Mother Daughter Trip to Bruges

November was off to a very sweet start with our first Mother-Daughter trip! I dream of taking Maeve to Paris, but when I suggested it, in true "these-kids-are-so-spoiled" fashion, Maeve reminded me that we were "just there" last summer (Olympics) and turned it down. We also only had a weekend so settled on one night in Bruges, Belgium. The promise of chocolates and waffles made it an easy sell. I had taken baby Jude there with Gia, so it was only fair she got to go! 

Pete and Jude spent the weekend outside Utrecht at a survival camp so we traveled by train. That was no easy feat. Our original itinerary included stops in Antwerp and Ghent before arriving to our destination in Bruges (3 trains). A few weeks before the trip, NS (the national railway company) emailed that trains weren't running from Amsterdam Zuid to Antwerp and that we needed to make our way to Rotterdam to catch the international train. So now 4 trains and 3 transfers were planned. The boys dropped us off at Zuid to catch train 1 to Rotterdam, only to learn that trains were not running to Rotterdam due to track failure. Uh oh. We amazing raced it and took a metro to a nearby town to catch a train to Rotterdam. 4 transfers (Duivendrecht, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Ghent) and 5 hours later, we finally made it to Bruges! We were able to get seats together on all of the trains so I guess it could have been worse!?

Still smiling in Antwerp's stunning train station

We traveled light so took a bus straight from Bruges train station into downtown to start enjoying our trip. After booking our accommodations and looking into what activities were on that weekend, I happily learned that we were going to be there for their annual Kid's weekend. All of the city's historic buildings, museums and theaters were open for free with kid-themed activities. 

A sunny walk out to one of the festival sights. Upon arriving, Maeve decided she didn't want to stay to do the craft so turned around to get back to the city center. 

We joined a scavenger hunt in city hall, but were struggling with the Dutch so bailed to find a cafe to have friets and beer. 

Color us happy!

Next up, chocolates. We popped into 1/2 dozen shops and found one to buy a small bag's worth. They were so good, we returned the next day the ones with hazelnut and caramel. 

We headed just outside the city center to our B&B for some downtime before dinner. Found a great playground on the way. 

We walked into town and found a pizza place with counter seats available for an easy dinner together. 

We had booked in for a "Night at the Museum" experience at the Gruuthusemuseum. Again, everything was in Dutch so we struggled through. There was an introduction about some mystery that needed to be solved, then then we went to the museum and were each given clues that we needed to solve by finding art work in the museum. Once we all gathered and the clues were revealed, more storytelling took place that we barely understood and then we found ourselved going to a part of the museum that looks into the connecting chapel. We learned some ghost calling signals and conjured a ghost who was stumbling around in the church and doing the commands that we whispered above. Very entertaining! 

Sunday morning we checked out and walked back into and across town to a waffle making workshop! Beautiful fall day. 

We feasted and had time before our train journey home so we headed back to the kid festival and chocolate and souvenir shops. 

In memory of Albus the hamster for Dia de los Muertos. 

The beautiful municipal theater had set up the stage with cool interactive activities for the kids. 

Thankfully, the train journey home was less eventful and we were reunited with our boys in time for dinner. So great spending one-on-one time with Maeve and look forward to our next trip together, wherever that may be!