Today is a travel day. We will drive to France today, but we now plan to make stops in Belgium and Luxembourg. It’s a bit ambitious, but we’re feeling ready for some adventure.

//Stefan Note: In the morning, not at night

It took two hours to get up and out this morning. Really want to shorten that time. 

//Stefan Note: Stefan feels good about that time.

We drove to Belgium, headed toward the Fantome Brewery in Soy. The brewer, Dany, was kind to return our emails and let us know this would be a very busy brewing day for him. Because he works alone, he wouldn’t have any time to show us around. We still wanted to see it and eat lunch at a nearby restaurant he recommended. The kids were wonderful, and again they were entertained for a couple hours without the ipad. That makes me happy.

I cannot express the beauty of the Belgium countryside. While the Fantome beer is special and worth the trip, I actually think the best part was getting off the beaten path for awhile. Over an hour of our drive was through small towns and countryside. It was exceptional.

So Oly gets carsick. A lot. Luckily he’s only vomited once so far on this trip. Woohoo. But today was rough on him.

//Stefan Note: to CPS, The blue on his lips is him eating markers, not that he’s that car sick.

There were lots of twists and turns on our drive and he started feeling super sick. We just pulled over and gave him some time to work it out (and potentially vomit in the grass rather than all over himself in the car seat). It apparently worked! Phew.

//Stefan Note: Special Belgium Eurocup edition

We had lunch at La Command’Rie, which Dany recommended. They had a few of his beers, and the even let us order by the glass! The “devilish” one was brewed with paprika and was super good. The other tasted sweeter and slightly of apricots. Both were a treat. And the food was incredible! Lillian, Oly and I deemed it our favorite meal of the trip thus far. I think this says good things about our time in France!

//Stefan Note: Stefan trying to look sad enough into the window to see if Dany will come out and pour me a beer. He did come out and say hi and apologize for not opening, he really was one dude brewing all that beer.

We stopped by the brewery just to peer inside the windows and take a few pictures. Sad we missed the chance to take a tour. I guess that just means we’ll have to come back sometime!

The weather is similar to the past few days, raining on and off. Again the rain comes in heavy floods and then subsides to beautiful skies. I love it.  Maybe because we have been so lucky to not get caught outside in it. 

Next we drive to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. I will be honest and say I know nothing about Luxembourg. So why not visit it. We read a few pages out of my Lonely Planet guidebook and set out to explore for and hour or two. We walked into the old town. There was a lot of construction. So much that it changed the ambiance for sure.

But we finally found the old city wall that you can walk along. Wow. Just wow. This wall is super old and overlooks more of the city below, with a river and an old bridge that has been there since the 1200s. It was breathtaking. The only stressful part was my concern the kids would launch themselves over the edge. It’s just a straight wall. A bit scary. But we survived.

We stopped at an incredible cheese shop for sandwiches in the car (aka dinner) and headed out. 2 more hours of driving to Reims. The drive was pretty easy. We gave up and gave the kids the ipads.

We arrived in Reims around 8pm. The Airbnb is amazing! Lillian has been talking about this one for months, so she started jumping up and down when she realized she finally got to sleep in the bed with the slide. Forget seeing the world. All you really need is a bed with a slide, apparently.

There’s a sweet little backyard as well. Everyone was very happy. I still don’t know how far we are from the city center, but based on how we exited the freeway, it seems we are much closer than we were in Cologne. We’ve made a plan for seeing as much as possible while we are here for just two days. Now if only the kids will go to sleep so we can get some rest!