Sites of Luxembourg

We were busy this weekend learning more about the country that we are calling home for 2 years. We went on an english speaking guided walking tour of Luxembourg city on Saturday through the American Women's Club. The first three pictures show some of the sites. You can see the remains of the wall of the old fortress in the first picture. Luxembourg was actually a fortress in ancient times and the city was within the confines of these huge walls. This wall dates back to the 14th century. The second picture displays an ancient abbey with its orignal gardens and vineyards, and finally the third picture is of "old town" or more properly called the "Grund".

On Sunday, we drove about 30km outside of Luxembourg city to see the Berg castle which is home to the royal family of Luxembourg. The current royal family includes Grand Duke Henri, Grand Duchess Maria Theresa and their 5 children. This castle was built around 1400 and stands 210 feet high and has 200 rooms. This castle has served as the residence of the Grand Ducal family since 1911. No visitors are allowed inside the castle. The last picture is of Berg castle. This was as close as we could get to see it. We were told to visit it in the winter time when all the leaves are down to get a better view.

Lauren's First Haircut

Lauren had her very first haircut last week. We found an english speaking lady who cuts hair out of her home named Tekla. She is icelandic but actually lived in Wisconsin for 10 years. Lauren was pretty cooperative through the whole ordeal.

Yesterday Lauren got another haircut from her sister Ericka while mom wasn't looking. Ericka has been using kid scissors to learn how to cut things out. While mom was cleaning the mess up and throwing stuff away in the kitchen...Ericka decided to try out her scissors on her sister's hair! Thankfully it was just one spot up front, and as you can see from this close up shot it's not too terrible!! We're sure this won't be the first time that Lauren will serve as Ericka's guinea pig for something.

Pictures of the Girls

Here are some more pictures of the girls as requested by many of you as we have not posted anything new since Christmas. We haven't really done anything too exciting since Christmas as the weather has been cold and rainy. Not cold by Minnesota standards...but cold and windy for here!!

Ericka really enjoys pushing Lauren around on her little car that "santa" brought for her. Lauren is not tall enough yet to reach the floor to push herself around, however she doesn't seem to mind when everyone else does the work for her!!!

Christmas In Luxembourg

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel!! We are slowly learning the french phrases for things! Christmas was very different for us this year being so far away from home and not being able to celebrate with our families. However, we tried to our best to make it a good one for the girls. I think they were pleased with all that santa brought for them. Here are some pictures from Christmas. Notice our "Charlie Brown" christmas tree....it was all of 5 feet tall- maybe. The picture of the cake was our christmas dessert....a holiday yule log. (La Buche de Noel). This is a french tradition and the cake is shaped like a log and is filled with chocolate mouse. Another very good dessert for a special occasion. Learning all of the different traditions over here has been a wonderful experience for all of us!!

Pictures of the Girls

Here are some recent pictures of the girls. The one of Ericka is on her first day of her new preschool. She's been very tired of staying at home with mom all of the time. The other two pictures are from today, St. Nicholas Day. The girls loved their gifts from grandma bug which arrived today.

Strasbourg, France

These are pictures from when we went to Strasbourg, France last weekend. We went there for their big christmas market. There were many local vendors selling handmade clothing, ornaments, pottery, food ect... We tried hot wine (which actually tasted more like cider than wine) and Strasbourg sausage. Lauren loved the sausage! There was quite a crowd as this is a big tourist spot this time of the year due to the christmas market. We stayed over night so we got to enjoy a weekend away. Strasbourg is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Luxembourg.

The American Military Cemetary in Luxembourg

There is a beautiful American military cemetary just outside of Luxembourg city. For those of you not familiar with history, the Americans freed Luxembourg from the Germans during World War II. The cemetary is a tribute to all of the young men who lost their lives while fighting in Luxembourg. The Luxembourgish people are very grateful to the Americans for giving them their freedom.