Month: May 2022

Well Germany was not what we expected.  Tim’s cold turned out to be COVID and so we saw a lot of a nice Hamburg basement, thoughtfully provided for us by our good friends Wim and Anette. Jeri succumbed two days later. Ten days of isolation meant we skipped our planned trip to Stuttgart to see Jurgen and Melli.  On Monday May 23^rd we headed out on our journey to France by taking a train to Mannheim then onto Paris Gare De L’Est. After an overnight stop in what was for Paris, a decent sized hotel room, we took the train to Thiviers and were picked up from the station by Patrick and Carole. Interestingly, we found the German trains comfortable but rarely on time and the ICE ones rarely exceeded 200km/hr.  But the French TGV trains were even more luxurious and sped along at an amazing 300km/hr. and arrived well, on time. 

Yesterday was a long one; we had dinner in Brugge and when we went to leave, we found that the train back to Brussels was delayed by an hour, so we didn’t get home until after eleven. As a result, we slept in this morning and cancelled plans for Ghent. Instead, we headed to the Place Sablon for lunch (quiche and salad) and visited the Museum of Old Masters. The Breugel collection was amazing and the Bosch was just plain weird. Tim was getting a bad cold so after another coffee at the Galerie Hubert, we grabbed some groceries from Carrefour and headed back.

Caught the 8:30am train from Brussels to Brugge. Pleasant one hour journey across flat farmland. Our scheduled time at the Groeningemuseum was 10:30 but we got there early and they let us through. Smallish museum with a collection of medieval Flemish masters, neoclassicists and modern art. It was nice to focus on styles we don’t normally pay attention to. The colors in the medieval stuff were amazing. Today was a big town walking day, about 17K steps in all and Brugge is perfect for this; very few of the buildings date from the 20th century or later. We had lunch in the Markt, sitting outside. Flemish beef stew and chicken with tarragon. We decided not to climb the 366 steps up the bell tower (using the excuse that Tim did this already in 1975). After an afternoon coffee and some purchasing of Belgian needlework we took a trip along the canals in an electric boat. Brugge is historically a wealthy merchant city and it shows; beautiful stepped facades and hidden gems of small squares. The canal boat driver was fluent so we saw a number of unique features of the canals and the city that we may not have noticed otherwise – and it was a great chance to rest our feet.

After a somewhat jet lagged night, we hit the streets at 10:00am and breakfasted in Place Rouppe on delicious coffee, fresh orange juice, bread, ham, cheese and a croissant before heading for the metro and the one change ride to the European Parliament. Unlike other metro systems, Brussels obliges you to complete your journey within 60 minutes, so exiting via the turnstile to change lines was not a problem. The Hemicycle of the European Parliament was impressive and Tim was particularly saddened to witness Britain’s absence. Noticeable was the lack of the Union Jack and indeed any trace that it was ever there; in the large entrance lobby, the base from which grow all the EU member states flags did not have an embarrassing hole, but instead some bright spark changed the base back in 2021. Clever; beyond all the costs we think of resulting from the UK’s departure we forget about the little things. The Parlamentarium had a great museum outlining the history of the EU with fantastic interactive displays, including a place where we could leave our photos and send messages.

Lunch was taken in a café near the Jardin Du Mont des Artes where we continued to enjoy the street theater of life in a European city, It’s not that you can’t do that in Santa Monica, but its just so much more prevalent here.

After a visit to the cathedral, we strolled along the Galerie Hubert and stopped for a late afternoon coffee and a bit of chocolate shopping at Neuhaus. Dinner took just a few minutes; fresh ravioli and tortellini bought earlier in the day at the market in the Place de Luxembourg. Sleep came easily.