Saturday
This day was frustrating in many ways, but it ended really well! Verle felt really bad and his back was sore when we woke up. He had trouble waking up and even in thinking as clearly as usual. After breakfast, he began to feel much better. Barry and Coreen had left breakfast out for us -- it was very good, with cereal, juice, tea and coffee, great bread, jelly, peanut butter, and a special chocolate spread. They also had cheese and cold cuts, which I used to make sandwiches for dinner.
Verle used their Internet hookup and was able to get my journal and some of our photos on the web page. We were relieved that it worked so well. By then, Verle was feeling O.K.
We walked with our bags to Central Station, but there was no ticket window, and we didn't know where to stowe our bags, so we took the tram to North Station and put our bags in a locker there. Then we took the tram to Boerche/Bears (wrong spelling) to see some of the sights Dan had suggested to us. However, we just had such a hard time finding where to go. We finally found a map and walked toward a neat old structure. However, we were quite confused about where to go, so we came across a city tour and took that atop an open bus. It was a gorgeous day. The driver gave us ear plugs to keep. We could set the channel to hear the English narration. It was very interesting to see the many old buildings, the World's Fair area, and the buildings that house the European Union, which are new and mirrored and modern. Some highlights were a very old church with statues and ornate decorations everywhere you looked.
Another similar building had been partially restore to it's white surface, while the rest showed that it is 700 or so years old. The Atomia, which was Belgium's exhibit in the Worlds Fair looked like a huge model of an atom made out of metal. Japanese and Chinese buildings in the same area were built by Napoleon or other early rulers. Lovely parks and spring blooming trees were very beautiful.
We bought train tickets to Brugge (4 Euros total!) and took a lovely ride with a chance to see many farms and the lovely countryside.
Here comes the mighty frustrating part. We got to Brugge about 3 and immediately went to the information center to try to find a Friends of Bicyclers home to spend the night (from our catalog). Many were listed, but we didn't know how to make phone connections to see if any of them had a room available. One information center didn't have a phone connection, another sent us to Park Hotel, which we couldn't find. All this while we were carrying our heavy bags. We finally went back to the train station to try to find someone to help us there. Nothing worked, the phone card we bought didn't work for us, and the directions weren't in English. By 6, we still hadn't been able to get through, and when we finally got the phone to work, one after another home was already full. (You are supposed to call 24 hours in advance.)
Thankfully, we finally found a home that had a room, and what a wonderful experience that turned out to be. Our hosts are Ann and Paul Neutens.
They told us which bus to take and where we should ask the driver to let us off. Ann came out to meet us there. They took us into their kitchen, served us cokes, and helped us plan our day for tomorrow. We decided to try to ride bikes with a tour in Brugge tomorrow morning and to stay in Middleburg, Holland tomorrow evening so we can start riding on Monday. Ann and Paul got everything lined up for us. They called a family for us to stay with tomorrow night in Middleburg and found out from that family that the best way to get to their home was by bus and ferry. The got all the directions and made our reservations for the bike tour tomorrow morning. They also are taking care of mailing our fee for being part of the Friends of Biking program.
They took us out to their lovely garden area, which stretches over 100 meters back behind there house. We took photos there. It was such a pleasant evening after a day that had several stressful moments in it.
This day was frustrating in many ways, but it ended really well! Verle felt really bad and his back was sore when we woke up. He had trouble waking up and even in thinking as clearly as usual. After breakfast, he began to feel much better. Barry and Coreen had left breakfast out for us -- it was very good, with cereal, juice, tea and coffee, great bread, jelly, peanut butter, and a special chocolate spread. They also had cheese and cold cuts, which I used to make sandwiches for dinner.
Verle used their Internet hookup and was able to get my journal and some of our photos on the web page. We were relieved that it worked so well. By then, Verle was feeling O.K.
We walked with our bags to Central Station, but there was no ticket window, and we didn't know where to stowe our bags, so we took the tram to North Station and put our bags in a locker there. Then we took the tram to Boerche/Bears (wrong spelling) to see some of the sights Dan had suggested to us. However, we just had such a hard time finding where to go. We finally found a map and walked toward a neat old structure. However, we were quite confused about where to go, so we came across a city tour and took that atop an open bus. It was a gorgeous day. The driver gave us ear plugs to keep. We could set the channel to hear the English narration. It was very interesting to see the many old buildings, the World's Fair area, and the buildings that house the European Union, which are new and mirrored and modern. Some highlights were a very old church with statues and ornate decorations everywhere you looked.
Another similar building had been partially restore to it's white surface, while the rest showed that it is 700 or so years old. The Atomia, which was Belgium's exhibit in the Worlds Fair looked like a huge model of an atom made out of metal. Japanese and Chinese buildings in the same area were built by Napoleon or other early rulers. Lovely parks and spring blooming trees were very beautiful.
We bought train tickets to Brugge (4 Euros total!) and took a lovely ride with a chance to see many farms and the lovely countryside.
Here comes the mighty frustrating part. We got to Brugge about 3 and immediately went to the information center to try to find a Friends of Bicyclers home to spend the night (from our catalog). Many were listed, but we didn't know how to make phone connections to see if any of them had a room available. One information center didn't have a phone connection, another sent us to Park Hotel, which we couldn't find. All this while we were carrying our heavy bags. We finally went back to the train station to try to find someone to help us there. Nothing worked, the phone card we bought didn't work for us, and the directions weren't in English. By 6, we still hadn't been able to get through, and when we finally got the phone to work, one after another home was already full. (You are supposed to call 24 hours in advance.)
Thankfully, we finally found a home that had a room, and what a wonderful experience that turned out to be. Our hosts are Ann and Paul Neutens.
They told us which bus to take and where we should ask the driver to let us off. Ann came out to meet us there. They took us into their kitchen, served us cokes, and helped us plan our day for tomorrow. We decided to try to ride bikes with a tour in Brugge tomorrow morning and to stay in Middleburg, Holland tomorrow evening so we can start riding on Monday. Ann and Paul got everything lined up for us. They called a family for us to stay with tomorrow night in Middleburg and found out from that family that the best way to get to their home was by bus and ferry. The got all the directions and made our reservations for the bike tour tomorrow morning. They also are taking care of mailing our fee for being part of the Friends of Biking program.
They took us out to their lovely garden area, which stretches over 100 meters back behind there house. We took photos there. It was such a pleasant evening after a day that had several stressful moments in it.
3 comments:
Looks like you are having a great time! I'm a bit jealous! Thanks for keeping us up-to-date. Enjoy the pics and writing. The boys & I are going to Lincoln to have dinner with Jeremy, Risa, and Jeff. We're going to Valentinos. Then, back to work & school on Monday. We'll be checking in with you and we're praying for your continued safety and enjoyment on your trip!
Love, Katherine & boys
Looks like you're having a great time; I'm glad! Be careful and enjoy yourselves! I have no idea how you're getting around - sounds to me that the names of those towns all sound the same and start with the letter "B".
I hope you're able to keep posting stuff on here! It's great to see what's going on.
Dad - you should know that you can make international calls using your X-Lite program on your laptop. (Of course you'd need Internet to do so, but it might save you some hassle.) Just dial the full phone number including country code. I think it costs a max of like 4 cents/min. It's all prepaid by VI so you don't have to worry about that.
Dave
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