Summer Update, Part 4 -- Butterflies & Humiliation

Slowly catching up here!

Shortly after we returned from the U.S., the kids and I took a little trip to Grevenmacher, a cute town on the Moselle River near the German border.  The big draw for us was the Butterfly Garden, which we'd heard was great.  It didn't disappoint!

Those are butterflies hanging all over that string.  Take a closer look:

They're nibbling on bananas suspended on the string.  They were flapping all around us, landing on our heads, arms, everywhere!  While I like butterflies, this was a bit too reminiscent of the bat incident for me.  But the kids loved it.  They stood very still...

...hoping the butterflies would land on them (and I could get a picture of it).  It didn't happen.

But we saw so many beautiful butterflies!  A few favorites:

There were also a few less-cute (in my mind) critters as well.  We spent 5 minutes watching this chameleon turn his eyes in different directions.  Creepy!

Walking sticks -- a favorite of Will's since his Kindergarten at home kept these as class pets:

And darling, colorful birds fluttering around:

After the butterfly garden we headed out for lunch.  And that's where the humiliation comes in.  As usual, I had very little cash on me -- somewhere around 15-20 Euros -- so I thought we'd find a place to grab a quick sandwich.  Just around the corner we spotted a cafe offering croque monsieurs and other cheap lunches.  Perfect!  We sat down, only to be told they just had one fixed-price menu available for lunch that day -- soup, followed by steak with fries and salad.  I figured, fine, I'll just pay with a credit card (See where this is going?).  

We had a lovely lunch.  Here's Kate enjoying her potato-leek soup:

When they presented the bill (22 Euros), I handed over my credit card, only to be told, "Sorry.  No credit cards accepted."  Oops.  What kind of sit-down restaurant doesn't take credit cards?  This one, apparently.  After searching my pockets and even trying to bum money off the kids, who are quite often loaded, I determined we had a grand total of 17 Euros.  So I had to tell the very nice server that we didn't have the money and ask where the nearest cash machine was.  In the center of town, about a five-minute drive away.  Leaving my iPhone as collateral, the kids and I headed off in search of cash.  It was no problem.  We were back 20 minutes later, money in hand, to pay the bill and retrieve my phone.  But, it was humiliating.  Lesson learned:  always carry cash or at least ask whether restaurants accept credit cards!!