Fortunately, we made the decision to "sleep in" until about 8am instead of the earlier start time I initially had in mind. Even though we all slept very well, 8am felt (as it should) like 2am to us. We were all very groggy, but once I got moving around, I felt okay.
Our Novotel Hotel had an awesome breakfast and I was honestly impressed with the food. I cannot get over how good the simple things tasted: the eggs, the BREAD! I'm not sure how they do it, but I already miss it.
After breakfast we walked back to the train station where we met the Bigs and purchased train tickets for our foray to Liege, Belgium - a quick 45-minute train ride. After arriving in Liege, we popped on to a different train that took us closer to the downtown area - maybe possibly without an official ticket, but we're sincerely hoping our original tickets covered this extra bit of travel.
Then we were in the streets of Belgium, in another adorable little European town. Coincidentally, Liege was celebrating "La Nocturne des Coteaux de la Citadelle," which would have both positive and negative consequences for us. The first was negative - we made our way to a famous set of stairs that, once climbed, afford a beautiful view of the town. However, because of the festivities, the stairs were "closed" - except to locals. Tony was convinced we could pretend to be locals ourselves, but I suspect we had zero chance of pulling that off - if not by looks alone, then the second one of us opened our mouths.
No stairs for us!
Without access to the upper parts of the town, we really just wandered around, enjoying the sights and smells of Liege. Many wonderful smelling bakeries and even more important, Gaufre du Liege - a fabulous fresh waffle shop. Waffles are a THING in this area of Europe, and for good reason.
After more wandering, and a stop for some hilarious pantomiming with a pharmacy employee regarding feminine hygiene products, we stopped for lunch and I had the best bowl of mushroom soup of my life. BG, B, and Tony all had mussels, which are apparently a regional specialty.
As seems to often be the case in Europe, our server completely abandoned us at the end of our meal, which caused us to miss our intended train back to Maastricht. However, at this point a positive consequence of the festival came into play - we stumbled onto a fairly large carnival, complete with arcade games, entertainment, and rides including a huge ferris wheel. All of the Four Winds hopped on the ferris wheel and had a good look all around Liege before we made our way back to the train and Maastricht. We spent a significant part of the ride photographing macarons. Because...macarons.
Before the trip, I had been toying with the idea of "popping" into Germany, which I have never before visited (nor have the rest of us). Maastricht is SO close to both Belgium and Germany - why not make the most of it? If we can have lunch in Belgium, why not dinner in Germany? So after returning to our hotel, we took a short break and then regrouped for a one-hour bus ride to Aachen, Germany. Tony and I had scoped out a Brauhaus near the bus station that we thought might be a good spot for a legit German dinner. And we were right! This was probably my favorite meal of the entire trip. We encountered the following:
So, so good. And the atmosphere of the Brauhaus was exactly how I pictured Germany - except for the Asian family sitting at a table near the door (not us!). We felt like we had really accomplished something by having three meals in three countries in one day. Also - it was just a true joy for me to have all Four Winds in my direct line of sight for an hour or two. #itsamomthing
After dinner, we hopped back on the bus and made our way back to Maastricht, at which point, we had to say goodbye to Baby Girl and B. It was hard, but I absolutely took comfort in the fact that now I can picture her going about her day. The Bigs are thriving and happy and living an actual adventure. I'm so proud of them both - two of the smartest - and wisest people I know.
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