Whew! We did it! Nine European countries in 19 days!! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Bevan...they were brave (and generous) enough to take all 7 of us on a GRAND, go, go, go, don't stop and rest, highly-charged educational trip (I wouldn't call it a vacation, per se) to Europe. On our way there, we had the amazing good fortune of getting upgraded (all 9 of us) to business class, so we arrived somewhat rested, which was nice! We spent our first 2 days in Paris. THe kids immediately had to try the escargot (and they even liked it...ALL of them!) We saw the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffle tower, and Monmartre as well as an upper-deck bus tour of the highlights of the city. Then, we took a high-speed train to Brussels, Belgium where we visited my good friend Veronique Godard-Artigas and her family for two days. WE spent the first day in the Grand Place and at Veronique's beautiful country home. The next day we spent at Waterloo and then beautiful Brugges. Then we got on a ferry boat in Callais, France to the White Cliffs of Dover, England, where we boarded the "NCL Dream" cruise ship. Our first day was crossing the Kiel Canal in Germany (didn't know there was a canal there!), the next day was at sea, and our first port was Rostock, Germany where we rented a van and drove to Lubec to meet old (Virginia) friends, Fran Kennedy and her son, Trent (Brad's good friend when he was 6-8 yrs old). Crad Kennedy is in Hamburg working for the US Consolate, so they drove 1 1/2 hours to see us and it was fun to have someone who sort of knew their way around (and a little German, too). GRandpa drove our Mercedes 9-passenger minivan on the Autoban and Kimball could be heard in the back seat yelling "Come on, grandpa, let's see how fast this thing can go!" Any of you who know my dad know that we still didn't top 70mph...maybe next trip! After Lubec, we went to Schwerin to see an absolutely charming castle and enjoyed the beautiful, lush green countryside on our way back to the ship!
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