The rest of the trip!

The rest of the trip was quite a blur, and apparently I barely took any pictures. 

We were so very excited to meet up with our BFFs from Jacksonville who were visiting Alex's family in Holland. What a joy to connect across the pond and hear the latest from back home! Plus, there are wedding bells in the future for these two; I couldn't be happier for them :)

Paris was unfortunately packed to the max with tourists celebrating the new year. It failed to charm Bobby due to its excessive lines and crowds... I don't know what I was thinking when I imagined the streets to be empty and just for us. 

Don't worry-- I still ate my fair share of baguettes, macarons, and cheese. 

New Year's Eve was celebrated in style... first on the metro, packed in like sardines with hundreds of other hopefully Parisians attempting to arrive last-minute at the Champs-Elysees. Didn't quite make it; left the metro at a run and missed the countdown. A big downer, that one. Oh well! We kept our spirits high with pep talk of "At least we're here!" 

Couldn't stop the tears as the nuns sang in the Sacre Coeur. Captured this shot and subsequently got chased/kicked out. 

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After Paris, we were off to Belgium with Bryan and three friends from the states. The weather was surprisingly good-- we even got to sit outside and drink delicious IPAs!

 I love Bruges. Seriously. 

New for us was Brussels-- we didn't have high expectations as we'd heard it wasn't that great... but we ended up really enjoying it! We rented bikes for the day and rode around for 8 hours on our own tour. 

Riding triumphantly through Brussel's own Arc de Triumph where waffles greeted us on the other side. They were consumed too quickly for photos. 

I even had the pleasure of getting caught in a Florida-esque storm! I miss them. All we have here in Frankfurt are gray skies and fog. None of the "15 minute downpours and then it's sunny again" storms from home. 

And finally, Amsterdam. So beautiful. Can't wait to come back with Amy and Paul in April, where we'll ride bikes through the tulips and eat lots of cheese!

This post was brief-- I have a soup date with the HausFraus in 15 minutes. I'll be late. I'm still in my PJs in bed. Whoops.