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Bruges, Belgium
June 22nd, Tuesday - Brugge or Bruges, by TD
 The
hotel provided a nice breakfast of hard rolls, eggs, cold
cuts, cereal and yogurt. It surprised us how late they started
serving, at 8:30. We could have eaten earlier. Our hotel is
conveniently located 3 blocks from the edge of the main
shopping district. We walked together window shopping. 7
people is too many to maintain our regular pace. It seemed
that we were standing still more than walking. The Basilica of
the Holy Blood was our first stop. It is interesting to see a
church in desperate need of restoration. Most of churches in
Europe have already been completed. This cathedral is shrouded
with scaffolds on the exterior but not touched yet on the
interior. Paint is peeling and ceilings are soot covered from
centuries of candle burning. This is the first cathedral
displaying their Bishops’ slippers and of course the relic of
Christ‘s blood.
 Near
the cathedral is the Market Square, which is the center of
Brugge. Most of the buildings house restaurants with outdoor
seating. One side is dominated by the town hall. Daniel wanted
to climb the 366 step bell tower, so we walked around the side
streets. When he hadn’t returned at a reasonable time, I sent
the others off in search of chocolate and waited for him. I
suggested “he visit the Renaissance Hall” which we had seen
walking, so we waited some more. The kids enjoyed ice cream
while we people watched.
We followed the suggested walking route to the other main
church, the Church of our Lady. It was locked again today. The
kids were hungry so we went to lunch. It was time to split up
after eating since we all had different desires. Debbie and
Claire went shopping. Daniel back to the hotel.
We dropped the boys at the internet to play games while we
took a canal boat ride. It wasn’t very long but showed off how
important the canals once were to the city.
 The
Church of our Lady was open on the way to pick up the boys.
Inside is a Michelangelo sculpture of the Madonna and Child.
It sits prominently on a main side altar and is exquisite. A
rich merchant bought the sculpture for this church in the
early 1500’s from the artist. It is one of the few to leave
Italy during his lifetime.
How many people does it take to do laundry? It took 3 people
today. I drove Debbie to a laundry mat and DW went to keep her
company. We have continued to hand wash clothes while the
Jacksons were with us and had hoped to avoid any more visits
to one. Laundry kills over 2 hours in your day. I’m afraid
we’ve long gotten over wearing the same clothes, day after
day. A sniff to the armpit tells the answer, clean/unclean!
They were ready to roll when I returned in a few hours.
 We
drank some wonderful Belgian beer before going out to dinner.
It was absolutely the best beer I have ever tasted. Brewed
right in Brugge. Dinner wasn’t very exciting or good. The city
must be jammed with day trippers because it’s quiet at the
dinner hour. Italy was playing Bulgaria tonight. It wasn’t
nearly as interesting when you don’t care about the team. We
returned to the hotel for one marbles game. DW is ready to
find a new game now that the score is 9-2 in favor of the men.
June 23rd, Wednesday - Brussels, by DW
The word for the day is “peeing”. Another
day on the road found TD and I packing and pitching stained
clothes for the final leg of our journey. We threw away
anything we deemed unnecessary which wasn’t all that much. AD
has accumulated some toys that he doesn’t want to part with so
we needed some extra space. It’s been over 6 weeks since we’ve
had to pack for a flight. The car trunk made us sloppy.
 Heading
on the short trip to Brussels was uneventful until we missed
the airport exit and had no idea if Deb, who was following,
went straight or got off at the correct exit. After a few
minutes of mass confusion, we got turned around and were at
the airport to find Deb and family waiting. Whew! We checked
into our flight several hours early and left TD and Phillip at
the airport with backpacks and the computer to wait for the
4:45 flight. The rest of us headed into Brussels for a brief
tour of the town. Our first stop was the Grand Place which is
the historical heart of the city. The square is surrounded by
magnificent buildings, including the Town Hall, the Kings
House (never lived in - only used for administration) and the
guild halls.
 Since
the clouds were increasing in their intensity I herded our
group on the 3 block walk to the statue called the Mannequin
Pis. Better known as the Little Boy Peeing. The story goes
that the city of Brussels was on fire and the many crews could
not extinguish the flames. A small man came up and began
pissing the great quantities of beer that he consumed and was
able to put out the fire. Every town has their own history,
truth or myth?
 We
had just taken a few pictures and went to get one of Belgium’s
renowned waffles. I had chocolate almond which was delicious.
No sooner than we entered the waffle shop than it began to
rain torrentially. All the tourists quickly headed for cover
and waited out the 15 minute storm. Shopping on our way back
to the Grand Place, we found the kids wanting to look in
nearly every store. I walked on and found myself a really cute
tapestry wallet. Everyone was happy as we settled down at a
pizza place for lunch. The trains run every 15 minutes right
into the airport so the travel couldn’t have been easier.
Now we wait for our delayed flight and I write one of my final
entries!
 The
flight landed at Gatwick Airport an hour late. There is very
easy train transport into central London from both Gatwick and
Heathrow. We caught a cab to our hotel in the Earls Court
neighborhood after buying the kids KFC for dinner. This is our
first time staying out there. We usually stay in Bayswater and
Paddington which sits north of Hyde Park. Earls Court is west
of Kensington and is full of tourist hotels. After checking
into the hotel and putting Philip to sleep, we went out for
Indian food. It was OK but nothing as good as we enjoyed in
Kerala.
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Daniel's Journal |
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6-22-04
Exploring Bruges today. This morning
we walked around the town. Bruges was as big as London
back in the 1400s, about 35,000 inhabitants at that
time. The city at that time was bordered by a circular
canal.
 I
climbed a high belfry this morning, about 350 feet up.
What a view! The stairs were very steep so none of the
others wanted to join me. Wimps. I then went, at Tom’s
suggestion, to the old town hall that was built in late
1300s. Very cool, but it was extensively remodeled about
a hundred years ago so it really didn’t look that old.
We also went through the cathedral, which was very
impressive. There are two large churches which dominate
downtown. The organist was practicing for a performance
while we were there, which was lucky. There are also
street musicians. Talented ones, unlike what you see in
some U.S. cities. Bruges is very touristy. There are
many stores with everything from shoes to chocolate to
watches.
We had gyros for lunch today, which were excellent. Then
we split up. I went back to the hotel room, Debbie and
Claire went shopping, Tom and Dianne went walking and on
a tour boat ride. They dropped Phil and Andrew at an
Internet café. Internet time at the café was 7 cents a
minute with a 15-minute minimum. I figured 100 minutes
of Tom not having to drag Phil around was worth the 7
euros.
I found something that is cheaper in Belgium than in the
U.S. Chocolate! We saw a Godiva store in “shop row”.
Godiva is my favorite of all chocolate. Cordials, which
are a chocolate-covered cherry with a fruity filling,
are IMO the best candy in the world. It cost 14.95 euros
for a box of 18. Debbie got me a 3-pack for my birthday
one year and I believe it was $5. Truffles were even
cheaper than the cordials.
6-23-04
 Bruges
to Brussels to London today. We drove from Bruges to
Brussels this morning. Tom wanted to return the cars
early today to avoid another day’s late charge. Our
flight wasn’t until 4:45 so we had a bit of time to
explore Brussels. We didn’t have time to do much more
than look around the town center. We saw the unofficial
mascot of Belgium which is a boy urinating. There are
all kinds of urinating-boy stuff for sale; urinating boy
t-shirts, statuettes, hats, etc. The girls were more
interested in the shops, I was more interested in the
buildings. They shopped for tapestries, chocolate, all
kinds of stuff. Dianne bought a pillowcase and I bought
a bunch of chocolate for gifts.
I finally was able to sample a genuine Belgian waffle
today, and I’ve got the chocolate stains on my shirt to
prove it! The Belgian waffle is like a normal waffle,
except more rectangular-shaped with a closer-spaced grid
of indentations. They put stuff on top like whipped
cream, bananas, strawberries, and chocolate sauce.
Excellent! Unfortunately it was pouring down rain at the
time so it was awkward eating it, thus the chocolate
sauce on my shirt.
Once it was time to get back to the airport, we hopped
on the airport express train, (Brussels=another city
with great mass transit, though less bike-friendly than
Amsterdam), then went back to the airport to rejoin Tom
and Phil, who had stayed behind. Although we had checked
the luggage in early, Tom wanted to stay with the
backpacks and stuff so we wouldn’t have to lug it all
around Brussels. Phil stayed to help Tom in case Tom had
to go to the bathroom or do something else. Phil spent
some time at an Internet café in the airport while we
were gone. Tom worked on his postcards.
The flight to London was delayed by 45 minutes, probably
due to bad weather. It was a short flight, approximately
90 minutes. We split into families to take separate cabs
to our hotel. Once there, we dropped off the luggage and
the kids, and we went out to eat at an Indian food
restaurant. We four adults love Indian food and Phil and
Claire don’t like it. Tom mentioned that they hardly
ever were able to be without Andrew on this trip. Debbie
and I would go berserk if we had to be around the kids
24/7 every day. We love them dearly, but there’s a
limit.
Tomorrow is my one full day in London, Debbie and the
kids were here for a couple of days before I arrived.
After that we will be boarding the Queen Mary for the
final leg of the voyage. Woohoo! The travel days and the
large amount of walking on non-travel days is taking a
bit of a toll on Debbie and me. I can’t imagine doing it
for ten months straight. Tom said tonight he would love
to do another trip with just him and Dianne, once
Andrew, who is going into the sixth grade, is done with
school. He would want to stay two solid months in India.
Ugh, no thanks, we won’t be joining him on that one.
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Southampton and the QM 2...»
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