Fall Break Part 1

Well we've been living in Lux for 3 months now, and we are finally settled in. We moved into our house, got some new lighting and furniture, we bought a car. So what do we do? Head out of town for a week. The kids had a week off for Fall break, so on another road trip we went.

We drove north to Holland stopping first in Maastricht, one of its oldest cities. We stayed at the Kruisherenhotel, an old church converted into a super cool boutique hotel. Think original stained glass and ceiling frescos meet Philippe Starck. Highly recommend if you ever find yourself in Maastricht. Highly recommend Maastricht in general. My crappy iPhone photos don't do justice to this beautiful little city.

One of the things Maastricht is best known for is its casemates, underground tunnels built to house guns and canons. We spent one morning on a tour of the Caves of St. Pieter, a labyrinth of over 20,000 tunnels. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring all the little cobblestones alleyways, historic buildings, and cute shops. Again, my photos don't do justice.

                

Jackson and Sophia trying to blend in with the street art

Next stop...The Hague where we stayed with Rachel, one of our closest friends from Penn. She is a kick ass attorney locking up bad guys with the International Court Tribunal.

With Rachel!

Paleis Noordeinde

Park at Paleis Noordeinde

Vredespaleis (Peace Palace)

Biking on the streets of Den Haag

Day trip into Amsterdam...

Night Watch at the Rijks

iamsterdam

And we couldn't leave Holland without eating raw herring! The car smelled really great after...

From Holland, we drove to Dusseldorf, Germany. What fun Dan had on the Autobahn. He only wished he was driving his BMW rather than our family SUV. Unfortunately for him, we left it in Seattle.

Dusseldorf was another lovely city full of beauty and charm. Dan had to spend the day at the local office, so the kids and I walked along the Rhine from our hotel to Alstadt, the city's old town.

On the Rhine River

Silliness on the streets of Alstadt

I've heard strangers pay kids 1euro per cartwheel at this park.
We had no takers.

Sophia on the Rhine

For lunch, we enjoyed local dishes of Französische Maispoulardenbrust (grilled chicken breast with herbs, creamy mushroom sauce, and noodles), Knusprige Fischstäbchen (fried fish), and Bratwürstchen with Kartoffelpü (fried sausages with mashed potatoes) at Brauerei Zum Schiffchen. If you ever find yourself in Dusseldorf, this restaurant is worth the visit...delicious authentic German food and kid-friendly too! I'm not really a beer drinker, but I had to try the Altbier, a dark fermented beer made according to ancient Dusseldorf recipes. Dark and creamy but surprisingly clean and refreshing.

Yum

That evening, we drove 3 hours back home to Lux to rest up for a day before heading out on our next adventure...Paris! Stay tuned...

Happy Birthday Dan!

Dan turned the big 4-0 this month. The celebrations began with a dinner at Toit Pour Toi, a delicious French restaurant in Schouweiler, just outside Luxembourg City. We enjoyed a fantastic meal - lobster, foie gras ravioli, cotriade (French bouillabaisse), buttery seared sea scallops, chevre, brie...not to mention the dessert quartet captured below - that was decadent and rich, just how we like it. At one point, Dan told me to lower my voice, because I was saying "mmmm....yummm" with every bite. The decor was also amazing. The dining room is a beautifully converted barn that feels both rustic and elegant. And it's quite big and airy but manages to feel dark, romantic, cozy, and warm at the same time.

Toit Pour Toi Birthday Desserts

Toit Pour Toi was our 2nd Michelin-starred restaurant in Lux so far. The first was Le Bouquet Garni, another French restaurant right in Luxembourg City. Did you know that Luxembourg has more Michelin-starred restaurants per capita than any other country in the world? Of course, Lux is a tiny little country with just over 500,000 residents. But that still gives us 11 restaurants. Our plan is to hit every one of them in 2 years. 2 down, 9 to go. We will be eating very well.

To celebrate with the kids, we made a raclette dinner at home, a favorite from Dan's childhood. We bought him a raclette grill as one of his birthday presents. This particular machine is amazing because it comes with a cast iron grill and natural stone cooktop. Not sure how authentic Swiss it is, but we were able to grill filet skewers and lobster and crab to go along with our raclette, so we were happy!

Birthday festivities continued with breakfast in bed the next morning...a family tradition. Dan requested egg, rice, and sardines. I think the Tans are rubbing off on him!

Happy birthday, love!

Let There Be Light!

Most rentals in Luxembourg City come unfurnished. You're probably thinking to yourself "Well, that's not something to write about". But it is. Because by unfurnished, I mean UNFURNISHED. We were lucky to have kitchen cabinets and a couple of closets. What we didn't have was light fixtures. At first, it wasn't a huge deal because the weather was sunny and there was plenty of natural light. But as soon as fall set in, it was dark. It was gray. Seattle gray. (I guess Amazon likes to maintain headquarters in dreary cities.) So a light shopping we went. And by "we", I mean "I". Dan's version of light shopping is every so often yelling "It's so dark in here. Buy some damn lights already. Just get it done." If it were up to him, he would have gone to Hornbach (Luxembourg's answer to Home Depot) and bought 20 of the same pendant and stuck them in every room.

But I wasn't going to let that happen. I didn't want to look at ugly mismatched lighting for two years. And it gave me an excuse to further explore all the wonderful shopping Europe has to offer. It was a huge project. But somebody had to do it. The great thing about many of the home furnishing stores here is that they are combined with women's clothing departments. Smart. So it would go something like this. Wall sconce for upstairs hallway...shoes for me...dining room pendants....sweater for me...and so on. We needed 4 wall sconces and 12 ceiling lights. I was really missing my more design-savvy friends back in Seattle during this endeavor. But I got it done. Just in time for Dan's birthday. That was one of the items on his birthday wish list. Really. "Light" was actually at the top of his wish list.

Terrible iPhone shot of entry hallway lighting...
hoping it's enough to entice any would be visitors

Chez Wright is officially open for business. Please visit!