Sunday – April 29, 2012

Today was our day for Brussels.  We agreed to start out a little later and so were able to sleep in a bit.  Breakfast at the hotel is the same every day, cold cuts, cheeses, an assortment of rolls,  cereals, yogurt, fruit, juice and coffee with a boiled egg, boring, but I like it.  The hotel has even supplied us with our own pets.  There are two infant doves nesting in a flower box just outside our bedroom window.  Mother comes to visit frequently.  After bundling up we went to the parking garage under the city square where I had left the car two days ago.  I had to go down to the car, get the parking ticket and then come back up and pay since the pay machines are only on the surface level.  I keep running into automated machines that will only take credit/debit cards that have the  chip/pin system.  It is standard in Europe, but none of the US banks even will issue them on request.  One more way the European systems are more advanced than those in the US and we keep thinking we are the “Best in the World” when we are behind in so many ways.  Cash worked and we were on our way.  Not much traffic on Sunday and the GPS took us right to the museum, except it was totally the wrong location.  We got out the guide book, entered the street address and this time it did work.  Wonder of wonders, we found a free parking space within a block of the place we wanted to be.

Everyone was hungry so we stopped at the Music Museum, not to see the exhibits but to eat in their restaurant.  Food was amazingly good.  I ordered a dish called “Filet Americain”.  Much to my amazement it turned out to be beef tartare.  I don’t think I would have ordered raw hamburger if I had known, but it was quite good.

We went to the central art museum primarily to see the Brueghels.  They have a pretty good collection of both the Elder and Younger.  What was particularly interesting was the pair of paintings done first by the father and 40 years later by the son.  They are almost identical with just  a few color and subject differences.  The painting is supposed to represent the time of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.  But somehow the Judean desert comes out looking just like winter in Belgium, brick buildings and snow.  I guess you paint what you know. .Our art critics spent considerable time comparing the two pieces.

After walking the entire old masters collection with a few Rembrandts and Van Dycks thrown in for good measure, we left and went to find the famous statue of the “mannekin pis”, a little boy peeing.  Considering its fame, I had forgotten how small it is, only about a foot tall.  He’s usually not wearing any clothes, but for special occasions, he is dressed up. We have no idea what the occasion was, but there he was in a tuxedo, pissing away. What was more interesting (and I should have taken a picture but I was driving) were the large crowds taking pictures of the bronze.  There must have been several hundred people, including large tour groups jostling for position to take pictures of the little guy. 

If you remember the old adage about it not raining if you take your umbrella, the reverse works too.  Since I hadn’t taken my sunglasses, it cleared and I had sun in my eyes the whole way home.

For dinner, Laurence recommended another restaurant, this one very close to the hotel.  It was equally as good as her other recommendations.  We have asked for a fifth suggestion for our last night, but if she can’t come up with something interesting, any of our previous four would be a good repeat.

Saturday – April 28, 2012

 

We got up this morning to find that the beautiful weather of yesterday had been replaced by dark clouds and rain.  We went to breakfast, which was very similar to yesterday’s, and then donned our cold, wet weather gear.  Not only was it raining, it was also very cold and windy.  We made our way to the very large market square that dominates the city in it’s size and scope.  We had wanted to see the Saturday market, and perhaps the fish market, but very little was in evidence due to the weather.  There were horse carriages for hire, and many were clopping around the square and throughout the city.  The passengers were warmly dressed and covered with blankets provided by the drivers, who acted also as tour guides. 

We decided to leave the square and head for the Diamond Museum, which promised a history of diamonds and a diamond polishing demonstration.  On the way we crossed one of the canals that used to carry goods into and around the city.  Now tourists may  take guided tours aboard a canal boat, but we decided to wait for another day and better weather.  We continued our walk, and noticed that we were on a street devoted to museums on one side, and also that there were a few brave souls who had set up their market goods on the other side.  We opted to continue to the Diamond Museum, which is located in another part of the city.  This area also has loads of shops, many of them chocolatiers.  It all looked very yummy, so we decided that after the museum, we would have lunch and then buy a few goodies at one of these shops.

We were grateful to finally see the museum and enter into its lovely warmth, for by that time Maxine felt like an ice cube.  The displays were very well done and tell the story of diamond mining and processing that goes back to the 1400’s.  Bruges used to be a center for diamond cutting and polishing, but now Antwerp is where most of the world’s diamonds are finished. We very much enjoyed the diamond polishing demonstration given by a young man who did an excellent job of explaining everything in both English and French.

We went briefly into the diamond shop that is on premises, but decided not to buy anything.  Instead we went to lunch at a salad and sandwich place called Manna and Co.  The sandwiches were made to order with loads of choices of fillings and garnishes, and the baguettes were freshly baked on premises.  After lunch we bought some chocolates at one of the many shops nearby.  There are 50 chocolate shops in Bruges, a true paradise for a chocoholic like Maxine!  We walked  back to the hotel, where Maxine decided to take a break from touring and the weather, while Bob and Sue ventured onward to see more of Bruges.

(Bob now writing)  We headed back towards the older part of town to take a look at the museums and older areas.  The churches are quite magnificent, with high vaulted roofs and beautiful stained glass.  As we were nearing one, I remembered that we had earlier seen a sign for a “free” harp concert.  Had to check it out.  I seems a very nice retired man has rented a store slot in a building and puts on harp concerts for the donations and to sell his CDs.  He played concert hart, Celtic harp and a Chinese harp in a variety of his own compositions for about 40 minutes.  At the end, a few coins in the box was all he asked.  I guess enough people pay enough and he sells enough CDs to make it work for him.  After that browsed quickly though a small antique street market that was in the process of closing, nothing worth buying, before Bob returned to the while Sue continued to the art museum.

For dinner, the proprietor of the hotel had suggested a sea food restaurant where she had worked before buying the hotel.  She made a reservation and we wandered through the rain and found it with only a little difficulty.  Bob should have followed Maxine’s directions and it would have been easier.  The dinner special of the day was lobster, the Maine kind even though it was from Canada, served with a starter of smoked salmon and white asparagus.  Dessert was chocolate mousse. All were very good.

Friday – April 27,2012

We awoke, amazingly, to a beautiful blue sky, not a cloud to be seen.  Clearly a day for sightseeing.  After a very nice breakfast (included with the hotel room) we headed off to the city of Ypres (also spelled Ieper) to look for Flanders Field, a famous battlefield in World War I.  It is the center of the horrible trench warfare that kept the Allies and the Germans locked up for years with dreadful loss of life.  At the entrance to the city, there is a memorial called the Menen Gate that has inscribed over 50,000 names  of men who died in the battles.  There are military grave yards all over the area.  The city itself feature a beautiful town hall and impressive cathedral. It was hard to believe that these ancient buildings had survived both World Wars because World War II was fought right there too.  In fact, they hadn’t.  Following WWI, the local citizens, with significant financial aid from outside had rebuilt the town, not modern like many places in England were rebuilt after WWII, but rather they were rebuilt in their original style. 

After Ypres, we decided to go to France for lunch.  Yes, we were so close to the border that if was only about a 30 minute drive to Lille.  We basically just wandered around looking for a place to eat.  Having the GPS made it easy since I knew we could just let Maggy get us out and to our next destination.  We ended up stumbling on the town square and were able to park in an underground lot right under the square.  We came up to a beautiful area with shops and restaurants all around us.  Maxine picked a small cafe that served us a nice lasagna lunch including salad and dessert at a very reasonable price.  The GPS quickly got us out of town and on our way to Waterloo.  If you’ve seen one historic battlefield, you might as well see two.

We are approaching the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo in 2015.  Much of what they have was built for the 100th.  There is now a proper visitor center showing two excellent films, one purely historical going over the actions of Wellington and Napoleon and one extracted from a feature film that attempts to provide an insight into what the heat of battle must have been like.  After that, we went outside to see the Lion Mound Monument.  It was built in the early 1800s to commemorate not only the battle itself but the thousands who died in the battle.  For the centennial they build a diorama that is still a powerful vision of what happened 200 years ago.

The traffic back to Brugge wasn’t too bad and we went to an early dinner at a close by place.  Again, an excellent dinner in the Flemish style.  I had a very nice chicken stew, while Maxine had very traditional steak frites.

Thursday - April 26, 2012

Today was travel day, from London to Brugge.  We started with a lovely buffet breakfast at the hotel then checked out and got a cab in front of the hotel.  The concierge had told us it would take 12 to 15 minutes to get from the hotel to St. Pancras station to meet Sue and catch the Eurostar.  Trying to be safe, we allowed a full half hour even though that was twice the suggestion.  It ended up taking almost an hour because or road works.  We did make it in time and Sue was there waiting for us.  It was very helpful that Sue had traveled on Eurostar previously as she know the procedure and was able to help us find out way.

The ride itself was quick and smooth.  Barely two hours from London to Brussels including short stops in Ashford, Calais and Lille.  When we got there we spent a few minutes hunting for the Hertz office, until it appeared right in front of us.  The car was waiting for us downstairs and was much nicer than expected.  It is an almost new Renault with a six speed diesel and built in GPS.  The new diesel is very environmental friendly.  It was a bit surprising when I came to the first traffic light and the engine stopped. As soon as I put it in gear, the engine started right up on its own.

The GPS was very helpful in getting out of Brussels and finding the motorway to Brugge.  At first, it was a bit of a challenge following directions in Flemish, but we soon figured out Right and Left and the arrows on the screen helped a lot.;  We did figure out how to switch the voice to English, but it now speaks yards and miles while the speedometer reads in kilometers.  A bit confusing.

We missed the hotel the first time  around since I couldn’t believe that the small alley was really the street so passed it by and had to go around a short loop to get back.  The hotel is quite nice, run by a woman who really seems to enjoy running a small hotel.  She is a wealth of knowledge about the local area and her restaurant recommendations have proved to be excellent.  It is quite small, only about 15 rooms on four floors, but no elevator.  We have tried to minimize the number of trips up and down to save our knees.  The rooms are very nice and the beds are good.  What more could you want?

Wednesday – April 25, 2012

Our last day in London (we will be back in England after Belgium) and Maxine is still suffering from her cold and decided to stay in and keep warm.  It is quite cold with on and off rain outside, not a pleasant place to be if you are not feeling well.  We took advantage of the day and slept in.  I’m not sure if that is good or bad when trying to get over jet lag, but it sure felt nice.  Breakfast was tea in the room, orange juice and egg sandwiches from M&S with some fresh fruit to finish it off. 

After breakfast (it was already about noon), Maxine sent me off to do a little museum touring.  I started out at the Science museum to look for Babbage’s Analytical Engine.  It is a very large (8x10 feet or so) machine using brass cams, gear, etc to perform mathematical calculations.  Babbage never got it working but last time we were here, they were close to having built one from his plans and getting it operational.  It is gone!  And no one I talked to even recalled it being here.

They have an interesting collection of early steam engines, both stationary for working mines and mills and the very earliest ones that ran on rails.  The first one from about 1815 was so early that they  weren’t sure the friction between steel rails and steel wheels would be enough to move he machines.  Turns out that it does work.  They also have a nice exhibit of early space flight artifacts, even if most of them have been donated from NASA since the British didn’t do much in space travel.

They have added a lovely kids section to the Museum.  Avi would have had a great time with the hands on experiments.  One of the attendants admitted that many if not most of the displays come from the Exploratorium in San Francisco, but they are re-done and appear much more professional. They also do live science experiment shows for the kids every hours.  The one I attended was focused on explosions.  They made it interesting for the children with lots of flashes of light and loud bangs.  At one point they brought out a small cannon and asked for volunteers to be shot  from the cannon.  There were several volunteers.  He called up a couple, carefully examined them and decided they were too large to fit.  In the end, Barbie was inserted into the barrel and was shot across the room to great delight of the audience.

As I  was leaving, I wandered through the Energy Hall.  There was this large metal pole in the center of the room surrounded by floor printing that said “Do Not Touch” but no barriers or railing.  Not surprisingly, the kids approach it gingerly and then touch it.  There is a loud noise and the kids get a mild shock, and then the next kid has to try it too.

I then went next door to the Natural History Museum and spent a few minutes looking at the Hall of Minerals, focusing on the interesting displays of precious and semi-precious gems.  They have some beautiful diamonds, but some truly amazing stones of the other varieties.  I was particularly taken by a perfect 1200 carat clear topaz.  It looks just like a giant diamond.

Rather than spending more time underground, I took the bus back to the hotel.  Knightsbridge is still crowded and if you were basing your observations on the people going in and out of Harrods you would be sure that any recession is certainly over.

Another indication of the state of the economy was dinner.  Since Maxine isn’t up to a long walk or a long dinner (we had originally considered some Michelin starred places) we ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe which is only a few blocks away.  We learned that the one in London is the first one which opened forty-one years ago, and is still in the original location.  We got there around 6, pretty early for London dinner time and still had a short wait.  By the time we were leaving they were quoting 90 minutes to two hours and the place is so small there is no inside waiting area.  People were bundled up sitting in the cold wind and rain.  I guess you must really want a good burger to suffer that much and that long.  We had BBQ sandwiches which were fast and good.  A cold walk back to the hotel and we are now in for the night.  Tomorrow the Eurostar to Brussels.

Tuesday – April 24, 2012

Maxine is still not 100% and after breakfast decided to stay in the hotel and read while I went to Kew to visit the Steam Museum.  The Underground worked incredibly well.  The ticket seller recommended a station for the necessary change of lines and I took his advice.  The train departing the local stating, Green Park, was pulling in just as I got to the platform, so zero wait time.  At the change point, Hammersmith, the train to Kew pulled in parallel to us on the other side of the platform, so again, zero wait time.

At Kew, I was studying the local area map to figure out how to get to the Steam Museum, at the same time some people were trying to figure out the route to the National Archives. Since they were pretty close to each other, I decided to go the Archives first.   It is relatively new building right on the banks of the Thames.  It is open to the public for research and if you want it, they will let you have access to just about anything they have.  I didn’t have any particular research in mind, so just went to the small museum where they have some key items from their collections.  Since this is April, 2012, they of course have a few items about the Titanic.  I was particularly amused by the certificate of seaworthiness filed before she sailed and the death filings for Astor and Ismay.  They also have a few items from the American Revolution including one of the rare July 5th printings of the Declaration of Independence and the British copy of the treaty ending the war.  Not surprisingly, they have copies of several versions of the Domesday Book.  I wasn’t aware that there were several versions. I had only heard of the version of 1067.  There was also one done in about 1300 and then a similar inventory done in the middle 1500s by Henry VIII to  catalog all the property he had seized from the Catholic Church.  I then took a walk along the Thames to get to the Steam Museum.  The river was amazing, I have never seen it this low.  It is impacted by the tidal forces all the way to Kew and apparently beyond.  Most of the boats were lying on their bottoms in the mud and the passenger ferry that runs from Greenwich to Richmond had been cancelled because there wasn’t enough water.  The Steam Museum was very quiet, in fact, I was the only person there.  They don’t fire up the steam except on weekends so there isn’t much to see except for the  innate beauty of the machinery.  I was pleased to see that since I had last been there they have gotten two more of the large beam engines back into working order.  The 90 inch engine is the largest steam engine operational in the world.  Just think about how big that is….a piston over seven feet in diameter.  I hope that they will soon have the funding to rebuild and operate the 100 inch engine.

Maxine was up for a short walk and we went to Prezzo for dinner.  It is a sort of higher end pizza and pasta restaurant.  Excellent salads and pasta, and for London, pretty good value.

Weather forecast for tomorrow is horrible.  Hopefully, the forecasted will be wrong again.

Monday – April 23, 2012

After a surprising good night’s sleep (considering the jet lag) Maxine is a little better but still not ready for serious touring.  Rather than pay the 25 pounds per person charged for breakfast by our hotel, the concierge sent us to a little deli around the corner where we had full English breakfast for 10 pounds for both of us.  Maxine wasn’t happy about her eggs being covered with baked beans, but then again, what do you expect in England.  I was going to go off on my own to my favorite Kew Bridge Steam Museum, but it was closed on Monday so we both spent the day relaxing and reading.  I took a short walk to get UK SIM chips for our phones, very handy for calling each other and for checking with friends, shops and restaurants. The weather is what should be expected this time of the year in England, cold and damp.  We took a short walk in the afternoon to stock up on survival rations like Coke and cookies.  Maxine ended up with two sweaters, a sweatshirt and her outer jacket.  It seemed to be enough, but just barely.  After the afternoon relaxing and reading, I went out and brought back dinner from a local Lebanese Take-Away.  Yummy chicken and lamb wraps with tabouli.

Saturday/Sunday - April 21/22, 2012

Today is our day to head to London, but Maxine is not feeling well.  Should we go?  Should she stay home and rest for a day or two to recover?  Can we change our tickets?  Too bad we didn’t book the British Airways San Francisco to London non-stop.

We started the day by finishing our packing, taking Spencer to the kennel and going to Oakland to spend some time with the kiddies.  We got some quality time with Avi, Hannah and Lily, but Dan spent the time upstairs in bed since he was fighting a cold too.  At about 3pm, Maxine decided to see how she did on the flight, at least as far as our connection point in Los Angeles.  We drove to SFO, parked in the long term lot and went to the American counter to check in.  All went well, our bag was within weight limits, the seats we had pre-booked were there and the clerk handed us our boarding passes.  I looked at them and noticed that our first flight, SFO to LAX was at that point already delayed such that our connection to London was a clear miss, and that was the last flight of the day.

I suggested that they rebook us on the British Air non-stop that was leaving in a couple of hours and would actually arrive before our LA flight.  The clerk agreed and started the process, only then to notice that we were on award (free) tickets.  It took her another 25 minutes on the phone and computer to make the rebooking.  They also had to go in the back and find our checked bag so we could recheck it.

British Air was able to promptly check us in and found us seats together, even if they were middle seats.  Since I have Platinum status on American, we got to us the BA executive lounge.  That provided enough sandwiches and snacks to cover early dinner.  The person in the lounge was even able to find us seats that included an aisle so we weren’t stuck in the middle.

The flight departed right on time and flight time was under 10 hours.  Arrival in London was delayed by a few minutes of circling, but we were still on time.  After we were off the plane, the real delay started.  It took over an hour to get through the passport control lines.  If you think that they would know how many planes are landing and staff passport control appropriately, you would be wrong.  The good part is that after you have spent an hour in a snake line, your bags are waiting for your pick up.  A quick (and expensive) taxi ride took us to our hotel, the Park Lane.  Everything worked there and we were quickly in our room.

London was cold and damp so Maxine didn’t want to go out so room service provided dinner.  Quite good and with the 50% off coupon, quite reasonable.  As usual, the hardest part was staying awake until a reasonable time to try to offset the jetlag.  Maxine had the additional problem of a hacking cough but did manage to get a little sleep.