Eliot

This post is essentially an Eliot update. 1. Eliot likes gingerbread (here sampling a cookie from a store near the Schulzs) and lebcuchen. His "cookie slot" often has room after, in the case of this dinner, his bean and couscous slots.
2. Eliot has greatly improved at climbing ladders up to slides (for smaller slides he needs no assistance) and going down slides (of all sizes).
3. Eliot still likes to be upside down as he has since infancy. Here he is with Chris by the bamboo in the backyard. Eliot can say "bamboo" and likes to shake it although he is not supposed to..... Once we found a snail crawling around in the wood chips beneath the bamboo. Every once in a while he still says, "Snail!" (but it sounds like snee) and runs to where the snail was to check if it's still there.
4. Eliot has new toys. I bought a bunch of toys from a family moving back to New Jersey. Here is Eliot with his new toolbench. Eliot is really good at puzzles now and still really enjoys books (especially on the subject of animals and trains).

Tervuren

I really like the town with Eliot's new school. Here are Eliot and Chris playing in a maze that was part of a playground built from mostly living plants.
Here's Eliot joining a boy on a teeter totter at a regular playground.
The park just near the African museum (in photo below). Lots of families walking near the water and in the extensive forest. I'm sure we'll be back for more walks.
African museum showcasing Belgian acquisitions from their colony in the Congo. Supposed to be very interesting if sad. We'll probably visit this winter on a day we can't be outside.

Eliot's new school

In September, Eliot will change from his current day care (Happy Feet) to a montessori school. We went to visit it on Saturday. It is very cute and I think Eliot will be happy here. He seemed to really like the play area (last photo) because he was upset when we told him he could not go in it (it was locked). The school is on my way to work in a town called Tervuren, the subject of the next post.

Changes afoot

Eliot's trademark gym shoes are a bit too small. We bought two new pairs of shoes for him while we were in Germany. Here are the brown ones. I love his old shoes but I am sure I will grow equally fond of the Deutsch ones.
Eliot now sleeps with pillow and comforter. He was so excited about this development that he insisted on getting in his crib clad only in his diaper to snuggle on his first night with them. Eventually we convinced him he might be cold without his PJs. Eliot loves pointing out all the animals on the pillow/blanket.

Aachen, Germany

After a long drive from Bamberg, we arrived in Aachen with a sleeping Eliot. The next morning, we walked around Aachen - a great town that is only 2 hours from Brussels. We'll be back, I think. For one thing, we did not get to go to the spa. For another, they have many stores selling lebcuchen (sp?), a German cookie usually reserved for Christmas and one of Chris's favorite foods. Rest assured that we bought some to sustain him until December, or our next visit. Turns out Eliot is a fan, too. Here's a view from our hotel's breakfast room window.
Here's Eliot on a statue in the shopping area.
Outside of the cathedral that dates to 800 AD. Something like 40 kings and queens were crowned here and it was ordered built by Charlemagne whose remains are kept in a golden ark sort of thing beneath the dome of stained glass in the following picture. We had to agree with the brochure that the church is very historically significant!

Eliot in Bamberg

Near the monastary that overlooks the town we stumbled upon a nice bed of flowers and a fountain that Eliot really enjoyed.











Eliot enjoys smelling the flowers, an endearing trait.
He also enjoys running from us.
And, as always, making friends with trees.

Bamberg, Germany

Our first stop after leaving the Schulzs was Bamberg. Lonely Planet said Bamberg was off the tourist-laden Romantic Road in Bavaria and celebrated "by those in the know." So, most English-speaking tourists are now in the know about Bamberg, and we could see why. It was a great town with a nice cathedral, monastary, pretty buildings, and a river lined with quaint buildings bedecked with flower boxes. There was some sort of music festival going on so we had to endure some songs we weren't too sorry we'd not heard for a while (e.g., Phil Collins "Against All Odds"). It also explains to some extent the crowd in the second photo. This post is mainly pictures of the town. The next post is Eliot in the town.

The process of taking photos with Eliot

We all know friends and family like to see photos with Eliot, so we do try to get some good ones. Here are Eliot and I posing by a fountain with Chris trying to capture Eliot looking at the camera. In the first photo, Eliot is distracted by the fountain (admittedly one of his favorite things and therefore very distracting).

As the number of attempts grows larger, Chris captures my enthusiastic pleas to Eliot to look at Chris are captured by Chris. Eliot looks squirmy rather than enthusiastic.
I think his look here is saying, "This is fun. Now let me go."

A decent shot, finally. And there are a few interim shots before we arrived at this one that I did not post.....

Bavaria

After Heidelberg we drove through some lovely countryside to my family's home in Regenstauf, which is about one hour north of Munich. We took too many pictures to put in one post, so I've replaced the Normandy album with a Bavarian album at the top right of this page. Click on the photos and you will be treated to a slide show with captions (!). Also, I've added a link to the Picassa Web Album page we have so you can see all of our albums at one time if you'd like. To the left is a cloister brewery my family took us to. I'm not a big beer fan, but I did try some. I liked the ambiance of the monastary with the beer garden.
We took a boat tour on the Danube after the cloister brewery.
Here is most of my family living in Regenstauf posing with Eliot. Josef (seated) is my mother's mother's nephew. His wife is Anneliese. Christian (standing) is his son. He has a sister, Sylvia, who we also visited. Christian's two daughters are Linda and Tina (left to right). His wife is Heidi. They provided us with a lot of food, fun, and great memories. I did finally get many of those pretzels I was searching for in Trier.
We took a day trip to Munich our last day in Bavaria. For more photos, visit the web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/jenmbdunn/Bavaria.

Heidelberg, Germany

After Trier, we went to Heidelberg, a town famous for its castle, pictured here. It is in a half-ruined state. Eliot didn't mind. He liked climbing on stones, etc. that were around because the castle was half-ruined. He also loved the funicular ride up to the castle and was somewhat distraught when we got off to go see the castle. "Choo choo!" he cried as he pointed at the station. Clearly my father's enthusiastic words to my pregnant belly about trains got through all that amniotic fluid. When it was time to go back down the hill on the funicular, he remembered just where it was.
A street in Hiedelberg.
The view from our hotel window in the morning. The fog lifted for a beautiful day. We had a great breakfast. Eliot gobbled up the best cereal we have seen in Europe thus far. Other breakfasters made friends with Eliot as he happily made his way through the cereal, some egg, and some bread and jam.

For more photos of Heidelberg (including many of Eliot!) visit this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jenmbdunn/HeidelbergGermany

Trier, Germany

The second day of our trip, we headed into Germany and visited Trier. Germany was Eliot's seventh country (US, Ireland, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany). Here are Chris and Eliot in the main square. I was instantly on the prowl for some good German pretzels.
Trier's town gate dating from 2 AD. I had Eliot touch it. Amazing to have someone so young in contact with something so old.
Looking through the gate back into the town.
The other main attraction in Trier is this Roman amphitheater. It was a nice town to stop in, although I never did have a pretzel there. Next it was on to Hiedelburg for some touring and a good night's rest.