Road Signs in Luxembourg

Well I've mentioned this many times before, but driving in Luxembourg is definately an experience. It's been an ongoing project of mine to take pictures of the various road signs (of course which neither Mark nor I understood when we first moved here) and post them for you all to see. Do you think you know what they mean? I'll let you all try and figure them out for yourselves. If your really curious just email me and I'll share the information with you!! :)

The first picture is of parking in Luxembourg. You can park on either side of the road and in either direction. Very confusing at first, and I must admit that I don't like to pull across a lane of traffic to park on the other side of the road and then be facing the wrong direction. But it's VERY common here, in addition to parking on the sidewalks. I'll need to get a picture of that sometime and post it for you all to see as well.

Happy 5th Birthday Ericka!

We were very busy this past weekend celebrating Ericka's 5th birthday! On Saturday the family went bowling and the girls had a really good time. They even beat their mother the first game!! On Sunday we had a birthday party for Ericka at an indoor play park with 10 of her friends from school. Whew....we were all exhausted on Sunday evening after an afternoon with that many 5 year olds! We can't believe Ericka is 5 already- she's growing up so fast!!!

London, England

We just returned from spending the past 5 days in London. We saw all the big touristy sites such as the London Bridge, Big Ben, the London Eye (rode the London Eye), Buckingham Palace and the changing of the Gaurd just to name a few. It was so nice to be able to speak English, although with their thick English accents, we couldn't always understand them! Ahhhh...what a simple luxury to be able to read a menu in a restaurant and actually know what you are ordering!!!! Although, we must admit, that fish and chips with mushy peas is NOT one of our favorites. But their sticky toffee pudding definately makes up for that!

Ericka will tell you the biggest highlight of our trip was going to see The Sound of Music at the London Palladium theater. What a treat for both her and mom!!!! We both really enjoyed the show and the whole experience of the London theater.

I just had to include a picture of the messages painted on the street corners to remind you which way to look for oncoming traffic before you cross the street. Being that they drive on the other side of the road (the left) in addition to driving on the right hand side of the car- it's all so very confusing! We were very thankful that we had these constant reminders for ourselves!!

Fun with Food in Luxembourg and Belgium

We always like to share pictures of the very delicious and wide assortment of desserts that they have here. Here is a picture of my birthday cake this year. Unfortunately it isn't what Mark (his secretary) ordered, but he couldn't speak French well enough to convey this when he picked it up. The cake is actually a carnival cake, which is a celebration right before the beginning of lent. The children dress up in costumes and there are usually many parades throughout the cities and small towns.

The next picture is a picture of my dessert that we had when Mark and I actually went out for a nice dinner for my birthday. Sorry that it's not the clearest picture, that's what happens when you take it with a cell phone camera. I thought I was ordering something with banana's, but obviously my french needs some work because there were no banana's here!!!!! I wasn't quite sure what it was.

The last picture was taken when we went out to eat at a pizzeria in Bastogne Belgium. Yes- it is a pizza with french fries on top. They serve it with sides of ketchup and mayonnaise. It's actually very good, and yes we did know what we were ordering with this one. The Belgians do love their "pommes frites".

Lauren speaks French!

I had to share this information with you because it was just too funny not to. Luxembourg has a "Luxembourg only" grocery store chain called Cactus. Lauren loves to go to this grocery store because the cashiers usually give the kids candy. However, one day the cashier either forgot to offer candy to Lauren, or thought that she wasn't old enough to have any. Lauren wasn't about to have any of this and starts yelling "bons-bons, bons-bons!!!!" Bons-Bons means candy in French. The cashier and everybody around us started to laugh at my 2 year old demanding candy! These were Lauren's first French words spoken without prompting. Very funny!!!

As long as we are on the subject of grocery stores, I thought that I would post a picture of the grocery cart situaion here in Luxembourg. All of the grocery stores chain their carts together and you need to insert a 50 cent or 1 euro piece in order to disconnect the cart from the row. When you are finished you reconnect the cart and retrieve your money. I thought they were afraid of people stealing the grocery carts, but Mark told me it's to make sure people return the carts to the correct place. Another difference, you have to use reusable plastic bags that you must buy to bag your groceries. They do not have any free paper or plastic bags. We just always keep them in our trunk so that we don't forget them (otherwise you have to buy more at the grocery store). It seems like such a more economical way of doing things. Just another one of the many differences we experience in Europe (this occurs in Belgium and France also).

Friends in Luxembourg

Well many of you have heard us talk about some of the people that we have met during our time here in Luxembourg. So here are some pictures to help you associate a face with them. The first picture is of Ericka with her friend Florencia after their Christmas program at school. The next picture is of the girls giving our french teacher, Fatima, a christmas gift. The last picture is of the girls and their christmas presents from Claude- our Luxembourgish neighbor who lives upstairs. These are very important people to us as they have all helped us in so many ways and given us all the gift of friendship.

Christmas in Luxembourg

Finally....here are some pictures from our Christmas in Luxembourg. We had a very quiet holiday, however made the most of the time together. Our Christmas tree wasn't much bigger than last year- I think it was about 4 feet tall. I cannot wait to have a BIG Christmas tree again once we return home. Here are some pictures for you all to enjoy.