Citadels & Sax

Charles de Gaulle and the Citadel of Dinant

After our bike ride with Ingrid on Saturday afternoon, we weren't ready for a large meal, so at dinner time we went around the corner from our hotel to Chez Vincent, where we had some takeout fries, burgers and chicken fingers, spending our last evening in Bruges at a table in the shadow of the cathedral.

Calvary Chapel in Oostende, Belgium

Sunday morning we had breakfast a little early so we could make it to Calvary Chapel in Oostende, named De Pelgrim. The manager of the B&B drove us to the train station and Ingrid picked us up when we arrived in Oostende (on the coast about 20 minutes from Bruges).

Will Hoc Preaching and Ingrid Translating

Unlike many smaller churches, De Pilgrim owns their own church building, a former theater. There is really a lot of room for expansion, and the church is growing. Will Hoc, the pastor, is from the Wallonian part of Belgium and speaks French and English; he preaches in English, and another church member simultaneously translates into Flemish. This Sunday, it was Ingrid, who had picked us up from the train station and had also taken us on a bike ride yesterday.

Praying for the Fathers

Since it was Father's Day in Belgium (a week earlier than in the States this year), Will had all of the fathers in the church come forward, and he prayed for them.

Lunch with the Hocs

After the service, Will drove us back to his neighborhood in Brussels (About an hour and a half drive when there's no traffic!), where we had lunch with his wife Abigail and his daughter Elizabeth. One of our favorite things about traveling is meeting and spending time with those who are serving the Lord overseas. Will and Abigail met at the Calvary Chapel Bible School in York, the same place our son Judah went to school.

After lunch, Will went home with Elizabeth, and, instead of putting us on the train, Abigail drove us to Namur. Namur is the capital of the province of Wallonia, the French speaking eastern half of Belgium. It's also the town that Will grew up in, and where he and Abigail settled when they first moved to Belgium.

The Chateau de Namur

One of the difficulties of planning a trip, especially a trip to locations where the guidebook information is scarce, is trying to picture what things look like on the ground. The hotel I chose in Namur was one of the top-rated hotels on Booking.com. It also looked like it was closer to all of the action than any of the others. The Chateau de Namur is a 4-star hotel (usually we stay in 2 or 3-star places) and it is right on top of the action. Literally. It is about 700 yards from the center of Namur. Straight up.

The Fortress at Koblenz

Kathy says it is higher up than the first place I rented when we started traveling in 2007; a room in the youth hostel in the fortress overlooking Koblenz, Germany. Objectively, I think that both are about the same height, but in any case, the height made it virtually impossible to leave our room on the spur of the moment, and wander around town. The first night we were there, we walked over to the Citadel which shares the top of the hill, and had a nice meal overlooking the city. We also got to Face-time with our daughter Hosanna, and show her the beautiful view.

Top Gate in Namur's Citadel

Two of the printouts I brought with me were bike trips from Namur to a town about 20 miles away on the Meuse River named Dinant. While the weather was good, getting down the hill and to the train station, then renting bikes and going through town to the bike trail along the river, proved to be just too time consuming (to say nothing of a 40-mile bike ride).

Senior-Citizen Discounts

Instead, we walked down exploring the Citadel, then through town to the train station, and took the train to Dinant. The Belgium Senior Ticket meant we could go round-trip for 6.40 Euro.

Ode to Adolfe Sax

Dinant is a very small town (14,000 inhabitants) right on the Meuse River. One of its claims to fame is that it is the home of Adolfe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone (and hundreds of other musical instruments). There are giant saxophone statues all over town along with brass plaques on all of the light posts, describing all of the different kinds of saxophones.

Adlolfe Sax in Front of his Museum

There is even a museum dedicated to his life; he died penniless in Dinant, still trying to enforce the patents he'd been granted on the saxophone. The museum also contained copies of the hundreds of instruments he had created.

Cable Car to Dinant's Citadel

Dinant's second claim to fame is its Citadel. Like the one in Namur, this was also renovated by Louis XIV's military engineer Vauban. Unlike the Citadel in Namur, you can get to this one by a cable-car; which we highly recommend. Since we were the only English-speaking visitors, the lady who ran the visitors center gave us a brochure and let us follow it by ourselves (instead of going on the guided tour).

It was really neat. You see many of the barracks which have been restored as if they were being used. Then, you get to go down into the tunnels inside the fortress. There were sandbags and sound recordings as if the fortress was being attacked. At one point the tunnel floor tilts which is really disconcerting. It looks and sounds very "Pirates of the Caribbean," but it was quite effective.

We didn't get back to Namur until 3:00 PM, which was too late for our first lunch choice. We did find a little organic sandwich shop and had some soup and tartines, which are "fancy French open-faced sandwiches topped with spreadable ingredients."

Afterwards we did some shopping and then tried to catch the bus back to our hotel. We walked halfway across town and waited for a half-hour, only to find that we were on the wrong side of the street. By the time we found the correct bus-stop, waited for the bus, and got dropped of at the hotel, it was about 7:00 PM.

Tomorrow we're heading for Dusseldorf, where we'll catch our plane home on Wednesday. We have to change trains in Liege, so I think we'll see if we can get some of those boulets à la liégeoise again. Yum.

In Bruges. Again.

For Kathy's 60th birthday, we rented an apartment in Paris, across from the Louvre. We also spent two days in Bruges on the way. Here's Kathy at the train station in 2011.

Kathy in Bruges in 2011

Amazingly enough, she doesn't seem to have aged a day, while I'm grayer and more stooped.

Steve and Kathy in Bruges, 2017

Our train trip was fairly uneventful. Because we are senior citizens (over 65 in Belgium), we can get a train ticket anywhere in the country for 6.40 Euro. The train from Ghent to Bruges was non-stop and took about a half hour. That's probably not such a great savings, but on Sunday, we're going half-way across the country for the same price.

B&B Saint-Sauveur Bruges

When I was searching for hotels, I first looked at the place we had stayed in 2011. Then, I just went on Booking.com and sorted by reviews and price. I settled on the B&B Saint-Sauveur Bruges, right across from the St. Salvator Cathedral. We have the whole first-floor (our second floor) front of the building, facing the cathedral.

Bathing Beauty

The Dutch are the tallest people in the world and when we got a room with a bathtub, the tub was huge. The Belgians aren't quite as tall. This is Kathy's attempt at a copy of a Vermeer painting, which she calls Bathing Beauty.

Belgian Fries

Since we'd already been to Bruges, neither of us felt any need to climb the bell tower or to visit the Church of the Holy Blood again. Instead, we immediately headed to a frituur (or fry-house in Flemish) for some refreshment. Once suitably revived, we set out to see some of the sights we missed the last time.

The Fry Museum

First stop was the Friet Museum, dedicated to the history of the Flemish fry. However, since it cost 9 Euro each to view the exhibits (enough for fries and a Belgian waffle), we skipped it.

Serpent Handrails

After that we walked out to the dike and canal surrounding the city. Kathy took a video of some barges on the canal, which I posted earlier.

Visiting a Canal

Every time we saw a tiny lane, we walked down it. This is in a hidden park on one of the canals. Like Venice, the main streets of Bruges are a constant sea of people. (Like Prague at the St. Charles Bridge.) Also like Venice, once you turn off of the main streets, the crowds disappear.

Giant Swan at the Beginhof

One thing we hadn't done last time (because of rain the second day), was visit the Beguinage,  a complex of lay religious women who lived in community without taking vows or retiring from the world. While we were there, Kathy got a picture of this huge swan.

Statue in a Tavern Window

The tavern just outside the entrance to Beguinage had this statue of a nun with sunglasses in its top window. Outside was the fountain where the horse-and-buggy horses come to drink.

Kathy at the Horse Fountain

From the Beguinage to the canal surrounding the city is a park with lakes known as Minniewater Park. It sounds like it should be in Minnesota.

Overlooking the Minniewater

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the lanes, without a plan, admiring the houses and gardens.

Garden in Bruges

House in Bruges

Just like in London, the city made sure that we were aware that we were being watched. It just sounds so much more quaint in Flemish.

Shhhhh. You'll Wake it Up!

One park had statues of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This is Death.

Death from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Revolution

This was another one. I didn't know that Revolution was one of the four horsemen. I think that this is who Jesse Eisenberg played in the movie.

Dinner in Bruges

All this wandering around made us hungry. We found a recommended restaurant called the Hobbit, just around the corner from our hotel. (Hobbits are a big deal in Bruges; I'm not sure why.)

Kathy had another great success ordering local food. She got the "Gandalf" Tiger Prawns. Here's a picture of her staring down one of the prawns. I had the "Hobbit" all-you-can-eat ribs. (They don't, however, put sauce on their ribs, and they cook them a much shorter time, so I found them a little dry.)

A Trip to Damme

Last Monday, the Weather App on our phone told us we'd have 5 days of rain. We had a little in Ghent, but it quickly cleared up. We had no rain in Bruges. We woke up on Saturday to a beautiful sunny day and a great breakfast in our B&B.

Ingrid and Kathy Riding to Damme

After breakfast, we made arrangements with Ingrid Verbiese, a member of Calvary Chapel Oostende, to meet at the Bell Tower. We decided to rent bikes with Ingrid showing us how to get to Damme, a canal-side town about a half-hour outside of Brugge.

Ingrid and Kathy riding to Damme

The ride was absolutely great; there was a dedicated bike path, underneath a canopy of trees, and the weather couldn't have been better. It was not too hot, not too cold and not too windy. We actually rode past Damme, and then turned around once we got to the canal that would take us to Ghent.

Windmill on the Path to Damme

On the way back, we stopped in Damme and had a leisurely lunch. Vacations are so wonderful because we so seldom have time to do things like this. It also makes us appreciate them more. This windmill is right on the path. Kathy and Ingrid went in, but couldn't climb up to the top.

Almost back to Bruge

In the morning we're going to church with Ingrid at Calvary Chapel in Oostende. When we got back to our hotel, we checked with the owner about picking up the bus. Today has been interesting. Tomorrow sounds like it will be even better.

Kathy, Ingrid & Steve Ride to Daame Belgium

Kathy Riding on a Bruges Canal

Barge on the Bruges Canal

Our B&B in Bruges

If It's Thursday, This Must Be Belgium

Ghent, Belgium

Thursday morning was still windy, but it wasn't raining. Since we didn't have far to go to get to Belgium from the Netherlands, we took our time with breakfast, and I finished up the last blog entry.

A Swan Family in Delft

As we walked to the train station, we came across this family of swans, watching them for a few minutes as Kathy took a video for Facebook. When we got to the station, our train was just about to leave, so we hurried down to the tracks; or, tried to.

There are no human ticket agents in Delft, so you have to buy the tickets from a machine (thankfully, with an English interface). We bought the tickets the night before. The first time through all of the options, I was too slow getting out my credit card, and so the machine reset back to the beginning. The second time through, I was ready, but accidentally forgot to reset the date, so I had purchased tickets for the sixth, instead of the seventh of June.

The information booth attendant told us we would have to try and get them changed in Rotterdam, and he opened the gate for us. When we got to Rotterdam, the attendants who let us out of the gates (since our tickets wouldn't work), told us we were out of luck, and that we'd have to buy new tickets (at 75 euro). Fortunately, when we got to the ticket counter, the lady there was able to tell that we hadn't used the tickets, and she issued us new ones.

Our train from Rotterdam to Ghent took about two hours. At the train station, we found a human and bought the rest of our train tickets. No more machines for me. We then picked up some tram tickets and had a quick and tasty takeout falafel/doner lunch right at the station.

By 2:00 PM we had made our way to our hotel. We are staying at a little 4-room hotel named Chambreplus right in the old city center. Our room is the Congo room (The Congo was a Belgium colony).

Graffiti Street in Ghent

Our Rick Steves guidebook has a two-hour walking tour of Ghent, so after we dropped off our luggage we took off. Most of the city is fairly graffiti-free, except for this little alley around the corner from our hotel. The city has designated this street as a legal graffiti zone and it's become quite a tourist attraction. The only real problem is that those talented artists always seem to have their work defaced by the talentless, so it does seem to be a little bit of a mess.

Lily in the Garden

 Right at the end of Graffitistaat there is a quiet, fenced in public garden, owned by the city. It was deserted, so we sat down there for a rest, and Kathy took this picture of a water lily.

Fishmarket Gate

We followed the tour for longer than two hours, and saw some impressive architecture and cute canals. Halfway through we stopped for some Liege sugar-waffles with strawberries and whipped-cream. That kind of killed our appetite, so when we were finished walking, we found the Souplounge, next to a pretty canal, that offers four daily soups, bread and a piece of fruit for 6 Euro.

Breakfast at Huize Colette

Unlike most of the places we've stayed, our hotel didn't offer breakfast. All of the restaurants in our guidebook were for lunch or dinner. In our room, though, was a list of local breakfast restaurants, so when we got up in the morning, we looked for the first one. The food was great.

The Ghent Altarpiece

After breakfast, we went to St. Bavo's Cathedral to see Ghent's premier attraction, the Ghent Altarpiece of The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. It lived up to its billing. This is one of the most stolen works of art in history. It was stolen by Napoleon and put in the Louvre. It was stolen by the Kaiser, and its return was part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. The lower left panel was stolen again by a German who felt that it should have stayed in Germany (and never recovered). The remaining panels were stolen by the Nazis in WWII and only recovered by George Clooney and the Monuments Men at the end of the War.

After the Cathedral, we took a canal boat ride, something we almost never do. It was fun. After a nice lunch, we walked around the town some more.

City Market Hall and Belfry

This is the new City Market Hall and the old Bell Tower. In several different guidebooks and online articles, the authors raved about the new, forward-looking design of the new Market Hall. Both Kathy and I were unimpressed. Kathy said it looked like the goat barn I had built when we were in Shiloh.

Castle of the Counts, Ghent

This is the Castle of the Counts, the home of the ruling French aristocracy, and designed to protect them from the people of Ghent. This view is from the canal boat ride.

Castle of the Counts

Here's the land-side view, right around the corner from our hotel. Our guidebook gave it a lukewarm rating, so we didn't pay to visit the inside. After walking around, we went back to the hotel and took a nap. Around 6:30, we headed out again for "dinner," more Liege waffles, this time with ice cream. Afterwards, we left the guidebook behind and just wandered through the streets of the old medieval city. Tomorrow, we're expecting rain again as we head for Bruges.

The Girls With the Cool Earrings

Two Beautiful Girls in the Mauritshuis

Tuesday morning in Delft started out rainy and windy and got worse. It was a good day to spend indoors. After an early breakfast we took off for the train station to catch the tram into The Hague. Twice on the six-block walk to the station, because of the downpour we had to take shelter in doorways, even though we both had umbrellas and rain gear.

At the station, we bought an all-day tram pass, and caught tram #1 to the Hague. The ride was about a half-hour; when we got off, the rain had stopped, although it was still really windy. We found our way to the Mauritshuis Museum, also known as the Royal Picture Gallery, because it started as a donation of the royal family's personal art collection.

We were pleasantly surprised to find out that our Museum Card allowed us free admission; the guide book we are using said that we would have to pay separately. The guidebook also says that the museum has the best collection of old masters outside of the Rjksmuseum.

Afterwards, we both agreed that the Maritshuis is actually better. First, there were far fewer visitors, so we didn't feel like cattle. Second, you can get much closer to the paintings. Finally, I think that the paintings in this collection are really more interesting.

Rubens' Old Woman and a Boy with Candles

The first "famous" painting we saw was Peter Paul Rubens' Old Woman and a Boy with Candles, painted about 1616. The interesting thing that I saw with Rubens is that he definitely painted in a more fluid, less realistic style. You could see the shapes of the fingers outlined, for instance. It definitely looked more like a painting, and less like a photograph.

Pieter Claesz - Vanitas Still Life

I guess I am more of a Philistine; I really still prefer the photo-realistic old-master style, like Pieter Claesz' Vanitas Still Life. Plus, I have a thing for skulls. I also like still life with flowers, bugs, and even cows.

The Young Bull by  Paulus Potter

There were one or two rooms filled with Rembrandts. Here, Kathy and I join in at The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp.

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

Frans Hals was a painter who moved to Haarlem when he was 10 and lived there the rest of his life. He made a living painting portraits of the emerging middle class, going beyond the stiff representation of the time. As he grew older, his brushwork became simpler and rougher. 

Franz Hals, Portrait of a Laughing Boy

After his death, his work passed out of style. In the 1800's, he was rediscovered by the impressionists. You can see, looking at Portrait of a Laughing Boy, that he is even more impressionistic than Rubens.

Steen - Girl Eating Oysters

Jan Steen, a tavern owner, painted humorous scenes featuring everyday life. As Rick Steves puts it, he was the Norman Rockwell of his day. We saw many of his paintings in the Rjksmuseum. This miniature scene, at the Maruitshuis, is one is his most famous.

Carel Fabritius, The Goldfinsh

In the same room, we saw Carel Fabritius' The Goldfinch, which was recently the subject of a novel by Donna Tartt. Fabritus was Rembrandt's pupil, and Vermeer's teacher.

The Girl with the Pearl Earring

Which lead us to Vermeer's The Girl with the Pearl Earring, the subject of both a novel and a movie, both of the same name. The painting really is stunning. And, unlike the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, you can get close to it, and it is not mobbed. We were both very impressed.

We finished up at the museum about 12:30. Since we had a day pass for the tram, we decided to ride it to the end of the line, to the Dutch "Coney Island" called Scheveningen. The name of this beach city is so unpronounceable, that during World War II, Dutch soldiers used its pronunciation to root out German spies posing as Dutchmen. (An updating of the Shibboleth story from Judges 12.)

Lunch in Sheveningen

By this time, the wind had picked up to near hurricane force (although probably not). One of the Bike and Barge brochures that I read before deciding not to take a tour, mentioned that riders might encounter headwinds! We walked the length of the covered pier, looking at the roaring North Sea, and wondering if the pier was going to survive. We decided not to walk on the uncovered top.

When I went outside to take a picture for the blog, I got a mouth full of sand. So, instead, we found an enclosed restaurant, and had a nice lunch. Since we were practically the only people in the restaurant, we spent a nice afternoon reading our books, and wondering if the roof was going to blow off.

The Delft China Story

On the way back to Delft, we got off two stops early to visit the Delfse Pauw Delftware Factory. The Royal Dutch Delftware Manufactory is a larger and more famous factory, but it is hard to get to without a car. The Delfse Pauw factory also produces authentic Delftware, and the owners give you a free ten-minute tour (which was quite interesting).

We bought a couple of souvenirs (but no Delfware; the authentic stuff is really expensive). We got home around 6:00 PM and started looking for dinner. Our guidebook had a recommended student cafe that featured Italian food.

Stadsherberg de Mol

On the way we passed this medieval door with a small round window. I looked in and it looked like the inside of an authentic pub from the middle ages. Just at that moment, it started to rain hard, so I asked Kathy if she was willing to try this, and she said sure.

The restaurant, Stadsherberg de Mol was originally an orphanage built in 1563. Today, it is a restaurant designed to transport you back to that time.

Start with some soup and bread.

Generally, you select your food from one of the medieval multi-course menus. We didn't want to eat that much, so we ordered some soup from the a la carte menu, and a couple of main plates. Unfortunately, the a la carte menu was in Dutch and our server had to translate for us. I chose some kind of beef stew and mashed potatoes. Kathy wanted something lighter, so she chose the chicken.

Eating Burgundian Style

Instead of roast chicken, Kathy got a platter of chicken legs, cooked over a fire like you would get in the middle ages. It tasted better than it sounds. For the soup, they gave us some very primitive wooden spoons. (You can see one in the picture with Kathy.)

For the rest of the meal, you were supposed to eat with your hands. They had mercy on me, though, and actually gave me a fork to eat my beef stew and mashed potatoes. No fork for the salad with dressing, though, or for Kathy's chicken legs.

Afterwards, our sever gave us tour of the building. Although there were only about ten customers there that evening, the building can actually hold up to 450 on several floors. It was fascinating. When we got back outside to the 21st century both Kathy and I had exactly the same thought.

Gelato.