Fancy hotel? Count me in.

At the end of March, Jim had to go to Brussels to close a deal. He was staying at the Conrad which is one of the high end Hilton Hotels. Although I have already seen Brussels, Sabine has not so we decided to tag along.

We left on a Thursday afternoon and didn’t get into Brussels until about 3:30. Jim and his coworker, Ross, had to go to a meeting right away so Sabine and I got settled in the room.

We had reserved a baby cot so the hotel had a teddy bear for Sabine along with some tasty almond cookies for us. The hotel also provided a diaper changing pad and bottle warmer. I doubt that they get too many kids but they were quite prepared.


When I saw the hotel, I was glad that I had tagged along. The hotel was located on the large leafy Louisa Boulevard sandwiched between high end shops and restaurants. The room was really big by European standards and even had a nespresso machine so we could make espressos in the morning. That was definitely Jim’s favorite perk of the hotel.


In case you were wondering what 8 euro Pringles look like, see below.


After settling into the room and checking out the room’s amenities, I decided to seek out Le Pain Quotidian for a very late lunch. I figured that it would be a fairly child friendly place. Thankfully there was one just down the street.

It was the perfect time to be there as the restaurant was almost completely empty. They have great salads, soups and open faced sandwiches and wonderful bread of course since the restaurant’s origin was as a bakery.

After lunch, the sun was peeking through a little and I decided to take the opportunity to go down to Le Grand Place to get some photos with a bit of sunlight. We were in Belgium so I didn’t know if we’d see the sun again.

On the way to the Grand Place we stopped at a little park with a fountain which Sabine found very entertaining. We eventually got kicked out when they closed the park at 5:00.


There was some bribery with cookies to get her to leave. What? Did I say I’d never use food to bribe my child? I think that must have been someone else who said that.


The last time we were in Brussels, there was an event happening in the Grand Place and the lights and bleacher seating marred the photos. I was happy to get some pictures of the Grand Place with Sabine and sans bleachers.


We walked back up to the hotel and met up with Jim and Ross after their meeting to venture out for dinner. Jim and I walked around for about 30 minutes to get Sabine to sleep in her stroller and then we enjoyed a great meal at a small little restaurant tucked around the corner of the hotel while Sabine slept snug as a bug in her Bugaboo.

The next day, Jim ran out to get some croissants and baguettes from Paul which is a bakery chain throughout France and Belgium. We boycotted the obscene 38 euro hotel breakfast and enjoyed some pastries to go with our hotel room espressos.

The next day I decided to thoroughly enjoy the room rather than getting out right away. I’d realized the day before that I really saw all of the things to see in Brussels. Plus it isn’t often that while Sabine sleeps during her nap, I actually relax. So for the 90 minutes while Sabine slept instead of doing dishes, laundry or cleaning, I took a bath and read a book in bed. It felt amazingly decadent.

After Sabine woke up, we ventured out and went back to the park with the fountain before going to a different Pain Quotidian for lunch. Yes, I know it is boring to eat at the same restaurant two days in a row and a chain restaurant at that. However, eating out with a toddler isn’t relaxing so if I know the restaurant has a highchair and I won’t have to spend time looking at a menu, I’m all over it. Gone are the days when I do extensive research on the restaurant scene of a city. Now my main criteria are a highchair, room for the stroller and if I’m really lucky, a diaper changing table in the bathroom.

After another tasty lunch, we walked past the Palais Royal to the Parc de Bruxelles where Sabine chased pigeons and attempted to sample the local dirt, rocks and wood chips.


Jim and Ross closed their deal and we all went out for a beer to celebrate and to give Sabine a chance to fall asleep before we went out for dinner. I had spotted a street with a number of restaurants on the way down to the Grand Place the night before so we headed there. We ended up at a restaurant where I was the only woman and Sabine was the only child so we got a few stares when we walked in. The couple next to us kept picking in the stroller to see Sabine. It was almost as if they’d never seen a child before.

We headed home after another breakfast in the room the next day. Unfortunately, it was probably the nicest day Brussels had all year so we hated to leave.

Sunny Spain

Jim had Monday, March 6th off for Carnival so we decided to take advantage of holiday by going to Barcelona.

This was Jim’s first time to Barcelona and Spain for that matter. I had been to Barcelona but it was back in 1993 when I did a semester of college in Seville. I loved Barcelona the first time I saw it and I loved it just as much this time.

Sabine slept the whole flight so that part of the trip was easy. We had bought a bottle of wine in duty free just in case it was a nightmare and we needed some vino once we arrived.

While the subway system is pretty easy to navigate in Barcelona, it is not stroller or roller bag friendly so the trip to our rented apartment was accompanied by lots of swearing on Jim’s part.

I had booked a two bedroom apartment (everyone sleeps better if Sabine has her own room) in the El Born district. El Born (a.k.a. La Ribera) is known for its winding pedestrian streets that are littered with restaurants, bars and boutiques. The area is a perfect home base for exploring Barcelona.

The check in to our apartment that evening was almost comical. As we approached the apartment, a guy speed walking past us, shouted “Habitat Apartments” over his shoulder as he continued walking. It took me a few moments to realize what he said and that he was talking to us. When I said, “Yes”, he didn’t even slow down or turn around but continued his speed walking to the apartment.

The guy went through the check in so quickly that we assumed he was either really late for another check-in or was taking speed. He was so frantic that he almost left without taking our money. Of course, Jim being Mr. Ethical, reminded him.

The apartment was disappointingly dingy but I hadn’t been expecting too much. From the pictures online, the apartment looked basic. However, the pictures must have been old because the place was a lot more run down. We have had the worst luck lately with deceiving photos in holiday apartments.

That night Jim ran out to get some pizza slices to enjoy along with our duty free wine while I got Sabine to bed.

The next morning, Sabine obviously didn’t get the memo that nobody gets going until after 10:00 in Spain because she was up at her usual – 5:15.

Our plan for the first day was to wander through El Born, Barrio Gothic and the long pedestrian street known as Las Ramblas. We were lucky enough to have sunny skies and 60 degree weather.

We first visited the Santa Maria del Mar cathedral that was just around the corner from our apartment. I quickly realized that I had brought the wrong camera lens with me and much to Jim’s chagrin, I ran back to get a different lens for the day.

Our next stop was the main Cathedral in the Barrio Gothic. It was under construction as many old churches are so the pictures weren’t all that great.

As we explored the Barrio Gothic, we found a little bakery on Ferran a few blocks off of Las Ramblas. We had the best croissants we’ve ever eaten and we found ourselves going back in to the bakery three times to get more croissants and bread. The name of the bakery was El Fornet and we went back every day to get a post breakfast croissant and to pick up great bocadillos (sandwiches) for the road.

After gorging ourselves on croissants, we stumbled across Plaça Reial: a pretty little plaza lined with cafes and palm trees. On that day, there was an antique coin and stamp market in the middle of the square as well as a photo shoot. We stopped for a quick espresso before continuing on to explore Las Ramblas.

Las Ramblas looked a lot like Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence. It is a wide tree lined street with a large pedestrian walkway in the middle. There were some vendors selling leather goods, jewelry and artwork near the end closest to the water. After I made a few purchases, we headed to the Columbus monument to check out the harbor.

We walked back up Las Ramblas to look for a spot for lunch. Luckily Sabine had fallen asleep so we figured we might actually get a long relaxing lunch. Since it was only 12:30, we found a restaurant named Arcano that was completely empty in the Barrio Gothic. They had a three course meal for only 15 euro that included a glass of wine. We enjoyed a great lunch of pumpkin walnut risotto and Thai Dorado. Sabine didn’t wake up until we were finishing our coffees. The wait staff was nice enough to cut up a bowl of fruit for Sabine and we had saved some of our lentil soup appetizer for her.

After lunch, we decided Sabine needed to get some exercise so we headed to the Parc de la Ciutadella which was on the other side of El Born. The day was perfect for relaxing in the park and lots of other families had that same idea.

We stopped at two different playgrounds to let Sabine play before walking up the Arc de Triomf to stop for an almond magnum bar.

We headed back to the apartment hoping Sabine would take her second nap. The nap didn’t happen but we all rested for a bit.

Once it was dark, we went for a walk hoping Sabine would fall asleep in the stroller so we could enjoy some tapas for dinner. After about 5 laps of the El Born neighborhood, we were about to give up. Just as we were headed to the grocery store to pick up a pizza, she fell asleep.

On our many laps around the neighborhood, I had scouted out an upscale tapas restaurant that looked like it wasn’t too busy and was roomy enough for a stroller. The restaurant was Lonjas de Tapas and had outstanding tapas. It was by far the best tapas I’ve ever had. We got a plate of grilled calamari with garlic and parsley which was amazing.

Jim and I fell in love with Spanish wines on this trip. Whatever we ordered was excellent. Even the house reds by the glass were great and cheap (always a winning combo).

Our second day in Barcelona was our Gaudi day meaning we were going to go see most of the modernist Gaudi buildings. Gaudi’s most famous work is La Sagrada Familia which was started in the late 1800s and is still under construction. Jim’s running joke for the day was that every time he saw a building designed by Antoni Gaudi he would say, “Wow that building is really gaudy.” It seemed to entertain him to no end. He even laughed at the joke again, when he read through my blog.

After our daily stop at el Fornet to get our croissant and sandwich fix, we stopped at the market, Mercat de la Boquieria.

We got a coffee at a stand since Sabine wasn’t sleeping so a sit down coffee wasn’t going to be very relaxing. I had to take a picture of this poor pig below. It was bad enough that he was killed but then they irreverently put a baseball hat on him.

We decided against taking public transportation up to La Sagrada Familia and walked up Passeig Gracia to see some of Gaudi’s other buildings as well as some other modernist architecture.

Passeig Gracia was a gorgeous tree lined avenida with high end shops and ornate lampposts. We both decided that we could very happily live in Barcelona while walking down this street.

We stopped at the ubiquitous Desigual to do a little shopping and stopped for a coffee/ bathroom break.

We decided against going into Casa Batillo or Casa Mila as Sabine was awake and a bit antsy. Seeing the outside architecture was enough for both of us.

Between Casa Mila and La Sagrada Familia, we found a playground and let Sabine play for a while before finding a tourist trap hole in the wall near the church to give Sabine some lunch. She wasn’t very interested in the ham and cheese sandwich we ordered for her and I don’t blame her.

Instead of waiting in a long line to see La Sagrada Familia and the construction zone that it continues to be, we played in the playground right in front of the church.

Since Jim and I hadn’t had lunch at the restaurant near La Sagrada Familia, we found a great tapas place on the way home on Ramblas Catalunya. Again we had a server who was so friendly and nice to Sabine even though it wasn’t really a kid’s restaurant.

About 2 blocks before we got back to the apartment, Sabine fell asleep and we were “forced” to stop at a restaurant for a few glasses of wine while she slept.

We were so tired from walking all day that Jim and I decided it would be a frozen pizza night back at the apartment. Neither of us had the energy to walk around for 40 minutes trying to get Sabine to sleep so we could have dinner.

We didn’t really have a plan for our last day in town. We made a stop at our favorite bakery and then did a little shopping.

We enjoyed the tapas so much at Lonjas de Tapas that we stopped at their sister restaurant near the Picasso museum. Sabine was awake for this lunch but she did pretty well. She tried a bunch of our tapas including calamari, octopus and beef tenderloin with foie gras (sorry, Stacy). She only really liked the foie gras and tenderloin.

After lunch we went back to the Cuitella park so Sabine could play before we had to get on the plane to go home. After 90 minutes of playing on the swings and slide, we headed back to El Borne to wander around so that Sabine could take another nap.

To end our marvelous mini vacation, we stopped at Cellar de Tapas for some vino and our last plate of Patatas Bravas.

On our way back to the apartment to pick up our luggage I felt something hit my head. I didn't realize that it was actually bird poop until we got to the airport. Jim said that it was a sign of good luck. If you consider having a screaming, wriggly baby on a two hour flight good luck, then the old wives tale is true.

I’ve decided never to try saving a few euros by taking a later flight. I thought that because it was a late flight, Sabine would sleep. Unfortunately there was no sleep and we just ended up with a tired and very cranky toddler. However, three or four hours of pain was well worth the amazing time we had in Barcelona.

Liège Market

On a dreary Sunday in Bonn, we decided last minute to drive to Belgium and hit the Liège market. Some friends of ours go there pretty regularly and recommended it. I think for them it is an opportunity to speak French and do some shopping on a Sunday.

Jim had been suggesting a day trip to Liège for the last year. My trepidation regarding a visit to Liège was based largely on the fact that my father went to Liege for work. Since he was an industrial appraiser, he usually visited heavily industrialized cities which tended not to be very scenic unless of course you consider smokestacks to be good scenery.

However, the idea of going to one of the largest markets in Belgium and eating some good French food won me over.

We got a later start than planned so by the time we arrived both Jim and Sabine were ravenous and we needed to find a place to eat pronto. We picked the first place that looked like it had enough space for us and the stroller. Ross and Myriam came to meet us at the restaurant. Lunch was really tasty but the service was very slow. By the time we were done with lunch, the market was closing up.

I wasn’t planning to buy anything so it didn’t really bother me. Plus it was so cold and blustery that day that sitting in a warm restaurant was preferable to wandering around the market in my opinion.

After speeding through what was left of the market, we stopped at a park to let the kids play before getting back in the car to head back to Bonn.

Sabine loves to spin. I, however, started to get sick after about 10 minutes of spinning.

All in all, it was a pretty ok way to spend a Sunday but I'd rather go back when the weather is better. Maybe the city won't look so dreary if the sun is out. The city seemed to lack a lot of charm. Here's Ross, Eloise and I posing in front of a scrap metal barge.

The next time I find myself complaining about the dreary weather in Bonn, I’ll have to remember that it could be worse; we could be living in Belgium

A nice little weekend trip - Wuerzberg

After being back from the States for a few weeks, I started to get the urge to get outta Dodge. Not that Bonn isn’t nice but our weekends all look the same. I go grocery shopping and run other errands child free on Saturdays and Jim goes for a long bike ride on Sunday. So we decided to go to Wuerzburg for Valentine’s Day weekend. That way, we both can say that the trip is our present to each other and the fact that we didn’t get each other anything (not even cards) won’t seem so lame.

Wuerzburg had been on our list to see for a while. We had driven by the town on numerous trips down to Munich. We even stopped for dinner once on our drive back from Rothenburg with my mom and sister.

We left Friday night close to Sabine’s bedtime so she slept the entire way down to Wuerzburg. We stayed at Hotel Alter Kranen (Old Crane) which was a nice family run hotel that had the advantage of providing a free breakfast and had available parking. It was located along the River Main (pronounced like “mine”) and was named after the old crane that was located next to the river. The crane was originally constructed to lift large crates of Franconian wines onto boats and was human powered. The friendly lady at breakfast told us how the men would power the crane like hamsters on a wheel. She seemed to take great pleasure in comparing the men to hamsters - some marital discord perhaps?

First on our agenda was the Residenz Palace. It was billed as the Franconian Versailles. We had hoped to complete the tour while Sabine slept but the Residenz didn’t allow strollers. We decided that waking a sleeping baby to go into a museum was a bad idea so we decided to return when she woke up and catch the 3:00 English tour.

In the meantime, we stopped for some cappuccinos and did some shopping. Every time Jim and I shop together, he has the best luck finding things whereas I seem to have some really bad shopping mojo when I’m with him. This trip he found two really great jackets that were both on sale and my lone purchase of the trip was a box of tampons.

Our next stop was the old bridge to check out the views of the Marienberg Fortress on the hill across the river from Wuerzburg. The Fortress was the original home of the Prince-Bishops before they moved into town and began living in the Residenz.

We noticed that there was a nice restaurant in a converted mill on the bridge called Alte Mainmühle. We made a reservation for lunch and took Sabine back to the hotel to give her some freedom from the stroller for about 40 minutes before we had to be back at the restaurant.

Lunch was very good. I can definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Wuerzberg. It would be a great place to have lunch in the summer as they have a deck overlooking the river and the Marienberg Fortress. Sabine did pretty well at the restaurant and she seemed to really enjoy my whitefish with lentils and balsamic reduction (too much actually, I didn’t like having to share so much of my delicious lunch).

After lunch we headed back to the Residenz for our tour. Thankfully the museum had strollers that you could use in place of your stroller so we weren’t forced to try to hold a wriggling 14 month old while walking through the Residenz.

According to the tour the palace is famous for two reasons. First it contains the largest fresco in Europe. It was painted by Giovanni Tiepolo so the Residenz is a popular tourist stop for Italians. They are generally not too happy that he happened to paint his largest fresco in Wuerzberg and not in Italy somewhere. He apparently finished the fresco in record time, allegedly because he thought it was too cold, dark and gray in Germany and wanted to get back to his sun-kissed homeland.

The second reason that the Residenz is well known is the fact that it was the first building that Johann Balthasar Neumann ever built. He was actually never trained as an architect but it was his hobby. His work was criticized by other architects who claimed that his domes would never last. However, the domed sections of the building were the only ones to survive the WWII bombs and the remainder of the Residenz had to be reconstructed. The cost of one of the more elaborate rooms was 3 million euro.

Unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures so I didn't get any good photos of the Residenz. Wikipedia has a few pictures of the Residenz if you are interested to see what it looks like.

After our tour we wandered around the gardens and then went in search of wine. If we were going to have to be back in the hotel room at Sabine’s bedtime, we figured we might as well enjoy a bottle of wine in our hotel bed while watching a DVD on our computer.

We found a great little winebar/ shop right on the old bridge cleverly called Main Wein (pronounced Mine Vine in German) after the Main River. We sampled a few red wines while Sabine slept and bought a few Franconian reds to take with us.

We didn't want to press our luck after having a nice lunch so for dinner we were looking for something fast. We stumbled across a Pakistani place that had a buffet and decided that would be our best option. Like her father, Sabine is a big fan of tandoori chicken.

Although we had planned to drink wine and watch a DVD in the room, by the time we got Sabine to bed we were tired ourselves so we just went to bed extremely early.

The next morning was quite foggy and a bit rainy. We went out for a coffee to see if it would clear up before we headed up to the Marienburg fortress. We considered walking up to the fortress but fast way up had stairs. The meandering route through the vinyards was a 3 hour round trip and would have been nice on a beautiful day but the weather was cold and drizzly.

We decided to check out the area around the University and look for a restaurant for lunch. As it was Sunday, all the shops were closed and the area around the University was quite dead. We ended up finding a great playground for Sabine to play on for a while before lunch.

We had a relaxing lunch at a little Italian place where the Italian waiters and other guests all fawned over Sabine before driving up to the Marienberg Fortress.

The Fortress has been converted into two separate museums. We simply walked around the fortress and took in the great views of Wuerzberg while Sabine ran around tiring herself out before the 2 hour drive back home.

Wuerzberg was a great little town. Of course we found ourselves saying that it would be so much prettier in the summer. Why is it that we always take these small trips during the dead of winter?

I think the Residenz was the highlight of the city for both Jim and me but Sabine was more excited by the shower in the hotel room. Her favorite game was climbing into the shower and being separated from us by the glass shower doors.

Move over Maastricht, Utrecht tops the Netherland charts

A few weekends ago, we went to Utrecht for a three day weekend. (Yes, I know that a lot of my blogs start this way but blogging and babies don’t mix so I’m always a few weeks or months behind.) It was All Saints Day on Monday so we decided to take advantage of the extra long weekend.

My friend, Sheila, had raved about the town. Utrecht was known as a mini Amsterdam with lots of canals and a large, lively student population.

I was able to book a great hotel (http://www.karelv.nl/en) at a discounted rate since I planned the trip last minute. The hotel had very large rooms by European standards. It was actually an old monastery located on a small compound with gardens, a wellness center and two restaurants, one of which had a Michelin star.

We arrived at the hotel very late on Friday night thanks to some terrible traffic Jim encountered on his way back from the Dusseldorf airport.

On Saturday we woke up bright and early thanks to Sabine. However, it was nice to have a leisurely morning and enjoy a wonderful breakfast in the gorgeous dining room of the hotel.

We walked into the pedestrian only part of town to do some shopping after our breakfast. The town felt like a combination of Bruges and Maastricht. It had the quaint canals and architecture of Bruges and great shopping like Maastricht.

Utrecht isn’t really a city with a ton of sights and for that reason isn’t on the typical tourist route. It is simply a quaint town with lots of great shopping, some good food and friendly Dutch people.

While shopping, I found a bag that I loved. However, not to be impulsive, I thought I’d look around a bit more before buying it. I shopped for another hour before deciding that I needed to go back and get the bag and matching wallet. Unfortunately, as I walked back into the store, a woman had my bag on her shoulder and was checking herself out in the mirror. While I waited for the woman to put it down, I pretended to look at other bags. I pointed out some of the other bags features to Jim, hoping to lure her away from the bag that was meant to be mine. Unfortunately, she wasn’t swayed and as she walked up to the counter, I asked a sales woman in vain whether they had another bag like that one. Lesson learned. When I find something I really like, I should just buy it because lots of shops in Europe have limited stock.

After the shops closed, we got some frites before heading back to the hotel to let Sabine burn off some energy. We watched some TV in bed waiting for Sabine to pass out so we could go to dinner. We almost decided to skip dinner and just go to bed since it was already a bit late. However, we rallied and found a decent French bistro which had great oysters.

On a Saturday night, the streets were teeming with students heading to bars and restaurants on their bikes. Some of the streets already had their Christmas lights up and it gave the canals a romantic feeling.

The next day was rainy so we were in no hurry to check out. We had a relaxing morning and then hit the deserted town.

Our first stop was the Dom which originally was a Catholic church. Unfortunately, it had converted to a Protestant church so the interior of the church wasn’t anything special.

Next on our list was a boat tour of the canals. It was a pretty nice tour except that the rain prevented us from taking any photos.

We had a nice lunch back at the hotel in the brassiere. We had tried to get a reservation for the night before but it was completely filled so we made a reservation for lunch. The atmosphere was better than the food but it was still a nice relaxing lunch before heading home to Bonn.

First Emergency Room Visit

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to experience a visit to the emergency room in Germany. As far as emergency rooms go, this was a pretty painless visit in all respects.

For a few weeks I had what looked like an infected hang nail. However, on our trip to Portugal, the finger took a turn for the worse and became really swollen and painful. When we returned, I finally went to the doctor. He put me on some antibiotics but told me to go to the emergency room by Saturday if it wasn't any better.

Jim and I decided to go early in the morning to avoid the crowds. The Elisabeth Krankenhaus is only about 7 blocks away so we walked there. We were surprised to find the hospital virtually empty. I guess the times I have been to the emergency room (and was actually conscious when I arrived) the hospital was chaotic with long wait times. Here in Bonn, there are a number of small hospitals in the area so rather than everyone ending up at the same hospital, the emergency patients are spread out. Or maybe since Germans seem to be more law abiding, there are fewer "misunderstandings" involving knives, guns and other weapons.

Somehow I was surprised that I wasn't required to fill out any paperwork before seeing the doctor. I don't know why that surprised me because it really isn't any different than seeing the doctor or dentist here in Germany. They take your name and address and trust you at your word that you'll pay the bill. I guess since most everyone else has the public insurance, there are very few people who have private insurance so it doesn't pose that great of a financial risk.

The procedure itself was pretty quick. The doctor simply had to cut open my finger and release some of the infection juices (not really a medical term but doesn't sound as gross as pus) out. I had to go back every day for a week for the doctor to check the wound for infection and every day the hospital was just as empty. I'm not sure I'd want to go to that hospital for a gunshot wound or something serious because the doctors don't seem to get a lot of practice with emergencies.

Here's a picture of me with my injured finger.

No- I'm not giving you the finger, just showing it to you.

Thankfully, Jim and Sylvia were around for a few days after this because one handed diaper changing is a little challenging.

Lisbon - Gritty, Tasty and Cheap

Our trip to Lisbon was a lot of firsts. It was Sabine’s first trip with her grandparents, Sabine’s first cold, her parents' first cold with a baby and Sabine’s first projectile vomit (um, make that first 2 projectile vomits).

It was great to have Sylvia’s help on the plane. Jim is generally more interested in the International Tribune than helping me wrangle a wiggly baby. Sabine wasn’t too bad on the flight but since she doesn’t sit still, a three hour long flight is still pretty exhausting.

Once we got into Lisbon, we hopped into a cab to get to the apartment. Thankfully the cabbie spoke French so Jim was able to do the talking. Not so surprisingly my one year of Portuguese in college didn’t do me any good. Bom dia was about all I could remember from my hazy college days.

Sabine cried the entire cab ride because she was hungry. I had read that cab drivers may try to rip you off but I don’t think that was an issue for us. I think the cabbie was happy to get us there via the quickest route to get rid of a screaming baby.

Our apartment was up a narrow, little walkway that was accessible only by foot. Of course that didn't stop a few cars from squeezing though.

When we arrived to meet the management company employees for the keys, the cleaning woman was there. We weren't sure what she exactly cleaned since the floors seemed to be really dirty. I'm not sure if it was her dark hair we found all over the apartment or the previous renters.

Unfortunately for Jim Sr. and Sylvia, they got the smallest room I've ever seen. You could barely walk between the wall and the bed. Although if I had to choose between that and the room next to Sabine's bed, I'd go for the small room too.


The apartment was located in the Alfama district which is up the hill from the historic downtown area near the St. George castle. The Alfama is made up of tiny, steep cobble stone streets.

Although at first glance it is a bit gritty, you really get the vibe of the city. At night you can hear all the noises of the city: the fado music emanating from the multitude of fado bars and restaurants in the area; people leaning out of their windows to talk to people or shopkeepers in the street; mothers calling their children back home.

After seeing the tiny grocery stores in Lisbon, I can no longer complain about the size and limited supply of my neighborhood stores in Bonn. After our first couple of visits to various mini stores, we decided that we wouldn’t be cooking dinners at the apartment but rather taking turns going to restaurants in the neighborhood.

After our unsuccessful shopping expedition, next on our agenda was to get information about the city bus tours and get some lunch. We started walking to the Praca do Comercio, a large square along the Rio Tejo. Lisbon is only about 10k from the sea, the city is actually along the River Tejo.

We started walking along the street that ran along the river but there was too much construction and it wasn’t a very pretty street. One block in wasn’t much better as there was construction there as well, but we did find a little restaurant with a nice patio and we figured if the construction didn’t bother the other patrons, a noisy baby wouldn’t either.

We had a few mishaps with the high chair at the restaurant. They had one that actually slips on to the table. We put a chair behind and under her for protection but Sabine just used the seat of the chair to stand up and the high chair would come off of the table. The waiter apparently had seen plenty of children do this so helped us get her resettled. The next incident happened mid meal when I noticed Sabine slipping out of the chair. We realized that there was no strap between the legs of this chair. Thankfully we were paying attention and any real injury was averted.

After lunch we went to the Praca do Comercio to check out the Tourist Information office. It was actually a little bus that was parked in the square. The girl who was manning the bus was obviously ready to end her day as she didn’t really want to sell us bus tickets and gave us some misinformation regarding the tour starting point.


In the same square as the Ask Me Lisbon Bus, was a Portugal Wine Information Center that advertised a “free” tasting. Of course, nothing is ever truly free. They first went through a short introduction of 3 different wine producing areas in Portugal: Alentajo; Dao; and Algarve.

Before any tasting happened, we had to pick two wines to taste and fill out a marketing form rating the wine’s label, appearance and then also give them feedback about the wines once you had tasted them. We all tried four wines and only one of those was really good. It was the first one I tried. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of the wines they sell so we left empty handed.

After Sabine was fed and in bed, Jim and I explored the neighborhood and got a bite to eat. We ended up at a restaurant just a few doors down from our apartment. The waiter was very friendly and spoke English. We sat at a table outside under some hanging lights and enjoyed some fresh fish with potatoes. Just about every restaurant in Lisbon has grilled cod with lots of olive oil and garlic and roasted potatoes.

Our first night was pretty rough. We all were getting sick and Sabine didn’t sleep well at all. I'm sure that being in a new place was a contributing factor but she was so congested that she wouldn't have slept well at home either. She woke up every hour and needed to be rocked to sleep. Thankfully, at 5:30 the next morning Sylvia took over so that I could get a little sleep. I feel for the mothers out there who have newborns who don't sleep. I don't know how they do it.

The next day we took the bus tour of the city. The tour was a little disappointing, in that there really aren’t a lot of sights to see in Lisbon. We were on a hop on and hop off bus but sadly we weren’t compelled to hop off anywhere in Lisbon proper. We didn’t decide to hop off until we were outside of Lisbon in the little suburb of Belem.

We got off the bus at the Tower of Belem and decided to get lunch. The only places to eat were either a snack bar or a cafeteria style restaurant. Jim and I got some food first and after looking at our food, Jim Sr. and Sylvia decided to pass.

The tower of Belem was pretty but other than admire it from the outside or climb the stairs to see the view from a 120 steps higher, there wasn’t much to do. So after a few pictures we walked back to the bus and we were graced with a pan flute rendition of Sinatra’s "My Way." I have to wonder if any large city in the world has managed to stay pan flute free?

The Monastery of Jeronimos was our next stop. It was a beautiful huge white limestone building. Vasco de Gama’s tomb is in the monastery and it was the place where sailors would go to pray before heading out to sea. We didn’t end up going into the church because Sylvia had heard that it was closed on the bus tour.

We walked into the town of Belem to find the famous Pasteis de Belem. This pastry shop was the first to make the pastel de nata, an egg custard tart that can be found all over Lisbon. We had tried this tart already but wanted to get one from the founder. We bought a package of still warm tarts and devoured them at the Starbucks next door. They came with packets of powdered sugar and cinnamon and the tarts were delicious with both options.

After an exceptionally long wait for the bus, we slowly made our way back to the apartment.

Since Jim and Sylvia had skipped lunch, they went to dinner. Jim and I planned to go to dinner after they got back. However, after two incidents of projectile vomiting, we decided to just go to bed without dinner. Jim was lucky enough to miss the vomiting but he saw the aftermath. (Hint – If you stay at Apartment 37 on the golisbon website, stay away from the small orange couch.)

On Sunday, we woke up to pouring rain. We decided that we’d do a little shopping at the mall we had passed on the bus tour the day before. We were also in desperate need of diapers and had heard that although it was Sunday, the large grocery store in the mall would be open.

Before shopping, we had lunch at a crappy little place in the mall food court. Jim Sr. and Sylvia walked with Sabine while Jim and I shopped. We were both hoping to find something to “give” each other for our anniversary, but we didn’t have any luck.

We picked up some diapers and fixings for a pasta dinner and then took a cab home. My new favorite pasta sauce is Sacla. I don’t know if you can find it in the U.S. but it so much better than any prepared pasta sauce I’ve ever had.

On Monday, Jim Sr. and Sylvia took an all day bus tour to 4 cities, including Fatima. I’m glad that they were able to have one day to see a lot of things baby-free. I think they had forgotten how little you can do each day with a baby. Just getting out of the door can be a challenge and our days didn’t usually get going until close to 11:00.

Jim, Sabine and I spent the afternoon in Cascais. Cascais is a little town that is a 40 minute train ride from Lisbon. Although it is labeled a beach town, there was only a tiny beach that we were able to find. It was far too cold for swimming so we just spent the day eating and wandering around. It was a very relaxing day and we both really enjoyed the town. It seemed to have a lot of restaurants, some good shopping as well as some picturesque narrow little lanes that reminded me of Santorini, Greece.

We found a little park up on the hill overlooking the downtown area and Sabine had fun on the swings, teeter totter and slides.

Sylvia and Jim Sr. got home pretty late from their day trip so Jim and I went to eat as soon as they returned. We found a little spot around the corner that seemed to be busy and smelled of tasty grilled meats. Our guide book suggested not eating fish on Mondays because it wouldn’t be fresh. This restaurant actually didn’t give you a menu on Mondays because they only served grilled pork and beef. Although the meat was much fattier and tougher than the cuts I usually choose; the meat had a good marinade and was quite flavorful.

On our last full day in Portugal we got out reasonably early and took a train to Sintra. It was a holiday in Portugal so it was pretty crowded in Sintra. We saw a bunch of marching bands going back to the train station and figured that there must have been a parade that morning.

Our goal in Sintra was to see the two castles that were located above the town. After a little confusion about the best way to get up to the castles, we boarded a bus and took the incredibly windy tight road up the hill to the ruins of the Moorish castle.

The castle was believed to have been a military fort from the 9th century during the Arab occupation. It was used to monitor the coast line which you could see in the distance.


The castle ruins weren’t stroller friendly so Jim stayed outside with Sabine while Jim Sr., Sylvia explored the castle and then I went back in with Jim a second time. It was fun climbing the old towers and castle walls and the views of the surrounding castles and towns were impressive.

Our next stop was the Pena Castle which had a very Moorish style of architecture. However, it wasn’t built by the Arabs but rather Mad King Ludwig’s cousin.

The castle was designed with the new ideas of comfort and intimacy in mind so the rooms were smaller in size and had fabric walls and thick curtains to give the rooms a cozy feeling.

There was another castle in Sintra called the National Palace but it had already been a long day for Sabine so we skipped the National Palace and headed back into Lisbon.

I had made reservations at 100 Manieras for our anniversary dinner. It had gotten some really great reviews from some reputable sources so we were really looking forward to it.

The restaurant was located in the Alto Barrio. Since we hadn’t really explored that area, we decided to do the Rick Steve’s walking tour of the area and figure out where the restaurant was before our dinner.

We found the funicular that we needed to take up to the Barrio Alto but before we could get on, Jim had a little low blood sugar breakdown. We had made the mistake of skipping lunch. 20 minutes later with a quick visit to McDonalds, Mr. Jekyll turned back into Mr. Hyde and we were able to start our tour of the Alto Barrio.

We took the funicular up which was interesting but not particularly stroller-friendly. Up at the top we stopped at a park just to the right of the funicular which rewarded us with some great views of the city and the river beyond.

As we walked through the Barrio Alto, we were surprised that it was something Rick Steve’s included in his book. The area seemed broken down and charmless. Soon after we passed some sex shops and a drunk who had thrown up all over himself, Jim and Sylvia decided to get dinner back in our neighborhood.

Jim and I found a little tapas bar and had a drink before our dinner. As we walked back to 100 Manieras the area seemed a bit transformed. Now a lot of the trendy restaurants were open and some of the high end shops we hadn’t seen now had illuminated windows. The area took on a very different feeling. My guess is that the area is like the meat packing district in New York City.

Our meal at 100 Manieras was the best I’ve had in my entire life. The restaurant only serves a 10 course meal with no choices. They ask you when you make the reservation whether or not you have any food restrictions or allergies and make exceptions in those instances.

We decided to do the wine pairing with the dinner. They didn’t do a pairing with each course but rather one with every 2 courses. Five glasses was plenty. Not surprisingly, our memory of the courses as the dinner went on diminished considerably. Neither of us can remember what the dessert courses were.

The meal started with a very creative dish that was supposed to be reminiscent of Lisbon and its ubiquitous clotheslines. It was salted dried cod pieces hung with tiny clothespins to a metal clothesline and served with a red pepper aioli. It tasted a little like Thai fish chips if you’ve ever had those.

The next course was really interesting. It was a foie gras bon bon with chocolate and crusted almonds. I’ve always had foie gras that has been prepared in a savory manner but surprisingly it was really good with sweet condiments.

The next set of courses were all seafood. The best was scallop carpaccio with pureed celery root and ground truffles. There was also a salmon tartar dish and squid ink tagliatelle with a raw oyster.

Before the meat dishes they served a palate cleanser which was good but not something I remember.

Once we got to the meat course, things started to get a little hazy. I’d like to say that since I favor seafood and pasta over meat and dessert, I remember those dishes. However, I think that the wine is to blame for the reason that I can’t remember what else we had.

Our amazing dinner was a great way to end our vacation. I would go back to Lisbon just for that restaurant.