Author: Lynn

It is back to Germany for one very short day but first, here was dessert from last night.

We had a very short day as it was cold and, once we saw the Cathedral and walked a little in old town, there was nothing else we wanted to see. It was worth the trip back, though, as the Cathedral is beautiful.

On our way into town, we went past one of the two remaining 13th century gates. Luckily, I was first at the stop light, so I was able to grab a quick pic.

We lucked into a disabled parking spot just outside the pedestrian street, so it was a short walk to the Cathedral. In addition to scaffolding all over the building, they are preparing for the upcoming Christmas Market so there were trucks everywhere. As a result, the pictures don’t show the Cathedral very well. But here’s a pic I took the last time we visited.

The outside makes the Cathedral look much bigger than it is on the inside. Of course, I’m sure there are hidden rooms we didn’t see, but the inside looks quite small. The Cathedral is one of the oldest in Europe having been ordered by Emperor Charlemagne in 796. He was buried there in 813.

We were able to walk around the side to get a little closer to the main altar.

The gold box in the foreground is the Marienschrein (Shrine of Mary) that holds the swaddling cloth and loin cloth of Jesus, a dress of Mary and the decapitation cloth of John the Baptist.

The gold box in the background, closer to the stained-glass windows, is the Karlsschrein or Shrine of Charlemagne. This is where the remains of Emperor Charlemagne have been held since 1215. We couldn’t get close enough to take a good picture so here’s one I found online.

I couldn’t find any information about this, but it was hanging in the middle of the front part of the Cathedral.

And, of course, the incredible stained glass windows.

The ceiling is gorgeous.

The Cathedral also hold the throne of Charlemagne.

There was a special pulpit, called the Ambion of Henry II. It was built 1002 and 1014 and was quite beautiful.

We have no idea where they were hiding the organ as we didn’t see it anywhere, but here’s what it looks like.

There were also several side chapels, only two of which we saw.

After we were finished inside, we took a walk through the pedestrian street around the Cathedral. The shops are already gearing up for the holidays. Apparently, Aachen has one of the best Christmas Markets in Europe. It opens on 11/18 so we missed it by a couple of weeks.

We had to pop into this candy shop to compare German chocolate to Belgian. While good, the German variety is not as creamy as the Belgian. We bought a little bag, though, just so that we had enough to really make a good comparison. I also couldn’t resist a gingerbread Christmas stocking.

Adjacent to the candy shop was a bread store that also had pastries and sandwiches. We decided we didn’t want a big lunch, so we picked up a couple of sandwiches to take back to the hotel. But we decided to have a little dessert before lunch.

I’m not sure what this building was, but the very bottom was the Rattskeller Restaurant.

And this one is for you Desiree. It wasn’t a big market, but it was nice.

We actually only stayed in the city center for about 90 minutes before heading back to the car. It was only in the mid 40s, cloudy and windy so we were getting cold. We’re staying at the Hampton Inn about 15 minutes from the center of town. We stayed here in 2018 so we knew it was a nice hotel. We got here super early, but they allowed us to check in, so we’ve been snug in our room for the afternoon. We’ll have sandwiches again for dinner as we’re both a little tired of eating out. I bought rolls and we have our usual ham and cheese I got yesterday from the market.

Tomorrow, we head back into the Netherlands for the last day with the car. We were going to go to Nuenen to see Van Gogh’s house, but it’s temporarily closed so we’ll head straight to Leiden where we’ll spend the night. It’s just under 3 hours away, so depending on what time we leave here, we may make a side trip to The Hague, which only adds about 20 minutes to the trip. But, as of right now it looks like rain all day, so we’ll see.

Before we move on to Bastogne, here are a couple of final pics from Antwerp. The Central Station was built in 1836 and is a big tourist attraction. Our hotel was right across the street.

This post is for all of the history buffs out there as the last two days has been all about WWII. But foodies, there may be a pic or two in here for you.

Very quickly, the Battle of the Bulge took place between 16 Dec 44 and 25 Jan 45 and was the last big German offensive push. They were trying to split the Allied lines and cut off the port of Antwerp. The Allies were surrounded and on December 22nd the German command sent a message to General McAuliffe stating that the Allies either surrender or be annihilated. McAuliffe famously replied, “Nuts”. The good guys won in the end. OK, that’s it in a nutshell. If you want to know more, talk with Peter…he knows everything!!

Our only stop in Bastogne yesterday (Tuesday) was the Bastogne War Museum. We’d visited in 2018 but wanted to see it again. It tells the story of the battle through the eyes of 4 people who were involved – an American soldier, a German soldier, a 19-year-old Belgian teacher and a 14-year-old Belgian boy. Of course, there were the usual dioramas, weapons, tanks, etc., but it was the stories I enjoyed the most.

There were 3 movies but there weren’t just on flat screen. The 2nd one showed the movie on a screen behind a set that looked like the Ardennes Forest (the battle is also called the Ardennes Offensive).

Another one was set in a cafe where all 4 “characters” meet. Fourteen-year-old Emile’s parents sent him to his uncle’s cafe in Bastogne for safety since the cafe had a basement and was safer during a bombardment. The teacher was already there, and the American soldier was escorting the German soldier (who had been captured) to headquarters when they stopped at the cafe during a bombardment. This is a true story. All four of them survived the war.

There was also a new exhibit called Generations 45. It followed the story of an American and German veteran after the war. The German, who moved from the Berlin’s Soviet sector to the American sector just before the wall went up in 1961, was there when the wall came down in 1989. Here are the pieces of the wall he took as a souvenir.

It was a very enjoyable 2 hour visit in the museum and is a must-see for history buffs. Then it was on to our Airbnb flat in Saint Hubert, about 30 minutes from Bastogne. But it was the closest accommodation we could find that didn’t cost $250/night. It’s an easy drive through the Ardennes Forest so we don’t mind being a little far out.

OK foodies, here’s one for you.

Today we went back to Bastogne to visit the 101st Airborne Museum. The 101st (The Screaming Eagles) was one of the groups that participated in the battle. The museum is in a 3-story brick building on a residential street and was filled with memorabilia donated by veterans and/or their families.

What I loved most about this museum was the stories about the veterans. There were cases of memorabilia with a story about the veteran who donated the items.

The other part I enjoyed was seeing pictures of people and then a recreation as a diorama. I thought it was very cool.

I’m also fascinated when I see pictures of people wearing the clothes or using the items I’m looking at.

You might wonder what Patton was doing there as he wasn’t in the airborne. Well, his 4th armored division broke through the German lines to “rescue” the airborne division but if you read anything written by someone from the 101st, they will say they didn’t need to be rescued.

The 101st Airborne jumped into Normandy on D-Day. My favorite TV show of all time, Band of Brothers, was about one of the companies of the 101st. The story followed them through their campaigns in the last year of the war, including Battle of the Bulge (episodes 6 & 7).

Of course, there were plenty of other dioramas, but I thought they were more interesting than some of the others we’ve seen.

There were more displays in the basement, but the stairs were too steep for Peter to climb, so I went down to check it out. The most interesting thing was a recreation of what it was like during the bombardment of Bastogne during the battle. The video is just over 5 minutes long, which is much longer than I usually post, but I wanted Peter to be able to see the entire thing and I don’t have any way to edit the video. So, grab your popcorn.

Even though I knew the ceiling wasn’t going to fall on my head, it was actually a bit scary listening to the bombs and rifle fire. I can’t image what it must have been like for the people who experienced it for real.

After a very pleasant 90 minutes in the museum, we headed out for a stroll in town. On our way we stopped at Place General Patton to see his monument.

There was also one dedicated to General McAuliffe in a square named after him.

Outside of the museums, there isn’t much to see in Bastogne, but it was a sunny day (but cold, only in the 40s), so we enjoyed our walk down main street.

At the end of the street, we found St. Peter’s Church and the Treves Gate. The church is from the 16th century and was badly damaged in the battle. Fortunately, they were able to restore it.

Because of the restoration, everything looked new, but the artwork is an exact replica of what was originally in the church.

The Treves Gate was built in the 14th century and is the last remaining piece of the city’s medieval history.

Then it was time to head home as I had yet another load of laundry to do. Unfortunately, our flat doesn’t have a washer so I had to go to the grocery store to do laundry. Seriously, I did.

On the walk back from the laundry, I grabbed a pic of the Abbey of Saint-Hubert (now a basilica).

Tonight is our last night in Belgium as tomorrow we head to Aachen Germany for one night. The only reason we’re going is to see the tomb of Charlemagne in the Aachen Cathedral. We visited Aachen in 2018, but by the time we got to town the Cathedral was closed. It’s sort of on our way back to the Netherlands and we had the extra day so we figured it would be a cool place to stop. Fair warning, be prepared for Cathedral pictures in tomorrow’s post.

Oh, before I go, here’s something else for the foodies (assuming they didn’t check out ages ago).

Antwerp is turning into my favorite city ever. This morning we met a couple at the hotel who mentioned that they were sitting behind us last night at the concert. Their son plays guitar with Dana’s band, so they were in town to see the show. Seriously, how odd is it that someone at the same hotel was not only at the concert but sat right behind us. I asked them what Dana said about Arizona. As I thought, she was going through the various areas in Belgium and then said, “I understand there are people here from Arizona. Where are you?” When I mentioned that I was afraid she wouldn’t get the flowers, they said she always gets and appreciates the things people send to her at her shows. Before I only loved her voice, now I think she’s an amazing person as well.

That started the day off with a smile on our faces as we headed out into the dreary weather to explore more of Antwerp. We took the metro to the Cathedral then walked about 10 minutes to the river where we found a giant Ferris wheel.

Neither one of us is crazy about heights so it should come as no surprise that we didn’t take a ride. Just down the street we saw Het Steen, a medieval fortress built in the early 13th century.

Then we headed back the way we came to visit Grote Markt in the heart of the old town center.

Since it’s been 2 whole days since we had chocolate, we stopped at a shop to buy a few pieces.

We had been told that the oldest street in Antwerp was near the Grote Markt, but we couldn’t find it. It just so happened that when I asked at the chocolate shop, it was directly across the street. It’s called Vlaeykensgang and the small street is from the 15th and 16th centuries. It used to be filled with shoemaker shops but now is home to a couple of exclusive restaurants and a gallery.

It was an adorable, hidden gem and were so glad we found it.

It had been over a week since we’d had Italian, so we stopped at a place close to the old street. You can’t throw a rock without hitting an Italian restaurant, but I’m thrilled we found this one. It was as if we were transported to Rome, that’s how good the food was.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel. It was a pretty long walk, but Peter had the wheelchair, so I was able to walk off some of the pizza while pushing him through the shopping area.

As you may know, Antwerp is the diamond capital of the world. Approximately 84% of the world’s uncut diamonds come through this 1 square mile of Antwerp. That area just happens to be outside our door. So, of course, we went window shopping. I saw an anniversary band that I loved and thought it would be fun to try it on. It was gorgeous but not even close to anything we could afford, which was fine because I had no intention of buying anything. This was just for fun.

The owner brought out a couple of others and within minutes Peter bought me a ring. Seriously, it happened so fast I didn’t even get a chance to talk him out of it, and yes, I really would have tried to talk him out of it. We are spending a fortune on this trip, and I don’t need more jewelry. But OMG it is gorgeous. It has 9 baguette stones surrounded by round diamonds. And it fit perfectly so I guess it was fate. After wiping up tears and giving several kisses to my honey, we walked/rolled out the door with my new sparkler on my hand. Wow!

Just as I was finishing this post, Peter showed me Dana Winner’s Facebook page, because of course he’s “friends” with her, and look what was on it.

The link you see in the post is a link to our travel blog. How the hell did this happen??? I don’t know enough about social media to even guess unless she has someone whose job it is to scour social media for her name. So, we’re now on her Facebook page. I’m not sure what that means for our travel blog as it is meant to be a private blog for family and friends. But I keep track of people who sign up for it, deleting uninvited people, so I guess we’ll be okay.

Our two days in Antwerp has been incredible for so many reasons but tomorrow we’re off to southern Belgium and Bastogne, sight of one of the most famous battles of WWII…the Battle of the Bulge.

It’s almost 1am and I’ve been awake since 2:30 this morning but I’m keyed up and can’t sleep. So, I thought I would tell you about our evening. But first, I have to tell you about the note I put into Dana’s flowers. It was just a couple of lines telling her how Peter was a big fan and that we’d rearranged our vacation so we could be in Antwerp for the concert. I put Peter’s name and love from Arizona U.S.A. That was it. This is important for later.

When we got into the venue, I looked for someone to talk with about the flowers. I finally found someone who looked official and asked how we could get them to Dana. He didn’t have a clue, but he called someone on his 2-way and after about 5 minutes he told me to leave the flowers with him and the production manager would pick them up and give them to her. I left them and went back to our seats. I was skeptical that she was going to get them as he didn’t seem too sure about what to do but I figured I had done all I could.

Our seats were a little further back than we expected given that we were in the 18th row, but the rows were spread about 4 feet apart and there was a very wide aisle about 5 rows ahead of us. So actually, we were about 30 rows back from a typical U.S. concert hall. But they were still great seats, dead center of the arena.

We assumed that Il Divo was an opening act, and that Dana would come out after the intermission. Wrong. Il Divo were guest performers and came out near the end of the show for 4 songs. It was short but they were wonderful!

A woman sitting next to us said that they’re going to be in Amsterdam next Sunday evening (we get there on Saturday) so who knows, we may catch their full show then.

As we expected, virtually all of Dana’s conversation, and most songs, were in Dutch, but it really didn’t matter. Her voice is so amazing and the songs so beautiful, it made no difference that we didn’t understand the words.

About 15 minutes into the concert, the lights came up and she started calling out what we guessed were areas of the country and whoever was from that area would give a cheer. Finally in English she said, “and from everywhere else in the world.” There were only a handful of us, but we gave our best cheer.

And then the most amazing thing happened. She said something in Dutch followed by “Arizona”. I was startled but yelled out and waved my arms. Peter tried to wave his arms but since he can’t lift them above his waist, it didn’t work out too well. But she saw me and said, “was it you”. We yelled yes. And then she said, “I have a question. Did you come for Il Divo, or did you come for me?” This is when I thought to grab the camera and video the last couple of seconds. It’s very shaky as I was in a hurry, but I think you’ll be able to make it out.

So, not only did she get the flowers, but she also read the note, and mentioned it from the stage! It was the most incredible thing. I wish you could have seen Peter’s face; it was pure joy and I’m in tears remembering it. After that, the next 2 1/2 hours was magic. She has incredible energy and as Peter always says, she looks like she’s having so much fun.

Here are just a few of the many, many videos we took. Enjoy.

And, of course, One Moment in Time.

We’ve been on our epic adventure for over 3 months and have done and seen some incredible things, but we will remember tonight as a highlight. It was worth the 11 months of waiting, the cost of the tickets, a fat lip and a chipped tooth.

Ok, now it’s almost 2:00 and I really need to sleep. Not sure how that’s going to happen though. I’m still on cloud nine. Love to all.

Well, it’s finally here. The day Peter has been waiting for almost a year…. the Dana Winner concert. A little backstory. Peter discovered Dana (pronounced Donna) about 18 months ago. She is a Belgian pop singer and is amazing. Her first language is Dutch, but she often sings in English. Here is the first video he saw.

After this he was hooked and watched every video he could find. We’ve downloaded 3 of her albums and I think he even joined her fan club. Seriously, he’s a total fan geek. Yesterday we bought her a large bouquet of flowers to take to the show. I’m not sure how we’re going to get them to her, but we’ll figure something out. Maybe security can take them for us. In fact, it was the flowers that was the indirect cause of my fall. I didn’t want to carry them around all afternoon so that’s why I went back to the flat, which is why I needed to get to back to the tram, which is why I passed the scaffolding, which is why I tripped over the leg of the scaffolding. Right, so this is all Peter’s fault…I can work with that. No seriously, I fell because I wasn’t watching where I was walking.

Anyway, our epic European adventure was supposed to take place from June to mid-September but when he found out Dana was having a concert in Antwerp in October, the whole trip got turned upside down so we could attend. We’ve had tickets (the 18th row) for almost a year and the big day has finally arrived.

In addition to Dana, Il Divo is also performing. This group was formed by Simon Cowell and included a Swiss, German, Brit and an American. They’ve been together since 2003 and have a huge world-wide following. The German, Carlos Marin, died from Covid in December. This video has the other 3 founding members singing Hallelujah as a tribute to Carlos. It’s really quite moving. I almost started crying when I saw that they left his “spot” in the foursome open.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldfgPMCnaKM

In this clip, they’re speaking in Italian, but they all speak English. I have no idea what language they’ll use tonight. So, between that and Dana possibly singing/speaking in Dutch, I’m not sure if we’re going to understand a word that is said/sung but who cares. Music crosses all language barriers so it’s going to be a great time regardless. I’ll let you know tomorrow as we’ll get home too late to post again tonight.

But first we had to get to Antwerp. We had the car packed up and were ready to go a little after 9am. It was a short, 45-minute drive and we went straight to the Hampton Inn at the central train station. There is no parking, but I managed to find a temp spot so I could take the backpacks into the hotel and find out where to take the car. After parking (about a 5-minute walk from the hotel) we headed to Peter Paul Ruben’s house. Ruben was a 16th-17th century Baroque painter and is from Antwerp. He built the 3-story townhouse in 1609 and lived there for the rest of his life.

The place was crazy crowded, at least 20 people in each room and these rooms were quite small.

Rubens loved Italy and spent a lot of time in Rome. He owned hundreds of Roman statues and built this semi-circular room for his collection.

All of the artwork in the house were originals, either his or other painters. Here are just a few of the many, many paintings we saw.

There was also a small garden with a pretty courtyard.

After the house, we began the hunt for lunch. There was a bistro just down the street, but there were no seats, so we kept walking. We finally found a square with tons of restaurants, but Peter was getting tired, so we stopped into the first one we came to – a Hard Rock Cafe.

After a delicious lunch of grilled chicken sandwich (Peter) and pulled pork sandwich (me), it was off to the other side of the square where we visited the Our Lady of Antwerp cathedral. The main reason we wanted to visit was to see the 4 altar pieces that Ruben did for the church.

The church was consecrated in 1521 and has a spire that is over 400 feet tall.

After the church we took the Metro back to the central station which is across the street from our hotel. Now we’re just resting before getting ready for our big night on the town. The concert is at the sports palace, just a few metro stops so it should be an easy commute. Getting back could be another story as everyone tries to leave at once, but we don’t walk very fast so maybe by the time we get to the Metro everyone else will be gone. We can only hope.

Today was a beautiful day; 80 degrees and sunny. The old town area of Ghent is gorgeous, filled with old buildings, interesting squares and tons of restaurants. It is a short walk/tram/bus ride from our flat, so we had no trouble getting down there.

We passed the 12th century Gravensteen Castle but didn’t go in.

We actually didn’t do too much except wander the streets, watch the people, and eat our lunch in the square. While eating, a man started “blowing” bubbles and the kids went crazy.

Of course, there were the canals. We thought about a boat ride, but it would have been too difficult to get in/out of the boat.

The building below used to be a church, but now it has some kind of high-tech show. We didn’t go in.

We did stop into a couple of churches that are still working churches. First, it was St. Nicholas, an 13th century church.

Then we headed to St. Bavo’s Cathedral.

St. Bavo’s is from the late 13th century and is most known for the altar piece painted by Hubert and Jan van Eyck. The part of the cathedral that held the altar piece wasn’t open for another 45 minutes and then we would have to go in a 30-minute tour, so we decided to take a pass. Here’s a picture of it I found online.

Here are a few things we did see in the Cathedral.

Then we just wandered the streets, stopping to buy a few Christmas linens. We also got a large bouquet of flowers for Peter. He’s got a big event tomorrow and he wanted flowers. I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow. Anyway, so now I’ve got a large bouquet of flowers, several bags with the things I bought, a coat that I didn’t need any more as it was 80 degrees and a camera. In other words, I was loaded down. So, I left Peter in the square watching the kids chase bubbles and I headed home to unload.

On the way back to the tram, I managed to trip over the footing of a large piece of scaffolding and face-planted into the street. Yes, it was my turn to take a tumble. I got the breath knocked out of me when my chest hit the curb and, while I slowed myself down with my arms, my face still hit the street. Luckily, there were a couple of guys there to help me get back to my feet, but it took a couple of minutes to get my breath back.

Not too much damage was done except for a fat lip, well two fat lips actually. One on top and one on the bottom. But I chipped a tooth…rats!?! Now the tooth feels numb. I don’t know. Is that a good thing or bad? Anyway, once I got back to Peter, I got ice from a local restaurant to try and keep the swelling down. Then I went in and bought some chocolate cuz chocolate makes everything better, right?

I got 6 pieces of delicious chocolate so that should last another, I don’t know, 3-4 minutes. This stuff is amazingly good.

And because my ice melted, we stopped for ice cream. I mean it was absolutely necessary to keep the swelling down.

In spite of my fall, we thoroughly enjoyed our day in Ghent. It’s very similar to Bruges, only much smaller so it’s easy to see in only one day. If you’re ever in Belgium, I highly recommend it.

Well, it’s time to ice my face down again. And my knee is a little sore, so I’ll probably ice that as well. Then I need to pack up as we leave tomorrow for Antwerp. Have a terrific Saturday everyone. Talk soon. Love from us.

Before I forget, here’s a picture I meant to include in yesterday’s post. This was just one part of the parking lot at the main Ghent train station.

Driving into Bruges wasn’t bad as we found a park and ride about 3 1/2 km from city center. Of course, the bus into town only came once an hour (we didn’t know that until we got there) but we only waited about 15 minutes on the way in and about 10 on the way out. And, I didn’t have to deal with finding parking in a town filled with pedestrian only streets.

The main square is called Market Square and has held a weekly market since 985. It’s been pedestrian only since 1995, at least it was until I drove through it in 2018. We were trying to leave the city and I took a wrong turn and drove right through the square and a pedestrian street trying to find my way back to the main road. Oops.

Here’s a video of the entire square.

The one church I went into was one we missed in 2018, the Basilica of the Holy Blood.

The church is most known for having a vial of what is supposed to be the blood of Christ. The vial was brought to Bruges from Constantinople after the 2nd crusades in the middle of the 12th century. Even though there is no verification for, or against, its authenticity, the vial is a big part of religious life in Bruges.

Then we stopped in at the Town Hall to see the Gothic Hall. The large room, which has been in its present state since the late 19th century, is filled with beautiful murals. This is where the Bruges city council still meets.

Just outside the town hall was a wonderful street performer.

We wandered the streets a little…

Finally ending up at the Frites Museum. I have to say, the Belgians have a little inferiority complex going on with the whole who invented frites issue. Their story is that they were invented in Belgium but got them name “French fries” during WWI, when a French speaking Belgian (about 43% of the population of Belgium speaks French, about 1% speak German and the rest speak Flemish or Dutch), gave “chips” to an American GI telling him they came from his country. Hearing the French, the American assumed the country was France and French fries were born.

There was even a sign board explaining how Belgian Fries began.

One of the exhibits had a couple of singing frites. If you listen closely, you can hear them sing, “we’re not French”.

The museum had lots of info about potatoes. For example, did you know the potato originated from Peru? Yeah, I didn’t either. There were lots of different displays and explanation boards.

The chip making world record holder is Belgian. In 2019, he made over 2600 kg (over 5700 pounds) of chips in 126 hours and 15 minutes, smashing the previous record, also held by a Belgian.

Of course, the best part of the museum was in the basement where we got to eat frites. We decided it was as good a place as any to eat our lunch, so we had our sandwiches while we waited for our frites to be ready.

On our way back to the bus station we passed a few more interesting things.

Marzipan.

And, of course, chocolate.

Today, we stopped and bought a few pieces to bring home.

It was an early day but it’s nice to relax a bit. Tomorrow, we’re staying in Ghent to explore the old town. The tram is only about 3 blocks from our flat. It should be a nice, easy day.

We’re staying in Ghent because it’s only a 30-minute train ride to both Brussels and Bruges, two places we want to visit. Great plan, right? Oh….not so much. But more about that later. First, here’s a picture from one of our balconies I took last night.

Second, a friend from Robson Ranch uploaded a great video to YouTube about our community. I’ve asked Peter more than once on our trip if he misses home and he very quickly replies….”Nope”. While I miss my friends, I don’t really miss home either. Well, at least I didn’t until I saw Sam’s video, now I miss it terribly. Thanks so much Cynthia for that. By the way, you’re really rocking the Cornhole Queen hat. So, I thought I’d include the link to Sam’s video in case anyone is interested in seeing where we live. Both Peter and I have “blink and you miss it” moments. I’m at the 4:19 minute mark at our spring concert last March. Your eye will be drawn to people walking into the first row on the stage but if you look at the 2nd row…there I am. Peter’s moment to shine is at the 9:13 mark. We were at the Grill for dinner with friends. You can see Kathy next to Peter, but only the top of Stephanie’s head, the back of mine and only a tiny sliver of Jim’s face. There are so many of our friends in the video. I just want to give everyone a big, virtual hug. We really love living there and are so glad we made the move. Anywho…here’s the link, so if you have a spare 12 minutes, give it a look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeMyvg0Or6o&t=4s

Back to our Brussels adventure. Ghent is a much bigger city than I thought, third in size after Brussels and Antwerp. Who knew?? So, while we’re only a 15-minute walk from one train station, we needed to get to the larger train station one the other side of town for our train to Brussels. Not a problem as it’s only a 10-minute ride and an easy transfer. Except the trains out of our station are old and not in the least bit handicapped friendly. There were 3 very high steps getting into the train and while I was able to give Peter a shove up the stairs to get him in, I was having trouble getting the wheelchair into the car. Luckly a guy who had just gotten off was still hanging around and help me lift it. Then when we got to the main Ghent station, there was no lift or down escalator to get off the platform. There were, however, 3 flights of steep stairs. Once again, a kind stranger helped by taking the wheelchair down while I helped Peter walk down. The good news is that the train to Brussels was on a newer platform with a lift. There were still stairs to get into the train, but they were much lower so it was a little easier to get on. Except, once on, there were 2 levels of seats, one up a flight of stairs and one down a flight of stair. So, we stayed in the vestibule for the 30-minute ride to Brussels. Peter sat on the stairs, and I stood for half the ride, then moved into the wheelchair. Again, we had help getting off the train in Brussels and found the lift to get out of the station. What a nightmare!!

Our first stop was the Grand Place, probably the most beautiful square in all of Europe. It’s dominated by the Town Hall. Construction on the square began in the 11th century and was completed in the 17th century.

There are gorgeous buildings all around the 223 by 361 ft square. Here’s a video I took.

As you may have heard me say, Peter actually pushed the wheelchair more than I pushed him because of the uneven, cobblestoned sidewalks/streets. I was able to give him a break a few times when I found flat surfaces, but they were far and few between. Gotta love these old European cities.

After walking around the square, we decided we’d had a rough morning, so we deserved a delicious Belgian waffle for a morning snack.

After our snack, we headed off to the Cathedral, where we found the City Sightseeing bus. It wasn’t a hop on/hop off, but a round-trip sightseeing bus like we used in Bordeaux. We thought this was a perfect way to get around this very large city without wearing either one of us out. We had a 40-minute wait, so I popped into the Cathedral while Peter waited on the bus.

The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula is a medieval Roman Catholic church. Construction began in the 11th century and reached its current form by the middle of the 16th century. The inside looked much like the many other churches we’ve seen, but I thought the pulpit was exquisite.

Even the back was beautiful.

We ate our sandwiches while waiting for the bus to leave. When it finally did, we enjoyed the 60-minute ride around the city.

Brussels is not only the capital of Belgium, but the capital of the European Union.

The Royal Palace isn’t open for tourists so all we got was a drive-by photo from the bus.

This is one of the largest triumphal arches in Europe. Its unique triple arch makes it the widest, but it’s 4 meters shorter than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Once the tour was over, we headed back to the Grand Place as Peter had to see the famous Mannikin Pis statue. There’s really not much to see as it’s quite small, but it’s like the Tower of Pisa, you just have to see it. Then after you do, you walk away saying….okay….that’s it?

After 2 minutes here, we turned around and went back the way we came to get to the central station. When we got off the tour bus, we were only a few blocks from the station but…gotta see the little guy peeing into the fountain. But we didn’t just want to turn around, so we decided to stop for our afternoon snack of Belgian beer and frites.

There’s some debate as to who invented fries…the French or Belgians. In France, they call them French fries but in Belgium, they’re simply called frites. Whatever you call them, they were delicious.

For my foodie friends, here are a couple of pics you might enjoy.

The train ride home was a reverse of the trip to Brussels except we lucked into a car that had a few seats just inside the door. And, we had plenty of help at the main Ghent station as several people helped Peter climb down the stairs of the carriage while another helped me with the chair. We didn’t even attempt the train to get us back to our station, so we took a taxi. It was well worth the 27 euro not to have to worry about Peter climbing up/down those gigantic steps.

Based on today, I’ll be driving to Bruges tomorrow instead of taking the train. I’m not wild about that idea as I’ve driven in Bruges and finding parking is not easy. But it’s better than dealing with the safety issues getting on/off the trains. I’ll let you know how it goes.

We spent a very pleasant few hours visiting the Battle of Waterloo site just outside of Brussels Belgium. We didn’t make it here in 2018, so we were very happy to make the out of the way trip today.

We saw a couple of demonstrations, one on the use of the flintlock, which was the weapon of the time, and the one of a canon. The canon was the smallest they would have used with 6-pound balls. The other canons shot 8-pound, 10-pound and 12-pound balls. Both demos were very interesting; here are the videos.

The only monument on the site is the Lion’s Monument built just 10 years after the battle.

There are 226 stairs to the top, and I made it!!

The view from the top was beautiful.

On my way down, I ran into a bag piper who climbed all the way up blowing his pipes. He didn’t have to pull himself up with the handrails or anything!

Peter took a video of me coming back down.

Then we spent a little time in the museum. Not much new as we’ve seen so much about the battle, but it had some nice models.

There was also a 4D movie, but there were no chairs, only leaning rails, so we took a pass. Then it was back to the car for what should have been a 1-hour drive to Ghent, which is our home for the next 4 nights. We got stuck in traffic around Brussels and then again just outside of Ghent, so it actually took almost 90 minutes.

Our host, Tine (pronounced Tina) was here to great us and show us her remarkable flat. She actually lives here when she’s not at her boyfriend’s house so there is much more here than we usually see. After being crammed into a tiny Holiday Inn Express room for the last 4 nights, we’re going to love the extra space. Here’s a video I took of the penthouse apartment.

Getting the car into the garage was a massive pain in the butt, so I’m not moving it again until we leave on Sunday. So, tomorrow we’ll take the train for a day trip to Brussels. It should be fun.

As always, thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to follow our adventures. Love to all.

We decided to stay in Rotterdam today instead of taking the train to The Hague. We may get there before we take the car back to Schiphol. What started as a blustery day turned into a beautiful sunny day with temps reaching 60 degrees.

We started by walking down the main street to the shopping area where we picked up a few necessaries. I don’t notice at home but it’s amazing how many toiletries we go through in 3 months.

After shopping we headed to the Grote of Sint Laurenskerk (Church of Saint Lawerence) who is the patron saint of Rotterdam. In spite of breaking ground in 1449 and being finished 100 years later, it looks like a very new church. And it basically is new as everything but the outside walls were destroyed after a German bombardment in May 1940.

It was luck that today they had a mid-day organ concert. I had seen it on the website, so we planned our visit accordingly.

After the concert, we headed to the giant open-air market adjacent to the church.

We decided to go American for lunch and ate at Friday’s. Well, truth be told, I wanted one of their famous Long Island Iced Tea drinks. It was as good as I remembered, and we had a very leisurely lunch. Friday’s is located in the indoor market.

Peter went with the cheeseburger, but I had the Chicken Caesar salad.

And, of course, we topped it off with a Brownie Obsession.

We were pleasantly surprised at Rotterdam. There’s not that much to do here but we were very impressed with the market (both indoor and outdoor) and enjoyed seeing how the old buildings like the church were mixed in with the modern structures.

Tomorrow, we leave Rotterdam and head for Belgium. Our first stop is the Waterloo Battlefield Museum. Peter has been wanted to see it since our last visit in 2018. Then we head to Ghent where we spend the next 4 nights. It’s nice to unpack for a while instead of moving every night. Luckily our flat has a laundry as we’re running dangerously low on underwear. OK, probably TMI but it’s been a long day and my filter may not be as sharp as it should be. Have a great night everyone.