a last minute trip and goodbye, Belgium

As I begin this post, it is late-Wednesday, August 29/early-Thursday, August 30. We leave tomorrow/today. While Jill and I are both excited to return and get to Connecticut, neither of us is looking forward to tomorrow. We will be traveling or waiting in airports for aprox. 19 hours (travel to the airport in the morning; check-in, customs, etc.; 9 hour flight from Brussels to Philly; 5 hour layover in Philly; two hour flight from Philly to Toronto; travel to Guelph). Obviously, none of this would bother me if it weren't for Milo. The flight here wasn't bad, but it was night and Milo slept. I am SERIOUSLY DREADING tomorrow. Milo really doesn't like being forced to sit somewhere. Trains have been okay because we get up and roam the aisles...and the longest we took while here was just over an hour long. Oh yeah, Jill and Milo are also both sick (head cold of course - the last thing one wants when flying, right?). I can only hope that someone is not seated next to us (oh how I wish we'd had the extra $900 to buy Milo a seat of his own). Anyway...we did take a trip yesterday and there are pics to be posted and shown...

We took the train to Ghent yesterday. Requisite Milo in Stroller Picture:



Upon exiting the train station, we let Milo out of his stroller to stretch his legs. He really wanted to go for a bike ride:



Or play with the tram:



While Jill visited the Museum voor Schone Kunsten van Gent, Milo and I lunched and played in the park:









Milo grew bored, so I invented a game loosely based on Donkey Kong, only starting at the top of the screen and working down...I played DK:



















Milo won:



When Jill finished we walked around the city. Following are some pics of Milo walking around and then a few shots of the city. If Milo's pointing, he's either enamored with a car, bus, or tram...most likely a bus or a tram.























And now for our goodbyes to Brussels/Belgium. We decided that today we'd do a bit of shopping and eat dinner at a restaurant (for only our third time since arriving...much too risky to eat out consistently with Milo...). Oh yeah, Jill also officially declared today The Day of Gaufres and pledged last night she was eating at least 9. While she actually only managed 2 (amazing, I know), we probably had the best Gaufres in Belgium, well, at least the best since 1950:



Here's a shot of Milo eating two of probably the best gaufres (the only reason this pic exists is that Jill didn't want a picture of her eating guafres on the internet...Jill really ate those, not Milo):



After dinner, Jill decided she wanted ice cream, rather than more guafres. At least we had what was probably the best ice cream going:



Alright...that's it. I'm off to put the finishing touches on my packing and then I'm going to bed. I'll update with pics of our voyage when we return to Guelph, as long as Milo doesn't get us kicked off the plane...

From Oostende to Bouillon met de Gouden Boom to boot

It's been 8 days since my last post. Not that big of a deal, except that 8 days is officially the longest amount of time in between posts since our arrival in Belgium. Considering the fact that we leave on Thursday, it'll stand as the longest amount of time in between posts for our entire trip. I think I can live with that (especially since the last post before our trip was like in March or something...retroactive summer posts to come). Anyway...on with the update. After our trip to Luxembourg, we needed a bit of time to recover...well, I did. The bug I caught lingered and the week of rain didn't help. Some good news, though: Milo had his stitches out and the wound is healing nicely. Awesome...first injury down and we didn't freak out (okay...so we almost did when they threatened to gas him and then we almost did again when they had the sharp instruments right next to his eye while he freaked out).

Jill went to Bruges on her own to return to a couple of Museums, while Milo and I hung out here in the apartment. By Friday, though, Milo and I were itching to get out and about. We rented a car for the weekend so we could combine another trip to Bruges with a trip to the ocean in Oostende, both of which were fabulous. First, though, some comments and pictures from Friday afternoon's activities...


Milo in his brand new fancy carseat.

The ruins of the Cistercian abbey of Villers-la-ville - The Cistercians are an order of monks that was founded in the late 11th century. Now, I'm giving this bit of history because Jill and I became quite-well-acquainted with the Cistercians while at Western Michigan, because our department was closely aligned with the Center for Cistercian Studies at WMU (we also think one of our profs, who may or may not have headed the aforementioned center, wanted to travel back through time and kindle a love affair with Bernard of Clairvaux, the most famous Cistercian. This prof also provided Jill with what I think is one of the funniest assessments for a classroom performance that I have ever heard. The class was Christian Theology to 1500 and with her grade, Jill received the accompanying statement, "more grace than merit." Jill maintains that she would have rather received the B+, than have to endure the statement that accompanied her A...If I were her, I personally would have chosen the statement, a bit of grace, and an A, rather than a B+ (I got an A without grace, if you're wondering).

Anyway...the ruins of this Cistercian abbey dates to the mid-12th century. It was simply amazing, perhaps one of the most picturesque sites we've visited here in Belgium. Well, it would have been had they not been setting up for some stupid choir event to take place that night. There were gates and tents and people everywhere...ugh...oh well...















On our way home, we drove by the memorial for the Battle of Waterloo. It's a rather strange memorial and an altogether boring destination, but we were in the neighborhood and figured what the heck, why not?


Butte de Lion, Waterloo Battlefield, Belgium.

On Saturday, after stopping in Bruges to pick up our tickets for the Praalstoet van de Gouden Boom (more in a bit...believe me), we continued on to Oostende. Milo LOVED the ocean. Well, he LOVED the sand, liked the ocean, and really liked being able to walk pretty much wherever he wanted. It was a great time and if we'd known that he would like it so much, we would have probably planned more time there. Anyway, pics:















Okay...so we had to be back in Bruges by 4 for the start of the Pageant of the Golden Tree. It's a parade that takes place every 5 years (since the 1958 world fair) and luckily, we happen to be here in the right year. Now, the parade happens to be a reenactment of the pageant and procession that took place on the occasion of the marriage of Charles the Bold to Margaret of York in 1468. Charles the Bold and Margaret of York happen to be two of the primary people Jill studies for her dissertation, so this was quite fortuitous. Aside from this, though, it was just a strange affair...really strange...but hilarious.

Milo, though, had yet to nap, because he was so wound up from the beach. Here's a pic of me trying to put him to sleep (he finally did fall asleep, right at the beginning of the parade, with drums thumping and trumpets blaring).



First, Finaert, Grimminck, Grauwelinck, Schaarlippe, and Spijkeroen...The Giants! (murderers of Prince Salvaert):





Finaert's head, carried by Liederik's men:



Jill's favorite (favourite)...one of the representatives from the first annual fair, circa 1185 (the pageant for the marriage featured a "history of Bruges" aspect):



Stiltguys are also part of the representation of the first fair:



I just don't think a flock of sheep would show up in a North American parade. But then, there were a number of instances such as this, which happens to be the representation of the lead-up to the 100 years war when England stopped shipping wool to Belgium and Bruges played an instrumental role in having this extremely important commodity shipped once again:



Yeah...something else that one would not see in a North American parade: floats still being pulled by horses:



More slayed giant head:



And body:



While Bruges might reduce the amount of CO2 produced by using horses instead of trucks...the amount of methane...and mess that needs to be cleaned increases exponentially:



Milo woke up for the last quarter of the parade and here he is being scared by the loud band in the background:



Some licks from my double scoop Coffee/Dark Chocolate cone quickly cheered him up, though:



And, finally, for Bruges at least, I couldn't leave you without a couple of pictures of the surroundings:





On Sunday we drove down to Bouillon. We had originally planned to go there on our way to Luxembourg, after our bike ride...but the bike problems forced us to skip it. For any of you Crusades buffs out there...yes, this is the Bouillon that gave birth to Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the first Crusade, the commander of the army that slaughtered Muslims and Jews alike for 3 days after gaining access to Jerusalem, and the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Now, I'm a big proponent of cultural/historical relativity...I mean, we can't hold people of other cultures or historically displaced individuals to the "morals" of our society...but this guy, while significant and influential, was an asshole. And yet, the entire city celebrates the fact he comes from there. Everything is named "The Godfrey," or something similar. It was a nice little town, though, and Godfrey's Chateau is quite the dark, dank, example of an early (10th century, originally) castle. Obviously not fit for a comfortable lifestyle...





Can anyone spot Milo?





Oh yeah...there was a falconer on hand who gave a little show...not quite like SNL depicts a falconer, but interesting nonetheless...good thing Des and Andrew didn't allow Kiwi to accompany us:



Okay...check out the Condor...fricken HUGE...and freaky. It was impressive to see the falconer thrust this beast around with all his might.



Now, CheckThisOut...I have a mega zoom on here, but Jill was right in front of it. This thing wanted to eat Jill and I swear, if the falconer didn't intervene, it would have:



She survived:



Another view of Le Chateau:



After taking a trip into France (so Milo could add another country to his list...6 at 16 months...Ryan, I think Milo just might take over my nickname as the International Man of Mystery), we stopped to take this shot of the Semois River, twisting through the Ardennes: