Family News

EXPLORING WALCHEREN - AUGUST 17, 2005

As I’ve mentioned our home base was in Vlissingen, which is in Zeeland. Zeeland itself is divided into provinces, one of which is the island of Walcheren. That is, it used to be an island, up to the year 1871 when a dam was built to connect it to South Beveland to the east. However, it still has the feel of an island since it is practically surrounded by water. I like islands because they are fun to explore and the area is so well-defined. I can’t say we became experts on Holland, but we did get to know Walcheren quite well. And it’s just the right size for bike tours.

Biking in Holland is different from biking in Germany. There are thousands of kilometers of bike paths in Germany too but they tend to be alongside roads, whereas in Holland you often have the choice of following the major roads or biking through the countryside. Both are very well posted so that it’s not easy to get lost, although it was a comfort that we had a very good map with us. It’s also one of the conveniences of a small island that you can’t really get lost. At some point you will reach the water and can always follow the shore back to where you started from if necessary.

   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

                          Thru (bike) traffic

                                                                                                               
Our first excursions were into Vlissingen, but after a few days we became bolder. I particularly wanted to take a closer look at the “wind organ” which is a number of pipes with lots of holes on the edge of Vlissingen. When the wind blows, and it almost always does, there is an eerie sound.

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Wind organ in Vlissingen

                                                                                                               

It was fairly late in the afternoon and it had rained for most of the day but it had turned nice in time for us to begin exploring. From the organ concert we continued along the coast biking through woods and then along a series of bizarre sand dunes. We went as far as Dishoek and turned inland to the little village of Koudekerke. We were again and again amazed at how lovely these little towns and villages that we had never heard of were. Koudekerke is built almost in a circle around a church and we later saw that this is quite typical of the villages in Walcheren. The brick houses are well cared for with picture book gardens, lots of beautiful hydrangeas which always remind me of my grandparents’ home. As we were biking along a small restaurant in a side street caught our eye and we stopped to have a look. The menu was very enticing so we made reservations for Saturday evening and it turned out to be the culinary highlight of our trip.

                                                                              
                                                                              

La bonne Auberge in Koudekerke

                                                                            

When the time came we chose different menus, both with fish. My first course was a salad with goat’s cheese and a honey vinaigrette that was out of this world. My main course was fish (Wolfsbarsch) with several different vegetables. Very, very good. There was one vegetable that looked like a pile of very slender green beans and it had a very nice taste and texture but I had no idea what it was. We asked the very competent waiter and he explained that it was sea tang, which is only harvested from the ocean in the summer months and is very expensive. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it offered at any markets but maybe I just missed it because I didn’t know what it was. And then, because Frank had ordered a four-course meal and I only had three courses, the waiter brought me a plate of different cheeses with dark bread. I thought it was very nice of him, but there was no way I could eat it and have desert, so Frank helped me out. (He couldn’t finish it either though.) Desert was a crepe, which usually I’m not too fond of, but this was different. It was filled with fresh fruit, covered with an orange sauce and accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a scoop of whipped cream. I don’t usually care for whipped cream either, but they added something to it to make it addictive. Altogether a wonderful meal that compensated for all those meals in Belgium with French fries. (Frank really enjoyed his meal too, but I’m not going to describe it because I didn’t taste any of it. It was all I could do to eat mine.) I guess it’s just as well we had no opportunity to return to La bonne Auberge. A few more meals like that and we would have rolled home.

                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Middelburg - I guess you know you're in Holland if there is a windmill.

                                                                                                                

On another day we biked to Middelburg which aptly enough is pretty much in the middle of Walcheren. Our route took us along the canal – Kanaal door Walcheren - that connects Vlissingen on the Westerschelde with Veere on the Veerse Meer. Middelburg, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, is one of those very European experiences, when you enter a town you have never heard of and it turns out to be a medieval jewel.

                                                                              

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                               
                                                                                                               

           The town hall in Middelburg

                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                        

Our longest bike tour took place on a bright sunny day when the weather didn’t wait until the afternoon to clear up. (We never had a full day of bad weather.) We decided to head for Veere, which is on the other side of Walcheren. So this time we biked past Middelburg along the canal and took the scenic route which wound back and forth through the countryside with nary a road in sight. We did see several groups of bikers because after all it was a Saturday, but they were always friendly and non-intrusive. We passed cattle, sheep and horses grazing in the pastures and fields full of flowers. We arrived in Veere, which is a little fishing village, and had a look around.

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Veere

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                

Again we were delighted with what we saw. How could such an out of the way place be so lovely? We had a great time exploring and even visited the two museums in town. Actually we would only have visited one but they cleverly sold only tickets that were good for both museums. So after having a look through a less than fascinating house we went to the other exhibit which turned out to be paintings by a local artist whose name I can’t remember and who doesn’t appear on the town’s website. They were fairly good and offered a glimpse of what life was once like in this area before the tourists invaded.

Since we hadn’t packed a picnic lunch we had lunch in Veere and my quiche was very good indeed, and they didn’t serve any French fries with it either.

                                                                              

                                                                              
     "What shall I           have?"

                                                                              

We took the straighter route home along the highway and it was faster but not nearly as picturesque, but there were darkening clouds looming ahead of us which spurned us on. It started raining when we were about two kilometers from our house and we ducked under a porch for a few minutes and it let up. We made it home 90% dry and took it as a sign that the Dutch gods were fairly pleased with us.

On our very last day in Walcheren the weather was bad until the late afternoon and by that time we had cabin fever, so we drove to the other side of the island to have a look at Domburg. It would have been nice to bike there but we would have needed a full day and we only had a few hours left of daylight. Domburg is another very nice town, although the most touristy of all the towns we saw in Walcheren, with many, many nice looking hotels and hundreds of German tourists. There was a street festival going on when we arrived. And of course no street festival in Holland would be complete without a cheese stand.

                                                                              
Unfortunately it was our last evening so we couldn't take advantage of all the different cheeses.

                                                                              

There were several activities for children.

                                                                              
                                                                              
His hat is made of balloons and he is making balloon animals for the children
while walking on stilts. I was impressed.

                                                                              
                                                                              
The children were taught several different dances.

                                                                              

                                                                              

                                                                              
We took a long walk along the beach where there were a lot of families playing, flying kites and enjoying themselves, but we didn’t see anyone in the water. Of course it was quite late by now. Maybe everyone went swimming earlier.

We enjoyed the days we spent exploring Walcheren. It was the perfect contrast to the trips we took to the Flemish cities.

GENT REVISITED - AUGUST 14, 2005

Not every day can be perfect in every way but sometimes a day comes along when you wonder if it might have been better to cuddle up under the covers and stay there. Of course, the problem is you don’t know in advance that the day is going to turn out less than stellar. I’m not complaining though – of course things could have gone a lot worse.

We had one more Sunday in Holland and since it had been so clever to use our first Sunday for a day trip to the big city, we decided to do it again, just not back to the maze that was Antwerpen, and not to the a-little-too-faraway Brugge, but back to Gent, which was much more accessible to us. The weather didn’t look too promising, but we had already toured the town on foot and this time we wanted to visit some of the museums, so the weather didn’t matter too much.

The week before we had cruised into the town by a back way, guided by our indomitable navigator, but this time we were stopped short at a road block facing a large raised drawbridge. Maybe there had been signs 20 or so kilometers back but, if so, they had been in Dutch – no help to us. So we backtracked and followed a much longer route into town. I had set the navigator to take us to the “Oude Beesten Markt” where we had found such a good parking spot on our first trip and after some meandering we found it again, but now we knew why it was named the “Old Beast Market” because it was full of cages of animals for sale. There were scores of different kinds of birds, rabbits and assorted other "beests", but I got the distinct impression that they weren’t being sold as pets. There was definitely no parking here, but it was Sunday morning so we found a space not too far away.

We headed for the Tourist Information to get directions to the fine arts museum, only to be told that it was closed for renovation. The other museum that Frank really wanted to see was the Museum Dr. Guislain, devoted to the history of psychiatry – don’t ask me why! Probably because it was highly recommended it one of our guide books (but not even mentioned in the others). However, we were told that it was several miles from the center of town so we put that off until we were finished in Gent and we could go there by car.

There was another museum that sounded quite interesting – the Align Children’s Home that dates back to the 14th century when a feud between two leading families led to the murder of two children from the Align family. The other family was ordered to make restitution by building a housing project which was named after the two children. The building was built around an inner courtyard and for centuries was the home of the poor and needy until it was taken over by the city of Gent in 1941 and turned into a museum in 1962.

Frank made the comment that if he had the choice of a new career after he retires (probably at the age of ninety!) he would like to become a museum director because there is so much scope for improvement. And really, he could start at this museum which was really quite nice and interesting to look at, but we really didn’t know what it was all about.

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                               

We really liked these bikes. I wonder what we would look like riding them.

                                                                                                             

There were no signs or pamphlets or audio devices or explanations of any sort except a laminated page in a few of the rooms expounding in very general terms on life in the 19th and early 20th centuries. So we gazed at a lot of relics, instruments, tools, etc. and asked each other what they could be. There were some nice rooms showing what life was like at some non-specified time in history.

                                                                                                            

We were pretty clever to recognize this as a shoemaker’s shop.

                         

                           

A candy shop – I think that’s St. Nicholas in the corner there.

                                                                                                               

The corner grocery

                           

                           

                           

                           

My favourite – the local beauty / barber shop

                                                                                                               

The apothecary

                                                                                                             

                                                                                                             

So we left the museum not much more knowledgeable about anything but ready to tackle lunch. On our first visit I had been disappointed to learn  about the 15th century Meat Hall (Groot Vleeshuis) too late to have a meal there so that was where we headed.

Those are real hams.

The menu was not very extensive, maybe because they limited themselves to products and produce from the immediate region. Perhaps there was more choice in the dining room with the white table cloths, but we had a nice lunch sitting under the beams and the hams and I got to taste some of it in my ham and cheese fritter. Frank had some eggnog for dessert and liked it so much he had to buy a jar of it. It’s so thick you could spread it on something, I’m just not sure what. You have to eat it with a spoon like a custard.

                                                                              

                                                                              

22% alcohol!

                                                                              

                                                                              

After lunch we took a walk around town and briefly considered taking a boat tour, but it started raining again so the boat tour didn’t sound so attractive any more. The sun soon returned but it was still windy and quite cool. We decided we had seen all we wanted of Gent for the time being and anyway we still had one more museum to visit.

Back in our car we tried to program our navigator to take us to the museum but it wouldn’t accept the road it was on so we had to choose the main road closest to it. The problem with that is that when you arrive you don’t know what direction to go and so we travelled quite a ways in the wrong direction before we turned around and tried the other way. We finally found the psychiatric hospital / sanatorium which houses the museum.

The hospital is built around a series of inner courtyards which we had to wander through to get to the museum.

                                                                              

When we saw people we wondered if they were visitors or inmates.
Were they wondering the same about us?

                                                                              
When we finally arrived at the museum office we were told that the central computer was down so that the security cameras weren’t working and the museum was closed until the repairman arrived and fixed it. We could wait if we liked but there was no guarantee it would be fixed before closing time. We decided – it was Sunday after all – not to wait around for the elusive repairman and to accept this as the final hint of the day that we maybe should have stayed in bed.

FRIDAY IN BRUGGE - AUGUST 12, 2005

We had some problems getting to Brugge. Our navigation system insisted that we take a northerly route that didn’t look too promising on the map but after getting hopelessly lost because many of the roads have been renamed since the tunnel was opened and I no longer knew where we were or even what direction we were heading we meekly followed instructions and it took us almost two hours to get there. The trip back was 20 kilometers shorter and on much better roads, but there is no denying that Gent is a lot closer.

                                                                              

                                                                              
The market square

                                                                               

                                                                              

I was surprised at how large Brugge seems. I was expecting a much smaller town. We headed for the Tourist Information Center, which seems to be a fata morgana. Evidently they have moved from the town hall but after looking around for quite a while following varied instructions, we finally gave up when a taxi driver in front of the town hall told us it was about two kilometers away. No wonder we hadn’t found it! We had already decided not to take a walking tour this time but to go to a museum instead so we gave up on the I-center.

                                                                            

                                                                              

The Town Hall

                                                                              

                                                                              

The first thing we decided to visit was the Beguine community “De Wijngaard”, now run by Benedictine nuns.

                                                                              

The buildings were all grouped around this center garden.

                                                                            

The Beguines were a spontaneous movement by women started in the 12th century in Belgium devoted to a return to a more simple life of early Christian values half way between the secular life of a wife and the cloistered existence of a nun. The lay sisterhood spread over large parts of Northern Europe, each Beguinage completely autonomous but devoted to helping the sick and the poor.

                                                                            

                                                                              

The living quarters looked quite comfortable.

                                                                              

In a way they were the first feminists because they rejected the authority of the male world and created their own environment. They were never officially recognized by the church, merely condoned because of the value of the work that they did. They built communities with small individual houses around a church and often a hospital and many of them still exist today as lovely islands of peace and tranquillity. In Brugge there is a museum in one of the houses, showing what life was like for the women and how they lived.

                                                                               

They took vows of chastity and obediance, but not of poverty.

                                                                              

After a light lunch with the obligatory French fries and a walk through different parts of the town we made our way to the Groeninge Museum with its large collection of Flemish art. They had a special exhibit of 15th and 16th century portraiture with a number of paintings by Hans Memling, who is considered to be a Flemish artist even though he was born in Seligenstadt in Germany, which I drive by every week on my way to see my daughter and grandsons. The portraits were amazing in the way they seemed to convey the character of the subject.

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                

Portrait of an old woman

                                                                                                               

Of course, no trip to Brugge would be complete without visiting a chocolate shop, of which there are many. I was looking for a birthday present for a friend who loves dark chocolate and the shop lady put together a lovely box of hand-made pralines for me. (You could watch them being made on a large table at the back of the shop.) I also bought a box for our neighbors and another friend. Unfortunately they don’t keep forever or I would have bought several more as gifts and maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t. The temptation would probably have been too great for me.

                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                

                                                                                                               

Basilica of the Holy Blood

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                               

While I was admiring and photographing the outside of the Basilica of the Holy Blood, a 12th century Romanesque chapel, Frank frantically began to wave me in as something was starting and he thought it might be a concert. It turned out to be a church service in English for a group of young people, mostly I think from Spain, who were on their way to the World Youth Day in Cologne next week. They sang a Spanish spiritual complete with hand and arm gestures, out of tune but touching nonetheless. Over a million pilgrims are expected for the World Youth Day, which actually lasts a week, including the new German pope. We have to drive by Cologne to return home on Tuesday and I hope the traffic is no worse than usual (which is snarled at best). Maybe it will even be much lighter since everyone in his right mind will be avoiding Cologne. We’ll see. Later on our way back to our car we saw another group of young pilgrims dancing on the square in front of the new concert hall. If these two groups are any indication, the week in Cologne will be full of good spirits.

                                                                              

They were dancing and singing spirituals, but I'm not sure what the language was.

                                                                              

Altogether we liked Brugge best of the three Flemish towns that we visited. We didn’t begin to see all there was and it would be nice to return on Sunday for a second day, but it’s not easy to get to from where we are staying and I think we will probably visit Gent a second time instead. Brugge is on my list though of towns I would like to spend more time in. Maybe we can go there for a long weekend sometime. It’s not that far from home.

WEDNESDAY IN GENT - AUGUST 10, 2005

Wednesday was a beautiful, sunny day, although the wind was quite cold at times but perfect for our trip to Gent. It was a lot easier to visit Gent, even on a weekday, than Antwerpen. For one thing there is a new tunnel from Zeeland that practically halves the distance from here to just over 70 km. This tunnel is so new that our navigator doesn’t know about it, so for the first time we were not only “off road” but while actually in the tunnel we were “off map”. I don’t want to sound ungrateful but for a new tunnel it really looks old. Maybe they ran out of money to paint it or thought that as long as you are going to travel six and a half kilometers in a tunnel it might as well be dark and dingy with dim yellow lights. Still I remain amazed that it is even possible to dig a tunnel under a river. I thought about it while we were driving through and realized I have no idea how it is done. But then I don’t know how planes manage to stay up in the air either.

In spite of my worries (Frank doesn’t worry about things like this) we had no trouble at all finding a really good parking place not far from the center of town. It was even cheap, the only drawback being we had to buy a new parking ticket every three hours. This added to the other miles that we walked but I’m not complaining. It could have been a lot worse.

Gent is not exactly what I expected. In fact, at first I was a little disappointed. Although much of the center of town is car free, there is parking on the square next to the town hall. This has become rare in old German towns as it impairs the image of medievalness. And the square in front of the cathedral is not a good subject for postcards. I don’t know if there was a lot of damage to Gent during the war but there are a lot of newer buildings in between the old. And in general Gent is quite a hodgepodge of styles, best seen in the town hall.

                                                                              
The town hall - this is one building from different periods. I should have had a closer look at that striped pipe.
I'm not sure whether it is functional or trying to be decorative.

As usual the first thing we did was head for the information center and book a walking tour of the town. Just as in Antwerpen it was scheduled for 2:30 so we had a little time to look around and plenty of time for a nice lunch. Because we had been told that our tour would not include the cathedral we went there first to have a look.

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                               
                                                                                                               

The cathedral in Gent. Gent has a LOT of churches.

                                                                                                               

It’s Gothic with a lot of late Gothic and Rococo on the inside. There is a Rubens painting and a very famous alter piece by the van Eyck brothers, but we only saw the photographic reproduction because there was no indication that the original could also be seen for a fee, which we found out later from our guide. At least it was full sized so we got a good impression of what it was like. In general the cathedral was too ornate for my taste.

We found a nice looking Italian place for lunch and both of us were more than satisfied with our meals. I know it might make more sense to eat Belgian in Belgium, but aside from French fries, which seem to be served with every meal, I’m not sure what that would be.

                                                                              
                                                                              
That's Frank's rucksack sitting on the chair.
                                                                              
                                                                        Our tour of the town began in the town hall and the crass mixture of styles on the outside continued on the inside. The floor in one of the rooms was interesting as the tiles formed a labyrinth, but not just for fun. People were sometimes sentenced to a pilgrimage to Compostella and if they couldn’t afford it or had too many dependents they could substitute a trip or two through this labyrinth on their knees. Our guide assured us that when on your knees it was not possible to see the plan so that it was like a real maze. My poor knees hurt just thinking about it.

                                                                              
                                                                              
The goal is the small square on the right next to the white shoes.
                                                                              

After the town hall we walked around town and our guide showed us some lovely places and interesting buildings. I particularly liked the old “meat house”, which in the middle ages had a monopoly on all meat butchered and sold in the town. It has recently been converted into a showcase for products from the region and there is a restaurant that only serves such products. For example, they serve coffee because it is brewed in the area but no tea. Too bad we didn’t know about it before we had lunch or we could have had an authentic Belgian meal. There were dozens of hams hanging from the rafters, which at first didn’t look real because they were smoked and glazed with honey, then waxed to keep the flies away. This gave them their artificial appearance, but there was nothing artificial about the price which was on the same level as Parma ham from Italy or Seranno ham from Spain.

                                                                              

There was a little window off to the left where poor people could buy bones and leftovers.
                                                                              

The most scenic part of town is along the river where there are a lot of cafes where you can have some Belgian coffee or try one of the hundreds of locally brewed Belgian beers and watch the boats go by, which is exactly what we did later.

                                                                           
                                                                            
It's probably very nice to take a boat ride, but the boats were awfully crowded.
                                                                            

But first we walked through some of the shopping areas. One whole street was obviously geared to the under 30 crowd so there was no need for us to tarry. In another street Frank was very pleased to find a Snac where he spent a happy half hour browsing through their classical music selection and I sat outside on a bench reading my book and carrying on a very friendly but rather stilted conversation with my bench mate who was waiting for his wife. Stilted, because neither of us spoke the other’s language. He was interested in the book I was reading, Seabiscuit, and in the end we arrived at the adjective “spannend” (exciting), which sums it up pretty well. It’s nice when so much good will can be conveyed in so few words.

So our day in Gent was a success. We might even have to go back on Sunday to have a look at some of the museums.

SUNDAY IN ANTWERPEN - AUGUST 7, 2005

There are three cities we want to visit while we are staying here in Holland, Antwerpen, Gent and Brugge. Sunday seemed like a good time to begin and I argued for Antwerpen since it is the largest of the three and traffic during the week would likely be the worst. This turned out to be a really wise decision. The ring road around Antwerpen is a construction site for at least half of its length with the consequence that there are no exits into the city. It nearly drove our poor navigator crazy, but there was nothing we could do but plough on and on and on. Finally we came to an exit but by then our system seemed really confused, or they have changed a lot of the streets recently. At any rate it took us quite a while to get anywhere near the city center. Luckily parking was no problem at the northern edge of the town where we eventually landed. When we saw water we decided to park the car and hoof it. It turned out that we were about 20 minutes from the center, which was fine.

                                                                              

                                                                              

This is the old "meat house" where animals were slaughtered and prepared. The white layers in the brickwork are called the fat layers.

                                                                            

                                                                            

                                                                            

Arriving at the town square the first thing we noticed was that everything was decorated and a stage and chairs were set up for some kind of festival.

                                                                              
The town hall all decked out

                                                                              

                                                                               

We had a look around the square, which is much nicer than I expected. Actually I had no expectations of Antwerpen and was pleasantly surprised. It’s really a nice looking town and at least on the Sunday we were there a very lively one too.

                                                                              

The market square

                                                                            

                                                                              
We went to the tourist information center and booked a walking tour – “historische wandeling” – for later and went off in search of some lunch. After a light lunch we decided to walk to the train station, which is on the other side of the town and is one of the major sights. On the way there we got to see many of the main shopping streets and squares, which was good because our tour later took us in a different direction. Sunday is a good day for tourists because a lot of the shops are open, at least most of the ones that tourists would be interested in, not the big department stores.

                                                                              

                                                                              
The train station

                                                                            

                                                                              
It took us almost half an hour to walk to the train station (According to the map it’s a little over a kilometre from the town hall) and it seemed a bit strange to be going to have a look at it, because train stations aren’t usually tourist attractions. Leipzig is the only one that immediately comes to mind. However, it was worth the walk. From a distance it looks like a church or mosque and inside the impression is even stronger that this is some kind of holy place. I think probably its builders considered it a shrine to the new industrial age. The area is also known for its diamond shops, which were of course open but we weren’t in the mood for diamond shopping, and its very large population of Orthodox Jews (one of the largest Jewish centers in Europe), of whom we saw a few.

Walking back to the information center to begin our tour, we ran into a delightful parade. The festival turned out to be held by the town’s guilds and they were all on parade in their uniforms and with bands and floats.

                                                                              

                                                                              

I'm not sure which guild is represented here.
                                                                              

I know one little girl will probably never forget the day as she sat on top of a huge sea serpent that had something to do with Neptune and squirted water right and left at the crowds. She shrieked with delight when everyone ran for cover.

                                                                              

                                                                              
Note the look of extreme concentration. She's aiming carefully.

                                                                              
We finally made it to our meeting place, a little late but the square was packed with people and we weren’t the latest ones. I was expecting a group of German tourists, but it turned out that in our group of nine we were the only ones who didn’t speak Flemish. No problem though for Leo our guide. He very competently gave the tour in both languages and in fact it was fun, because if he started with Flemish I could see how much of it I could understand – maybe 30 – 40% - and of course when he began with German I could follow most of what he said in Flemish. We also learned that Dutch and Flemish are practically the same language, although no one likes to admit it.

                                                                            

                                                                              

These are some of the old guild houses on the market square.

                                                                              
So for the next two hours through sun and rain (We were the only ones without an umbrella – what does that tell us about the weather here?) we followed Leo and looked, listened and learned. Or at least we heard, because he told us so much that I only remember some of it. It’s the second largest port in Europe, one of the world’s most important diamond centers (half of the world’s diamonds are cut here), a fashion metropolis. And of course, the legend of where the name Antwerpen comes from. Way back when, there was a giant who cut off the hands of any sailors who wanted to sail into the River Schelde without paying him. Along came our hero, Silvius Brabo, who proceeded to cut off the giant’s hand and throw it into the river. Thus Ant = Hant (hand) and werpen (throw).

                                                                                                                

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                

The Cathedral

                                                                                                                

                                                                                                      

                                                                                                               
Antwerpen has a beautiful gothic cathedral and a wonderful 12th century castle called Het Steen (the stone).

                                                                            

                                                                            

It looks almost too perfect to be real.

                                                                            

                                                                              
The only thing we didn’t manage to see that we would have liked to was the Rubens House, where he lived and worked, but time ran out on us. Frank said something about returning to visit it, but I don’t think so – see above about getting into the city. On a weekday it’s probably ten times worse.

One little tidbit of information that I remember from our tour is that the whole northern part of the town beyond St. Paul’s Church used to be the red light district but that it has been reduced to just three streets. And somehow we managed to walk through two of them on our way back to our car. The first thing I noticed was that there were a lot of men walking around and no women and then I looked at the shop windows. It was early yet, around six o’clock, so a lot of them were empty, but quite a few displayed women in skimpy clothes and come-on looks. Many of them were quite attractive and at least they were out of the cold wind. I did feel a little uncomfortable walking by but the only indication we saw was a sign prohibiting children from walking through. I wasn't brave enough to take any pictures.

The trip out of the city was even worse than the trip in because our navigator didn’t understand that the entrances to the ring road were blocked and we had no idea how to get back on it. It also started pouring rain, which didn’t help us. Eventually we managed by changing the setting on the navigator to shortest distance from quickest distance, which meant it didn’t feel it had to take us via the Autobahn.

We enjoyed our day in Antwerpen but it was enough for now. Sometime in the future if we happen to be there again we’ll have a look at some of the museums, but for now the barricades will keep us from returning.

LIVING IN VLISSINGEN - AUGUST 7, 2005

I’ve always liked Holland. It’s a lovely country and the language seems soooo cute to me, an amusing mixture of German and English with enough gobbledegook thrown in to make it incomprehensible most of the time. Written Dutch is much easier to decipher than spoken, of course, although I can manage to understand the weather report on TV. Anything else usually eludes me, but that’s o.k. Everyone here speaks German or English or both.

We are in Zeeland for two weeks, in Vlissingen to be exact. We have a brand new house all to ourselves and the people who built it are in our house, in other words another home exchange, our eighth if I’ve counted correctly. We arrived here on Thursday evening just before dark. I managed to tear Frank away from the office before five o’clock so we could still have some light when we had to actually find the house. The trip was around 470 km and our trusty navigator led us right to the street so that all we had to do was find number “zeventien”.

                                                                              

"Our house" in Holland for our stay
                                                                              

                                                                              

The weather on Friday was not ideal, in fact it rained most of the day, so we got settled in and managed to find the grocery store to supplement what we had brought along with us. Red wine was probably the most important item. I always enjoy grocery shopping in other countries. It’s fun to see what is available although here I was hampered somewhat by my lack of basic Dutch. Some things looked appetizing but I wasn’t at all sure if they were flora or fauna. Maybe we’ll invest in a German – Dutch dictionary if only for curiosity’s sake.

The rain let up in the late afternoon so we decided to explore Vlissingen . We would have liked to bike in as it is not very far but unfortunately there has been a snag in our bike exchange. There are four lovely bikes in the garage but only one key. And the missing key is not where we were told to look. And we have had no answers to our e-mails about it. Anyway our trusty navigator took us to town where we even managed to find a parking place near the harbor. We walked along the water for at least a kilometer and all along the way people were setting up booths and stands. A few of them looked like they might be interesting but it would probably be another hour before they were all finished and the piped music was not pleasant. Why do such events so often have to be accompanied by loud tinny music?

                                                                              

                                                                              

The street festival was all along this waterfront.

                                                                              

                                                                              
We got to the end of the waterfront and walked through town. Of course, but this time everything was closed but that was all right. We checked out the restaurants and shops and decided to return the next day. Vlissingen is a nice little town but of course it’s too small to have a good music shop which Frank would like. There are, in addition to the old part of town, quite a few very interesting modern buildings.

                                                                              
It wasn't just the colors. It was also the shapes - lots of curves and rounded corners.

On Saturday morning we went back to town and miraculously all the stands and booths (and there must have been well over a hundred) were all gone and not a trace to be seen. All that effort for just a few hours – and such a quick clean up. We did a little shopping and had lunch at what was supposed to be one of the best restaurants in town for fish. It was in a very nice old house but the food was just okay. I’m not a big fan of French fries but there was only a choice between fries and bread. And there was no salad on the menu although when we left I saw people eating side salads. Maybe you just had to ask for one. The big attraction here seems to be mussels because they are offered everywhere and we saw several couples with a big bowl of mussels between them. Are mussels the same as clams? I’m not sure, but I’m not fond of either, nor oysters for that matter.
                                                                            

                                                                              

                                                                              
It looks nice, but the food was only so-so.

                                                                            

                                                                              
In the afternoon we drove to Middelburg, just a few kilometers from here. It’s a beautiful little town surrounded by canals with lots of nice old buildings. There was a fair going on in the market square with a lot of adventurous looking rides. And of course the obligatory piped music. The shops are only open to five thirty and we were a little late for shopping so we spent an hour just walking through town, admiring it and deciding to return soon.

                                                                              

Middelburg is surrounded by canals.