Category: 2022 Epic Adventure

Part II of our Epic European Adventure is coming to an end tomorrow when we fly to Tel Aviv. Today was “chore” day. I got a box of stuff shipped home, did two loads of laundry and had my hair coiffed by Zoran, a native of Amsterdam. He did a great job and I look stunning!

The staff at the hotel was great helping me pack up and mail my box. There is no Mailboxes, Etc., here, which is my go-to pack/mail place. So, one of the concierges, Gene, took me to the storeroom where we found a box. Then after it was packed, he taped it up, set up the shipping form and took it with him to drop at the post office on his way home from work. Way above and beyond.

Then it was off to do laundry. Luckily, I got there just in time to grab washers before a crowd came in. That also meant I was first in line for the dryer, so I didn’t have any wait time at all.

Peter, on the other hand, didn’t leave the hotel. It was another cold, windy day but there was no rain, so for that I was grateful. I made it home between chores to have lunch with him in the Sky Lounge at the hotel.

Peter stayed with his usual burger, while I had a Caeser Salad.

On my way to my hair appointment, I passed a few pretty sights.

I planned to stop at the Rembrandt House Museum but, unfortunately, it closed on 1 Nov for the next 5 months for renovations. But I did get a picture of the outside.

By the time I finished at the salon, it was starting to get dark, so the lights really looked pretty.

When I got home, I picked Peter up in the suite and we headed to the Executive Lounge for a few snacks. We have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner, so we thought a few bar treats and free beer were in order. Actually, we ate enough free food in the lounge that neither one of us is hungry, so we’ll have our sandwiches on the plane tomorrow.

I can’t believe this part of our holiday is over but I’m looking forward to seeing Israel. It’s a new country for both of us so it will be fun to discover it together. As much as I was originally uncertain about a fully guided tour, I’m now looking forward to it. During the last 15 weeks, I’ve driven over 8,000 miles in 10 countries (England, Scotland, Wales, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands) and spent hours dealing with the logistics of finding places to live. While I enjoy planning our trips and I love driving vacations, I’m exhausted, so I’m actually excited about being told where to go, what to see and when to be back. The only decision I will need to make is what to have for lunch. Oddly enough, I’m totally okay with that. Who would have thought?

Here is the itinerary for the next 9 days. Tomorrow, our flight is due in around 5pm (4 1/2-hour flight plus we lose one hour) and we have a car picking us up to take us to the hotel. We no longer need Covid testing so we don’t have to worry about a 24-hour quarantine. The tour doesn’t officially start until dinner on Thursday, so we have all day to explore Tel Aviv. On Friday, we put ourselves in the hands of our tour guide for the next 8 days. This is a small group tour, with no more than 24 people, so that will be very nice.

The last 7 1/2 weeks on the continent has been amazing. We saw some beautiful things, had terrific (mostly) weather, met some incredible people, saw a phenomenal concert, and ate way too many pastries and other not so good for us food. But most importantly, we did all of these things together which is what this is all about.

We’re so glad you traveled with us for this part of our adventure and hope you join us for the final 23 days.

Yes, the bad weather has certainly caught up with us. But being the troopers we are, we don’t let it stop us from getting out and about. Our main stop today was the Van Gogh Museum which is across the street from the Rijksmuseum we visited yesterday.

While most people headed straight for the main museum and the Van Gogh exhibit, we first went to the special exhibit on Gustav Klimt. Klimt was an Austrian painter heavily influenced by Van Gogh, Matisse and Monet. His most famous painting is The Kiss.

Here are some of the works we did see.

You can certainly see the Monet influence in this painting.

And Van Gogh in this one.

This was his muse Emilie Floge.

And, finally, this was the painting he was working on when he died in 1918. He had a stroke, then developed pneumonia. He was only 55 years old.

After an enjoyable 30 minutes in the virtually empty Klimt exhibit, we headed to the much more crowded main gallery to see the works of Van Gogh. I was amazed by how much work he did in his 37 years. He was not well known during his lifetime and most of his works were owned by family. The famous Starry Night series of paintings are located in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, so we saw those in 2018. But we saw many of his other masterpieces today. There were at least 18 self-portraits. He did so many because he couldn’t afford to pay models.

I thought this was cool. It is his actual palette.

Van Gogh couldn’t afford to buy frames for his paintings, so he made them himself. The frame around this painting is the last remaining frame made by Van Gogh.

Van Gogh wanted to be the most famous painter of sunflowers in the world. I think he succeeded.

This bedroom was in this house in Arles, France.

Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were buddies. Gauguin stayed with Vincent for 2 months in this house. He painted this painting of Van Gogh painting sunflowers.

It was during this time that, after an argument with Gauguin, Vincent cut off his left ear with a razor. He was found several days later covered in blood. After that he spent a year in the mental hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Despite his unstable mental health, he was very productive, painting about 150 paintings that, including…

And my favorite “flower” painting….

This painting was Van Gogh’s final painting. It is also unfinished, but I can’t really see what still needs to be done.

We took so many more photos, but I think I’ve included his most important/famous pieces. The paintings we saw today were so different from the ones we saw yesterday in the Rijksmuseum. With the Dutch Masters you can see every strand of hair on the subject’s head, every fold in the tablecloth and every crack in the loaf of bread. In fact, the bread looks like you could reach in a grab a bite. It is just the opposite with the Impressionists. Their paintings aren’t exactly abstract, but often the lines are indistinct and blurred. While I enjoyed seeing their work today, I like the Dutch Masters better.

The weather was still okay when we left the museum, so we headed back to the tram to do a walk by of Anne Frank’s house. We didn’t get to it the last time we were here and, even though we can’t do the stairs, Peter still wanted to see it.

Unfortunately, the house is undergoing renovations, so this is all he saw.

Just as we left the house to head towards the tram, it started raining. Not pouring but enough to get very wet. So, like yesterday, we ducked into the closest restaurant, a sandwich and pancake house.

Oh, foodies, you’ve been so patient the last couple of days (or have you…I wouldn’t have blamed you if you checked out halfway through yesterday’s post). Lunch wasn’t terribly exciting, but it was good. Peter had Wienerschnitzel.

And I have French Onion Soup and a Toastie. I was so cold that I just wanted something warm. The soup was delicious but the Toastie was just okay. Not as good as the one I had in France.

I had a little order envy when the women next to us got their lunch, Dutch pancakes, because they really looked good. I think pancakes, I think thick and heavy. But they were more like crepes, which would have been lovely.

Luckily, by the time we finished lunch, the rain had stopped so we very quickly made our way to the tram for the short ride back to the central station. Like most main stations in Europe, this one is also a beautiful building.

Just as we were getting to the hotel, the rain started again. We managed to get inside before getting wet and are now, once again, snug in our room. I think we may head to the Executive Lounge for happy hour tonight. We missed yesterday but I think a free glass of prosecco is in order.

Tomorrow is a chore day. There are no laundry facilities at the hotel, but there is a launderette a short walk away. I also have to find a place to pack/mail a small box home. We haven’t bought much in the last 6 weeks but it’s enough to make the suitcase rather bulky. Besides, Peter bought his 5th jigsaw puzzle (The Nightwatch) today and there’s no way I get that in the suitcase. And finally, tomorrow afternoon is hair cut/color day for me…yeah! I’m not sure if Peter is even going to leave the hotel. He said he’ll wait for me in the Executive Lounge which is open all day. At least I’ll know where he is while I’m running errands and getting gorgeous.

We’ve been on this Epic Adventure for exactly 15 weeks today and this was the first truly dreary weather day we’ve had. We’ve seen clouds, drizzle, crazy hot and very cold, but until today we hadn’t had a miserable day. We had a few short bursts of no rain where we were able to get from the hotel to the tram and from the tram to the museum, but by the time we finished our day, it was raining steadily, and we got pretty wet before making it back to our Bridge Suite at the Doubletree. But now we’re snug in our sweats and the fluffy socks we bought in France, munching on a cannoli, trying to warm up.

We started our day at the amazing Rijksmuseum, the national museum dedicated to Dutch arts and history. This is my 4th time to visit, and I never get tired of it.

We started in the Gallery of Honor where the most famous works of art are found. As I mentioned in the post from Delft, Johannes Vermeer is my favorite artist. Well, here is my favorite of his paintings. The detail in works by the Dutch Masters is simply amazing. You can see every seed in each roll and each crack in the loaf of bread. It all looks fresh enough to eat. I have a print of this at home.

This is one of Peter’s favorites. You can see the teeny, tiny skates on each of the skaters. The figures are very small, but the smallest details (e.g., eyes) are clear. It’s really incredible. We have a print of this one as well.

Here’s a famous self-portrait by Rembrandt.

Be honest, how many of you knew Rembrandt’s last name? How many of you thought Rembrandt was his last name?

And, of course, the star of the show….

There was also a large collection of 19th century art.

And one by Van Gogh.

But there is more in this museum than paintings. We saw tapestries…

Drawings…

Furniture…

Dollhouses…

Carvings…

Glassware…

Pottery…

And stained glass windows…

We spent over 2 hours at the museum but could have stayed for much longer without seeing everything. After a while, everything starts to blur together so two hours is usually our max in museums.

While on our way to find lunch, the rain started again so we ducked into the first restaurant we found, Cafe Hans en Grietje, where we had very good burgers. The Marc Chagall Gallery was across the street. We’d had enough of art for one day, though, so we didn’t visit.

By the time we left the restaurant, the rain had let up again, so we sped as fast as we could with me pushing a wheelchair, to the Heineken Experience. It was less than 10 minutes away and, luckily, we made it before the rain started again. The place was crazy crowded with at least an hour wait to start the tour. But one of the staff let us skip the line so we got in right away.

The tour is in the original brewery and the self-guided tour told the story of how the brand started. In 1864, Gerard Adriaan Heineken, bought a brewery and, without any experience in making beer, turned the company into the giant it is today. The current head of the company is Gerard’s great granddaughter.

Here’s what the original Heineken bottle looked like.

And here’s one from the year I was born.

At one point in the tour, we “became” beer as it went through the brewing process. In this video we’re being bottled. It was pretty cool.

The end of the tour included an interactive piece which was a lot of fun. We couldn’t get on the bikes to ride through Amsterdam, but we did have our picture taken in one of the vats.

While the tour was self-guided, we needed someone to help us with lifts because there were a zillion stairs, so it was almost like we had a private tour. It was a lot of fun. BTW. You have the opportunity to drink up to 3 beers during the tour. We didn’t.

Unfortunately, by the time we left, it was steadily raining. We thought about trying to catch a cab but there was no place to stand out of the rain to get one. We were right around the corner from the tram, so we did that instead. It was during the walk home from the central station that we got pretty wet. I had an umbrella for Peter but if he put it up, I couldn’t see where I was going so, I guess we should have kept the ponchos we sent home in one of the boxes. Oh well.

Tomorrow, we’re headed back to the same area to the Van Gogh Museum. We’ve had those tickets for about a month as they tend to sell out. It’s supposed to be another rainy day but hopefully it won’t be as bad as today. Fingers crossed.

We dropped the car off at Schiphol without incident after putting 831 miles on the car. We didn’t have terribly long drives on this part of the trip because the Netherlands and Belgium are pretty small countries when compared to France. But we did do a bit of crisscrossing because we had to go back to Antwerp on Sunday for the concert. This last Thursday was the longest drive we had, about 3 1/2 hours. Nothing like the 10 hours in 2 days we did in France.

After dropping the car, we could have taken the train from the airport to the Central Station for less than 15 euro, but we would have had to schlep about 15 minutes on both ends with the 24-inch suitcase, two backpacks, and a wheelchair. So, we bit the bullet and took a taxi (75 euro), and we’ll do it again on Wednesday when we head to the airport for our flight to Israel.

When we got to the Doubletree, they gave us a wonderful upgrade to a suite.

Since we’re here for 4 nights, it’s great to have a little more room to spread out.

After getting settled in, we headed to the train station for a short ride to the nearby town of Haarlem. I’ve heard so many good things about it that we wanted to check it out. It was a cold and cloudy day, so we were a bit bundled up but still enjoyed our relatively short visit.

When we arrived at the Grote Markt (historic town center), we found that they have a weekly Saturday market. Desiree, you would have loved it. They sold everything from leather goods, to flowers, to food, to rugs. It was great.

After wandering around the market, we stopped for lunch. It should come as no surprise that we had Italian. Cynthia commented on an earlier post that she was surprised about the amount of Italian food there is everywhere. We discovered a long time ago that in virtually every city in Europe has two things…. a Cathedral and at least one, if not more, Italian restaurants. It’s the most popular type of food in the U.S. and it wouldn’t surprise me if it as the same here.

Peter had a pizza, but I was afraid it couldn’t match the incredible pizza I had in Antwerp, so I had ravioli instead.

There are two main churches in Haarlem. We didn’t care enough to walk 20 minutes to get to the main cathedral, but we did pop into the Grote of St.-Bavokerk, which was right on the square.

Construction began in 1370 and concluded in 1520. The church is most known for its incredible organ.

Then it was a 15-minute walk back to the Haarlem station. When we got there, we went into the older side of the station that doesn’t have a lift. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize it until after we scanned our tickets and got to the 2 flights of stairs leading up to the platform. But once again, with the help of two kind strangers, we made it to the top. One woman helped Peter up the stairs while another helped me get the wheelchair to the top.

Now we’re snuggled in our suite wearing the fluffy robes and warm slippers we found in the cabinet. We broke into the gingerbread stocking we bought in Aachen.

Well, it’s just after 5pm and we’re off to the Executive Lounge to check out happy hour. We only have a couple of small peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner so hopefully we can find something good to nibble on. Have a great Saturday night everyone.

Today was another easy day. After breakfast in Aachen, we headed northeast to Utrecht where we visited the De Haar Castle. Well, we didn’t visit the castle as much as we visited the gardens and took pictures of the castle from the outside. There were way too many spiral staircases for us to maneuver, so we spent about 40 minutes exploring the expansive garden.

The original castle on this site dates to 1391 but was destroyed and rebuilt several times before this version was constructed in the late 19th century. It is the largest castle in the Netherlands.

The grounds were beautiful.

Here’s the castle from the back garden.

Visiting the castle only took us a few minutes out of the way, so we’re glad we stopped to see it. But we were getting very cold and hungry, so it was back to car for the 50-minute drive to the Hilton Garden Inn in Leiden, about 20 minutes from Schiphol Airport. There’s nothing to do here but it’s a place to lay our heads down tonight. The good news, though, is that they have a restaurant, so we stayed here for lunch. It was pasta for both of us.

Tomorrow, we take the car back to the airport and head to Amsterdam. As nice as it was to have the car to get around, I’m glad to get rid of it. It will be nice to “park” ourselves for a while. After the 5 days in Amsterdam, we have 9 days in Israel, 9 days in Greece and 5 in Turkey before heading home 4 weeks from today. We’ve been moving around quite a bit and we’re both getting tired so not having to keep loading/unloading the car will be great. Talk to you later. Love from us.

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.