1. I love Belgium
2. I have a great family....wonderful husband and kids
3. The waffles here are amazing
4. Train travel is fun, convenient and fairly economical.
5. I look really ugly in hats!
Goals for the day (besides go to Dinant):
1. Eat at least one waffle
2. Book reservations for the train to Paris.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Some call it Bruges, others call it Brugge, I just call it a...
NO, I can't ay that For anyone who has seen the movie Bruges, you know what I was going to say.
More about Bruges later though.
I woke up his morning at 2:00 am and never did go back to sleep so I ended up going down to breakfast around 6 and I wasn't surprised to be the only one there. I've already mentioned the quirkiness of this hotel...I've never seen anything like it. It kind of reminds me of the Winchester Mystery House in California but it is one of the most interesting and charming hotels I've ever stayed at. Our room is pretty large by European standards and the bathroom is enormous, almost as big as the room itself. The toilet sits up high and only my tiptoes touch the floor. I think Sarah needs a stepstool to get up and down, ha, ha.
Anyway the breakfast is included in the price and it's a very good one indeed. They have a machine that is loaded with whole oranges and it runs periodically to produce fresh squeezed orange juice. It adds a delicous brightness to the day to be able to drink something so fresh. They also have little containers of different (wonderful) cheeses and did I mention the freshly baked breads and pastries. NOT a bad way to start out the day. Especially since it doesn't even start to get light til after 8:30.
Everytime I travel to other countries I'm amazed about how good the food is and how different it is from most of the dining out we do in Salem. Don't get me wrong, there are some very good restaurants, especially in Portland, that I love going to...but it just seems like the overall quality and effort of serving food here is better. I read somewhere recently that the only places that Europe can't import meat from is England and the United States. I don't know whether it's true or not...apparently because of the hormones that our animals are fed and injected with...but it makes sense. Anway, guess this is just food for thought (no pun intended.)
Anyway, back to Bruges.
We left on the 10:21 am train and after changing trains in Brussels, pulled into Bruges about 12:30. It was raining hard there and even though it was mid-day, it was very dark. We took a bus to the "centrum" and tried to get adjusted to yet a different language. Claire says that there are actually three languages spoken in Belgium, French, Flemish and German. It does tend to keep one on one's toes though. Namur is in the french speaking region, Bruges in the Flemish area and so on, but here's the kicker....Brussels is in the Flemish region too but just to confuse things they speak French there. Go figure.
Bruges is quite simply a beautiful, fairytale-like town although a little hard to tell through the pouring rain, bone numbing coldness and the thousands (yes, thousands of tourists). After being in Namur for several days where not too many tourists go (Claire's friend Kamil didn't even know there were any hotels in Namur until we told him) it was a little bit of culture shock to be somewhere that was hard to walk down the streets because of all the people. It was kind of like being in Venice but without the heat.
Anyway we were hungry and it being about 1 by this time, many of the restaurants were busy. We ended up at an Indian restaurant....had a nice table upstairs with an amazing view and enjoyed a long, leisurely, warm lunch. Again...the food was so darn good.
After lunch we spent a couple of hours just milling around, getting wet and did I mention how cold it is?
At one point when we were standing in the main square I said to Claire, "I wonder where the bell tower is?"....the bell tower being a major landmark in Bruges. It turned out that we were standing right in front of it..guess I couldn't see past the umbrella.
Even though Bruges is in Belgium and not far from Namur the architecture is strikingly different. More germanic or northern european where Namur is a mixture of that and french provincial.
We took a late afternoon train back and when we got back to Namur it was raining even harder here. We decided to go to a restaurant we'd already been to for dinner and had a nice time talking over the events of the day and relaxing back in our nice, quiet, cosy Namur.
Sarah took off back to the hotel on her own while I walked Claire partway to the bus station. I enjoyed my alone time walking back to the hotel (after four hours on a train w/ Claire and Sarah, one can go quietly insane...he, he, Yes, they do tend to get a little silly for hours on end.)
Anyway on the way back to the hotel I felt proud of us all for not letting the weather get in the way of being out and about and having a good time. Our spirits are high and we're enjoying being together and more than up to the challenge of the weather.
Tomorrow we go to Dinant (which is a few miles down the river) with Claire's host family. Dinant has some beautiful scenery, a wonderful old cathedral , a citadel 350 feet up on the cliff and was also the birthplace and home of Aldolfe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone.
Should be another fun day.
More about Bruges later though.
I woke up his morning at 2:00 am and never did go back to sleep so I ended up going down to breakfast around 6 and I wasn't surprised to be the only one there. I've already mentioned the quirkiness of this hotel...I've never seen anything like it. It kind of reminds me of the Winchester Mystery House in California but it is one of the most interesting and charming hotels I've ever stayed at. Our room is pretty large by European standards and the bathroom is enormous, almost as big as the room itself. The toilet sits up high and only my tiptoes touch the floor. I think Sarah needs a stepstool to get up and down, ha, ha.
Anyway the breakfast is included in the price and it's a very good one indeed. They have a machine that is loaded with whole oranges and it runs periodically to produce fresh squeezed orange juice. It adds a delicous brightness to the day to be able to drink something so fresh. They also have little containers of different (wonderful) cheeses and did I mention the freshly baked breads and pastries. NOT a bad way to start out the day. Especially since it doesn't even start to get light til after 8:30.
Everytime I travel to other countries I'm amazed about how good the food is and how different it is from most of the dining out we do in Salem. Don't get me wrong, there are some very good restaurants, especially in Portland, that I love going to...but it just seems like the overall quality and effort of serving food here is better. I read somewhere recently that the only places that Europe can't import meat from is England and the United States. I don't know whether it's true or not...apparently because of the hormones that our animals are fed and injected with...but it makes sense. Anway, guess this is just food for thought (no pun intended.)
Anyway, back to Bruges.
We left on the 10:21 am train and after changing trains in Brussels, pulled into Bruges about 12:30. It was raining hard there and even though it was mid-day, it was very dark. We took a bus to the "centrum" and tried to get adjusted to yet a different language. Claire says that there are actually three languages spoken in Belgium, French, Flemish and German. It does tend to keep one on one's toes though. Namur is in the french speaking region, Bruges in the Flemish area and so on, but here's the kicker....Brussels is in the Flemish region too but just to confuse things they speak French there. Go figure.
Bruges is quite simply a beautiful, fairytale-like town although a little hard to tell through the pouring rain, bone numbing coldness and the thousands (yes, thousands of tourists). After being in Namur for several days where not too many tourists go (Claire's friend Kamil didn't even know there were any hotels in Namur until we told him) it was a little bit of culture shock to be somewhere that was hard to walk down the streets because of all the people. It was kind of like being in Venice but without the heat.
Anyway we were hungry and it being about 1 by this time, many of the restaurants were busy. We ended up at an Indian restaurant....had a nice table upstairs with an amazing view and enjoyed a long, leisurely, warm lunch. Again...the food was so darn good.
After lunch we spent a couple of hours just milling around, getting wet and did I mention how cold it is?
At one point when we were standing in the main square I said to Claire, "I wonder where the bell tower is?"....the bell tower being a major landmark in Bruges. It turned out that we were standing right in front of it..guess I couldn't see past the umbrella.
Even though Bruges is in Belgium and not far from Namur the architecture is strikingly different. More germanic or northern european where Namur is a mixture of that and french provincial.
We took a late afternoon train back and when we got back to Namur it was raining even harder here. We decided to go to a restaurant we'd already been to for dinner and had a nice time talking over the events of the day and relaxing back in our nice, quiet, cosy Namur.
Sarah took off back to the hotel on her own while I walked Claire partway to the bus station. I enjoyed my alone time walking back to the hotel (after four hours on a train w/ Claire and Sarah, one can go quietly insane...he, he, Yes, they do tend to get a little silly for hours on end.)
Anyway on the way back to the hotel I felt proud of us all for not letting the weather get in the way of being out and about and having a good time. Our spirits are high and we're enjoying being together and more than up to the challenge of the weather.
Tomorrow we go to Dinant (which is a few miles down the river) with Claire's host family. Dinant has some beautiful scenery, a wonderful old cathedral , a citadel 350 feet up on the cliff and was also the birthplace and home of Aldolfe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone.
Should be another fun day.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Lunch with a Belgian Playboy
Sarah and I got up fairly late this morning and didn't get out of the hotel until about 11. We were due to meet Claire and a friend of her's from Malonne at 1:00 PM for lunch.
Sarah and I browsed around some of the shops for awhile and then headed over to the meeting spot.
We were introduced to Kamil, Claire's 16-year-old friend. Kamil is of Moroccan heritage but born in Belgium and goes to Claire's school. He speaks very good english and we had a fine time at lunch speaking french and english...all of us making mistakes in both languages.
After lunch Kamil treated us to hot waffles from the stand on the street. These waffles aren't like the ones we make at home. They're sweeter and are very crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside. So delicious. We then went for a little walk to the citadel but before we started up the stairs, Kamil had yet another treat....pommes beignets made on the spot at another outdoor stand. (Translation: apple doughnuts dusted with powdered sugar.)
It was very cold outside...in the 30's I'm guessing but by the time we got to the top I was feeling pretty warm. There was a beautiful view from up high and I have pictures to prove it. Perhaps if I'm feeling very energetic then I'll actually get some of these pics on this blog soon.
We then walked back down to town and said au revoir to Kamil who said he was going to the library. (And this kid is on Christmas vacation.) We enjoyed our time with Kamil and found him to be very charming and a self-described playboy. We all got a laugh out of that.
Claire, Sarah and I then went back to the hotel to rest. On the way there we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some supplies which included a bottle of Alsatian Gewurtsraminer. Eventually Claire and Sarah went back to see some of the shops and I laid down to take a nap....I felt tired but I am so excited to be in Belgium that I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping.
Claire was also feeling tired so went back to her place for the night and Sarah and I went to dinner in the hotel. We had a wonderful time together and a great meal. The food here is so good! Pommes dauphinoise and entrecote de boeuf and frogs legs that rocked. Before we went to the restaurant the man at the front desk printed out the menu for us to look at. Everything was in French (he said it wasn't available in English). We had fun trying to figure out what everything was so we'd know what to order when we got to the restaurant. And then when we sat down they brought us a menu in English so "oh well!" I ordered a half liter of house red and we finished the meal with a limoncello for Sarah and a grappa for me (which Sarah ordered in perfect French!)
Some of my thoughts so far are that Claire is really speaking French well and able to translate for us. But Sarah, also, is speaking a lot of French and doesn't seem to be shy about trying. She says she is now really motivated to keep learning her French. Just another fringe benefit of travelling...the more you learn the more you want to learn. I am so proud of my daughters and am so blessed to be able to travel with them. This trip is a wonderful treat for all of us!
Tomorrow we meet Claire at the train station about 10:15 and we'll be off to Brugges. Flemish is spoken in Brugges so Claire says that we're on our own to figure out everything. I say, "bring it on!"
Au revoir pour maintenot. (Goodbye for now.))
Sarah and I browsed around some of the shops for awhile and then headed over to the meeting spot.
We were introduced to Kamil, Claire's 16-year-old friend. Kamil is of Moroccan heritage but born in Belgium and goes to Claire's school. He speaks very good english and we had a fine time at lunch speaking french and english...all of us making mistakes in both languages.
After lunch Kamil treated us to hot waffles from the stand on the street. These waffles aren't like the ones we make at home. They're sweeter and are very crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside. So delicious. We then went for a little walk to the citadel but before we started up the stairs, Kamil had yet another treat....pommes beignets made on the spot at another outdoor stand. (Translation: apple doughnuts dusted with powdered sugar.)
It was very cold outside...in the 30's I'm guessing but by the time we got to the top I was feeling pretty warm. There was a beautiful view from up high and I have pictures to prove it. Perhaps if I'm feeling very energetic then I'll actually get some of these pics on this blog soon.
We then walked back down to town and said au revoir to Kamil who said he was going to the library. (And this kid is on Christmas vacation.) We enjoyed our time with Kamil and found him to be very charming and a self-described playboy. We all got a laugh out of that.
Claire, Sarah and I then went back to the hotel to rest. On the way there we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some supplies which included a bottle of Alsatian Gewurtsraminer. Eventually Claire and Sarah went back to see some of the shops and I laid down to take a nap....I felt tired but I am so excited to be in Belgium that I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping.
Claire was also feeling tired so went back to her place for the night and Sarah and I went to dinner in the hotel. We had a wonderful time together and a great meal. The food here is so good! Pommes dauphinoise and entrecote de boeuf and frogs legs that rocked. Before we went to the restaurant the man at the front desk printed out the menu for us to look at. Everything was in French (he said it wasn't available in English). We had fun trying to figure out what everything was so we'd know what to order when we got to the restaurant. And then when we sat down they brought us a menu in English so "oh well!" I ordered a half liter of house red and we finished the meal with a limoncello for Sarah and a grappa for me (which Sarah ordered in perfect French!)
Some of my thoughts so far are that Claire is really speaking French well and able to translate for us. But Sarah, also, is speaking a lot of French and doesn't seem to be shy about trying. She says she is now really motivated to keep learning her French. Just another fringe benefit of travelling...the more you learn the more you want to learn. I am so proud of my daughters and am so blessed to be able to travel with them. This trip is a wonderful treat for all of us!
Tomorrow we meet Claire at the train station about 10:15 and we'll be off to Brugges. Flemish is spoken in Brugges so Claire says that we're on our own to figure out everything. I say, "bring it on!"
Au revoir pour maintenot. (Goodbye for now.))
Ou est les Prostitutes?
Okay, well more about that later.
First let me say that the 9 1/2 hour flight wasn't all that bad or maybe I'm just getting used to flying for long periods of time. Sarah and I had two seats together but the plane wasn't full so I was able to move somewhere to have an empty seat next to me which coincidentally left an empty seat next to Sarah. We were able to spread out a little and be more comfortable which didn't necessarily translate into me getting any sleep but I was still grateful for the extra space.
We got to Amsterdam airport (Schipol) about 7:30 AM and managed to get our baggage and through customs in about 45 mins.
We then caught the train right in the airport directly to Brussels. The scenery through Holland was very flat, as to be expected, and we did see several windmalls. Within two hours we were rolling into Brussels (still flat countryside and very industrial) which is where the prositutes come in..
Sarah is studying her driver's manual and I'm standing near the door of the train so I'd be ready to lug my heavy bags off when we stopped....I'm just gazing out the window and looking at the street that borders the railway and all of a sudden I notice that in every window of every house along this street there are women wearing lingerie (next to nothing!). This went on for at least 3 blocks....incredible...not only in broad daylight but also in the morning! I didn't know whether to go tell Sarah to look or make sure she wasn't looking. But as I already mentioned, she was studying her driver's manual and sitting on the other side of the train, so she missed it.
We changed trains in Brussels. We'd just missed the train to Namur but some "friends" I'd met on the train informed me that the next train to Namur was in 1/2 hour. Can you imagine? And Namur is not even a major destination and we only had a short wait. (Train travel in Europe is absolutely amazing.)
The final leg of our journey to meet up w/ Claire was only about an hour. We were exiting the train station when here comes my beautiful, oldest daughter. We had a happy reunion (yes, there were tears in my eyes) and then started our 1/2 walk w/ big, heavy luggage to our hotel.
As we walked along (in the very cold winter weather) I immediately fell in love w/ Namur. What a charming city w/ all the Christmas lights and a lighted cidadel on the hill. Our hotel is very nice and quite eccentric. It was made by combining something like 14 row houses into one building. The effect is that every single room is different and all on slightly different levels. As you go down the hall all the rooms are up and down steps and curving staircases. I'd hate to try to navigate it if I had too much to drink!
As if the day wasn't already long enough (over 24 hours w/o sleep!) we knew we had to keep going to enable us to sleep through the night later. So we dropped off our suitcases and headed out to see the town. We stopped into a cozy spot for some refreshments (cherry beer), visited a few shops of which there are many...and then back to the hotel where we waited for Claire's host dad to pick us up in his car to take us to her "home" in Malonne.
What a lovely family and home! They made us feel very welcome and it was wonderful to meet the people (at last) who have been Claire's surrogate family for the last 4 months. Both Sarah and I were exhausted, to say the least, but we mustered up the strength to partake in some wonderful food and drink. We started with 4 kinds of boudin, which is apparently referred to as a sausage but w/ the texture more like pate. There was some wonderful cheese to go along w/ it and champagne! Then we sat down to dinner of lapin (rabbit for all you dweebs in dweebland who don't speak French), endive frisee and pommes de terre croquettes... As if this wasn't enough they brought out a big board with at least 10 different cheeses (fromages) and a wondeful loaf of bread. AMAZING cheese but I was too full to eat much...and THEN...little crocks of Mousse au Chocolat....
Not too long after the chocolate mousse Claire's host dad brought us back to the hotel. Sarah and I talked for a short while and then SLEEP, blessed SLEEP.
I won't bore my readers w/ all the details of our first night at the hotel but it was eventful.
Goodnight for now.
First let me say that the 9 1/2 hour flight wasn't all that bad or maybe I'm just getting used to flying for long periods of time. Sarah and I had two seats together but the plane wasn't full so I was able to move somewhere to have an empty seat next to me which coincidentally left an empty seat next to Sarah. We were able to spread out a little and be more comfortable which didn't necessarily translate into me getting any sleep but I was still grateful for the extra space.
We got to Amsterdam airport (Schipol) about 7:30 AM and managed to get our baggage and through customs in about 45 mins.
We then caught the train right in the airport directly to Brussels. The scenery through Holland was very flat, as to be expected, and we did see several windmalls. Within two hours we were rolling into Brussels (still flat countryside and very industrial) which is where the prositutes come in..
Sarah is studying her driver's manual and I'm standing near the door of the train so I'd be ready to lug my heavy bags off when we stopped....I'm just gazing out the window and looking at the street that borders the railway and all of a sudden I notice that in every window of every house along this street there are women wearing lingerie (next to nothing!). This went on for at least 3 blocks....incredible...not only in broad daylight but also in the morning! I didn't know whether to go tell Sarah to look or make sure she wasn't looking. But as I already mentioned, she was studying her driver's manual and sitting on the other side of the train, so she missed it.
We changed trains in Brussels. We'd just missed the train to Namur but some "friends" I'd met on the train informed me that the next train to Namur was in 1/2 hour. Can you imagine? And Namur is not even a major destination and we only had a short wait. (Train travel in Europe is absolutely amazing.)
The final leg of our journey to meet up w/ Claire was only about an hour. We were exiting the train station when here comes my beautiful, oldest daughter. We had a happy reunion (yes, there were tears in my eyes) and then started our 1/2 walk w/ big, heavy luggage to our hotel.
As we walked along (in the very cold winter weather) I immediately fell in love w/ Namur. What a charming city w/ all the Christmas lights and a lighted cidadel on the hill. Our hotel is very nice and quite eccentric. It was made by combining something like 14 row houses into one building. The effect is that every single room is different and all on slightly different levels. As you go down the hall all the rooms are up and down steps and curving staircases. I'd hate to try to navigate it if I had too much to drink!
As if the day wasn't already long enough (over 24 hours w/o sleep!) we knew we had to keep going to enable us to sleep through the night later. So we dropped off our suitcases and headed out to see the town. We stopped into a cozy spot for some refreshments (cherry beer), visited a few shops of which there are many...and then back to the hotel where we waited for Claire's host dad to pick us up in his car to take us to her "home" in Malonne.
What a lovely family and home! They made us feel very welcome and it was wonderful to meet the people (at last) who have been Claire's surrogate family for the last 4 months. Both Sarah and I were exhausted, to say the least, but we mustered up the strength to partake in some wonderful food and drink. We started with 4 kinds of boudin, which is apparently referred to as a sausage but w/ the texture more like pate. There was some wonderful cheese to go along w/ it and champagne! Then we sat down to dinner of lapin (rabbit for all you dweebs in dweebland who don't speak French), endive frisee and pommes de terre croquettes... As if this wasn't enough they brought out a big board with at least 10 different cheeses (fromages) and a wondeful loaf of bread. AMAZING cheese but I was too full to eat much...and THEN...little crocks of Mousse au Chocolat....
Not too long after the chocolate mousse Claire's host dad brought us back to the hotel. Sarah and I talked for a short while and then SLEEP, blessed SLEEP.
I won't bore my readers w/ all the details of our first night at the hotel but it was eventful.
Goodnight for now.
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