The Trip: Day 1: Essen

We have not kept up the picture-a-day promise lately, since we went on a trip for one week. It was great and we all enjoyed it a lot, but it's good to be home now. Over the next few days, we'll post pictures we took.


With one week of vacation left before the holidays, we had planned to take it easy at home for a few days here and there. At the same time, people were telling us how much easier it is to travel with infants than with toddlers, and then we saw some ads for cheap airfare to Europe. Well, we looked into it a bit, and before we knew it we had booked ourselves a little 1-week trip to Amsterdam.

We packed much more luggage than we would have needed to pack for just Roxi and Ricardo. It was mostly filled with diapers, wipes, little outfits, etc. We actually thought we might have packed too much for Julia.

We started out by driving 1.5 hours to Boston Logan airport. Julia got off to a good start by filling a diaper, and a diaper cover, with some of "it" getting on her outfit.... The outfit, etc, stayed in a plastic bag in the trunk... Then, after some waiting at the terminal, she up-chucked on Roxana as we were called to board. Another quick change of outfit, for baby and for mommy. By now, we thought we might run out of clothes for Julia, as we had none left in our carry-on.

Throughout this time, Julia was enjoying herself thoroughly. She was staring at all the flashing lights, smiling at the people passing by, and generally being very happy. She continued this during the whole flight. Between feedings and naps, she was busy charming the flight attendants and the other passengers. No more surprises on the flight, and Julia proved to be a great traveler.

We were picked up at Schipol airport by Roxi's uncle Mike, who lives in Essen (Germany) with Magda, not too far from their daughter Magduta ("little Magda" - Roxi's cousin), her husband Kurt, and their great kids: Ellen, Frank and Isabel.

We stayed two nights in a beautiful little apartment at Mike and Magda's house, with a very nice view of the Essen countryside.


Julia and Mike became great friends instantly.


Isabel had grown a lot since the last time we saw her.... But the hair just keeps looking better and better.


An excellent lunch with the family: Roxi & Julia, Magda, Ellen, Frank, Magduta, Kurt & Isabel, and Mike.


Next post (tomorrow): Essen Christmas markets, and we met the 5th Beatle!