Amsterdam

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I first arrived in Brunssum. It didn’t take long to learn my way and how to drive a stick shift again. I have seen a lot of places for only being here a month. We have visited Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Amsterdam and lots of little towns around Brunssum. It has been a lot of fun, I am enjoying every minute because soon I will be up to my elbows in diapers : )
We went to Amsterdam this weekend which was a lot of fun. We were going to take the train but they were working on some main tracks plus it was going to cost 80 euro. Which is ridiculous we could have could fly to Amsterdam for that much. So we decided to drive which worked out really well because it took less time and we parked at a downtown Dutch military base. Once we arrived to Amsterdam we went on a boat tour of all the canals (and there were a lot), then we walked around the city, had a fabulous lunch, coffee, hot chocolate at two different places. The city is covered in cobblestones and plenty of pedestrians crowding the shopping areas. Found the best Belgium chocolate named Leonidas where we were “forced” to get lots of tasty selections. Found a flower market just southwest of the center of town and picked up some tulip bulbs. Lots of choices there and the prices couldn’t be beat!! We also stumbled upon the Red Light District which was an experience for sure. The RLD is a pretty interesting place during the day but we heard lots of stories about how the atmosphere changes once the sun goes down. After a nice day in the city we returned home for a spaghetti dinner and a movie. Some things don’t change even if you are in another country : )
I have been using the wonderful Brunssum swimming pool at least twice a week. I love going to the pool it is refreshing and it is a good work out. It is a bit shocking to see all the Speedos but some of the men look pretty good : )
That’s it for now but will drop another line soon!!

Cologne, B'Eagles Game, and more

It’s been a while since we blogged so we’re gonna play a little catch-up and then do better about keeping it updated on our adventures. Went to Cologne (err…German spelling Kohl) last Saturday for a morning/afternoon excursion to a great city only an hour away from our front door. While it was our first trip, we now realize that we will go back quite often. Cologne has a Gothic cathedral that sits right in the city center between the train station and all the shops. Despite the fact that nearly all the city was completely destroyed in WWII, the cathedral was preserved from destruction (gotta credit the ol’ Allies for the precision bombing, haha). The Germans rebuilt the city in the 50s and 60s and has a mix of older-looking buildings that didn’t look too old. Great downtown shopping and we enjoyed our fair share of German pub food and biere/water. The city sits right on the Riene River and there was lots of shops that has “summertime biergarten” written all over it. Despite the chilly weather, we lived it up inside the little café’s, people watched, and ate some great German snacks. No weather, chilly rainy or otherwise, will slow us down from living it up here in the BENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) region!!
Alas, the Eagles are not going to the Super Bowl. Seems like we’ve seen that more than we care to admit but they have a valiant effort against the Arizona Cardinals. We hosted a few work friends over on Sunday evening to watch the game. We got a projector and from the online laptop feed, we showed a nice big screen on the wall. Thanks for the great season anyway!! Good luck to ol’ Pat Tillman’s team!
We ventured to Maastricht with some friends to an Irish Pub (yup, they are everywhere!!) for their weekly Tuesday Trivia Night. We didn’t come in last but we were not close to winning (turns out that the Round on Dutch culture really killed us). Lots of laughter, cold Murphy’s Irish Red, and Jenny miss her Chocolate Lover’s Dessert by 5 minutes of kitchen closing time…bad news for the waitress. Moral of the story…don’t mess with a pregnant woman and her just desserts!!
We had our International Night with our Polish and German friends over for dinner. Jenny made her infamous green chili enchiladas and we traded lots of stories about what adventures led us here together in Brunssum. We are so fortunate to meet all these great folks from all over the world and learn so much about one another’s culture, background, and lifestyle. Tossed in some good French wine, Tequila, and hot tea for quite an evening of entertaining. We are also conspiring to field an International Dream Team for one of Maastricht’s Trivia Nights.

Stay tuned we plan on doing a quick trip to Amsterdam on Saturday. Have a great weekend!!

EAGLES Win!!

Well,

It's 2224 on Sunday night and the Eagles just defeated the Giants in a classic NFC East grinder. They battle the unlikely Cardinals next week in the desert of Arizona for a ticket to the Super Bowl. It was a great game...well, actually it was pretty sloppy on both sides...just less sloppy for the B'Eagles. Last week I bought the playoff package on the NFL homepage and been fortunate to watch both of the Eagles games so far and will be online next week as well. Haven't looked up the time yet but hopefully its better than the 2am finish of last week's game.

The Philly Faithful are present in Brunssum, Netherlands and looking forward to next week. Go Eagles.

Country Music Night

Went to Shinnen Army Garrison tonight for a concert put on by Armed Forces Entertainment. Not exactly Ticketmaster but similar to USO, they bring artists to troops all over the world. Since we sit in the TriBorder area, we have 3 bases within 12 km that have US personnel stationed there. Tonight we got to see Thom Sheperd and the Nashville Players. This group played in the Activity Center at Shinnen for US and NATO personnel for about 2.5 hours. These singers/songwriters are perhaps best known for writing tunes for some of the more famous singers like Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Trisha Yearwood, and George Strait. There were a couple tunes that even this Jersey boy recognized but Jenny was lots of help to let me know the songs being sung. It was impressive to see these writers be able to sing their own songs made famous by others and perhaps get a little more credit than they normally do. It was nice to see how many #1 hits and Grammy-winning songs that this little-known group had written.
Great way to get out on a Wednesday night. Jenny and I had a great time and it was nice to support those who come out to visit the troops.
Here's a link to his site. Should have some pictures from their two-week tour. http://www.thomshepherd.com/Thom_Shepherd/Home.html

The Tobins are blogging!!

It's time to embrace 2009 with a blog to commemorate the closure of a worderful year and future adventures. New Year's Eve 2008 finds us in Brunssum, Netherlands enjoying the -2.0 degree (celcius that is) weather. 2009 started with Jenny's 22nd week of pregolife and we went to Paris to celebrate the first weekend of the year. We drove 400km to a suburb of Paris and took one of the local trains (RER...regional express railway) from the town of Louvre to downtown Paris. After a great Friday lunch in downtown Paris, we took a long (longer than we would've liked or had predicted) walk along the River Siene to our hotel seated right at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. We refreshed quickly with a nap and hit the town again for the evening. We spent the evening with a bite to eat at a wonderful cafe (Le Champs de Mars) and walking around the Eiffel Tower with excursions out to the Arc de Triomphe, Avenue des Champs Elysees, and all the great spots around Paris. I begged Jenny to pick up a couple things at the Louis Volture store but since she already had so many items, we passed (phew!!) By the time the night was done, both of us were pretty cooked so we looked forward to getting some rest. It was a great first night in ol' Pari.
We woke up Saturday to get in line for the Eiffel Tower tour. The tower opened at 0930 and we got there a little early to avoid the crowds. Aside from braving the cold weather, we got to the top of the Eiffel Tower as the morning broke and the fog lifted off the city of Paris. The wait was well worth it and the view from the top was priceless. We warmed up over some croissants, chocolate chaud, and pain au chocolate (pastry) while sittin on the first stage of the Eiffel Tower. We got a one-day Paris pass and took the Paris subway to some of the sights including the Louvre, Grand Palais, and Trocadero. We even got a chance to see the remains of a 25,000 person protest with the full works (overturned vehicles, riot police, and much more). Fortunately, we got outta there quickly before the protesters (in support of the Gala Strip) regrouped. We finished the evening with some nice French desserts (crepes, mousse, and of course, tasty French wine) and chatting about life.
Sunday was our last chance to see the Eiffel Tower and headed back to our Euro life in Brunssum. We had a classic French breakfast before hitting the road. It was an amazing weekend and something we will soon not forget. We have other trips that we are planning for 2009. Best wishes and we hope you like the pictures and stories!!

Pictures from Paris