Our trip to Belgium and Netherlands

So I am finally going to try to catch up. Now that Chris is in San Jose already and I have some time to myself, I am bored. I have to go back and remember what happened. It seems like long ago, and it was, a month! But doesn't everyone write that in their blog, wish they could write more often or writing to catch up.

Heather came to visit for two weeks. One week I had to work so she was on her own while I worked. The weekend she came in we kept it low key. We walked around Munich on Saturday and on Sunday went for a hike in Tegernsee. We tried a different trail we had not done before. Turned out, it wasn't the best as it did not get to a point where we could see the view of the alps from the top. There was still snow on the ground and the path got lost with fallen trees, so at times it was an adventure just trying to find our way.

On Monday, Heather came with me to work and see the Kindergarten. I hope she enjoyed it. I sure enjoyed her there and having part of both of my worlds in the same world. She went off to the royal Residence after lunch and later we met up again after I got off work. We walked through the Englisher Garten. On Wednesday, Eva, Gary and Melissa came to Munich for dinner with us. Eva and Gary were visiting Eva's brother and his wife, Melissa, who live about two hours away from Munich. It was great to see them.

I had four days off for Easter weekend and we chose to go on one last trip. The week before it was warm, in the upper 60s/low 70s. This week it dropped quickly and got quite stormy. We pick the best times to go traveling! On Saturday morning, we left for Wurzburg, Germany. It is a town I have been wanting to go see. It was very pretty. There is a castle on top of the hill. We went to the residence and cathedral. We walked around. It was rainy and cold, but a nice start to our trip.

Sunday we left for Luxembourg. Luxembourg was our favorite I think. You can really tell it was a fortress town with the deep valley surrounding the city. We walked and walked. We saw
most of the city on the first day we were there. Everything was closed due to it being Sunday. We ate at an Indian restaurant. It was quite an expensive city, more than I thought it would be. We stayed at a hotel that was close to the train station outside the city center. On Monday we went to the underground caves that were created to protect people during war. It had cannons still in them to demonstrate what it was like. It was interesting to imagine the people living down there during war invasions. Across the valley on an opposing hill are the EU buildings, which a quite a contrast from the old city center. They were pretty similar to the other ones we have seen in Brussels and Strasbourg. To celebrate Chris' 30th birthday, we searched and found a tea house with delicate cakes and tea mid afternoon. After dinner we then found another dessert place for more cake.

Tuesday, we went off to Brugge. It is the city I wanted to go to on our last trip to Belgium but wasn't able to. We stayed at this hotel that was dab in the middle of the town. We actually managed to get an apartment with a kitchen that could hold up to 6 people. It was nice as we were able to cook our meals and save some money on eating out. It was also the cheapest hotel I could find in Brugge, so hey why not. Brugge is known for its lace and chocolate, as anyone can tell by the amount of stores that were selling them. It was definitely good chocolate! Brugge is a medieval city with its cobblestone streets. It, however, is getting too popular with tourists and school groups, as there were a lot. We think it is a field trip common to Brussel's schools. We spent three nights in Brugge. It was the most stormy days of our trip. It was miserably cold and windy one day, we decided not to go on our day trip and stay indoors in Brugge at museums, brew house, etc.

On another day we went to Ostende just because it was on the coast. It was a nice beach town with a long promenade along the water and a pretty garden in the town. We walked around. The wind was still quite strong along the coast but once we were blocked by the tall buildings of the town it was bearable.









On Friday, we traveled to Rotterdam, Netherlands. We found our hotel after a long walk and then went exploring the city. Rotterdam is definitely the modern city of our trip. There was a lot of new buildings being built in the modern, very artistic style. The architectural world of this city was fascinating. Anybody interested in architecture must go see Rotterdam. It is the up and coming style. In the picture are lights created to look like cranes. They can be positioned anyway they need light.





The next day we took a trip to The Hague. It was raining all day. We went to an art museum, which we all enjoyed. It had the "Girl with a Pearl Earing" painting and many other famous Dutch paintings of Rembrant, etc. It was a great collection of work. Made me really like Dutch style of painting, very realistic. On the way back we stopped at Delft, a small town that is known for its pottery. The bike commute must be crazy with this many bikes at the train station! We went to a factory to see how they make the pottery. It was interesting the technique and to hear the history of the pottery. On the way back, the clouds opened up and dumped gallons and gallons of rain on us. We were soaked despite huddling under umbrellas as best we could. I still laugh at Heather's comment as we were coming to a bridge ahead. We knew we had to get up there somehow and we saw steps to the right of the bridge. She said we had to just go up those steps. Well, the bridge was not over a street, but it was over a river, and the steps were on the other side. Everything was so shiny from the rain that the river just blended in. Hey, we are already so wet it wouldn't be that much different to swim to the other side! Well, we found steps on our side of the river that was much better. It made the day adventurous. We ate dinner at this culinary restaurant, where student chefs were sharing their work. It was very good and very artistic. The presentation was amazing, the help was superb and the food was amazing. It was so good. This is a picture of one of the meals. Our favorite was actually a vegetarian dish with goat cheese, cranberries, nuts, and veggies all in a bread bowl. The other dishes we had were a stew with beef, rabbit, and chicken, a salmon salad, and of course a dessert of almond cake with cinnamon liquor and fresh whipped cream.

To make the day even longer and more adventurous, we found a church we were told about from our receptionist at the hotel. We wanted to find out what times the masses are for Easter vigil. We happen to go in when it was taking place. The church was packed with people. We found seats luckily at the back. Some ladies next to us were nice enough to give us a program. As we found out where they were in the mass, we realized we were towards the end of the mass. Oh well, but we got to take part of a mass in Latin for Easter. The interesting part other than the difference of a mass in Latin versus English and the elaborate church, is the congregation. The first thing Heather notices, is what they are wearing. Everyone had on very nice outfits, mostly black clothes, very formal. Here we are, she in sweatshirt and jeans, me in slacks and sweater, that have been soaked and dried. We were also two of the four white people there in the whole church. The other two was the priest and one older gentlemen in the crowd. Everyone else was black. It was amazing to me. I would have thought there would be a mixture of races in the church. I am not sure if it was the location of the church or that people flock where they are most comfortable, usually with their own race. On the way back to the hotel, we found out that I had put the umbrella in the bag that I had given to Chris so we crossed our fingers that it wouldn't rain. Unfortunately, it started soon after we left the church. We got soaked for the second time that day and this time no cover of and umbrella.

Sunday, our trip home was frustrating. Everything went so smoothly with the trains and hotels this week, one thing had to go wrong and it was this trip. Our train out of Rotterdam broke down. They brought another train to take us but that train as well didn't work. The power lines on that line must have been broken. We went onto a different train that was the next train on schedule going the same route. It was packed with people so we had to stand the 40 minutes to Utrecht. We, of course, missed our transfer in Utrecht. We had to wait two hours for the next train to go to Dusseldorf. At Dusseldorf, we were taking a cheap flight to Munich. We got to the airport as the plane was taking off. They booked us on the next flight and charged us the difference for the new tickets. Of course, the price skyrocketed because it is two hours before the flight. We spent 400 euros on the new tickets total and waited in frustration for the next flight. Ugh! Deutsch Bahn does some reimbursement for delays, so I sent off the paperwork to them. But I doubt they will pay. We'll see..

It was a great trip. We will miss being able to travel so easily when we are back in the states but are also very eager to start our next phase in life!