The Bounce About

Liam is now 4 ½ months old. He has been to 7 different countries and has met people of over 15 nationalities… not bad for a little guy! A rapidly growing little guy, that is. I took him to the doctor on Thursday and he weighed in at 17lbs 6oz. He proudly wears size 6-9 month clothing… although most babies I know wear clothes bigger than their age (what’s the deal with the sizing system anyway?!). I’ve started weaning him from nighttime feedings – it’s going reasonably well. The other night he slept from 7:45pm to 5:30am, which was great. The night before that he went to bed at 7:30pm and woke up 4 times… not so great. But we’re working on it. We’ll master Sleeping Through the Night yet!

When we got back from our trip we realized that Liam was no longer as content as he had been to lie on his back on a blanket. While it had previously taken a good chunk of time before he would begin to complain, now the moaning was coming on much sooner. So we thought we’d try a Jolly Jumper, or Bounce About, as they call them here. At first he wasn’t sure what to think:

But soon he got the hang of it...

...and he likes it (read intense joy from Mommy!)  

Brendan and I now spend large amounts of time watching this 4 ½ month-old creature dangle in a harness suspended from the doorframe and squeal with delight when he bounces especially high.

Another thing we’ve been doing a lot of lately is singing. We sing songs all day long about eating, drooling, bouncing on the bed, etc. A few days ago, when Brendan’s singing was particularly incessant, I said, “Can we just have a minute without a song in it?” Caleb noted that rhyming my request for the singing to stop probably wouldn’t help the situation (go ahead and try making a song out of that – “Can we just have a minute without a song in it?” – way too easy).

Needless to say, we’re having a lot of fun over here with our little guy. 

Caleb's Visit

We recently had another chance to make use of the guest room in our flat: Brendan’s brother Caleb came to visit us from January 14^th to the 19^th. Caleb works extremely hard and was in need of a vacation – I’m not sure how restful his holiday was, but we certainly had a good time!

Caleb arrived early Friday afternoon. We did a short walk around Stirling that day, stopping for lunch at No. 2 Baker Street (a pub near our place) and dessert at Darnley House (a little café at what was once Lord Darnley’s house – he was the second husband of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots). We also went up to the castle for a quick look, but would save our visit for another day. That evening we introduced Caleb to the history of Scotland documentary series that B had given me for Christmas. The series is in ten parts – we made it through seven while Caleb was here. It’s a fantastic series and has given us some great ideas of places to visit in Scotland!

Saturday was a quiet day – we were all travel weary, so we spent the day mostly at home. In the afternoon Brendan & Caleb headed out to see the castle but stopped at a pub first and ended up arriving at the castle too late! So we planned to go the next day instead. That night we watched Attack on Leningrad, about events during WWII. No Marshall family gathering of any kind is complete without some reference to the Nazis (not that they are fans of the latter, just that WWII always seems to come up as a topic of conversation)! That night B and Caleb went out for another pint and apparently ran into some quite colourful Scots!

Sunday was Caleb’s real introduction to Stirling’s historical attractions. We headed up to the castle before Mass to check out the Regimental Museum, which Brendan and I had not yet been too. After Mass we went back to the castle to look around a bit, and then joined a guided tour of Argyll’s Lodging, which is a house just down the road from the castle. We learned there that one of the residents of this house had been the first Viscount of Canada. Another interesting tidbit we picked up on this tour: apparently there is a paving stone outside Edinburgh Castle that is considered Canadian territory. Wealthy Scotsmen could purchase land in Canada buy standing on that stone and paying for the lands across the ocean!

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay for the whole tour of the lodging – Liam decided that he’d much rather be eating than listening to the tour guide, and as there wasn’t a suitable place for me to sit down and feed him, we decided to go home. It was just as well, because Caleb wanted to go to the Wallace Monument and had to make it there with enough time to see the place properly before closing. So I went home and the guys went to visit the monument. Caleb treated us to a Sunday roast beef dinner that night at a restaurant carved out of the old city walls, appropriately named The City Walls.

Monday morning Brendan rented a car and we set out on a day trip, the main focus of which was a visit to Kirriemuir and Glamis Castle (pronounced Glahms). Before making in that far though, we went in search of a Pictish stone. The Picts, as we learned from Neil Oliver, the host of our Scottish history series, were among Scotland’s most ancient peoples. Their culture largely died out under the influence of the Gaels, but examples of their intricate stone carvings have been preserved. We saw in a guidebook that one such stone could be seen along the way to Glamis, so we sought it out. Finding it was a bit trickier than we expected. Our guidebook told us that it was in the old church of Eassie. We saw a sign pointing towards Eassie along the main road, so we turned in that direction. There were no other signs. We drove first one way, then another, and then came upon some well-dressed people walking down the road. They had just come from a funeral, they informed us, but if we went to the church, there would surely be someone there who could enlighten us as to the whereabouts of this Pictish stone. So we went to the church, and Brendan and Caleb, feeling a bit out of place in this funeral setting, inquired about the stone. A very helpful woman told them that she was driving in the direction of the stone and that we could follow her to find it. It was a bit strange, the funeral and the following and all. She went to her car and quickly ran back to tell us that the gate to the churchyard where the stone was had been barred up earlier that morning, but that she was sure we’d manage to find our way in. It might be hard with the baby, but she thought we’d find a way. So we followed her down a road that we never ever would have found on our own, and stopped behind her at the old church of Eassie. The other church had looked old, but this one was definitely older.

The gate was securely closed, but we managed to hop the stone fence. And inside the old church of Eassie, as our guidebook had promised, was a Pictish stone.   

Having successfully found and properly admired the stone, we continued on our journey. Caleb and Brendan’s great-grandmother lived in Kirriemuir, and it was at Glamis Castle that she met their Canadian great-grandfather. Thomas Alphonsus McMenamon was gassed by the Germans during WWI and was taken to Glamis Castle to recover. The billiard room in the castle had been turned into an infirmary, and Mary Anne Smith was stationed there, tending to wounded soldiers. The two met and fell in love. They had a daughter named Mary, who married Hal Marshall; their son is Bill, whose son I married. Brendan and Caleb were both very excited to see the place where their great-grandparents had met, and Brendan was particularly proud to bring Liam, the couple’s great-great-grandson, to that place. We were especially fortunate to see the billiard room, because the castle is closed to visitors until the spring. Brendan had written an email to the staff there a few days earlier asking for permission to see the room, but had not gotten a response. We went anyway, and when Caleb introduced us at the office, the attendant explained that she had received the email only that morning because of problems with their server. She graciously sent us in with an equally gracious tour guide. It was a real privilege to see the place, opened just for us.

Liam sitting on the table where his great-great-grandfather would have played pool.

After visiting the castle we drove to Kirriemuir and found 28 South Street, where Mary Smith had lived.

We then drove to the coast, to visit the ruins of Arbroath Abbey. Here a declaration was sealed in 1320 defending Scotland’s status as an independent state. The Declaration of Arbroath was sent to the pope and requested that he recognize Scotland’s independence from English rule and lift the ban of excommunication on Scottish king Robert the Bruce. Eventually both were done, but this was certainly not the end of Scotland’s struggle with England.

That night we watched another episode of the documentary. We were hooked!

Tuesday we spent the day in Glasgow. Caleb had been to Scotland once before and had seen Edinburgh, but not Glasgow. We visited the cathedral (the weather conditions were not adverse this time, so the cathedral was open!), walked down Buchanan Street and by the river, and spent some time at the People’s Palace, a museum on Glasgow’s history. In the evening we did what had become our custom: listen to Neil Oliver tell us about Scotland and then chat until bedtime.

Glasgow Cathedral

At the People's Palace

Caleb left early Wednesday morning for his long journey home. Both Brendan and I really enjoyed having him with us. I had only ever seen Caleb for a few days here and there in Fredericton, so it was nice to have more of a chance to get to know him. We were glad he could make the trip.  

Back at the Ranch

The days following our return from our traveling holiday were spent resting, restoring our house to some semblance of order (we had left it tidy, but hordes of stuff just seemed to overtake the place upon our return), and for me, blogging. Brendan teased me for being obsessed. Guilty as charged.

I love keeping this blog. It gives me an opportunity to record the things we’ve done and share them with others. It provides a written memory of my family’s life and makes me feel more connected to people back home. It gives me a chance to share my son’s cuteness:

Taken in Bastogne, Belgium

…and relate important details about our activities, such as Brendan's expert performance of the fountain pose at various places in Europe:

The Hague

Palais du Louvre

Arche de Triomphe

I love having a writing project that encourages me to think about the things I’m doing and gives me a venue to share my reflections. For instance:

I spent a lot of time on this trip thinking about why I like traveling. It’s exciting to see new things, but that’s not the heart of it. You can only look at so many buildings before you get tired looking at them, no matter how fancy they are. No, we did not come to Scotland or go to England, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, and Belgium just to look at buildings (or paintings, or rivers, or holes in the ground, for that matter). We came to experience life from a different perspective. And we took this three and a half week trip to see things, but also to steep ourselves in history, to learn, to open our minds to what the world has to offer, and our hearts to the experience of life. Of course, not everyone who travels does this, and you don’t have to travel to do it, but it’s what we did. The highlights of the trip for me were moments when I felt connected to part of the human story that I had not experienced before – praying in thousand year old churches, walking battlefields, glimpsing the spirit of a culture in its art. Learning the stories of people and places and their impact on history is an incredibly enriching experience – leaning things among these people and in these places is even more so. I’ve always felt that learning another language unlocks a new perspective on the human experience – I think seeing new places can do that too, if you look closely. And seeking new perspectives of the human experience is an eminently valuable project. The world is not limited to me and my familiar surroundings. I believe I can be better for knowing the story and experience of someone else. I like traveling because it teaches me about others in a unique way. Traveling highlights the vast range of human experience, the stark differences and striking similarities of people. It also increases my awe before the God who designed us and whose will keeps the drama unfolding.

I also keep this blog because I’m hoping that one day the little munchkin who’s sitting in my lap drooling all over my pajama pants as I write will one day read it and be proud of his place in our family’s adventure. 

Luxembourg & Belgium

On the morning of January 9^th, we packed up our things and took the train back to Versailles. Our original plan had been to drive back to Hoofddorp that day, but we decided while in Paris that it might be better to split the driving time for Liam’s sake. Brendan wanted to see Luxembourg City and a couple significant WWII sites in Belgium too, so the extra day provided us that opportunity.

We were hoping to get on the road a bit earlier than we did – unfortunately when we reached Versailles I realized I no longer had my wallet. The only explanation we could think of is that it had been stolen on the train. Being robbed has a way of dampening one’s spirits, but we did our best to stay positive. Brendan made a few calls to make sure the wallet hadn’t been forgotten at the hotel and to cancel my credit card. Once that was dealt with, we got back on the road.

We pulled into Luxembourg City at around 4:30pm and walked around for a couple hours before sitting down to dinner at Pizza Hut (one of the few places that was open past 6pm!). Luxembourg City has been named a UNESCO world heritage site because of its impressive fortifications. There’s a huge ravine in the middle of the city from which ramparts rise and openings to casemates (underground tunnels) can be seen.

Liam in Luxembourg City!

The ramparts & casemates

That night we stayed at a hostel in Hollenfels, a remote little town in central Luxembourg. It was a large clean hostel with comfortable rooms – and we had the whole place to ourselves! I guess they don’t see much activity up there in the off season. After breakfast the next morning we continued on our journey, stopping briefly at a military museum in Diekirch (Dee-kirsh, still Luxembourg) before crossing into Belgium.

In Bastogne, Belgium, we first visited a memorial to the Americans who had fought there in the Battle of the Bulge (1944-45). Brendan then set his mind to a crucial mission: to find the foxholes dug by Easy Company during the battle. At least once a year, Brendan watches the WWII mini-series Band of Brothers about the 101^st Airborn Division, ‘E’ Company (it’s an incredible series, definitely worth watching again and again). One of the episodes is set in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, and shows the soldiers fighting from foxholes they had dug on the front. The foxholes are not marked, but after consulting the attendant at the tourist info center, driving around a bit and scouring the woods, Brendan found them. To be honest, I was a bit uptight about the whole thing because I wanted to make sure we got the car back to the rental place before closing so that we wouldn’t have to pay for another day’s rental. As Brendan traipsed through the woods I sat in the car eating fries and grumbling to myself about my husband’s insistence on seeing a bunch of holes in the ground. But Brendan’s enthusiasm eventually won me over. They’re not just holes in the ground, he reminded me. They are part of a battlefield where men lived and died. They are sites of both brutality and heroism. They are scars in the soil that remind us of what it took to secure our freedom. So in the end I was glad to have seen them (of course, Brendan being absolutely over the moon helped – most of the places we went he had seen before, so it was nice to be able to do something that was new for him too).

Monument to American Soldiers

Monument to 'E' Company

Foxholes

We arrived in Hoofddorp that evening (January 10^th), with plenty of time to bring the car back (yes, I had worried for nothing – that’s a sharpened skill of mine), and enjoy dinner with Gladys & Carlo and some friends of theirs. A large part of next day was spent lazing around, until we had to pack up for our 9:20pm flight to Edinburgh (I stayed in my pj’s until about 5:30pm!). We were grateful to Gladys & Carlo for welcoming us again and providing us the opportunity to rest before flying home. They were very generous hosts – we’re hoping to be able to return the favour here in Stirling!

Fortunately, Brendan had booked us a direct flight from Amsterdam to Edinburgh – a transfer in London would have made the trip that much more exhausting. We ended up making it home in record time. As soon as we were off the plane we ran to get our baggage (which, to our great delight, came out immediately!), ran to a cab, arrived at the train station, ran to the train, and got on! Catching that train meant avoiding an hour-long wait for the next one, so we definitely breathed a sigh of relief as we settled in for the ride to Stirling. We got home around midnight and went to bed. We had enjoyed our travels tremendously, but now it was good to be home.

Paris, Day Two

We began our second day in Paris with a visit to the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. In 1830, Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré, a member of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, and asked her to have a medal made of the image she saw. The parish my family has attended in Russell for nearly 25 years is called Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, so I thought it would be nice to go to the chapel to pray for my family and parish community. The chapel was undergoing some renovation when we arrived, so we couldn’t go inside, but we did stop on the sidewalk to offer some prayers at this special place. I had not realized the chapel was in Paris until I looked online at Mass times in the city the night before. I’m glad we went, even though it ended up being closed. It would have been nice to see the inside, but the most important part for me was to be able to pray at a place of pilgrimage.

From there we headed back to Place de la Concorde to pick up our walk where we had left off the previous day. We walked down the Champs Elysées to the Arche de Triomphe, still savouring every moment of our Parisian experience. The arch is an impressive 160 ft war memorial decorated with elaborate sculpture. Brendan’s favourite response to fantastic sights while we traveled was to say dismissively, “Ya, it’s ok. Nothing special. We’ve got a couple of those in Fredericton.” He got a lot of mileage out of that joke – he must have said it a hundred times and I always laughed! Apparently Fredericton has a better arch than Napoleon’s piddly construction!

We visited Sacré Coeur that afternoon, a beautiful domed church on the hill of Montmartre. The top of the hill offers a great view of the city – we had fun trying to pinpoint some of the famous buildings in the cityscape. After that we went to L’Hôtel national des Invalides, which is a complex of buildings that includes military museums and the site of Napoleon’s tomb. We didn’t go into the museums, but spent a short while walking about the grounds. That evening we went back to St. Eustache to attend Mass. It was nice to have a quiet ending to another very full day.

Catching a nap on the way to Sacré Coeur

Les Invalides

Ah, Parie!

To anyone who has not been to Paris and has a chance to go: take it! I fell in love instantly. It’s an absolutely gorgeous city – everywhere you look there is something beautiful to see. Parisians don’t have the best reputation for courtesy, but that’s not the case for everyone. We met some very pleasant and helpful folk, and Liam got lots of smiles.

I had wondered before we set out on the trip if I might be too exhausted by the time we reached Paris to really enjoy the city. Fortunately that was not at all the case. After six days of driving, it was nice to get walking again. We didn’t have quite the same stamina as we had in London, but we still managed to make the most of our two days in Paris. We started out on Friday morning at the Jardin de Luxembourg, behind what was once Marie de Medici’s residence, and is now the Senate. Brendan told me that in the summer people sit around the pond in this garden, basking in the sun or driving little motorized boats in the water. No one was doing that on a rainy January morning, but it was nice to imagine! From there we headed to the Pantheon, which can be seen from the garden. One of the great things about Paris is just how many beautiful sights can be observed from one vantage point. Apparently it was designed with that aesthetic in mind. There is undoubtedly a certain charm about things being haphazard, but there is also beauty in order and design - Paris does order very well.

The Pantheon was originally built as a Catholic church, but it’s purpose officially changed to secular monument with the burial there of Victor Hugo. Many famous Frenchmen and women are buried in its crypt. In the center of the building, a huge pendulum swings with the rotation of the earth, and is used to tell time. It appears as though the axis of the pendulum is rotating, but in reality its trajectory is fixed – it is the earth that rotates. This pendulum was the project of French physicist Léon Foucault and has been in the Pantheon since 1851.

After lunch we continued our walk in the direction of the Ile de la Cité, which is the oldest part of the city. The rain had stopped at that point, and the weather was mild. On the island we visited Notre Dame de Paris (which was, as always, jammed with tourists) and a very moving memorial to French victims of the Holocaust. We then stopped by a church called St. Eustache, which Brendan’s mom later told us is home to a very famous organ once played by Mozart! After a short rest, we entered the fabulous world of the Louvre Museum. What a place! Brendan once heard an astounding statistic about the Louvre: if one were to spend thirty seconds at each item on display, it would take about two weeks to get through the whole thing! Obviously we couldn’t have spent two straight weeks there, so we chose to visit the sculpture, decorative arts, and painting exhibits. Although we didn’t even come close to seeing everything, just being in the museum was an experience. It’s a very beautiful space.

Notre Dame de Paris

Liam at the Louvre!

We stayed at the Louvre until my ravenous hunger forced us to find a place to sit and scarf down our sandwiches. Having abated the food anger (I get irritable when I’m really hungry – Brendan calls it food anger!), we walked through the Jardin des Tuileries to Place de la Concorde. We had planned to walk all the way down the Champs Elysées that night, but our feet resisted. We were quite tired after our day of walking, so opted to take the metro home from Place de la Concorde. Before we left, however, Brendan had some fun shooting photos of Paris at night.

Champs Elysées

Paris Bound

After spending the morning in Chartres, we drove to Versailles, to see Louis XIV’s famous palace. Admission to the palace is expensive, but the garden is free, so we spent our time outside. Versailles is an incredibly opulent place. The garden alone is mind-boggling. It spans nearly 800 hectares of immaculately kept land, full fountains, flowers, and topiaries. It even includes a small canal which can accommodate boats! As we wandered through these regal gardens, we reflected on the use of wealth. Apparently, Louis XIV bankrupted France to build his palace. As Brendan pointed out, no wonder the people revolted! It’s one thing to make a nice garden – quite another to take bread from the mouths of the poor to do it. I suppose this kind of abuse of wealth and power happens all the time – it just exposes itself unabashedly at Versailles. Walking through the garden felt a bit like a guilty pleasure – it was beautiful, but at what cost? I’m glad we went though, both for the experience and for the conversation it generated.

Back of the palace from the middle of the garden (yes, middle - it extends this far the other way too!)

Upon leaving the palace we set out to find a place to leave our rental car for the duration of our time in Paris. Brendan had been to Paris before and knew that the driving there is absolute madness – he thought it best for our marriage if we left the car outside the city and took the train in! And so ended the largest driving portion of the trip (we would still have to drive back to Hoofddorp to return the car, but most of the driving was behind us). I wasn’t sure how Liam would handle all the car time, but he did amazingly well. I sat in the back to either console or entertain him, and fortunately, my job wasn’t too difficult. Often after my attention had been elsewhere for a while, I would turn to him and see this:

Playing with Black Peter, a Christmas gift from Gladys & Carlo

Seeing his adorable little face smiling up at me was definitely a highlight of the driving hours! We had great fun in the back seat smiling, laughing and talking together. He did cry occasionally, but we managed to avoid total meltdowns by stopping when necessary and making sure he kept to his regular feeding and napping schedule. Traveling with a little one is definitely more work than going alone, but Liam seems to be a particularly travel-friendly baby – for which we were very grateful!

Luckily the train ride from Versailles to Paris is quick, so we didn’t have far to go with all our bags. Our hotel was also very conveniently located near a metro stop, which made our city travel easy. Our room in Paris felt quite luxurious compared to the places we had been staying in Normandy. All the hotels we stayed in were clean and satisfied our needs, but the rooms were small and often did not include a bathroom. So when we arrived at Hotel Printemps to find not only a bathroom in the room, but also a little hallway that connected it to the main area, we felt like royalty! After settling in a bit and skyping with our parents, we set out for the Champs de Mars to see the Eiffel Tower lit up. We were both really excited to be in Paris. I loved my first taste of the city and couldn’t wait to discover more of its treasures in the coming days.