The Adventures of Tristan Basil: March 2009

Intermingled in our travels of the Netherlands was a quick jaunt over to Aachen, Germany where we met up with Andy's high school friend Jessica and her Husband Mathias.

Here we visited the City Hall where Jessica and Mathias recently got married. This is one of the few buildings that survived the war.

Then it was off to the Cathedral that Charlemagne began building in 792!

Where we gazed upon the beautiful stained glass and mosaic ceilings.

We then headed outside where Tristan showed off his amazing climbing skills. He was able to climb onto this ledge all on his own but needed a little assistance getting down which Mom was glad to supply.

This display of physical prowess was followed by a sprint down the sidewalk.

Jessica also showed Tristan a fountain where all off the figures had poseable limbs.

And then Tristan found a corner that he fit right into!

To finish our tour of Aachen we visited this vicious beast whom wives can sic on their drunken husbands if they are out too late.

But Tristan and Mommy just used his tail as a slide.

Tristan often shows us what is most important in life; birds and puddles are more interesting than art and architecture, climbing is more interesting than observing and Mommy is our favorite person in the whole world!

For the past 2 weeks Julia and Tristan traveled out the the Netherlands to visit Dad on tour.

On our first days we wandered the streets of Utrecht to see what we could find. This picture has the city's old water tower in the background.

Most of the time Tristan showed us around. Here he found a staircase that led down to the canals. He walked all the way up it with a little assistance from Mom.

Then he showed us the grates in the streets...

and the puddles that had formed from a recent spell of rain.

With some coaxing we managed to get him away from the puddles and pigeons, his other favorite part of Utrecht, and we made it to an old windmill in the town. Here we met this Euro chic fellow named Jacob who journeyed long and far from London to meet up with us.

Later, in the market, we asked Tristan to sit down and take his picture with this strong peanut placard. As you can see, he was not entirely thrilled with this event.

And as day fell to night we all felt a little tired.

But it wasn't long before we had more places to see and more visitors to see them with. Julia's cousins Luke and Nina came for a visit with Catherine and Annabelle. They are staying in Belgium for 3 months and decided that since we were all so far away from home yet so close together that we should meet up.

For a brief moment we gathered all the kids together for a picture in Utrecht. There is some great video of all of them running around but we will have to post those once Dad get back to the States.