Maastricht with the Enns parents

Well, another week (or two…) has come and gone.  Ron’s parents arrived back safely in Canada while my parents arrived in Holland!  V+J (AKA Vic and Joyce AKA Mamma Joyce and Papa Vic AKA my parents) fell in love with Maastricht and extended their stay from 5 days for 7 days; which meant we got to spend a lot of time with them.  I didn’t take notes like I usually do so I can prompt myself about what to write on the blog, so instead we’ll give you a few highlights of their visit to Maastricht. 

We were really excited to show my parents around Maastricht and introduce them to some of our favourite restaurants we’ve discovered over the last three months and discover a few new ones.  Although it was great to have my parents here, it was troublesome for both Ron and my waistlines and schoolwork motivation as we ate out most evenings and didn’t make much time for homework.  Some of the restaurants we went to this week included a Japanese steak house (a first for Ron), our favourite Tapas joint, and a small Italian place by the harbour where they sang Ron and I ‘Happy Birthday’ and brought out dessert for us with Roman Candles instead of a sparkler.  Ron and I are missing both of our birthdays together while I’m in India (mine being April 17 and his being April 23) and last year we each had Norwalk on our birthday…so here’s to hoping that 2012 will bring us happy, healthy birthdays together!  Nonetheless, it was nice to celebrate our birthdays early with my parents. 

On Saturday, my mom and I went shopping while Ron and my dad went to the caves/tunnels that we’ve written about in a previous blog post.  It was so good to spend time with my mom just walking around the town, window shopping in stores we can’t afford and buying a few pieces of clothes and jewelry in stores that were reasonably priced. 

On Monday, I went to school and my mom spent the day doing more shopping while Ron and my dad went on a bike trip to Vise, Belgium.  Lots of biking was done with my parents including a total of 4 flat tires between my dad and Ron. 

On Tuesday, we rented 2 Vespas and drove them to Aachen, Germany.  What started the whole adventure was my Dad’s craving for German pasteries.  When Ron and I showed up at the Vespa rental place, the rental guy told us we couldn’t make it to Aachen and back in a day with time enough to enjoy the sites.  He was convinced that the 80km roundtrip would be biting off more than we could chew.  We, however, proved him wrong and thoroughly enjoyed the hilly ride along the countryside past beautiful farms making time to stop at an American WWII cemetery, have lunch in Aachen (schnitzel, of course), visit a few pastry shops, enjoy the architecture of Aachen’s cathedral, and make it back to Maastricht before the rain started. 

On Thursday, Ron, my dad, and Jeff (another Canadian student) went biking again while I went to school for my last class!  I ended up skipping out at the break, because what the prof was talking about was really not applicable to what I had chosen to write about for my paper, so I went to the library and met Gwen (another Canadian student) where we worked on papers for another class side-by-side.  At 6:30pm, Ron came to pick me up and, with him, he brought Jeff and my dad.  I didn’t know that Jeff was skipping class to hang out with Ron and my dad, so I was shocked when they all showed up in the library to pick me up.   (I was also a little embarrassed as these three tend to feed off of each other so they had little regard for the fact that we were in a library and it was supposed to be quiet…but that’s pretty much par for the course when Ron is your husband and Vic is your dad.)

Birthday Roman Candles

Being re-united after 3 months

Ron and I downtown Maastricht

V+J walking over the footbridge in Maastricht

Our for dinner at Tapas Y Mas

Ron and Vic going biking to Vise, Belgium

Ron and Vic studying the map before heading out to Aachen on the Vespas

I picked the yellow vespa for us and a baby-blue one for my parents

Lunch in Aachen, Germany (Everyone has "helmet head")

Embracing Dutch culture and biking

At the Japanese steakhouse (I should have put some make up on...)

Gwen, Jeff, myself and Emmy in library at the University

We were really sad to say goodbye to my parents.  And, this weekend, we’ve been pretty mopey thinking about how we’re going to be apart for 3 weeks shortly and thinking about packing up the last 4 months of our lives here in Maastricht.  (We’ve also been mopey because we both had a lot of homework that’s been culminating…)  We’re hoping to finish up the majority of our homework today and tomorrow and then be able to spend some quality, happy time together before I leave for India on Thursday.  

Until next time, R&R