Some cultural observations from the last couple of days:
1. We were interested in watching the people from India on India air when we flew from Chicago to Frankfurt. Most of the passengers were from India. We don't know if the families we were watching near us were representative of their country or not, but this is what we observed: The mothers were extremely loving and relaxed with their children. They were cuddling them, telling them how much they liked them, playing little number and alphabet games with them, and in general really enjoying their children. The fathers (whichever men they were) paid no attention to the women or to the children.
2. Brussels is full of Arab women in their burkas and boring long "dresses" -- more like black nondescript sacks. Most of them looked sad -- or maybe vacant. Their men also seemed uninvolved with them. The best word to describe their appearance from our point of view was "boring."
3. The eyes of most of the local people in the trams seemed sad, and these folks often seemed to personify to us "sheep without a shepherd."
4. The traveling young people seem always to be having the time of their lives. They are using a lot of electronic equipment and are enjoying each other (and they are loud!)
After a wonderful breakfast with Ann and Paul (fresh egg from their own chicken, rolls, sweet rolls, coffee and tea, cheese) Ann walked us to the spot where we were to meet the bus. Paul came running with new water bottles for us! We all stood and waited for quite a long time for a bus that just didn't come -- probably because it is Sunday, so Ann took us back to the Brugge train station in their family car. We put our things in the locker, rode the bus to the Brugge market area, and found our bike tour. Our guide, Dan (I think) got our bikes out for us - newly purchased bikes this year. There were only 6 in our group, and almost no tourist traffic throughout the morning, so we really got a great tour. We zigzagged through the old buildings,
rode out to parks, a working Jesuit training castle, parts of the old wall, -- it was the best way we could have possibly spent our time in Brugge! We rode for almost 3 hours on the cobblestones.
We got our bus ticket to the ferry on the way to Middleburg, got our bags from the locker, and bussed across northern Belgium and southern Netherlands, Verle sat by a man who has traveled all over the world, including China, north and south Africa, etc., but he has not been to America. The countryside changes from Belgium to the Netherlands. The area has farming and dairy cows. We rode the ferry and then the bus again to get to Middleburg and Franz's home. Franz is retired and only moved into this place a couple of years ago. It's a lovely home.
Franz was extremely helpful in helping us plan our route and calling the next place at Brielle. It is about 42 miles -- very rideable if we don't have a headwind. Unfortunately, there is rain predicted for tomorrow. We met Truus and their daughter, Flemi. Flemi is a midwife and was just leaving for work. About half of her patients deliver their babies at home. Most of the city people go to the hospital where she also works. Her information about her work was fascinating. She said that Dutch women are embarrassed about nursing their babies, and few do it.
We showered and Franz walked us to some of the restaurants in the market area. We split a meal of a local flat fish, salad, and French Fries with mayonnaise. It was very good. We came back to the house and laid out our things for riding the first leg of our journey (to Brielle) tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment