London Part 2

Photos only for now again...

On to London... feels like home

Today we traveled to London and found the journey much smoother than leaving London. The drive to Calais was an easy two hours, we dropped off the car and hopped on the ferry. The ride was smooth and a short 90 minutes to Dover. From Dover we picked up the next bus to London and had an easy traffic-free ride to Victoria station.

From Victoria station we took the double-decker bus to Hampstead past Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, Camden market and loads more. Crystal's (enormous) backpack caused her to lose feeling in her legs as she had it on her lap for the ride. Yikes. She says it is quite a normal-sized backpack. Alright then, whatever.

In Hampstead we walked up the hill to Sharon's and happily made ourselves at home in her flat. Sharon cooked us an incredible dinner with her famous sole with capers, potatoes with butter and parsley, veggies, salad, bread, wine, brownies and strawberries. It was great telling her about our travels, eating and resting here.

It is nice to be in an English-speaking country and being at Sharon's is like home. It will be nice to come home soon but I look forward to our next visit. More soon.

Brugge... the Venice of Belgium

This morning the four of us went to breakfast at the bakery across the street from Eva's apartment. It is so close I think she could order a loaf of bread and have them throw it in her window. They have a wide variety of whole grain, rye and sourdough breads that you can order small portions of and eat with 4 different chocolate spreads and zillions of jams. Very tasty indeed.

So, we left on the train for Brugge quite full, or as Eva would say, "fat and happy". The ride was full of people heading to the seaside to relax on Sunday, it took a couple of stops for us to get seats together! Riding across the Belgian countryside is pleasant. The area is dotted with farms, cows and little forests between the cities.

Brugge is an ancient city that was established as early as the 12th Century although I think it has existed in some form much longer. The city has an extraordinary amount of medieval architecture that is perfectly preserved. There is a church tower (Church of Our Lady) that is one of the tallest brick towers in the world. The Church also houses the sculpture "Madonna and child" by Michelangelo. We unfortunately did not get to see it as the church had closed when we arrived. So, one more visit will be necessary at least!

Upon arrival Bob and I were thrilled to see an extensive flea market taking place in the park. We wandered through looking at old home hardware and wondering how much we could carry in our backpacks. In the end we settled for some beautiful decorative hooks that pack easily and two more steins that are handmade stoneware with blue glazing. We also picked up 6 of the most enormous, delicious macaroons that I have ever tasted. The outside was such a marvelous combination of chewy and crunchy with a soft fluffy interior. Mmmmmm...

We strolled to the boat dock munching on macaroons and hopped on a boat tour of the city. We saw many old monasteries and convents, most now schools; the belfry tower with carillon bells and the tower of Our Lady. There are large numbers of swans, ducks and some cormorants in the canals and in the parks bordering the water.

We walked from the boat to the UNSECO heritage site town square to marvel at the expanse and get some lunch. We finally had our mussels and frites today. Eva had garlic, I had wine sauce, Crystal had cream sauce and Bob was so happy to order "North Sea" bouillabaisse. It was all totally delicious, far too much food, but very much enjoyed.

We continued wandering around town stopping in the occasional chocolate shop and looking at the lace that is famously made here. Unfortunately on Sundays there is not much (if any) lace-making and we were unable to see the ladies at work. The lace is incredible and made into everything form detailed doilies to jackets and dresses.

We all took a nice break resting in the garden of the Church of Our Lady before we made our final stroll through town stopping to pick up a bag of chocolates. Picking up the train we rested on the hour ride back to Brussels with the Belgians returning from the seaside.

Back at Eva's we had a light dinner before stopping by a local restaurant to try another Belgian beer. We had a great time enjoying a finely crafted beverage and catching up with Eva on her love life. She is too much fun and we all laughed a lot and appreciated our last night in Belgium.

Brussels

This morning we had another great breakfast – omelets with veggies, spices and peppers. How I have missed spicy food. Crystal is craving Mexican and we have all so enjoyed the wonderful Indian food. We have again enjoyed such wonderful hospitality that is so much more than we expect. It was great to meet Ashwini and get to catch up with Ravi. After breakfast we packed up sandwiches for the road and said goodbye to our friends until we meet again.

Our drive to Brussels was a nice one through the countryside overlooking valleys and rivers. After we left we realized that we had three postcards to mail with German stamps on them! So, we stopped in a small town and after wandering lost with limited directions to the post office went in a gelato shop. No one there spoke English but after some limited conversation and pointing one of the locals said that he would mail them for me! The people here have been so lovely to us all the time.

Arriving in Brussels and locating Eva’s apartment was a little confusing, but we made it. Once there we happily left the car and went to find her place, but we couldn’t find the address. I ended up calling and shortly after she was hanging her head out of the window right over our heads!

Eva and I worked together at the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center and spent three seeks traveling together along with Bob in the western US. We were very close friends in Ohio, but it has been nine years since we last saw each toehr. Remarkably, it felt as if it could have been a matter of months rather than years.

We ate lunch and caught up at her apartment before walking down to the park near her house. At the east end of the park there is a beautiful three-arch monument. Within the park there are lovely lawns and also a car museum and an aircraft museum. Apparently in the area between the museum they have drive –in movies in August.

From the park we walked to the EU buildings where Eva works in the environmental division for Eastern European EU countries. The buildings are very large, modern offices that Eva is disgusted with as they look nothing like the glorious Brussels’s buildings with age, architecture and character. On the circle in front of the EU there was an Iranian protest going on and many people wearing green arm bands and speaking.

We hopped on the metro and headed downtown where we visited one of the largest buildings in Europe – the Belgian Palace of justice and shortly thereafter the city center where we window-shopped for incredible chocolates. Some of the are made with saffron, lavender, roses and other odd ingredients you might not expect. You can buy a box of chocolates representing flavors from around the world. Each country of origin is labeled in edible print on the chocolate. Some of thesee stores looked like jewelry stores in décor, uniform and ambiance. Fascinating!

We made our first real stop to try a Belgian beer at a corner café. I had cherry, Bob raspberry, Eva had peach and Crystal had a Duvel. The fruit beers are remarkably smooth, not sweet and extraordinarily fragrant.

After our beer we wandered through the narrow streets past an incredible garden and the building “Old England” a very famous example of a Belgian architectural style. Our next stop was for waffles. The waffles are very, very light and come with any topping you can imagine. I had fresh fruit, Eva strawberries and whipped cream, Crystal nutella, Bob had vanilla ice cream on his waffle. All delicious and all very much enjoyed.

From there we walked through the tiniest winding streets of restaurants I hav ever seen. Every restaurant has sidewalk tables but here is no sidewalk and the tables from one place nearly reach across the narrow street to the next one. The bonus here is that you can see everyone’s food up close and what each place is serving. There are a lot of mussels, prawns in the shell, fish and other seafood delights everywhere.

We popped out in the remarkable old town square and marveled at the expanse of the space and the unique old buildings. Every other August the square is covered in an intricate patterned flower blanket and people climb city hall to view it. Maybe next August we can see it for ourselves.

Our next stop was for the next Belgian specialty, fries – or rather frites. Fries are NOT French, they originated in Belgium and they take them very seriously. They fry them twice, once before you order them, a second time right before they are served. They are excellent and we did eat them with mayonnaise, as the locals do.

We also stopped to see the Mannekin Pis, a slightly ridiculous statue of a naked little boy peeing. Apparently it used to be a water fountain where you could drink from the stream. That would have been a little unnerving. These days he is dressed up in various costumes that change several times in once weekend. We unfortunately just missed him dressed for the start of the tour de France in the golden jersey. Darn!

Our next stop was in a very old bar that serves over 2000 different beers from all over the world. We sat around a large wine barrel that had been converted into a table and enjoyed more edible art in Brussels. I had a passion fruit beer that was so incredible the fragrance alone was delicious. We all sampled something different before picking up the next metro to Eva’s apartment and turning in.

Roll out the barrel

This morning we slowly woke up and enjoyed several cups of good Indian tea.  Ravi made breakfast and was as impressed with his cooking skills as the rest of us.  Indian scrambled eggs with spices, veggies and hot pepper – delicious.  After breakfast we slowly got ourselves moving and finally hopped in the car to Heidelberg.

 

Heidelberg is a beautiful town, not bombed during WWII and so in incredible condition.  The university there is the oldest one in the world and stretches to many parts of town.  The streets are medieval and narrow with many closed to traffic entirely.  It is a great place to walk.

 

Most prominent in Heidelberg is the castle on the hill.  It dates to the early middle ages and went through many different periods of building.  The castle is very large, a small town in itself with multiple gardens and places. Rather I should say that they are the remains of palaces as the French destroyed the castle fortifications, turrets and many palaces in the the 30 years war.  Afterwards it lay ruined and forgotten unless someone needed building stones in which case it was a convenient location to pick up materials. 

 

Sometime in the 19^th century it became the subject of romantic poetry and the town began to slowly work on preservation and restoration.  Today you can see three eras of protective walls surrounding it, ruined turrets, half-standing palaces and incredible fountains.  You can walk through the “stag garden” where wild deer were caught and kept for hunting parties in the castle grounds. 

 

WE took the tour of the castle and enjoyed the restored section of one palace very much as well as the original wine barrel.  The barrel was where local vintners had to deposit 10% of their wine as a tax.  It is large enough to hold 60,000 gallons of wine and was connected to he dining halls by a pump system.  I cannot imagine how this wine tasted as it would have been a mix of varieties from all over the region.  The barrel itself is incredible and hard to imagine full of wine – it is larger than some Lakeside cottages easily.

 

After a stroll around the grounds we found “Father Rhein” the sculpture and fountain.  The fountains were full of newts, dragonfly larvae and water boatmen. Very cool.  We strolled down the steep hill to town and found a table at a café for a snack of german-style (alsatian) pizza and beer (Crystal) radler (lemonade and beer – me) and Orangina (Bob). 

 

We headed back to Ravi and Ashwini’s for another fantastic Indian meal, wine and greatconversations about life in Germany and with Germans.  We are amused by many of the laws here such as apparently you cannot vacuum after 7 pm or on Sundays.  You cannot make noise after 10 pm, including dogs that cannot bark after that hour.  If you disrupt your neighbor with a party you must arrange for a hotel for them. 

 

Also, the homes near the elementary schools are the cheapest, the ones near graveyards are the most expensive.  Spouses often take vacation separate vacations to be “quiet” which also applies in kindergartens where there is a tunnel/cave area kids can go to be alone and think. And I thought Americans liked their space… although I knew we didn’t value quiet much I had no idea how much Germans do. Very interesting.

 

We took another walk to the gelato place and walked around the shops looking at the displays of clothes, jewelry, shoes, shoes, shoes and novelties.  Back home we all retired to a nice cool night for sleeping.  Tomorrow we are leaving Germany for Belgium and a visit with Eva.

 

Mannheim... home of the steamrollers

Today we had our last cup of coffee gazing out of Thomas and Emmy’s windows watching the apple and plum trees.  We drove through the area where the archaeopteryx was found and marveled at the sandstone outcroppings.  Everywhere around were fossil museums (you can even see the archaeopteryx) and parks to stop and fossil hunt. Poor Bob, it was killing him to just pass through the area and not stop.  Next time we visit we will certainly spend some time there.

 

In Mannheim we found Ravi and Ashwini’s apartment easily.  I was thrilled to see my old friend that I last visited in 2000 in Tulsa.  I can’t believe it has been that long – in the intervening time he married, moved to Germany, finished a Ph.D. and got a job working at BASF.  The campus is apparently ENORMOUS covering roughly 6 square mile with 32,000 employees and somewhere around 200 chemical plants.  Incredible. Ashwini works in human rights for Southeast Asia, specifically India. She travels to India for work with some frequency and is able to visit home as well. They are expecting a baby in mid September.

 

After a fantastic Indian lunch Bob drove Ravi, Crystal and I to Laden burg while Ashwini rested.  Ladenburg is famous for being the home of Carl Benz and the place that he developed the first gasoline powered automobile.  We were able to see the car in the benz museum which keeps limited hours but displays the vehicle in a large window.

 

The town is also well known for the Roman ruins in the town center. Layers of local red sandstone walls, wells and fortifications c an be seen between the buildings.  The streets are narrow cut stone lined with shops, restaurants and homes. The buildings are half-timber construction with slate roofs and lovely shutters.  The shutters are held open by latches outside that are decorated with a knights head.  It is a quaint town and we enjoyed walking around and seeing the river and parks as well.

 

That evening we returned and had another fantastic Indian meal that Ashwini prepared for us.  After dinner we walked through Mannheim to a gelato store owned by an Italian (Bob was so happy).  Mannheim was almost completely destroyed during the war but had been rebuilt nicely.  Just down the street  from Ravi and Ashwini’s apartment is the water tower, an incredible stone structure with decorative embellishments and lions with men’s heads guarding it.  A huge fountain rolls downhill from it into a large pool.  Gardens around the fountain are incredible with so many different flowers packed into a tiny space and bunnies covering the lawns. 

 

We enjoyed our gelato from the steps of the fountain and watched the locals clown around in the water.  Back home we stilled in for a good night’s rest to prepare for the upcoming trip to Heidelberg.