Wallonia

I've missed blogging. I cannot figure out what to blog about post-Brussels, though, so I'll go back to posting about our trip. We had a few awesome days I did not cover yet, despite being home for almost two weeks.

On Sunday, 7 August the four of us took the train to Liege, Belgium. It is in the Wallonia, more French-speaking, region of the country. While the rain in the forecast held off, it was quite breezy, a strange weather day, alternating between cloudy and nippy back to sunny and quite warm frequently. We started the day figuring out the bus to the historic city center and getting a helpful woman to guide us to La Batte, a huge flea market along the beautiful river. Common items at the market included cheeses, breads, sausages, sunglasses, socks, and scarves (one scarf purchased and modeled by me, approved by Lucy).

La Batte was super crowded which made us all testy. We eventually scraped together a lunch of cheese, pastries and bread and dined in the sheltered courtyard of a bonus museum, the Curtius Museum of Liege. Turned out all museums were free for the first Sunday of the month. This unplanned museum stop included some beautiful modern courtyard gardens tucked between the wings of a museum housing ancient weapons, antique bronze and pottery, archeological dig artifacts including bones, and some other historical exhibits about Liege. As we wandered around the city, I noticed the architecture was distinct from other places we'd been, with older, simpler looking buildings, including less ornate churches, some with a unique red trim but most in darker shades of stone and brick.

Throughout the original section of the city were scattered many tiny alleys, labeled Impasse [streetname]. I captured this image of a resident headed out from one. There were amazing homes and gardens tucked back along the impasses. Brian was enjoying exploring them while Julia had a tantrum because she suddenly did not want to walk anywhere. She almost walked up a mountain of stairs in a huff, but prematurely turned around. We dragged our reluctant eight-and-a-half year old (and a more chipper eleven year old) to the Museum of Wallonian Life, our first folklife museum on the trip. It was amazing, with so many little glimpses into everyday life in this region. Even Julia managed to cheer up eventually once she saw old scouting gear, vignettes of Wallonian rooms and antique toys.

After grabbing a beverage at an outdoor cafe near the Prince Bishops Palace, and seeking shelter inside from the gusty winds, we eventually found another bus over to the modern art museum. Housed in an old World Expo building on an island in the river, the collection was the perfect size and period.
After another drink and snack while listening to modern French rap/hip-hop music at the museum, we walked along and across the river back to the train station. Not sure if we'd catch the 5:00 train back to Brussels, we walked briskly, led by determined Julia, then ran, then caught the train which fortunately was a few minutes delayed.

I'd rate this as not our best day, but it ended very well with the wonderful modern art collection which was not too overwhelming in scale and offered many opportunities for learning and discussion.

Back to Regular Life

Time flies when you are reentering regular life. I should have been blogging diligently this week since Brian took the girls to St. Michaels for part of the week and I stayed home by myself. I wanted to get back into the swing of work plus keep the cats company; they missed us a lot. Well, I did not blog, obviously. It will take me a little while to write about the last few days of our adventure in Europe and I want to write about a few more general topics too. If you are still reading, thanks. It must seem a little odd to read about our time in Europe when we are clearly back in Maryland, not even jetlagged anymore. It is even stranger to be writing while sitting here in The Nook, a little room in our house on Poe Road.

A few general observations about coming home. Dorothy was absolutely right, there is no place like home. The girls and I came back two days before Brian, for Lucy's team tennis tournament which I think I previously mentioned, at least six times was it? A minor blip when we had to turn around in the cab on Thursday morning because Julia left her passport in the apartment. Joy. The girls and I enjoyed "duty-free shopping splendor" in Brussels airport. Julia managed to hang onto 20 euros; Lucy and I were tapped out after last minute purchases.

My girls continue to impress me with what perfect travelers they are. I'm pleased to report that after a week plus at home, they are still eating salad and more interesting foods. And we still have a bit of Belgian chocolates left, even after one or two chocolate courses here in Bethesda. Julia got replacement shoes that are an exact replica of those she ruined at Porte de Hal. We all tucked the sweatshirts we had in Europe in the deep recesses of our closets (you know the ones, mine is pink; Julia's is striped; Lucy's is black); we might wear them again in 2012. Because of tennis it took us until Tuesday to completely unpack.

I love the way the girls talk about our trip already. Their perspectives on the world have changed in wonderful ways. We will cherish our experiences forever. After spending so much time with my daughters over the last eight weeks (including the three weeks when Brian was in Brussels before us), it has been a disorienting couple of days by myself. Well not completely by myself; the cats snuggle right next to me constantly.

I'll write my next post about something more specific from our trip. We did have some wonderful days I still want to share.

What Have We Been Up To?

So you might have been wondering what we have been up to since I've not posted for a few days and just finished Saturday (and it is Wednesday evening). Well here is a quick summary and I'll try to write more later.

Sunday - all four of us took a day trip to Liege, part of the Wallonia section of Belgium so definitely different than Brugge.

Monday - quiet day mostly at home for the girls and me; Brian at work of course; did not catch up too much on blogging because we were focusing on our journals.

Tuesday - big day trip for the girls and me to Amsterdam (Brian had a business trip for an important project back in Vienna for 2 days). This was a complete change from our original goal of going to Luxemburg, but we voted and chose Amsterdam instead. Awesome day, definitely worth a post all its own.

Wednesday - today, our final full day in Brussels; also will post more soon; let's just say FOOD. Cheating to post after I return to the US? Hopefully you'll all stay tuned and still read. I want to post a bit about our transition to regular life too. Thanks for reading!

A Day for Brian

For Saturday, 6 August, I mapped out a pretty good day filled with activities that I thought Brian would really enjoy. If one gauges enthusiasm for our day's events by number of photos taken, we took 209 on Saturday. Brian employed a good strategy in his journal to record the day. I copied his structure in my journal and I will use it again here.

STOP 1: City Museum of Brussels to see the wardrobe of Manneken-Pis, something which Brian had mentioned he wanted to see. Kids free on the weekends. Also interesting models of the city as it developed and a bonus for Mommy, watercolors of Brussels painted between 1894 and 1897 displayed alongside maps of the street corners, photos from early 20th century and photos today from the same spots.
STOP 2: Actual Manneken-Pis outdoors, seen in a Belgian costume. Souvenir shopping along the way.

STOP 3: Jean-Phillipe Darcis cafe, previously mentioned, this time for an eat-in treat of decadent cakes with coffees added for the parents. Of course we got macaroons to go.
STOP 4: Porte de Hal, one of the gates into the original city and the only one remaining. We did not pay to go inside to the museum, just walked around and ate lunch on the bit of wall remaining. We will not go into what happened to Julia's shoe. Note both Brian and I bought a one-day transit pass for the day and we got the most out of that for certain, with 9 rides (which does include transfers).

STOP 5: The Beer Museum in Schaerbeek, a northern part of Brussels. I must admit I got turned around in getting us there so we had a bit of a walk after the subway and bus ride combo to get there. Luckily after we arrived, it started pouring (and not as we were wandering around looking for it). History of beer, over 1,500 beer bottles, 800 beer glasses, old equipment for beer-making, and free sample of beer (OJ for the girls). And more beer to buy from the sweet couple running the place. I am a good wife.

Side bar on transit: lots of transit and waiting for transit although afterwards we felt like it provided good rests for all of us between activities. To the left, the girls waiting for Tram #7 after the beer museum. To the right, the girls on a 1905 tram for an historic ride.

STOP 6: Tram Museum, at which we not only went on the old tram, along the same tracks out to Tervuren through the forest where Julia and I had gone on Thursday, but toured the extensive collection of trams from horse-drawn to about the 60s. Julia in particular loved going on the trams in the museum; it was really cool.
STOP 7: A special dinner at a fancy restaurant next door to our apartment, Le Pre aux Clercs, the perfect ending to a special day.

Les Schtroumpfs

You know how sometimes you just pull it all together? A great plan, nice balance, happiness, fun and learning, relaxation and activity? I managed to do it twice within two days; I'm mighty proud. I'll cover Saturday separately since Friday will fill up this one. After a morning spent relaxing and working diligently on our journals in the apartment, we took the bus to the Royal Palace. Julia displays her new smile in front of the palace, courtesy of losing a tooth that morning. Love that. The green shimmery stuff on the ceilings and that chandelier, not so much; they look cool but are thousands of green beetle wings.

I'm more a fan of the gold paint and the multiple gigantic crystal chandeliers in the other rooms. We also liked the many huge paintings of members of the royal family of Belgium plus the marble, granite, fireplaces, and musical instruments. All free and completed in about 45 minutes.

A planned stroll through Brussels Park as our path to the next activity was lovely. I pushed my luck a bit with another stopover at the Congres Column, but it was right on the way (even Lucy admitted it later). Bonus: learning about members of Belgium's first government and noticing how many transit stops are named after them.

Now the real fun began. I had no idea that Belgium was a hub of comic strip creativity and innovation. Now I have a greater appreciation for the history, talent and sheer volume of work from Belgian artists thanks to the Belgian Comic Strip Center. Housed in a stunning Art Nouveau building designed by Victor Horta (see how it all comes together?), we learned about how comic strips are produced and read the history and successes of some of the most famous Belgian artists. Even the restaurant was cool (cafe for Mommy; frites for Lucy; crepes for Julia).

I fell in love with Tintin and Snowy (Milou in French). We saw the genesis of the Smurfs in 1958 as rough sketches practically on the back of a paper place mat which someone almost threw away (be sure to click on the photo to the right to see the details). Or as they were called in the original French, Les Schtroumpfs. Our adventure ended in the reading room sketching our favorite characters into our journals and reading through some English comics they had in their library. We were about one and a half hours late for meeting Brian at home for dinner because we had such fun.

Catch Up Photos

A few photos to catch us up from the last couple of days, when I have posted picture-free. Don't worry; we returned to our picture happy ways on Friday.

3 August - beautiful glassware from the Cinquantenaire Museum

3 August - heart art from Cinquantenaire Museum

4 August - Julia in the gardens at the African Art Museum, Tervuren

4 August - Julia bounding toward the African Art Museum, during her special Mommy time while Lucy did a morning of tennis camp

Looking on the Bright Side

Brussels is basically land locked. There is a big canal around it but they buried the river and it is far from any sea. To give these city dwellers a sense of summer, they build a beach, or more accurately a boardwalk with a bit of sand along it. They call it Brussel Bad in Dutch, Bruxelles Les Bains in French.

Brussel Bad has been on the list since we made our list of things to do in Brussels. At first we had no idea what it was or where it was; it was just on the list. I researched it best I could, although there is no English version of the website, so I eventually loosely figured it out then confirmed some with an English summary on my favorite Brussels city website.

Today was the day. It was supposed to be nice all day, and it was in the morning for Lucy's half-day tennis camp and my and Julia's exploration of Tervueren and the African art museum. (I'm into links today I guess; not many good photos to share; we even forgot the camera when we went to Brussel Bad.) Then it rained. On the bright side, here were the positive things we discussed about our extremely brief and wet journey to Brussel Bad.

>> We found it; there were not really any signs and the maps online were sketchy.
>> We put our feet in some sand.
>> Our feet did not get burned on the sand.
>> The girls got to put on their swimsuits at least once on this trip.
>> We did not have to put on sunscreen.
>> We walked along almost the full length of it.
>> The girls got ice cream.
>> We heard some music.
>> We saw the water in the canal.
>> Lucy trod on a sand castle to crush it.
>> We got wet (from the pouring rain once we quickly did the rest).
>> They stayed in their swimsuits once we got back to the apartment, playing "beach".
>> The girls are happy.

A Wet Wednesday

It just poured all day Wednesday. We had fortunately planned a museum day - yes, finally art museums were on the docket. This was a strategic move as many museums in Brussels are free after 1:00pm on the first Wednesday of the month. The Cinquantenaire Museum is part of the Royal Museums of Arts and History, kind of a set of them across the city. Since it is very close to the apartment (although it seemed quite far in the heavy rain), we went there first. I went ahead and paid the fee at 11:30am because I wanted to get to the other places close to 1:00pm. It is a big museum and we focused on the decorative arts, in particular the heart exhibit, originally started as a collection by some Belgian cardiovascular surgeon (or something close to that).

We ate yogurt while walking to the Merode Metro so I could buy my 3 day transit pass. This would allow me a lot more freedom on Wednesday through Friday and not have to count my trips (versus my previous 10-trip card strategy). Smart move as I've used it like crazy since, as you'll see. We took the #27 bus over to the Belgian Museum of Ancient Art and the Magritte Museum. The modern art museum is closed for a year for extensive renovations, but the ancient art museum, in a little wing on the way to the Magritte, did have a couple of rooms of modern art. I will say our art viewing was lacking in 19th through the first half of the 20th century (except of course for lots of Magritte). In the ancient art collection they had, as you could imagine, a lot of amazing Flanders art, one very fine Rembrandt, and a gigantic room filed with humongous Rubens' paintings.

We all absolutely loved the Magritte Museum. I particularly loved how they included some of his little sketches, pamphlets he had illustrated, graphic art including promotional pieces he'd done to make a living, and the history of his life and career. The museum was extremely well done.

Back out in the rain, we made a brief tram ride stop off for some unsuccessful shopping for clothes, purses, etc. Then it was back on the tram to meet up with Brian to gather dinner food at a trendy farmers' market. While there, Brian and I enjoyed a glass of champagne at one of the stands. This should be incorporated into all farmers' markets in the U.S. (along with the freshly cooked waffles, called galettes in this case, a slightly different variety than the gaufres).

Dinner at home - olive and goat cheese tampenade, green olives, baguettes, cheeses, and blueberries. Love.

Street Names

Navigating the city of Brussels is tricky. Not only are all the signs in French and Dutch, but most of the streets change names every block or two. Major thoroughfares are the exception (Avenue Louise, Boulevard du Waterloo, Avenue de Terueren). Side streets and even secondary roads, without so much as a kink, a trivial veering left or right, and without notice, are suddenly called something different. Well there is a notice I suppose if you look up at the blue street signs affixed to the sides of buildings, but otherwise at street level nothing screams that you are now on a different street.

A typical map reading technique of finding a road and following it along the map to see where to turn does not work. And most of the time I don't even notice the name change on the way to somewhere so when I am returning or trying to recreate that route, or describe it to Brian, no luck. Many streets are so short that their names are only on the gigantic, impractical-to-take-anywhere map. To find my way before we head anywhere, I often have to consult three maps: the small tourist map (showing popular sights and many streets in the center of town), my trusted transit map (without much street-level detail but all the bus, tram and subway stops) and the large extremely detailed street level map with all street names. I've managed to make it work well, however.

Forest in the City

"Two minutes ago we were on a busy tram. Now we're in the forest." Lucy succinctly captured the feeling of our hike through Bois de la Cambre park in Brussels on Tuesday afternoon. Having returned from Lucy's morning tennis lesson plus an extra hour at camp, and lunch at a new Lebanese place near that tram stop (more falafel cobbled up), we rested a bit then headed out on another bus/tram transit combo to this large park. It was finally a beautiful, sunny, warm day so the park was bustling with activity.

We stayed on the forest trails, then found the tiny island with a €1 ferry ride across the pond lasting a full 1 minute 45 seconds. We hiked around the whole island, all 5 minutes of it which included resting on a bench to snack on peaches. Nature sightings included bunnies, herons, geese, ducks and other unidentified birds. Once off the island again, we finished the hike and made our way home. Only bummer of the day was a fare card machine ate my transit pass with 3 more rides remaining on it; only recourse is a mailed refund. Humpf.

Tour Bus

Although I am not usually a fan of tour buses and the whole guided tour way of seeing new places, I thought it might be a different type of activity for me and the girls so we booked a trip to Antwerp. It was only a half-day tour so we left at 1:15pm on Monday, 1 August, after a leisurely morning around the apartment mostly spent reading. Our tour guide was from Antwerp and his stories, tidbits, history and insider knowledge were just the trick to giving us a unique experience. Along the highway we passed by Belgium's king's residence (flag flying meant the royal family was in the estate), a town called Boom famous for high quality bricks, the first tank to liberate Antwerp at the end of WWII, the original Duvel beer manufacturing plant, and Breendonk concentration camp.

Once in Antwerp, we visited a diamond cutter/polisher (and drove through the heart of the diamond district), the steen (stone castle previously guarding the city), the central market, and the highlight was the beautiful cathedral. The spire is the highest in the low country and we got a special view of it after walking through a secret alleyway. Inside the cathedral has been partially restored and it really was stunning. I particularly liked the madonna and child statue from 1530. Our guide gave some interesting history of Napolean's near-destruction of the cathedral and how it was spared. The only shortcomings of the trip were not getting close enough to or being able to tour around the port, since it is the second largest in Europe, and having to snap some photos of great sights including the gorgeous train station and the new palace of justice from the moving bus.

Antiquing

I shouldn't really have rules about blogging, yet I do. Mine has been that I've tried really hard to blog in chronological order. Since I'm not always writing about the date of the post or even the yesterday of the date of the post, I figure keeping it in order will be easier to track. Well, we were so excited about Lucy playing tennis on red clay today, Tuesday, here in Brussels that I posted about it today. In the process I had skipped Sunday and Monday.

So I'll take care of Sunday now. Our primary activity of Sunday, which was the last day of July and thus sadly indicated to us that we won't be here much longer, was going antique shopping in Grand Sablon. Of course we tossed in some other little side trips and bought some chocolate, for good measure. I'll also add here that due to extensive sampling using non-scientific methods and no record-keeping whatsoever, we have determined that we do not in fact love all Belgian chocolate. Shocking I know. Take a minute to think about that. We've eaten so much mouth-watering decadence that we now pause occasionally to talk about how perhaps one piece or even one whole brand is not our favorite. Hmmm.

To get to Grand Sablon, I insisted on the bus and finally we took the #27. This is a photo of us happily waiting for the bus on a somewhat brisk Sunday late morning. I've been mentioning this particular route as a great way to get places for weeks to no avail, until Sunday. And to everyone's surprise, it was a lovely albeit packed bus ride. We traveled past the Parliament and then saw the Royal Palace. I've since learned that the Royal Palace is not the residence of the king. But this palace is gigantic and stunning, like most palaces I suppose. We'll hope to go tour it soon. Unfortunately the list of things we want to do before we leave Brussels is rather long, so we are going to have to start prioritizing our list. Anyway, this antiques market runs every Saturday and Sunday and many of the vendors also have stores in the immediate area.

This is a high end antiques market. I don't think bargain hunting is the real name of the game. Initially it does not look very large; those small green and red striped tents behind the girls and me (and in front of the church) are the booths. But they do weave in and out and there were more than my initial estimate. Very impressive silver, some cool art nouveau light fixtures, many tiny china teacups, jewelry both antique and collectible, amazing old maps including one site plan of the 1958 Brussels World Expo that the seller kindly told me all about in French (about 10 percent of which I understood) - it was fun.

Brian took the girls to buy more chocolate so I could have 30 minutes on my own. In the end I only bought one little purse, not particularly old but very cool, with Paris stamped on the front. Ironic that I bought it in Brussels (and that I bought almost nothing in Paris).

Additional side notes from Sunday: cool view from the Palace of Justice, just up the street from Grand Sablon; my first window shopping along Avenue Louise and Boulevard de Waterloo, both high end spots; read it was going to get warmer; pretty happy to read about the NFL season getting started; not really following the debt crisis in the US too closely; happily I remembered my Mom's August 2 birthday before it was July 31, so her gift should get there early.

Sur la Terre Battue

That's our Lucy, on la terre battue, the red clay similar to that used at Roland Garros for the French Open. She had a one-hour private lesson today with the director of the tennis academy we had found last week here in Brussels. Her shoes quickly turned that clay pink color. I think she likes it that way; She said she wants to show her Junior Team Tennis teammates the remnants of the clay so she does not want to change out her shoelaces right away when we get home. We may sign her up for one more private lesson before we head home.

She also had an opportunity to join the competitive group for an hour of the academy's morning camp session. She played well with a bunch of boys, working mostly in small groups with the older kids. The coach in that session said Lucy was playing very well. In the camp group, Lucy mostly heard French instruction. She said the coach would talk for a long time in French to the other kids, then give her the abbreviated version in his more limited English. I told her that body language could go a long way too. The director also generously offered to let Lucy join the camp for one or two more mornings; we calculated the prorated fee for one morning in the red clay.

Trending in the Right Direction

Lunch on Saturday in Brugge indicated to me that something wonderful has gradually occurred during our trip. We went to a restaurant called Pitahaus which featured Middle Eastern food. We'd been eating a disproportionate share of cheese and baguettes, not to mention chocolate, so I was relieved to find something different. The girls had tried falafel before but had not previously embraced it. Never had samosas even been on their plates. Pita, sure. A tray of four sauces and a spicy onion chutney, not.

Before the meal was done, we had to order 8 more of the small falafel balls with pita and salad. Julia used small bites of falafel as a conduit to devouring more chutney. Lucy told me the "pink sauce" tasted great on the spicy samosas. Julia, admittedly my more adventurous eater during our regularly scheduled lives, ate a plate of salad using the garlic sauce as dressing. Lucy negotiated politely for the last falafel ball.

All were indicators of a refreshing increase in positive food exploration by my children. I hope it lasts once we get back on the other side of the pond.