Already in september we had set the a date for Philippe his 50th birthday party. The reason why the date was set early was because the party took place in Antwerpen (Belgium). Besides the birthday party we would see some people we hadn’t seen in years again.

On Saturday the 4th of February we left our place at 6 o’clock in the morning and because of the easy traffic we arrived in Belgium just after 10 o’clock. The first stop was Maasmechelen Village which is an outlet shopping center. Both of us bought new stuff Sander in the Tommy Hilfiger store and Danielle was really lucky and found a pair of Uggs boots.

After the shopping we went to the Holiday inn Antwerp City North where we would meet Ruud, Ria, Yves, Joke and Aaron. After some drinks in the hotel lobby we went out for the city to visit the Disney Story on the Meir and for a quick bite a the Subway.

After this quick bite it was time to walk back tot he hotel where Philippe, Dieter and Frank would join us for the evening. After the presenting the gifts (mustard and a Bose Soundlink) we went for a walk to Mie Katoen. Mie Katoen is a fondue restaurant. The food tastes greats and after your visit you can enjoy the smell for a couple of days since the smell sticks to every piece of clothing you wear.

After dinner we went out to a bar in the city center of Antwerpen called “Den Engel” and we finished the night in the hotel bar. Although bar is a big word it was a self-service bar but the bear tasted great. Somewhere after 3 o’clock we got to our beds. It was a long day from almost 22 hours but it was great to be party of this party.

And the best thing was that the party wasn’t over yet since it continued with a Siberian style geocaching tour. Philippe & Dieter created their own geocaching route which we wanted to walk. After breakfast together with Philippe, Dieter, Aaron, Ruud en Ria we went to the start of the tour which consisted of 5 traditional caches and one mystery cache. It was ice-cold but we had a pleasant time. Ruud (2 finds) and Sander (4 finds) found all of the 6 caches within 2,5 hours.

After the cache route we went to the Netherlands for a brief visit of our families where we slept in Kruisland at the place of Sanders sister. On Monday we drove back to Germany.

We had a great weekend and we can’t wait for the next gathering!

Picture credits and more pictures: Motorbeer.nl & PhilDie’s Fotoalbum 

Now we are both visiting New York City for the first time in our lives we wanted to plan the things we’d like to do and if necessary reserve tickets.

Danielle definitely wants to eat cupcakes when we are there. She is talking about the Magnolia Bakery since we started planning the trip. I head never heard of this famous bakery but I’m sure we will visit on of their locations.

And I told Danielle I wanted to visit the famous Apple Store on Fifth Avenue. The store entrance is a glass cube only showing the Apple Logo. It’s open 24/7 and 365 days a year I’m sure we are able to fit it in our schedule.

And we both want to visit at least one broadway show but we will figure out which and when if we are there. Which show we want to visit didn’t figure out yet but with The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Wicked and a lot more to pick from we are sure that it will be good one!

When we were both young we wanted to visit the World Trade Center in New York to overview the big apple. But on 9/11/01 this was made impossible. The new One World Trade Center is not finished yet but the 9/11 Memorial is opened for visitors. This is the only thing we’ve planned ahead since this is something we want to see because this event changed a lot all over the world.

We know that this is not everything we want to do but these are the highlights we think to see during our trip. If there are additional suggestion please leave these in the comments!