Belgium

On Tuesday (March 30) Mom and I headed to Bruges, Belgium for a short excursion. Kelly and I had wanted to go see this medieval city for awhile now because it was the only town in Belgium that any Dutch person recommended. We left around 8:30 Tuesday morning and started our journey. We got into a bit of traffic and road construction but for the most part it was an uneventful 3 hour drive. TomTom took us right to our hotel and we had picked a wonderful centrally located hotel. It was right on the Burg which is the big historic plaza in the middle of the city. Right outside our window we could see the town hall. It was such a beautiful building! See below…

The city hall

The canals, buildings, and bridges were just so beautiful and old!

The most famous/pretty point in Bruges. Canals and buildings and my Mom! A girl can't ask for much more......

I had downloaded a walking tour of the city so we set off on our destinations and tourist book recommendations. The tour took us along the old canals and buildings and bridges. It was such a quaint city that was very peaceful. The streets had people, but not obnoxiously full like in Prague (future post). We met some teachers from Virginia who were visiting on Spring Break. We had to go to at least one museum so we hit up the Groeningemuseum which was a neat place with many old paintings. Many museums start to look the same so we didn’t spend a whole lot of time there. We were on a schedule! After the museum our tour took us to the Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan, a local brewery. Now, THAT is an important stop! Mom and I had a beer…or two….and let our feet have a break. After we had built up our energy we headed off for more walking and touring. After the break we headed to the Church of Our Lady in Bruges for a viewing of Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child. It is the only statute to leave Italy during Michelangelo’s life time. It was bought by a family of wealthy cloth merchants who were from Bruges, one of the leading commercial cities in Europe during the time.

The detail of the statue was amazing! The way the cloth draped and the faces were formed. He was really a talented artist!

After that, Mom and I were tired so we made our way back to the Market and we wanted to take a carriage ride around the city. It was reasonably priced so we hopped in. Now, our driver was not an animated happy man which led to a slightly less than amazing tour and explanation of the city. He also over emphasized his “Rs” so he sounded slightly Scottish and like he might have been from a cartoon. As it turns out, though, that Mom and I had hit most of the city highlights on our walking tour. The few that we missed happened to be right around the corner of where we turned around and headed to the Market. The horse stopped to take a break by the beguinage ‘De Wijngaard' (the vineyard). The flowers were blooming so it was a beautiful sight.

The Beguine

Shops along the Market square

The sun was setting and we were tired and getting hungry. We headed to the room for a little break then re-gathered our things and headed to the Market for some mussels. The skies had taken a turn for the worse but just as we had reached the Market it started to poor rain and the wind REALLY kicked up. Mom and I hurried to the protection of a restaurant and ducked in just in time. We sat there in the warmth and dryness and watched people scurrying across the square and umbrellas blow inside out. We were happy where we were. We had ordered the local style of mussels which meant they were cooked in some sort of garlic curry broth and they were AMAZING! It was such a nice treat! After that Mom and I headed to another restaurant for dinner. It had stopped raining by then so we figured we should make a go of it while we could. Well, the book told us about this nice place that cooked all their food with beer and served complementary beer to the food choices. We figured anything with beer was a safe bet so we headed that way. Turns out this place is pretty fancy and coveted! It was a Tuesday night and we only got in by luck. They originally said they were full so we turned to leave and then she happened to find a table for us. We know why they were full; they only serve each table once per evening. I think we had a 3 hour dinner with 4 courses, which included 4 glasses of beer. After that we were stuffed and really tired so we waddled our way back to the hotel and rest up for Wednesday.

On Wednesday we had planned to head to Ghent and Antwerp because Ghent came as a recommended city as well and I wanted Mom to see Antwerp and the cathedral (and diamonds). Well, they weather was still nasty and windy and cold. We were both drained from the long day in Bruges and Mom was a bit toured out from all of her previous excursions in Africa. We stopped in Ghent and walked downtown to see the St. Bravo Cathedral that houses the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, which is considered to be their most famous works. The church also housed paintings from Peter Paul Rubens. We didn’t last long wondering the city fighting the wind and rain.

We skipped Antwerp all together and headed back for a relaxing afternoon in Haarlem where the weather was considerably better. Mom and I did a bit of shopping after a nap then had a small bite to eat. I also got a pretty watch for my birthday. It’s big, shiny, and has a pink watch band, my new favorite. It is also automatic so it charges itself by movement and you can see all of the gears in it. Pretty cool!

On Thursday mom and I had tickets to fly to Germany to see Doris and her family and take an Easter weekend trip to Prague. Those stories and pictures to come later! Stay tuned!

No Part 3

So Kelly managed to organize her stories of Antwerp into a 3 part series. I only managed 2. Oh well. She did finally post the video of the organs playing though so you can hear them here.

On Friday Kelly and I are headed to Paris! We haven’t lined out all of the details yet, but we do have a hotel room and we are driving. It should be about a 3-5.5 hour drive depending on who you talk to. I would suspect about 4.5 hours but I’ll let you know that detail after I make it. I will say though, driving 4.5 hours and ending up in Paris is better than driving 4 and ending up in Albuquerque. Sorry Chris...and Mark who gets the lovely other end of the spectrum and ends up in El Paso.

I would like to point out that the sky was already light blue this morning, and it was still very light out on our drive home yesterday. That means our days are getting longer! I love having a bit of sunlight in my life. Yesterday was pretty drizzly, rainy weather but today looks better. I’m just happy there has been sun and it’s no longer grey out. I can handle all other weather as long as sun is involved occasionally.

We also made it home early enough yesterday to go to the post office and bakery. I had a letter in my mail box saying that the post man tried to give me a package but I didn’t have it. Well since I’m no expert at reading Dutch, I figured it was at the post office since it’s only across the street. I took the note to the post office but my package wasn’t there. The lady was kind enough to point out though, that he left the box with my neighbor in Apt 28. That’s why the number 28 was on there when I live in Apt 18. It’s making sense now. I ask Kelly to go with me when we got back from the bakery and she said she would. So up we go to floor 3, Apt 28 and ring the doorbell. We haven’t met any neighbors and rarely see anybody at all so this was a new experience for us. There was a wheelchair in front of the door so I suspected they move a bit slower so we wait for a while and an elderly man answers the door. I speak English, he doesn’t. So we talk back and forth for awhile at each other in our respective languages then I hand him my little note. He gets its, says something about Christensen, then I point to myself and we have an AH HA! moment and he points the box then says “please” (in Dutch) and I get my box thank him (in Dutch) and go on my way. I’m excited about my new books!!!

So this morning I go to the group of guys who teach me Dutch and ask them how to say “I’m sorry, I can’t speak Dutch.” All of the guys also got haircuts so then I had to learn how to say “I like your hair cut.” Which lead to me learning how to use the term Opa (Grandpa) in everyday talk as well as learning how to tell the old man that I like his baldness. They all got a grand laugh out of this; I found it slightly less amusing. Regardless, I’m still working on learning Dutch! So in honor of that…..

Tot morge!

Antwerp, Part 2

Part 2 of our Antwerp trip (Sunday) is super exciting. It is the day we went to the diamond district. Now that you have the teaser.....you have to read the entire posting! I know, it was mean.

This is the Cathedral of our Lady. It is a gorgeous Roman Catholic cathedral that was started in 1352 and construction stopped in 1551, it was never officially completed. The church is also home to several works of art by Peter Paul Rubens as well as Otto Van Veen, Jacob de Backer, and Martin de Vos. If you would like a more official, wider history than what I will give click here. Otherwise, you will just hear about how pretty everything is!

This is the beautiful main part of the church. It has so much natural light coming in from the above windows it was very pleasant. They also had a huge organ. I am a big fan of beautiful organs, which makes me wonder why I didn’t get a picture of it. If you want to hear the organ music play, you can click here which will take you to Kelly’s blog (I just learned she won't be posting the organ music until tomorrow, but there is a video of the bells playing, which is enjoyable as well). She has a great video of it…and her feet. Kelly and I went to church here on Sunday morning. I am not Catholic, but Kelly is and I figured, why not? It is such a pretty place, I can sit there and listen to God’s word in Dutch…maybe Flemish…for an hour and listen to pretty music. We wanted to go to the earlier service with choir and organ, but we didn’t make it. We could handle the 12 o’clock service though! It was so pleasant!

This was the mural at the top of the dome above the alter/center of the church area. It was so pretty, and the use of natural light is just amazing. A lot of times these old churches are so dark but this one was so light! It was also undergoing a major renovation to restore a lot of the building. It had gone through multiple wars, a fire, and a looting. I guess they figured it needed a bit of TLC. There was also an exhibit that displayed part of the original alters that was stolen back in 1600 or 1800, a long time ago, and then they surfaced again for auction at Christy’s in London. The city of Antwerp had to raise the money to buy the pieces back. There were 4 on action and they were able to acquire 2 of them and then got a 3rd piece later. It is sad/interesting how these historic relics were stolen so long ago, and kept, then passed through the generations, only to show up a few hundred years later at private auction. I’m not sure what I would do with a large chunk of stone alter if my parents left it to me. I guess that’s why they have survived…generations just got a big yard ornament passed along.



I’m not sure what this is used for, but it’s in every Catholic Church. Kelly said she thinks it’s for when important, higher ranking Catholic officials visit to observe the ceremony. It sounds like a good explanation so I’m going with it. It is so ornate and so much detail….all carved from wood. These ancient artists are amazing. I would never have enough patience to work on such an extensive piece or have so little room for error. You screw up a giant marble sculpture, you’re starting over. No thank you, I’ll take a pencil and eraser any day!

These two pictures are of the pretty alter and candle sticks. I have a thing for candle sticks, I don't know why but I like them. This is candle sticks on steroids.

So after church, Kelly and I were hungry so we went in search of a cute place on the square. Kelly has dubbed our restaurant search “Restaurant Roulette” because we have no real method besides how they look and how many people are there. Our travel book said the top 10 things to buy in Antwerp are (I can’t remember the order exactly): diamonds, chocolate, lace, shell fish, tintin (A cartoon we think), pastries, fries, waffles, beer, and coture. Well shell fish seemed like an easy one to accomplish so for lunch that’s exactly what I had. And what better to accompany mussels? French Fries!

I bet you can't guess what we had for dessert...a waffle! They are just such tasty treats! It was hard to not get one. One of the guys at work told us they were gross. We promptly informed him, when we got back, that he was a liar. They are a little slice of heaven.

After lunch Kelly and I headed to the diamond district. Our waiter had told us about the diamond museum so we headed that direction. It was next to the train station. I don’t think it was a coincidence that the diamond square mile developed around the train station. I learned, in the museum, people didn’t consider it safe to walk long distances with diamonds on their persons. Smart people. The museum is interesting, but I would not recommend it, well, recommend spending lots of time there. It did give the history of diamonds and neat facts, such as that 80% of the worlds diamonds go through Antwerp at least once in its life time either as a rough cut or gem stone. The museum is only 4 Euros but the layout was so weird and hard to follow. I have definitely seen better arrangements. We were also disappointed because it didn’t have all sorts of gems to see. It did give the story about a lot of the famous stones around the world, such as the Hope Diamond. Many of the other mentioned stones are in the Tower of London as part of the Crown Jewels. It would be nice to see the stone and get the story at the same time.

After spending about 2 hours at the museum, we decided we should go window shopping. We had no intentions of buying anything but to just look. There are store after store after store of pretty lights and sparkles. Kelly has been looking at some pretty rings for awhile now and we thought we should do some price comparison and see if being in the diamond capital had its advantages or not. She is far more diamond knowledgeable than I am, which is why I appreciate her company even more.

I had a favorite pair of “diamond” earrings that I always got complements on. Well, they are fake and so old, they turn my ears green. So I started looking at earrings….and looking and looking. We went into this one place and the sales lady was good. She was very aggressive, but nice and personable. I can appreciate a good sales person. So I found a cute pair, bought them, and was happy. Then, she pulled out a box from under the counter and there were matching rings! Now, if I have the earrings, I have to have the matching ring! The fun thing about shopping there, there is a bit of “haggling” that goes one. Some leeway with which credit card you use to pay….or in cash…so we had fun working her down on the price and I’m sure she enjoyed the game. It’s all part of the sport of selling. By the time it was all said and done, I have a new ring and matching earrings. Below is the picture of my new bling. I feel it is an appropriate diamond ring to be buying myself. I’ll start small and let someone else buy me the big rock. I love my new jewelry and have ZERO buyers’ remorse. I probably would have regretted it if I didn’t get anything. It’s still so sparkly! I love it!

We didn't end up leaving Antwerp till about 8pm after diamond shopping and eating. We still had a 2 hour drive home, so to say the least, it was a long day and Monday came too early! Kelly and I are still recovering. We better recover fast because we leave for Paris on Friday! Woo Hoo!


For your enjoyment: Here is a video of a neat group who was singing to raise moeny for Haiti. They were infront of the Cathedral of our Lady. It was a lot of fun to wach them and they were so happy and lively and it was sunny out so the joy was easily spread. I hope you enjoy the little snippit!

Antwerp, Part 1

Welcome to Antwerp! This past weekend has been super exciting and very, very busy. I’m not really sure how and where to start blogging about this, so I’m going to try and break it up into days. So, we’ll start with our first day there, Saturday. I would like to also add that we had fantastic weather for the entire 2 days we were there (unless otherwise stated). It was cold, but sunny. We even got to wear our sunglasses!

We got a bit of a late start but it only took us 1.5 hours to drive there and another ½ hour to find our hotel. We got a little lost, but once we found it, it was really easy. We stayed at a safe Holiday inn Express which had parking so that was helpful. It also wasn’t as close to the city center as I would have liked, but we didn’t want to spend the money so we helped improve our legs. After a 20 minute walk, we found the city center with their gorgeous church. This is a teaser photo, I will cover the church more in my next posting.

They have a pretty market area with little shops and restaurants all over. It’s unusual because their market area is L shaped and has a big fountain that the water just flows out onto the cobblestones. Since it was cold there wasn’t any flowing water. The thought is nice though. This picture is of the town hall. Another pretty building in an ancient European town.

Everyone in Holland that we told we were going to Antwerp always gave us a funny look and basically told us we were wasting our time. Well, they were all wrong! We had so much fun! We got a small snack/lunch after we got to the square to take a bit of a breather and relax after our hotel search and walk. We also started the shopping extravaganza. We found a precious store that sells lace (and on sale) so I got some white linen place mats and matching napkins for my future table setting of 6. They will go great with my Delft Blue plates I bought years ago (and we learned they no longer make) and my Delft blue vase that is still in route to my mother’s house. Kelly is a fantastic shopper and a girl after my own heart. We both have a taste for nice things, and we generally encourage each other to make the purchase of the nice timeless pieces. So after consulting with Kelly on the matter, I’ve almost got my table setting complete so maybe I can find some nice wine glasses somewhere and have a worldly table. I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled.

This is a picture of the guildhouses on the square. They are so pretty and classic. I think I could handle living on one!

I wanted to take another picture of the pretty houses because I like the architecture so much.

The below picture is of Steen castle. It’s right on the water of the Schelde River that flows through the city and was once used to control the river. Between 1303 and 1827 it was used as a prison which more pertained to a holding area for someone awaiting sentencing rather than a punishment location. It wasn’t fair either; the rich were kept in the right wing and the poor in the left wing. A lot of it was torn down to finish connecting the roadways that is the modern city but the castle still stands and has been renovated. It is currently closed because it was a museum that has since moved to a new location. To my knowledge, there isn’t a future use for it…yet but hopefully they will find one. It is a neat building!!

Well the castle was on the river, a 15 min walk or so from the Grote Markt (city center). We thought we would take another street and make a bit of a loop back to the center. Oh boy did we embark on an adventure! Shortly after leaving the safety of the tourism trap we headed back on this empty street. We did not see this as a warning sign because it seemed that the only streets that had people on them was the shopping street and the center. The big yellow (on the map) street we always walked on was awkwardly empty compared to what other city streets are like, so it seemed normal to us. Well as our walking progressed, we noticed a scantily clad woman in the window. This was not an area we really wanted to explore so we took the next street over and figured that would fix it. Kelly and I were deeply engrossed in our conversation and didn’t notice anything until we realized that there were a lot of men on the street. All of the sudden we looked up and we were surrounded by more women in windows. They were everywhere! Kelly and I were the only 2 non-working women on the street. So we started to walk faster as we were nervously laughing about the situation and realized that this could quite possibly be the longest street in Antwerp. It never ended! There were old men, young men, dirty men, all walking, window shopping, and checking prices. It was definitely not my cup of tea.

The street finally ended so we kept heading in what we thought was the right direction until we emerged on the main street not too far from our hotel. We were happy to know where we were, and be off the dirty street, but we were now a 15 min walk in the wrong direction of where we wanted to be after a good 30 min walk to get there. We had seen a Mexican restaurant earlier and were dying for a margarita so that was our goal. Find the flag (they had it hanging outside of the restaurant). We finally found it, and ordered a great margarita and a quesadilla as an appetizer. There was a cute, blond Belgian waiter who worked for his uncle who has been to Mexico. We told the waiter he needed to go as part of business development and research. He agreed. We then proceeded to take a variety of pictures and have a delicious steak. Kelly got an enchilada which was really a burrito. They had the two confused. We figured we would let them figure it out. The place even had sombreros! So they had us take a picture with the hats. I figured I wouldn’t mention that I had taken a picture very similar to this in real Mexico not too long ago. We all had a good time!

They also had these adorable cacti dressed up as little whiskered creatures so I had to take a picture with them.

Cheers to you Antwerp! A great restaurant with a great margarita. There really isn't too much better than that....especially after getting lost in the red light district!

After the Mexican food, we heard about a cute pub/restaurant called Het Elfde Gebod. It is decked out in all religious statues. They wouldn't let us in if we didn't eat something, so we told them we wanted to eat. He was dissapointed that we just wanted dessert. I don't think he liked us. The desert wasn't even very good. Great presentation, but it ended there. My cream brulee tasted like flan...which isn't bad, but it wasn't cream brulee. We wanted to go to another little bar that was mentioned in our book, but we couldn't find it on the map or via Google maps on my phone. It had started to snow pretty heavily that night so we didn't really want to wonder around lost in the cold, wet weather. We started walking direction of home and saw an Irish Pub so we had to go in.

It was so quaint and they had live music! There was a guy singing named Taco who wore square toed boot. He had a cute irish accent and sang great classics so we could all sing along! We had great beer and great music. It's hard to ask for much more on a Saturday night. We eventually found our way home after a few hours of singing. It had stopped snowing by the time we headed home so that was helpful. Our poor legs were so tired from walking loops around the city, it felt great to crash into bed.

That was day 1 - Antwerp. Stay tuned for day 2 - Antwerp (The day we went diamond shopping).

The Travel Bug Has Gotten An Itch

Kelly and I have officially begun our tour of Europe. We have a hotel reserved in Antwerp for Saturday night and will hopefully see some surrounding cities as well. Every Dutch person we mention this too always gives us a disgusted look. Apparently, they aren’t big Antwerp fans. It’s only 2 hours away so we figured we better go see it! We also heard Ghent was a nice city as well. Hopefully, you will have pleasant report to read this weekend.

We have also booked a hotel for our trip to Paris next weekend. It is only a 4-5 hour drive (depending on who you talk to) so we figured we better not waste any time! Kelly loves Paris and the only time I’ve been there was a very rushed experience, so it will be nice to spend a bit more time there, especially with someone who is a bit more “seasoned” on the ways of Paris. We will have a good time I’m sure. The weekend after that is Brussels then Kelly’s boyfriend will be arriving for his visit. I’m excited to meet him and Kelly is just plain excited. She just booked their tickets to go spend a few days in Munich and visit some castles, drink beer, and see Salzburg Austria as well. I know they will have a fabulous time. I am happy for them.

I, on the other hand, have dreamt up more ideas. Kelly and I have limited holidays so we have to be careful how we spend them. I found a good, inexpensive trip to Iceland to try and possibly see the northern lights. I have always wanted to go to Iceland…and see the Northern Lights. If I could get them both in one trip, and do it in a long weekend, I would be very proud of myself. Now, all I have to do is to find someone to go with me this week because for the special, I have to have it booked by the 31st. We’ll see how this goes. Anybody interested???

There is a group of young guys that work here so they try and teach me Dutch. I always have reservations about trying to remember something that they all start snickering at once one of them says it. I’ve learned these little signs and try to stick with it no matter how much they tell me that it isn’t a bad phrase. I know how guys work…it is pretty universal too.

So, to start off the day with practice: tot ziens!