#TBT... Blue Waters in Curacao

The capital, Willemstad, and its colorful colonial architecture.

Another throwback this week, this time all the way back to September 2014 (And don't worry folks, while I used to have a good memory pre-children, I don't just remember all this stuff anymore. I keep a journal usually when we travel)...

After a crazy summer with me starting full time work again, various hurdles in life, and craving a travel opportunity we managed to sneak in a getaway sans Emma. A couple months earlier Emma experienced her first night without us and with glowing reviews from her babysitter we asked my parents if they would tackle five days with her. We spent a long time contemplating how far away we could go with that much time that met the requirements of having a good Marriott, nice beaches, a few outdoor activities that enticed us, and one that preferably required the use of a passport. We eventually settled on the small Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao, about 40 miles off the Venezuelan coast.

Not a bad view at the hotel.

My parents arrived to our house the night before we took off. I honestly don't think we told Emma much of our leaving her in advance, all she knew was she was going to have a lot of time to spend with Grandma & Grandpa over the next few days. The next morning Steve and I had a flight out at some ridiculous hour and my dad was kind enough to shuttle us to the airport. We did what any parents traveling without their child do, slept on the flight and tried to read our books like they were foreign concepts, something we had long ago given up on during travel. Upon arrival and our cab ride to our resort we were not utterly impressed with our surroundings. We knew Curacao was not given the highest reviews for natural beauty that some of the other Caribbean islands boast, but we knew it should have some of the bluest water we had ever seen. Following check-in and welcome drinks (an interesting choice of 8 oz bottled Polar beers) we found the pool and the beach. We also found out that the local people are very friendly as not once, but twice we had hotel staff simply enter our room to deliver something to us rather than knocking first! Although we greatly enjoyed that friendliness during our dinner conversation with our waitress that night as she taught us a lot about the island and the fact that children are taught at least three different languages when they go to school - Dutch, Papiamento (a local Creole language) and English. Needless to say I felt pretty stupid after this conversation.

Day two arrived and we realized that for the first time ever we literally had not planned a single thing for our trip other than our flights and our hotel. In realization that we might get bored just staying at the resort we decided to rent a car for a couple of days and plan a few activities. We still enjoyed the bulk of that day at the hotel, but decided come mid-afternoon to make the less than 10 minute drive to "downtown" Willemstad, the largest city and capital of Curacao. We were excited to see the picturesque colonial buildings, the Queen Emma pontoon bridge, and floating market but were somewhat disappointed by much of the feel of the downtown area. We found sushi in a small, new, trendy area of the city but only wandered around for a short time after it got dark. It seems that even when traveling sans child we are boring and head back to the hotel shortly after it gets dark!

The photo you'll find every time you do a google search of Willemstad - the Queen Emma Pontoon bridge and colorful dutch colonial buildings.

More colorful buildings!

Steve in front of the Queen Emma pontoon bridge and it in action below.

Oil is big business in Curacao.

Our early night the evening before was somewhat warranted as we knew we would be getting up relatively early the next morning. Sunday morning we headed 25 minutes south to the Seaquarium for what was certainly the highlight of my trip, swimming with dolphins! While a lot more time was spent prepping and educating us for the swim than it was actually swimming, it was still well worth the 20 minutes with the dolphins. My group of six swimmers (most others were Dutch, which we came to find that Curacao was a very popular place for the Dutch to vacation) had the pleasure of getting to know Annie (an 18 year old mom) and Machu (her 2.5 year old son). Annie was perfect, listening and responding to every command and Machu was pretty good, but one might also say he was a typical toddler - getting easily distracted, showing off, and in general just needing a little extra time to follow directions! Nonetheless it was a phenomenal experience and so much fun as I got to take turns giving commands such as singing, shaking hands, kisses, and having them both take me for a ride!

Giving Annie & Machu the command to sing!

Kisses!

Shaking hands and a few fun videos below...

Afterwards we enjoyed a nice brunch on a quiet inlet in the water and then made our way nearby for our other adventure of the day - parasailing. Steve had passed on swimming with the dolphins as he said he was just as happy watching, but I am honestly surprised he said yes to parasailing. While not terribly afraid of heights, its still not his cup of tea. But we booked the lower of the two height options (100 meters vs 300 meters) and greatly enjoyed our private boat ride with a Dutch father/daughter combo as our guides and 20 minute experience in the sky. I loved the scenic views and the smooth, seemingly effortless ride, I think my husband on the other hand was happier to say he had done it when he was back on the ground than to actually do it...

Firmly grounded we made our way a little further south on the island to relax the remainder of the day on the popular Jan Thiel beach. It was certainly a popular spot considering the actual beach was surprisingly small. It was also a nice spot for a sunset and dinner on the beach with more of a local vibe. While don't get me wrong, I love the pampering of staying on a resort, and the security and ease typically afforded to you when you're in another country. A resort is a very artificial interpretation of its surrounding landscape at the end of the day.

Dinner view on Jan Thiel beach.

Monday morning arrived and it was our last full day in paradise. We started the morning off early again with a 40 minute drive to Christoffel National Park for the 60 minute hike up Mount Christoffel (375 m). While far from the most challenging hike we've done, it was certainly quite warm and had at least a few fun boulders that required climbing over. During the hike we found the signs in the park humorous that called for no guns and no slingshots. The view from the top provided a nice opportunity to see the majority of the island. Much of the island was quite dry and burned out, but still some greenery and glimpses of blue water in various coves. There were a few other hikers on the trail, but most of our encounters were with salamanders, goats, and the army doing a training hike.

The hiking path up.

The view from the boulders on top!

Following our hike we were on a bit of a time crunch to get the car returned but we still canvassed most of the northwest of the island in an effort to get a glimpse of the blue water that we had seen advertised in our trip planning. They were not lying. The beaches of Gross Knip, Kleiner Knip, and Playa Jeremie were all stunning and left us wishing we had planned our time better so we could actually go swimming. Nonetheless we got our car returned and still managed to enjoy ourselves at the Marriott beach that afternoon. It was windy with plenty of waves, but perfect to cool off from the intense sun, and nice to not have to worry about a little girl in the sun, heat, and waves.

The water color was stunning!

I love how the water so distinctly changed from clear to dark blue.

After dinner Steve had to put his "free" money to work at the hotel's casino. I enjoyed watching him play blackjack and laugh as the older lady, who was clearly a regular, tried to tell him how to play.

Tuesday morning arrived and we got our last chance at the pool before packing our bags for the trip back home. We again witnessed the chaos that was customs in the Miami airport that we had seen just a few months earlier on our return from South America. Otherwise it was a smooth trip and we were starting to get quite anxious to get back home and see a certain someone! I was so thankful that we picked what seemed like just the right amount of time to be away from Emma. We got relaxing time to ourselves, had enough planned that we didn't sit around the whole time feeling guilty for not bringing her, and we knew she was in excellent hands, probably not even noticing we were gone. Our arrival home that night was after Emma's bedtime, but I of course had to sneak in her room and give her a squeeze and good night kiss.

It was good to be home, but it had been a great trip as well.

Safe to say Emma and Dakota had a great time and kept cool as well! 

Wow, this trip really was a long time ago - Emma looks tiny!

#TBT... Solo adventuring!

When in Belgium, eat waffles (thank goodness for that
morning run)!

I've decided to try and do a little catching up and share a few very overdue posts from travels taken over the last two years that have been temporarily overlooked amidst the chaos of daily life. Here's a look back at the first one...

Exactly a year ago I packed my bags (and only my bags) for a quick trip across the Atlantic to visit a great friend and her family from our time in Zurich. While Ann and I were only neighbors for a matter of months (a very busy few months for both of us at that), I could not be more thankful for that time that our paths crossed and I can only hope one day we will live closer together than opposite sides of the world again (unless of course that always means great travel destinations for each other). Anyways, after a year's stay in Zurich, Ann and her family moved to Dusseldorf, Germany, which provided me the perfect excuse to visit them as I had never been there. Steve and I initially contemplated making it a family trip, but ultimately settled on me going by myself. It was something neither of us do very often, but as the timing of the trip came at the end of a very busy time at work for me, it was the ideal short getaway for me to just relax by myself. Of course, when traveling halfway across the world for only a few nights it can be difficult to relax, but it can still be invigorating and good for the soul, which is exactly what this trip proved to be for me.

I miss this girl!

My plan was to make the best use of every single minute of time I had from Tuesday to Sunday to take the trip and I booked a flight leaving directly from work on Tuesday. I dropped off Emma at daycare before going to work (without fully telling her what was going on to avoid making her upset) and hoped my trip would go better than drop off when I forgot to bring her blanket and baby doll for nap time. However, for an instant I thought the whole trip was about to unravel while waiting at the gate and my name was called. I was told that our flight was delayed and it was almost guaranteed I would miss my connection and get stuck overnight in Philly. Fortunately though, my airline was kind enough to re-route me and get my luggage off and onto the plane at the neighboring gate within a matter of minutes so I could salvage my trip and stay relatively on schedule. The rest of the trip via Charlotte to Heathrow to Dusseldorf was seamless and just about as blissful as I had dreamed traveling without a toddler would be.

I was so excited and thankful to arrive in Dusseldorf the following day and to be greeted by Ann and the welcoming faces of her two sweet girls. While it had been about 18 months since we said goodbye to calling Zurich and Europe home, every familiarity of the German culture came racing back to me as soon as I arrived in the airport and it made me remember just how much I missed it. It was a short 15 minute drive from the airport to their home in a suburb of Dusseldorf and I was quickly treated like royalty staying in the "penthouse" suite of their gorgeous home. After spending some time just settling in and catching up a bit it quickly became evening and we headed to the nearby suburb of Rattingen for dinner where we met up with Ann's husband Dave for a typical German dinner of schnitzels and local brews. Ann and I were then spoiled for the first of many nights as Dave volunteered to take both girls home for bed so Ann could show me around downtown Dusseldorf at night. I enjoyed my private tour of the beautiful old city and we sat outside at a restaurant soaking in the evening with a few glasses of wine until it got late much too quickly.

I wish Naomi & Emma could live closer together - they would be such wonderful friends!

Whatever we were drinking was terrible, but it was the traditional drink in Dusseldorf that we could get at the "walk thru" window!

Beautiful view over the Rhein in the evening.

Thursday morning was a bit tough after having a lack of sleep the past two nights, but I was too eager to make the most of my time and knew well that there is never a shortage of coffee to be found in Europe. While Dave had to work most of the day, Ann and I took their youngest, Lucy, to old town with us for the morning after we dropped their oldest, Naomi, off at Kindergarten (more so the equivalent of U.S. preschool in terms of ages, except largely publicly funded and open to everyone).

We explored the old town more extensively by foot than we had the night before and meandered down the Rhein, a classic European fresh food market, St. Lambertus Church, enjoyed some yummy mandeltopf, German chocolates and quiche before heading back to their home to rest a little, skype with Emma (and Steve), and get ready for our drive to Bruges.

The streets of Dusseldorf along the Rhein river, oh how I had missed seeing the old German architecture.

The Rhein Tower

The drive to Bruges should have been under 3.5 hours, but ended up closer to 4 as we hit some heavy traffic (it was a three day holiday weekend). It was dark by the time we arrived to this medieval walled city and found our way to a great little Airbnb place in the heart of old town. In planning the trip Ann and I had debated for awhile what would make for a good weekend trip from Dusseldorf, and it quickly became clear to us that we were glad we picked this hauntingly beautiful city.

After unloading the car, Ann and I left Dave again with the girls to do a little late night exploring and of course enjoy a Belgium beer. While the city was relatively quiet with just small groups of people doing the same thing as ourselves, we had to laugh as we did see one full fledged tour group still going strong at 11 pm as the tour guide paraded down the near empty streets still carrying her flag to be sure her group could see her.

Loved this sign, and a pretty accurate description of Bruges.

The belfry (bell tower) of Bruges - the historical centre and prominent symbols of this medieval city.

Another beautiful Bruges church at night.

Once again Friday morning arrived quickly, especially as I was determined to get up early and get a short run in. The location did however encourage me to roll out of bed as I had found myself enamored with the city after just a few short hours exploring the night before. After seeing the sleepy streets it was fun to see them just awakening for the day as well. And as always, you never know what you will encounter when out running early in the morning, especially in different countries, and that day was no different as I got called a loser this particular morning!

After my run once we were all up and ready for the day to explore Bruges. We found our way to the Burg, the Basilica of the Holy Blood, the belfry, ate amazing waffles (they really do make them better), made our way into most every chocolate shop we stumbled upon, took a boat ride through the beautiful canals, had paninis, pasta and beer for lunch, found more chocolate shops, walked to the top of the belfry, ate fries (Belgium really knows a thing or two about food and drinks), saw the Begijnhof, admired beautiful horse carriages and swans, and ate more good food at dinner before feeling content about a well spent day in Bruges and needing to hit the road for the one hour drive to Antwerp.

Ready to explore Bruges in the daylight with little ones in tow!

Early morning view over the calm canal waters.

Burg Square

Basilica of the Holy Blood (under the crucifix is a man standing guard over the relic of what is said to be Jesus' blood). 

Provinciaal Hof (translation: a Gothic revived landmark) in the Grote Markt

A view around the Grote Markt...

View from the top of the belfry at a massive church in Bruges.

Gorgeous family in front of the belfry!

View along our boat ride in the canals

Many will argue whether the Swiss or Belgians do chocolate better. While I still don't know the right answer, I can assure you that the Belgians sure know how to have fun and make some gorgeous, whimsical chocolate displays.

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate.

Because who doesn't need some chocolate tools?

A lot of difficult decisions to be made there...

Loved the peace and tranquility to be found at the Begijnhof (the treehouses seen here were actually works of art as part of a temporary exhibit).

More canal views...

We arrived near dusk in Antwerp at another Airbnb apartment. It was a nice unit, but left us puzzled by the layout again. Our place in Bruges was a little odd with the non-adjacent, but private bathroom for the one bedroom apartment. However, this place in Antwerp was stranger. It was a 2 bed/1.5 bath unit. The funny thing is that the 1/2 bath was actually lacking a toilet, not a shower as one would assume. Making it even stranger was the fact then that to get to the full bathroom you had to walk through the master bedroom. And then to top it off was the fact that to access the beautiful patio one had to walk through the bathroom of the master bedroom! I guess this just goes to prove that it's not always possible to renovate 100+ year old buildings with modern designs... After noting all of the oddities of where we were staying Ann and I headed out again to do some late night exploring in Antwerp.

Saturday arrived and we set out to conquer Antwerp in less than a day as well. We explored the cathedral, Grote Markt, found more chocolate, ate as Belgian of a lunch we could get consisting of croquettes (fried food roll that can be filled with an assortment of things, but often includes shellfish, ground meat, potatoes or vegetables, cheese and a brown sauce), beef stew, fries and beer, saw the Vleeshuis, walked along the Scheldt river and enjoyed a good German favorite - apfelschorle before saying goodbye to Antwerp.

Cathedral of Our Lady and a monster french fry statue...

More views of the beautiful gothic Cathedral of Our Lady, which has never been fully completed after being started in the 1300's.

Another view of the cathedral, I just couldn't get enough.

Stunning gothic architecture

Antwerp City Hall was full of well-dressed brides and grooms this Saturday morning.

Just a few bikes...

And more elaborate chocolate displays...

This one is as silly as mine!

The two hour drive back to Dusseldorf was not all that different scenery wise from driving through many parts of the midwest except with signs in German. Upon arriving back at the Galiks home I was introduced to one of their favorite local pizza places, entertained by Naomi and Lucy's dancing to Frozen, and enjoyed my last evening staying up late talking with both Ann & Dave while treating ourselves to more chocolate than was good for us.

While I was not looking forward to Sunday as it meant my trip had come to an end, I couldn't wait to get home to Steve and Emma (note Emma did absolutely wonderful in my absence). I couldn't have asked for a better trip, but there certainly is something missing when I can't share my travels with some of my favorite people. Lucky for my favorite people though I packed carefully, which in this case meant I had an old pair of running shoes I could throw out if I was short of space for souvenirs. So what did I exchange an old pair of running shoes for you ask? Chocolate, a whole lot of chocolate, because that seems logical.

And just like that my solo trip was over. I discovered several new cities that one day I'll have to bring Steve back to, and I spent invaluable time with a dear friend. While some people might think my quick trip to somewhere so far away was a bit silly, it was just what I needed and so much more.

A very belated thank you again to my super hosts!