in accident and construction related traffic and were at a crawl for more than an hour. We were getting quite nervous about making our train in time which left Edinburgh at 4p. We had to drop the car off and catch a train from Edinburgh Park to Edinburgh and then get to our platform. We dropped the car off at 335pm. Literally ran to the Edinburgh Park. Aaron had Norah in her car seat and his back pack and I had the suitcase and my back pack. It was probably quite comical to watch as we were running for our lives. We caught the at Edinburgh Park at 352pm and arrived at Edinburgh at 403pm. We were 3 minutes late to catching our train home. So we had to go to the customer service counter and book entirely new train tickets. It was quite depressing (and not cheap). So we settled on a bench to watch for the platform number of our updated train and I went to go to the bathroom just as Aaron realized the train they booked for us was at 420pm! It was then 412, so we quickly gathered our things and ran to the platform and boarded the train at 416 and it left very shortly after that. Norah was clearly amused during the entire ordeal bc she remained calm just until we got on the train. She decided to be miserable for the next couple of hours as we journeyed home and I don’t blame her! We finally made it home just an hour later than our original expected arrival.
It was definitely a crazy idea to do the route we did in 3 days and we easily could have spent a week exploring Scotland. Such a beautiful place and such a great trip! Norah is a wonderful traveler and now that she has her passport, we are going to try conquering the airplane next!

Edinburgh, Scotland

July 26 -28 

Just when we thought we were finished traveling before the arrival of Baby Brooks, we decided to fit in one more short trip to Scotland! I think it is safe to say that we are done exploring for now though. I have officially entered the 6 weeks prior/6 weeks after zone of not being able to fly and let’s be honest, I’m now just about 36 weeks pregnant - I don’t feel like doing anything at all. But we did manage to make it to Scotland and spend Saturday-Monday exploring the city of Edinburgh. We used the National Rail train system to ride from Peterborough, which is about 40 min from our house to the main station in Edinburgh. The command that Aaron is currently at allows him access to the HM Forces Railcard which provides a discount on rail tickets. We paid £15/each for the rail cards and knew that we needed to use them for at least one trip to get what money we paid into them. This trip to Edinburgh saved us about £70, so I’d say the card has been worth it! 

The train ride took about 4.5-5 hours to get there. There were several stops along the route and Aaron and I were in a “quiet coach”, so we were able to sleep for a little bit on the way there. We arrived in Edinburgh at its main train station - Waverly around noon. We were hungry and not able to check-in to our hotel until 3pm, so we decided to find a place to eat. We wandered down Princes Street and got our first view of the castle and also saw Sir Walter Scott’s Monument up close.

This massive Gothic spire was built in memory of the novelist, Sir Walter Scott after his death in 1832.The outside of the monument has carvings of characters from his novels. You are also able to climb to the top if you so desire.

We found a little pub to eat outside at and were quickly questioned by our waiter whether we were in town for the Military Tattoo. 

Shortly after moving here, we were told about the Military Tattoo which you can find out more about here: http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/. Basically it is a big festival celebrating Scotland’s rich military history. It didn’t actually start until Aug 1 but people were already arriving for the festivities. We hope to make back to Edinburgh to attend in the next 2 years. 

We took our time walking to the area our hotel was in. We made a last minute decision to go to Edinburgh and when I started looking at hotels, there weren’t many options and they were very, very expensive. Not only was the Military Tattoo festival upcoming but the Commonwealth Games were taking place that very weekend in Glasgow and we believe some of them were in Edinburgh as well. We understood that the Commonwealth Games are sort of like the Olympics with only countries that were part of the British Empire participating. So we used hotwire to book - which is where you commit to the hotel without knowing the name and specific location until after you pay for it. I was hesitant to do this because I knew we’d be relying on city transportation and wanted to stay close to all the things we wanted to see but we took the risk and were granted a stay at the Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa, a 5 star hotel with a perfect location. We were able to check in a little bit early and were impressed with the Sheraton from the very beginning. The pool was under renovation but the front desk offered to arrange us a taxi to one of their partnering hotels to ensure we were able to swim if we wanted to. The bathroom had mood lighting along with a shower and a separate bathtub, the closet had plush robes and slippers and there was air conditioning! You don’t really miss it until you have it and then it’s gone because coming home was rough having to adjust my life back to only having a ceiling fan. Despite resting on the train, I took another nap (story of my pregnant life) and then we ventured out to the bus stop across the street from the hotel and got on a hop on/hop off tour bus. The tickets were good for 24 hours, so we took advantage of getting our bearings and taking the bus the entire loop around the city to get a better idea of where and what we should do first the following day.

A view of Grassmarket, the former site of a cattle market and also the city's place of execution where gallows once stood.

We returned to the hotel area to eat dinner at a chain restaurant across the street, Nandos. We relaxed for the rest of the evening. The next morning we had ordered breakfast to be delivered to the room and it was wonderful. We only ordered one tray and it was enough food for the both of us. We decided to go to the National Museum of Scotland first by using our bus tickets. The museum was awesome with 5 floors tracing the history of Scotland and the best part was that it was free! There was even an entire area dedicated to fun learning activities for kids.

Victorian Grand Gallery part of the National Museum of Scotland

The museum also had a roof terrace where we got to enjoy some stunning views of Edinburgh. Little did we know that the views would only continue to improve with our visit to the castle the next day.

From the museum, we walked part of the Royal Mile to grab some lunch at a cafe. While there, it started downpouring, so our timing was pretty good. By the time we finished eating it had cleared and we were ready to head to Holyrood Palace which is the royal family’s residence while in Scotland.

The palace is also famously known as the 16th-century home of Mary, Queen of Scots. We took the rest of the afternoon to explore the palace. There was an audio tour included in our admission and luckily I still had the headphones from the bus tour in my pocket and was able to plug myself into the set hands free (your arm gets tired after a while of holding the audio tour up to your ear!). Most rooms during the tour offered a chair or two and I was usually able to take a seat which was nice because I was starting to feel like my legs might fall off from so much standing and walking. The highlight of the tour is Mary's bedchamber - it was here that her first husband restrained Mary (who was pregnant) while her rumored lover who was also her secretary was murdered and left to bleed to death in the neighboring room.

Holyrood Abbey

After the palace we exhausted our bus passes and rode back to the hotel. We relaxed for little bit before walking to the Grassmarket area right below the castle to eat dinner at a local pub. 

We ate at Maggie Dickson's pub which you can read her story above. The food was nothing spectacular but the pub had an interesting story. The views of the castle were pretty great too, but I was already dreading the uphill climb it would take to actually get up to the castle the next day.

The next day, we checked out of the Sheraton and headed towards the castle. We stopped for breakfast at a Costa’s which is the UKs version of Starbuck’s, although you’ll find a Starbuck’s pretty much wherever you travel to - it’s pretty amazing. We climbed cobblestoned hills and many, many steps until we were finally at the entrance of the castle. While walking in, Aaron noticed a sign about English Heritage members buying their tickets from the information booth for a discount. We were able to get our admission price 50% off! Getting an English Heritage pass has been on of the best decisions we have made as far as exploring England and now we were putting it to use in Scotland. 

Edinburgh Castle was amazing. It wasn’t just one building but several spread over more hilly cobblestones and gradual uphill climbs. The views of the city were amazing and it is easily the highlight of Edinburgh. 

Poster child for our Edinburgh guidebook.

We were able to explore the Royal Palace which contained the Scottish Crown Jewels. The jewels were locked away in a chest in 1707 and the crown, sword and scepter lay forgotten until 1818. We stayed for the "One O'Clock Gun" which was an ear-splitting shot from a WWII 25-pound gun that fires at 1pm.
Pretty soon after leaving the castle, once on the Royal Mile (actually more than a mile but called that because it was the street that was traveled by the king to get from the castle to the palace) we came upon a street entertainer dressed like the main character of Braveheart. Aaron donated some money and donned a costume to play out some of his Braveheart dreams. 

Too excited to join in the "Freedom!" battle cry. 

Further down the street we were able to listen to a bagpipe player and get some souvenir shopping done as well. We found a place to eat lunch down a side street of the Royal Mile. We went off in search of dessert and found the cupcake shop I had seen the previous day. 

Not too far from there was the main square and train station area, so we headed that direction and caught our train around 5pm back to Peterborough. The ride back was only 3hr45min but it seemed to take longer to get home than it did to get there. We had a wonderful trip and hope to return to Scotland again to explore Glasgow and more of the countryside.