Musings

A potpurri of observations:

-I don’t think I want to be away from kids for any longer than 11 days. This trip was just about right for truly getting away, but we love them so much and want to get back. It will be very interesting to evolve in the coming years to traveling with them. It will be be exciting and cumbersome and rewarding and annoying. I can’t wait.

-Bruges is really neat. It’s also a lot like Venice. But there is a focus on beer, chocolate, and waffles. 

-For someone borderline conversational in French, fluent in English, and with zero Dutch/Flemish, it is entirely unclear what language to speak in Bruges, but they don’t care, and they generally all speak flawless English, eventually.

-The USWNT fan base is my favorite rabid/crazy fan base. They’re obnoxious in similar ways to other fans (think college football), and a tiny bit desperate to prove the legitimacy of their fandom (think all U.S. soccer), but they are tirelessly positive. They also travel by the thousands across the ocean to support the most bad ass women athletes the world has ever seen, and I am fiercely proud to have marched with them while shouting out for equal pay one minute and singing America the Beautiful the next. 

-Soccer matches in Europe with an engaged and invested crowd are the best sporting events. We felt it in Barcelona 5 years ago, and we felt in Paris this week. My parents commented on the wall of noise that hits you when the home team scores. They sing, they chant, and when they really find their voices, you feel it in your core.

-Stephanie really likes the France women’s world cup jerseys. She’s not totally wrong.

-There’s like a secret code for getting free water in French restaurants, which is basically ask for it in a carafe.

-Brussels midi train station, confusingly, is not the same as Brussels centrale train station, but instead is the same as Brussels south train station.

-Paris is a completely different place during the summer tourist season than in the Fall or Spring, and all of them are wonderful. This time around, everything seemed about 10x as crowed as our prior visits, but the parks were full of life, both with green trees and flowers, and with people enjoying every inch of available park space. The city was full of people and full of energy. For our first several days there, the weather was ideal, which made walking everywhere and staying up late a real pleasure. The brutal heat of our last few days served to offset the overall positive experience of summer in Europe.

-In June, in northern Europe, it’s hard to stay up until it’s dark, but it’s totally worth it for the glowing lights and the youthful energy on the streets.

-When traveling in Europe, we like to live like the locals do. That's actually not really true. But what we do like to do is try out weird snacks that locals (maybe?) eat. Especially weird flavors of potato chips.