Sheep Guarding Llama

We finally have our first real post on Kidding Around Europe: Arriving in the UK.

Luciana got us up early this morning around six thirty.  Not what we needed.  We spent hours trying to get her to fall back asleep and did manage to but only for a tiny bit.  Liesl tried her best to sleep through it all and did, more or less.

At eight thirty we went downstairs to breakfast and got our day started.  Today is my “all homework” day with nothing planned, or allowed, except for doing coursework.

It was an exhausting day of work.   I worked solidly for hours.  In the middle of the afternoon we took a break so that we could go out for dinner.  We went to Chobocar on the Martk for dinner.  It was quite good.  We split flatbread pizza and a salmon quiche.  We are really struggling with the huge amount of bread eaten constantly here in Europe.  This is the opposite of our diet back home.  All carbs, no protein.  The food is all really good, though.  Liesl is doing great with trying and eating new foods that are outside of her norm.

After dinner we got some ice cream and walked around.  We are discovering that ice cream here is so much better than back home.  It is also in much more reasonable quantities which makes it make more sense that people eat it all of the time.

After our food and a stroll along the Rhine it was back to the hotel where I worked on homework all night.  I worked all evening and on until around one thirty in the morning.  At that point I submitted what I had.  I am hoping that I did what the professor is looking for.  I am way, way behind on the class and am really under the gun at this point.  I have a ton more work due this Friday – but at least this Friday night is when both my work for the office as well as my course work are all completely done and there is nothing past that point.  Saturday morning begins my real vacation which, after all of this, I am going to be pretty desperate to get to.

Tomorrow our plan is to get up and go out on a Rhine river cruise in the morning.

We slept in a bit this morning not getting up until around nine.  And even getting up then, Dominica and I were up and the girls stayed asleep.  We knew that we were too tired to make it to breakfast in the hotel which is from eight until nine thirty.  So around ten Dominica sent me out to see if I could find breakfast at a bakery or something to bring back.  When I got downstairs it turned out that we were the only people in the hotel who had not come down for breakfast yet and that they were holding it for us knowing that we had gotten in so late!

So I rushed upstairs and Dominica quickly got the girls up and ready and brought then down so that we could have breakfast.  They have a really cute breakfast restaurant in the hotel.  It would remind Americans of the hotel from Faulty Towers – that size and style.  Breakfast was very nice with great breads, cheese and spreads.  A lot of meat too which, of course, doesn’t matter to us.  They even had set out a special treat for each of the girls.  It was really sweet.

After breakfast one of the owners got his own childhood toys out of a cupboard and let Liesl and Luciana play with them.  They really enjoyed that.  Germany has cool toys that we’ve never seen.  They had this really neat plastic car garage with toy cars and little wooden people with ball bearings in the base who, on certain parts of the garage, would automatically walk around.  It was really cool and simple.

I had a very busy day working.  Today is our semi-annual disaster recovery test at the office and it is a serious all day affair.  I started working at five in the morning “office” time and that was none too early as I was already heavily needed at that point and was needed pretty much the entire day.  That would have been fine but I really desperately needed to be working on my homework for my master’s class and I had no way to do that.  So that is stressing me out for sure.

Our pack and play was delivered early this morning and immediately Luciana was telling us that she wanted to get into it.  So not long after breakfast she was in the pack and play napping.  Liesl and I then hung out for about an hour while Dominica ventured out for her first time in Germany on her own to attempt some grocery shopping.  This went surprisingly well but involved a lot of pointing and confusion since nowhere that she went spoke English.  More people speak English here in Boppard than they did in Osnabruck three years ago but as this is not a tourist town at all the overall English speaking is still be sparse – which is good for forcing us into some immersion but difficult if Dominica wants to go out on her own for anything.  Everyone is very friendly and helpful, though.

 

Nearly my entire day was spent working.  The disaster recovery test was really intensive this year and I was needed all day.  It was really crazy compared to any test that I have been involved with in the past.  Of all of the years for me to be working remotely rather than being in the office all day.  That did not work out well.  We had thought that I would likely have the day completely free but that was not at all the case.  Very bad timing.

Luciana took several naps today and appears to be attempting to self regulate herself back to a healthy schedule.  Now that she has a pack and play she is able to actually tell us when she wants to nap and never needs to be told that it is bed time.  She has been lost without that.  Liesl is enjoying her private, quiet time as well.

This evening, once work quieted down a bit, we went out to the Markt, the main market square in the center of town, and ate dinner at one of the restaurants there with seating in the center of the square.  Liesl had a great time playing in the beautiful Markt fountain that was specifically designed to make it easy for people, children mostly, to actually get into the fountain to sit or walk around – very different than how things are done in the US.  A fountain to actually use, not just to look at.

Dinner was excellent and unique.  I had a salmon “omelette” which was three hard boiled eggs, lox, fried potato cakes and a cream sauce.  Dominica had coal fish and Liesl had fish sticks.  We all had some “cheese sticks” as an appetizer as well.  The concept of cheese sticks (not called that) is related to what we get back home but also quite different.  At home it is often fried mozzerella and marinara sauce.  Here it is fried canberra with fruit preserves and whipped cream.  More like what we get in eastern New York around Rotterdam.  Very delicious.

After dinner we hit an ATM and stocked up on cash (almost nowhere in Germany takes credit cards so you have to be prepared to go through cash like crazy) and then hit the ice cream cafe (eiscafe) to get ice cream.  Liesl got a little bowl of strawberry.  Dominica got the local equivalent to cookies and cream which was hazelnut cookies in a vanilla ice cream.  I got something that they local call blue angel (turns out to be what Americans call bubblegum, my favourite) and something green called waldmeister or master of the forest – which turned out to be what Americans call black forest (makes sense, I guess.)  It was all very good.  We walked back to the fountain and sat there eating the ice cream and then walked down to the Rhine water front and walked along it for a little bit and back to the hotel so that I could get back to work.

I worked for a few more hours but the Internet in the hotel got cut off around ten at night so there was nothing for me to do.  I worked from my Blackberry for a little while but we all turned in very early which we really needed.  It was bad because I had been stuck waiting all day to be able to get started on my homework that is absolutely due tomorrow because of work and travel but at least now I can get some sleep and start on it in the morning.

This is Luciana’s first night in her pack and play.  Thank goodness.

We figured out that we have way too many “moves” built into our vacation and that any stay of two days in unacceptable – we can’t handle the amount of travel involved and then just being in a place for such a short period of time.  It doesn’t work with kids, it just doesn’t.  So we cancelled our reservations in Bacharach, which was the really cool castle hostel that we were really looking forward to, and merged it with our stay in Boppard.  So instead of two, two day stays we now have a single four day stay.  We know our way around town here already and know that the hotel is comfortable and has good Internet access and that the kids function well here so this is low stress.  Bacharach is a hostel and a lot of stair climbing with a lot of unknowns.  So staying where we are makes a lot of sense.

We are attempting to merge two of our stays in France now as well and trying to eliminate the one in Switzerland.  We’ve already decided to drop our trek to the Cinque Terre as well.

I woke up at six thirty this morning and everyone was asleep so I showered and got dressed.  At seven I went out for a walk in Brugge alone.  Dominica and the girls really needed their sleep.  It gave me a great opportunity to see the town while it was still completely asleep – which was completely awesome.  I had a great walk and took 82 photos while I was out.

I got back to the hotel and got Dominica up.  We got packed up and then took turns getting breakfast at the hotel.  I went down first and ate then Dominica went down and ate.  That way the girls could just stay in the hotel room.  The breakfast was awesome.  Local breads with spreads.  Sounds basic but in Europe that is a seriously awesome meal.  Both Dominica and I could not get over how great the peanut butter was too.

We left our bags at the hotel and set out to see Brugge for a bit but by this time the town was wall to wall people.  A totally different place than the one that I was in just two hours before.  Brugge is mostly a tourist town and almost no one actually stays in town but comes in via car or train to see it so it is empty (and closed) in the morning and at night and only comes to life during the day.  Living there must be tough as almost nothing is open outside of business hours.

We missed our early train departures that we should have taken and had to go for an early afternoon train.  We needed the sleep but now we are rushed and we had thought that we would get to see Brugge but because of the crowds we can’t.  Yesterday was a big European holiday and one that is centered on Brugge so the crowds here are insane today as Europeans widely have today off and this is a big tourist destination for history, food and religion.  Bad timing on our part.

So we had to forgo the canal tour that we so wanted to take because the lines were too long.  That really sucked.  We managed to buy a print of the town that we liked but that was all that we had time for.  Then we had to run to the train station so that we would have time to make it.  A lost morning in every way.  Very foolish – mostly on my part.  I should have woken everyone up and made us leave on the 8am or 9am train.

So we went to the Brugge train station and got ourselves some frietes (fries) for Liesl and a fish sandwich and waffles for Dominica and I.    Awesome again.

We got the train off to Brussels and our day continued.

Arriving in Brussels we were again disgusted by the train station and the surrounds.  We were depressed that we had a long time to kill in Brussels but decided to head out and try to see the city rather than just sitting in the train station.  This was the mistake of epic proportions.  Leaving Brugge too late this morning was bad and put us under inappropriate pressure but that was minor.  What happened in Brussels is that we misread our train notes and thought that we had a much longer layover than we did so we should have been just sitting on the platform instead of trying to kill time looking around town.  Epic fail.

The walk around time was a huge waste anyway.  We stepped out into the city and after having a horrible time even managing to cross the street we discovered that the city is a dirty, nasty cesspool.  Not a city that we want to see.  Totally nasty in every way.  We quickly decided that we had no desire to be out in this city so we just went right back to the train station to just sit and wait.

It was when we got back to the train station that we realized what had happened and we had missed our train by twenty or thirty minutes.  So we went and found out about a train leaving for Liege so we raced for it only to have it pulling away as we got to the platform.  That was two missed trains already.

So we went and got information about yet another train.  So we went and waiting on the platform for it.  Again, this one going to Liege.  Liege is, unfortunately, a much slower path than the direct train to Cologne that we had wanted to take.  But we have to do what we have to do at this point.

We waited and waited and, at the last minute, the signage on the platform went blank.  At the same time Liesl had a potty emergency so Dominica went running with her to take her to a restroom.  So Dominica was having an asthma attack when they got back to the platform and it was then, with one minute to go until the train arrived, that she noticed that the sign, that we had been watching all along, had suddenly gone blank just a minute before the train was set to arrive.

We asked locals on the platform and they said that we were on the right platform.  So we figured that the signs were just broken.  But no, the locals were confused too.  So when our train pulled up to another platform we were really, really fortunate that Dominica saw it and was able to read that suddenly the information that had been on our sign was suddenly on the sign way, way over there.  I ran down the platform, told the person who had told us that we were on the right platform that the sign across the way read Liege and all of us sprinted for the escalators.

Normally we take the lifts (elevators for the Americans) because of the stroller and kids.  No time for that now.  I scooped up Liesl and we bolted.  I had Luciana on my front, a 50+ lbs backpack on my back and Liesl under my arm.  It was a bit crazy.

This train we actually managed to make.  That was almost our third missed train.  But we were still very much stressed out and exhausted by the time that we were on it.

The trip to Liege was okay and pretty fast.  Liege looks pretty nice and their train station is beautiful.  Not Antwerp beautiful but a new, modern open air train station with great light.

From Liege we got stuck on the slow moving milk train to Aachen.  The trip was, according to our lists, supposed to take thirteen minutes.  So we were really confused when it look well over an hour!  Who knows how many trains we missed in the interim while stuck on the ancient, slow moving milk train (so named as it stops in every little town everywhere.)

Once in Aachen our stress level went down a bit.  Aachen was our first stop in Germany and that meant moving to incredible safety and resources. Instead of ancient trains from the 1950s we had only new, modern top notch trains and no more incorrect track information.

In Aachen we caught the train to Cologne.  This part went okay but the problem that we ran into on DB was that the stops were so fast that we did not have time to do anything except grab the children and jump.  Someone even held the door open to keep the train from leaving to help us to get off.  When we got out of the train in Cologne we no more stepped off of the train when Dominica said “Where is your jacket?” but it was long gone.  There was no time to turn around.  So my new Old Navy fleece that I liked so much that is in the one vacation picture of me thus far… is gone forever.  That was my only jacket for this trip although at this point things are going to be a bit warmer than they were in the northern countries and today really highlights that we are carrying too much stuff so replacing it is definitely not a good idea.  But losing it after the awful day that we have been having did not help our stress levels at all.

From Cologne we caught the DB train to Koblenz which we suspected was going to be really quick but, in reality, took hours.  We had no idea.  We are moving so much more slowly than we had anticipated.  This was really stressful because the hotel locks up at eight and, in theory, we might not be able to get in!  So in addition to everything else, we are concerned that we might miss our hotel for the night.

To make us even more stressed, the awful Android phone that we are stuck using is regularly losing Internet connectivity so we are not able to keep in contact with people, reach the hotel and check train schedules.  So we were out of contact much of the day today.  Not good.  We did finally reach the hotel and tell them that we were running very late and they said that they would stay for us.  Hopefully they have a good idea of just how late we will be.

Once in Koblenz we got off of DB and switched to the local Middle Rhein railroad which took us the last few stops, about twenty minutes.  Boy were we happy to be getting closer to Boppard.  Today has just been so long.

We got off the train in Boppard and a nice woman at the platform carried Liesl’s stroller all the way down the very long stairs as there was no lift at the station.  We had to walk from there to the hotel but it did not look like it would be far.

It was not far to the hotel but that didn’t matter since we missed our turn and walked way too far.  It started to rain and by the time that  we figured out what we had done our phone was dead so that we were getting no maps (which is why we had no idea where the turn was in the first place) and we were soaked.  We went to the police station but no one was there.  Luckily we passed a nice couple on the street who gave us directions.

We got to the hotel and it took a little bit before we were able to rouse anyone which really scared us as at this point it was really, really late and we were really worried that we were not going to get into the hotel tonight and I was under a lot of pressure as I was needed for work and I had not been online for the entire day.  I had been on Blackberry constantly all day (since my work Blackberry was still working the whole day) so it seemed like I was in the office and working and I had not missed any emails all day but it is Friday night and I am needed for the deployments and to help with the preparations for the disaster recovery test that we will be performing tomorrow.

We got into the hotel and they were so nice.  They got us right into our hotel room, set us up with WiFi so that I could get right to work and left all of the check in stuff until tomorrow.

After a really long, awful day it was a huge relief to be in a gorgeous little village on the Rhine that is full of nice, helpful people, feels as safe as anywhere on earth, is clean and easy to get around and into our cute little hotel with an awesome room with plenty of space including a perfect alcove for Liesl to sleep in and hang out in.  We will have a pack and play for Luciana in the morning too.  The hotel is in a perfect spot, too, being located right off of the pedestrian downtown area so that we can go from the hotel to pretty much anywhere in town that we would care about without needing to walk on sidewalks even.  The Rhine itself is only a few hundred feet away and “downtown” is even closer.  There is a grocery on the corner.  Pubs, restaurants, ice cream places, bakeries, pharmacies, ATM, other hotels and all kinds of shops all in a five minute walk.

I got set up and worked for several hours until three in the morning.  Dominica and Luciana snugged on a trundle bed tonight.  Luciana had another rough night as she just can’t sleep without having a pack and play.  We are hopeful that that will be fixed tomorrow.

Late in the evening, after I was all set at work, I went out for a quick walk through town in the hopes of finding us food.  One of the downsides of a small European village like this is that everything except for the bars is closed very early on.  There were plenty of places to get beer and wine but I found no restaurants.  I did not try the waterfront, however.  There was an ice cream (eiscafe) open but I did not think that hauling ice cream back to the hotel for the girls late at night made sense.

We were so exhausted from yesterday that the whole family slept in as much as possible this morning.  We missed our hotel breakfast as we completely slept through it.  We needed the sleep badly, though.

So we ended up just resting until we headed out to the train station to catch the train to Antwerp.  We ended up sleeping in so much that we were running really late for our SpiceCorps at one in the afternoon!  We had no idea that it would take so long to get to Antwerp.  We had thought that it would be one hour or less by train and then just a few minutes of walking.  But it turned out to be a two hour or more train journey and an hour walk through the city as the venue was not by the train station.  Whoops.  So we were hustling to get there.

While we waited for our first train of the day we had a bit of time to kill so we stopped at Panos in the Brugge station to get breakfast.  Panos appears to be a Belgian restaurant chain.  The food was amazing.  Dominica had a brie and honey sandwich.  I had quattro formage pizza.  Liesl had a chocolate covered donut.  And Luciana ate a rice custard tart.  All of it was so delicious.  We are loving Belgian food.  Even everyday food is excellent.  The coffee was good too, if small.  Coffee in Europe is very different than in the US.  Hot, small and fast compared to large, cool and slow.

The train ride was fine.  Riding the rails without the overwhelming amount of luggage is pretty easy.  It is only when we have all of our luggage with us that it is so awful.  We got to see a lot of major Belgian towns along the way.

Stepping off of the train into Antwerp is an experience.  The Antwerp train station might be the world’s most beautiful.  What an amazing station!  Antwerp is nothing like Brussels!  Nothing at all.  What an amazing station.  Clean, historic, well organized.  Two different worlds.

We raced through the station and walked as briskly as we could through the city.  We actually did really well and it was nearly two when our friend Marco called to us as we passed the Bizzie Lizzie pub.  We hung out and had dinner there.  We ended up having only two people there today in addition to us!  We had six confirmed people attending this initial SpiceCorps Benelux group plus the four of us plus whoever might have just shown up but our organizer was out sick today and most everyone just didn’t show up.  So we were a pretty small group – just us, Marco and Collin.  It was kind of ridiculous that we were having this SpiceCorps in Antwerp since there was not even a single attendee from Belgium at all as we were from the US, Marco is from Germany and Collin from The Netherlands.  We were only in Belgium at all because of SpiceCorps.  We could have done all of this part of our trip in The Netherlands or Germany and saved a lot of extra travel!

We had a really nice time, though.  We ate dinner which was great and then Dominica took the girls out to a huge Antwerp city playground that was right down the street.  Liesl really enjoyed that and they played for about two hours.  We were stuck in Antwerp for quick some time because I had to work so I was working from my laptop at the pub.  We sat outside on the street and the day was lovely.   It gave me a chance to have a Belgian beer in Belgium too.  Although you can get Belgian beer in the US the same as you can get it there so it is not that big of a special treat.  Not at all like British cask ale that is unique to England and cannot effectively be shipped to other countries.

After SpiceCorps, Marco was off back to Germany from whence he had driven.  Collin walked with us back to the train station as he was on public transit like us.

I took a bunch of train station pictures while we waited for our train in Antwerp and while there we got our first taste of the famous Belgian “rail switching” that they do.  They announce what track a train is coming in on, they tell you, they put it on the board – but a few minutes before they train actually arrives is when they actually decide where it will go and the announced track seems to be completely random.  So we were waiting for our train when Dominica just happened to notice that the sign went blank.  No warning that the train was going elsewhere, you just had to know that they do this and not to trust the signs.  So at the last second we ran to another track and found our train going there!  Not impressive.

Two more hours back to Brugge.  Once back we pretty much did nothing tonight.  I had to work again (we traveled back during my “lunch break”) and Dominica had gobs of packing to do so that we can move on to Germany tomorrow.  Tomorrow is a big travel day for us and we hope to get a chance to see some more of Brugge in the morning before we go so we have to be ready tonight.  Off to bed “early” tonight – but Luciana had another awful night but not as bad as last night.  She just can’t fall asleep in a bed.

Before falling asleep Luciana took a horrible spill off of the bed.  She is not used to beds and has no idea how to be on them.  She is not used to sleeping on one at all and even when she just plays on ours at home she is used to a foam mattress, not springs, and they are very different.  She ended up going head first into the floor in a full dive off of the bed.  It looked awful.  We could not believe that she was even able to do it.

 

Up at four this morning.  Ugh.  We got up and were out the door pretty quickly.  We knew that it was a long walk to the train station and there was a lot that could go wrong on the way with us having to carry all of our luggage the whole way.  It may be traveling light but when you have to cart it all around it is not fun at all.

The walk ended up going well and we had enough time, just, to get coffee for the train before we embarked.  We felt exhausted and rushed this morning but with a two hour train ride we had some downtime to just sit for a bit and do nothing.  We had reserved seats for this busy commuter train but only two seats so Liesl and Luciana had to ride on our laps all morning.  They did really well but it was quite tight and uncomfortable.

We arrived at St. Pancras station, where we are making the relatively easy switch from the East Midlands line to the Eurostar taking us to Brussels.  We had plenty of spare time so we stopped and ate breakfast at the Pret a Manger in the train station.

The Eurostar was awesome.  We got our own private compartment, the family compartment, on the train.  We could not have asked for more!  Not only did we have a family seat (that’s four seats with two facing two with a table) to ourselves but the entire cabin with four of those and all of the associated luggage area completely to ourselves with closed doors separating us from all of the other parts of the train.  So we had our own restroom as well.  The best possible way to travel.

The Eurostar is so fast. The southeastern British countryside was so beautiful.  It was a bright and shiny day and we were relaxed and able to just enjoy it all as it flew by.

The Chunnel portion snuck up on us quickly and you barely notice it other than the pressure on your ears – wow does that create some pressure.

We were pretty excited to pop out into France, not that northern France looks all that different from southern England, but the houses and human-influenced scenery does change a bit.  It is a very rural part of France so mostly fields, barns, woods, etc.  But very beautiful.

The train passes through Lille, the “capital” of the French Netherlands (Nord-Pas-de-Calais) and is our first sight of a French city (and the only one today.)  This is the only stop for the Eurostar as it passes through France.  Altogether it only stops in London proper, once south of London, Lille and Brussels-Midi.  The trip from Lille to Brussels took no time at all.  We were in central Belgium before we could believe it.    The Eurostar is crazy fast.  We so need that in Texas between Houston and Dallas.

Getting off of the train in Brussels was a bit of a shock.  We didn’t have to leave the Brussels-Midi train station but even just the few minutes we spent there switching trains it was apparent that Brussels was unlike anything we have ever seen in Europe.  It was dirty and nasty and the people there were not really friendly or helpful and you felt like people were always watching you and I am pretty sure that a pickpocket made an approach to “bump” Dominica and only veered off when they realized that I saw them and was stepping into their “exit” path – so they maintained a tiny air gap but I’m decently sure that they were at least sizing her up for a pick attempt.

Belgium definitely seems to have no interest in making Belgium’s main train station give a good impression to people coming through town.  They are doing nothing to encourage tourism.  Just passing through the train station would make us want to avoid Belgium altogether had we not already been on our way there.  I can’t believe that they let the Eurostar go there.

While waiting for our local connection we did stop and get a little chocolate from one of the specialty vendors, as people do in Belgium, and Luciana ate a huge portion of it.  She loves Belgian chocolate.

The ride out to Brugge, out in the west near the English Channel, took a little over an hour and was pretty smooth on the local, inter-city Belgian rail.

We got in to Brugge (Bruges) and using the maps that we had tried to find out hotel and ended up going miles in the wrong direction because every map, including the Rick Steves map, are outdated and are drawn based on the old train station.  So we had a really rough  morning walking all over the neighbouring city in the heat trying to figure out why our hotel, or even the street that it was on, were nowhere to be seen.  We were not at all happy.

We finally found someone in a hotel who explained that we had gone out the wrong side of the train station (which we had checked carefully) and that everyone does this (I wonder why, if all of the maps are wrong – duh Brugge) and so we walked back through the train station and figured out what to do.  Belgium is doing little to give a favourable impression to tourists, that’s for sure.

Once we were out the right side of the train station we could see Brugge immediately and it was obvious where to go.  We got right to the hotel and check in.  We were settled in in no time and had just enough time to pop into the town to see a little bit before I had to get back to the hotel so that we could work.  In Brugge we are staying at Rick Steves’ recommended hotel which is one of our few hotels on this trip that does not have en suite bathroom facilities but it is right in old town Brugge which is really awesome.

We walked several miles into Brugge and got a bit lost.  We walked all over and I have to admit, there is nothing like Brugge.  What an amazing city.  The entire city is a real medieval city that grew up long ago and has never been built over.  It is really easy to say but hard to actually picture but it is a real, living city made up of all buildings that were standing there, exactly as they are today, five hundred years ago!  Nothing has changed except for the window glass.  You really have to see it to believe it.  And it is big.  This was not a trivial city back in its heyday and so there is a lot of this town to see.  You can just walk and walk and every single building is something worth checking out – and real people live here and work here every day.  This is not a tourist attraction, this is just the city of Brugge.

Our one project for today was to get to the downtown market square, the Markt, and get pom frietes (French Fries for those of you in the US.)  Belgium is the home of “French” fries and serves them everywhere.  We saw them in both Belgian train stations – restaurants selling nothing but fries and waffles.  Very odd.  Belgium is the epicenter of awesome, unhealthy food.

We ate two large orders of frietes first with mayo and then with curry.  Liesl thought that it was awesome and called the mayo “whipped cream” which was pretty funny.

I worked from the hotel for a while and then during my “lunch break” we ran out into Brugge again and discovered that the town had shut down and there was basically nothing available anymore.  We found one “fast food” place in town that was closed but was willing to make us some waffles so at least we got real Belgian waffles on our first day even if we did not manage to get much else.  They were really nice there and talked to us for a while about town.

Okay, so… Belgian waffles.  All I can say is WOW.  Nothing in the US is even remotely like an actual Belgian waffle.  They are not, in any way, made like how we make them.  It is no wonder that they are famous.  There are few foods that I have ever eaten that were this good.  We could not believe how good these were.  I got mine with butterscotch and whipped cream.  Dominica got hers with butterscotch, banana and whipped cream.  We ate them while overlooking one of the canals in Brugge which was just so beautiful.

We took a good number of pictures while we were out so there was something for the folks back home to see then we had to get back to the hotel.

That was the evening for us.  I worked the rest of the evening.  This was the first really rough night for Luciana.  Up until now she has had her own room, thanks to the great apartment in Nottingham, so she was able to go to sleep more or less like she was at  home with a pack and play in a silent room, alone.  Here we are all in one room with just two beds.  So it is Luciana and Dominica sleeping in one bed and Liesl and I sleeping in another.  It took easily two to three hours for Luciana to fall asleep and she kept Dominica and Liesl up to do it.  It was a really rough evening.

Tomorrow we are off to Antwerp for SpiceCorps Benelux.  I have always wanted to see Antwerp so that should be fun.  Hopefully we will manage to get in some sleep before we go.  We are all pretty spent.