Wednesday, April 7th, Katie, Wes, Vera, Cindy, Dave, and I took the Thalys from Ghent to Paris, arriving at about nine o’clock in the morning. That evening, Steph and Keagan arrived from Germany. For three days we explored Paris and Versailles, seeing many of the main sights, including a few that were new to me: Sainte-Chapelle, the catacombs, the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Medici fountain, and Les Invalides. Steph left Friday morning to return home to the U.S. via Brussels, and Keagan headed back to Muenster.
Rather than write about Paris, I decided to try something new and make a slideshow. It takes you through all three days of sight seeing in under five minutes! The music is by Yann Tiersen from the movie Amelie.
Next up: Spain.
Our life during the last month has been busy, to say the least. As mentioned in my last post (long ago!), Katie’s family was here beginning April 2nd, and for two weeks we traveled all over the place. Just a few days before her folks were to go home, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption in Iceland caused the closure of most northern European airports, including Brussels, stranding them here for an extra week. The day of their eventual departure, April 23rd, coincided with the arrival of MY mom and aunt for a one week visit. Finally, wrapping up a month full of visitors, our Norwegian friend Merethe was here yesterday and today. Even without going into much detail, multiple posts will be needed to cover everything. My rather ambitious goal is to get all caught up this week, but we’ll have to see how things go.
So….
Dave, Cindy, and Steph arrived by U.S. Airways at the main Brussels airport Friday morning, April 2nd. Katie and Danre had gone there by train to meet them. It was a happy reunion!
Just arrived
In the meantime, I picked up a rental van that we had reserved for the weekend. It was a diesel stick-shift Mercedes Vito. This was the first time that I had driven in Belgium, and I have to admit that it was initially nerve-racking. It took me ten minutes to figure out how to put it in reverse (I eventually had to ask the rental place guy), and then when I came to my first roundabout, I got stuck in the middle lane just like Homer did when the Simpsons went to London. By the time I got to the airport to pick everyone up, though, I was feeling more-or-less comfortable. Our friend Jelle had given us a child’s car seat for Wes, and I bought another one at Carrefour for Vera. I also bought a GPS there, which came in extremely handy. From the airport we went to St. Peter’s Station in Ghent to pick up Steph’s boyfriend, Keagan, then back to our apartment, where we relaxed and opened presents from home.
With luggage outside the apartment
Unpacking gifts at Baudelostraat
American Idol 2010 season courtesy of Nick, and Mountain Dew
Vera with her new mobile from Auntie Steph
Grandparents and grandkids
We got everyone checked in to their respective hotels, gave an abbreviated tour of Ghent, ordered a couple of pizzas, and then went to sleep.
Making plans
Sint-Baafsplein, Ghent (Cindy photo credit)
View of Ghent from the top of the belfort (Cindy photo credit)
Dusk in Ghent (Cindy)
Baudelostraat (Cindy)
First thing Saturday morning we piled into the van and drove 3 hours to Amsterdam, making a stop along the way to visit the world-famous Keukenhof gardens. It was too early in the season for most of the tulips at Keukenhof, but it was still beautiful. There was an authentic Dutch windmill, a playground and petting zoo for Wes, and several indoor gardens. Once in Amsterdam, we had lunch, took a boat tour on the canals, and saw the Anne Frank Museum. It was rainy for most of the day, but it didn’t slow us down much besides dissuading us from waiting in the long, outdoor line for the Rijksmuseum. On the way back to Ghent, we made a midnight stop in Brugges, arriving home about 1 a.m.
Grandma Borgen and Wes
Keukenhof orchid
Keukenhof windmill
Wes and Auntie Steph in the playground
Wes says, "Oh my."
I Am-sterdam
Waiting for the boat tour
Canal-side mansion
Determined tourists
Our trusty Mercedes rental van parked in the rain
Sunday, April 4, was Easter Sunday. We attended mass at St. Bavo’s Cathedral, ate a terrific Belgian lunch at Du Progres in the Korenmarkt, and then had an Easter egg hunt for Wes at the park. In the afternoon, we visited Ooidonk Castle in Deinze, a small city located about 10 km southwest of Ghent. We had dinner at one of our Turkish places in Ghent.
Easter egg hunt
Found some!
Ooidonk Castle
Big horse
Unloading after a long day
Monday morning, Steph and Keagan left by train for Germany while the rest of us drove to Ieper, a medieval Flemish city that was the site of some of the most brutal and prolonged fighting of the First World War. It is better known by its French name, Ypres. I have been wanting to visit Ypres since last fall, and especially since finishing Robert Graves’s excellent memoir, Goodbye to All That. Graves details his experiences in the trenches, and in Ypres you can see and learn about them firsthand. Ongoing battles took place there over the course of the war, with a half-million troops (British, French, Canadian, and German) dying to move the battle lines by only a few miles. Ypres saw the very first gas attacks, including the first deployment of Mustard gas. Although it was never occupied by the Germans, the city was completely descimated by shelling. Amazingly, it was rebuilt in exacting detail following the war, and today looks much as it did when it was a center of the cloth trade during the Middle Ages. We toured St. Martin’s Cathedral, went through the In Flanders Fields Museum , explored the authentic Yorkshire Trench outside of town, and visited Tyne Cot cemetery, the single largest Commonwealth grave outside of the UK. After our daytrip, I reluctantly returned the van to Europcar.
In front of the giant cloth hall in the center of Ypres
Spire of St. Martin's Cathedral, Ypres
Katie and Vera walking near the Menin Gate in Ypres
Katie and Vera at the "In Flanders Fields Museum", Ypres
Display showing the rapid evolution of WWI gas masks
WWI gas canister
Former battle field outside of Ypres near Tyne Cot cemetery
Wes and Grandpa explore the so-called Yorkshire Trench. Notice the light industrial development in the background.
Iron tubes for launching mortars from behind the trench
A grim perspective from the trench
Near an A-frame, a major technical innovation in trench warfare. They were placed at the bottom of the trenches, saving the soldiers to some extent from the constant mud and water.
Tyne Cot Cemetery toward evening
Wes in Tyne Cot
Vera all tired out in her car seat
Wes all tired out
Tuesday morning we went to Brussels in hopes of getting Vera a temporary passport. We had made her passport application about a week earlier, but it wasn’t ready yet and we needed it for our upcoming trip to Spain. Amazingly, her real passport arrived at the U.S. embassy with the afternoon mail that very day, averting a potential crisis. We took the opportunity of being in Brussels to see the Belgian Comic Strip Center. The highlight for me was seeing the Tintin information and memorabilia. I loved Tintin as a kid, and in fact I own the whole set of books. Tintin was the creation of the Belgian author Herge.
Belgian Comic Strip Center, Brussels
Dan with Tintin and Captain Haddock
Vera and Grandpa Borgen
Wednesday morning we took the Thalys to Paris. I will pick up with Paris in the next post.
The next two weeks are spring break for me, and we have organized a big European family vacation. Katie’s mom, dad, and sister (Cindy, Dave, and Stephanie Borgen) flew into Brussels from the U.S. Friday morning. Steph’s boyfriend, Keagan, arrived in Ghent by train a couple of hours later from Muenster, Germany, where he is studying. It is so nice to see familiar faces from home. We spent yesterday in and around Amsterdam, and today we visited a castle in Deinze, a village just south of Ghent. We have plans to explore Belgium, Paris, and the east coast of Spain. I likely won’t be blogging from the road, but I promise a thorough account of our travels upon our return. Happy Easter!
De wereld van Kina is Ghent’s kid-friendly natural history museum. “Kina” is a contraction of the Dutch words kinderen, meaning children, and natuur, meaning nature. The museum has two campuses located on opposite sides of the city: the main museum in Sint-Pietersplein, and the garden near St. Luke’s Hospital. Today we visited just the garden. It’s still a little early in the season for most of the plants, but it was interesting nonetheless. The crocuses were in full bloom, the bees were busy in their hive, and the greens, browns, and blacks of early spring suited the gloomy statuary. An interpretive center featured bee and spider exhibits, and had a cute exploratory area with papier-mache animal scenes, a slide, and a puppet theater. It was relaxing to have Wes at a museum where he could roam freely and touch what he saw. A curator was on hand to show us the tarantula collection. Wes, Katie, and I got to touch the furry belly of a live tarantula.
Entrance to the gardens of "De wereld van Kina"
Crocuses
Spring flowers
Hen art
Grotesque sculpture illsuited to a children's garden
Katie gives a puppet show in the exploration room
Papier-mache elephant playing guitar in her living room
Tarantula
Maybe we are just self-conscious, but we sometimes sense Belgian ladies looking at Wes’s pacifier with disapproval. There was an odd installation in the garden that reinforced this feeling. Pacifiers where hanging from the branches of a tree by individual ribbons, each bearing a different name and date, like a pacifier burial ground of some kind.
Pacifier graveyard in the trees
The garden is within easy walking distance of us, and free if you don’t go into the interpretive center, which is free for kids but 2.50 Euro for adults. We’ll revisit it later in the spring to see how it has changed.
After our garden visit, Wes played at a nearby park and then we had a late lunch at one of our Turkish places.
Tube slide
Our kids are sometimes most adorable when they are unhappy.
Post-hairwashing
Mildred
Lastly, and unrelated to Belgium, kids, or music, here’s a link to an interesting and entertaining blog post that was featured on WordPress this week: Top 10 Places You Don’t Want to Visit.
Filed under: Expat | Tags: Consular Report of Birth, Passport, U.S. Embassy in Brussels
To establish Vera’s U.S. citizenship, we had to appear with her at the U.S. Consulate in Brussels. We made applications for a Consular Report of Birth, U.S. passport, and Social Security number. The whole visit lasted about an hour, and went very smoothly. Security was tight at the facility, but everyone was friendly, especially the consular that interviewed us, who happened to be a big music lover.
U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Brussels
Citizenship appointment
Before and after Vera’s appointment, we explored Brussels. Given how close we live – just half an hour by train – we know surprisingly little of Brussels beyond the central tourist area. Katie called it “mini Paris.” It has grand buildings, high-quality museums, and French is the primary spoken language. At the same time, it is much smaller than Paris, and there is a lot of English on signs, menus, etc.
We visited the Cathedrale Sts. Michel et Gudule, Brussels most important (though not largest) church. Afterward, Wes played in the Parc de Bruxelles, located across the street from the Embassy.
Cathedrale Sts. Michel et Gudule
Playground of Parc de Bruxelles
After the appointment, we had a quick lunch at Panos (an ultra-popular broodje chain), and then a waffle, ice cream, and coffee in the Grand Place.
Broodjes at Panos
Wes and his Vol-au-vent (Chicken pot pie)
Waffle and ice cream in the Grand Place
Katie played with Wes in a park near the Central Station while I went to Lemca, Belgium’s largest music retailer, to try mouthpieces. Then we went to the Musee Instrumentale, a superb collection of musical instruments housed in a classic Art Nouveau building. Brussels is full of Art Nouveau architecture, and this particular building was built in 1899 to be an “Old England” department store. It has housed the instrument collection since 2000. As you move through the museum, you hear musical demos on headphones. Whenever you stand in front of a display case, you hear a performance on that particular instrument. This was especially interesting on the world music floor, which presented many sounds that were new to me. Among the 6,000 instruments in the collection, there is a full set (bari, tenor, alto, soprano) of Adolphe Sax’s saxophone prototypes. Sax was from Dinant, a French-speaking city in the south of Belgium.
Art Nouveau building that now houses the Musee Instrumental
Full set of Adolphe Sax's saxophone prototypes
Alto sax prototype
Listening to sound samples in the instrument museum
After the museum, we strolled through a fancy neighborhood called the Sablon and up to the Justice Palace. We spent some time in a garden, passed a section of the old city wall, and rode a cool outdoor elevator. Wes was the Energizer Bunny all day, minus a short stroller nap. Vera, meanwhile, was perfectly content in the Baby Bjorn.
Section of the old city wall
Wes and Mommy taking in the view
The outdoor elevator
Getting ready to ride the elevator
Wes on the move
Content in the Bjorn
Over the weekend, we went to two more Ghent museums and a carnival. If you’re weary of museum posts, I can’t say I blame you. I promise more variety in coming weeks!
Saturday we walked over to the Museum of Industrial Archaeology and Textile (MIAT). Textiles have been critical in Ghent’s economic past, and this museum is full of machines, documents, paintings, models, and clothing samples that tell the story. It focuses on the industrial revolution and the labor movement, but covers a lot of other ground as well. Wes didn’t like the ground floor for some reason – he kept saying, “Yucky one. Leave now.” - but he did like the upper floors, as the exhibits were quite hands on. Picture taking was forbidden inside, so I only have a couple of exterior shots.
The Museum for Industrial Archeology and Textile
One of the big machines outside the museum
Sunday we went to the Kunsthal Sint-Pietersabdij (Art Museum of Saint Peter’s Abbey) in the southeast corner of Ghent. Admission is free on Sundays before 1 p.m. for Ghent residents. Saint Peter’s Abbey was founded in the 7th Century, and for a period during the middle ages was the wealthiest and most powerful abbey in the Lower Netherlands (Flanders). The last monks were expelled in 1796, and the grounds have since served as army barracks, a prison, and most recently as a museum. Currently, there is a fascinating exhibit at the museum about the European importation of Chinese goods from the 16th to 19th Century. It was big business, and the Dutch and Flemish were right at the center of it. Shards of Chinese porcelain dating from the 11th or 12th Century have been unearthed on the Abbey grounds. The exhibit traces the development of the trade through the centuries and the evolution of the goods themselves. We had lunch at the museum cafe, spent some time in the exhibit, and wandered the beautiful hallways, courtyards, and gardens of the cloisters. Again, photography was prohibited indoors.
St. Peter's Church, Ghent
Abbey with ruins
The cloisters of St. Peter's Abbey, viewed from the garden
An inner courtyard
Herb garden (sage and rosemary) and orchard
Wes in the Abbey vineyard, which was only recently replanted. He called it his "house."
St. Peter's Church (Katie photo credit)
After leaving the museum, we spent about an hour at a carnival in the large square in front of the Abbey. Some of you may remember the video I shot of Wes crossing this square shortly after we arrived in Ghent. It was a bit strange spending a quiet morning in the Abbey and then roaming a carnival on its very doorstep, but we’ve come to embrace such incongruities in Ghent. Wes and I went on a ride together, and then Wes went on a car ride all by himself. I bought a “spicy” brat that wasn’t at all spicy, but was still good. There was an insane-looking ride that was your basic circular swing, only hundreds of feet in the air. I might go back later this week to try it.
An odd juxtaposition
The carnival in St. Peter's Square
Wes on his car ride. He's having more fun that he lets on.
"Spicy" brat
Insane-looking swing ride
Finally, a picture and a video of our sweet little girl, Vera.
Vera at bath time
Historically, I am not a coffee drinker. Until just a couple of years ago, I had no interest in coffee whatsoever. Toward the end of my DMA, though, I started drinking coffee at school as a pick-me-up in lieu of Coke. Then, last spring, I played a Brahms Sonata on a friend’s recital. I must have shown up to rehearsal a few times with coffee in hand, because after the concert she presented me with a $50 Starbucks gift card as a “thank you” for playing. By the time I had spent it, I had come to really enjoy a nice cup of coffee now and then.
Here in Ghent, Katie and I have a few coffee shops that we like. When I say “coffee shop,” I don’t mean “cafe.” There are a million cafes, but not so many coffee shops. Coffee shops, as I see it, specialize in coffee, open and close relatively early, don’t serve much (if any) alcohol, and have a counter where you order and pay. Cafes, by contrast, serve all kinds of drinks and a variety of food, open and close later, have waiters or waitresses, and usually have a sea of outdoor seating. You can get coffee at cafes, too, of course, but it’s not their main thing.
Anyway, our favorite coffee shops (so far) are Barista and Mokabon. The two are quite different. Barista has stark white walls, high ceilings, big windows, palm plants, and goes for a Cuban or Columbian type of vibe. It has at least two locations that we know of, but the one we usually go to is just off Vrijdagmarkt near the Groot Kanon (Great Canon).
Barista near Vrijdagmarkt
Mokabon is a Ghent fixture that has been in the same small Donkersteeg (Dark Alley) store front since 1937. I would guess that little has changed over the years. Katie and I only recently started going here, but we already feel like regulars. It has a cozy, unpretentious interior that is all dark wood and mirrors. You seat yourself, and then a waitress takes your order. She gives you a little receipt with your drinks or food, and you pay at the register on your way out. The coffee is really good, and comes with a little side plate of whipped cream. When we were there today we got Wes a waffle. I have learned that there are two types of waffles in Belgium. The kind we encounter most frequently in Flanders is dense, gooey, and sweet, and is a street food that you can carry with you. The other type is sometimes called a “Brussels” waffle (at least around here it is), and is a fluffy, light one that most closely resembles what we call a “Belgian Waffle” in the U.S.
Mokabon
Coffee at Mokabon
Brussels style waffel
A standard cup of coffee here, FYI, is stronger and thicker than at home. It is somewhere between an espresso and a regular coffee. If you want regular coffee, you order an “Americano.” If you want to know more about the coffee scene in Belgium, here’s a guy with an entire blog about it.
In Belgium, soup and broodjes are the most popular lunchtime foods. Brood is the Dutch word for bread, and broodjes are sandwiches. They take half a baguette, slice it the long way, and put on the toppings and sauces of your choosing. Broodjes run 2.50 to 4 Euro. There is a bakery kitty-corner from our apartment called Broodway, and we go there for pastries, fresh bread, and broodjes. Lately, we have been wondering what’s going on at Broodway. They have taken down their exterior signage, changed the bread they use for broodjes, and eliminated most of their interior seating. Maybe it’s in our heads, but they also have seemed a little less friendly. Looking for an alternative, we decided to give Broodpunt a try instead, a similar type of place located on the same corner as our apartment. For some reason we had only been in there once or twice before for a pastry or drink, but never broodjes. We were very impressed! Katie ordered the Cetona, which comes with Ganda Ham (a thinly-sliced cured meat along the lines to prosciutto), sundried tomatoes, shaved parmesan, olive oil, and tuinkers (a fresh herb like watercress). I had the Martino, which comes with americain, pickles, anchovies, mostard, martino sauce, and Tabasco sauce. Americain is hard to explain, but it is sort of a puree of steak tartare. If someone can tell me what it has to do with America, I would be very interested to know. It’s also called prepare. Anyway, the martino has all of my favorite condiments on one sandwich, and it tastes great.
Broodpunt
Our corner. Our apartment building is the orange brick corner one, with Broodpunt immediately on its left.
Continuing in our recent efforts to see more of Ghent, we hit two new places today: the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen nature reserve on the outskirts of town, and the popular Design Museum in the center.
The nature reserve was featured on another blog that I ran across, and Katie and I both agreed that it looked like a nice change of pace.
Entrance to Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen Nature Reserve
Some vegetation
Katie, Wes, and Vera on our path
In the afternoon we tried to go to a puppet show, but it was sold out. Instead, we went to the Design Museum, yet another museum of Ghent that we had yet to visit. It features furniture, glassware, silver, appliances, and other household items from the last few hundred years, but mostly from the 20th Century. It has an extensive permanent collection, a number of period rooms, plus a couple of levels with special exhibitions. Very interesting! I found it ironic, however, that a design museum was built with no public elevator, making it difficult for the disabled, elderly, and people like us with kids in strollers.
Design Museum Ghent
Wes observing the Merry-Go-Round
A fun, interactive whiteboard
We are always finding new shops and restaurants in Ghent, including on streets where we have walked many times. We ran across this cute candy shop today on the Kraanlei. I must have passed 50 times before without noticing it.
A candy shop in the Patershol area of Ghent
When we visited the Dr. Guislain Museum of Psychiatry last Sunday, an old picture in one of the exhibits caught my eye:
Old picture of St. John's House
It had the following description:
One of the fist madhouses of Western Europe was established in Ghent in 1196: the Sint-Janshuis (St. John’s House) or Sint-Jan-ten-Dullen. It offered shelter to travellers, succor to the poor and served as an institution for lunatics.
I recognized the building. It’s just a block from our apartment, across from Sint-Jacobskerk, and is now an antique store specializing in art, Gallerie St. John. Coincidentally, this builing is also the former home of Saint John’s Anglican Church, which we visited last fall in its new location.
St. John's today
Galleries St. John
Commemorative plaque
Katie and Vera both had check-ups at the doctor this week, Katie on Tuesday and Vera on Wednesday. Katie has healed very well. During her visit, she was able to get a picture with the surgeon that did the C Section.
Katie with Vera and her surgeon
Vera is also doing well, weighing in at 12.65 lbs. She had her first round of vaccinations.
Baby Vera
Baby Vera
Wes has fairly diverse tastes in food, but peanut butter on bread is still his favorite. He calls it “Pea-buh bed.”
Oranges and "PEA-buh bed"
For the last year or so, we have been using a Fujifilm Finepix camera to document our life. Unfortunately, I have nothing good to say about it other than that it is very small. The pictures that make the cut for this blog are typically selected from among ten times as many fuzzy, dark, or washed out ones. Even the Fuji photo editing software is lousy. I have been frustrated by this camera literally from the day we got it. About two weeks ago, my friend Donna posted pictures on Facebook of her summer vacation in London and France, and I was struck by their quality. These were artistic, inspiring, evokative images, not drab snap shots. They reminded me of the crisp pictures I used to get on previous travels with my Dad’s Olympus 35mm. So, with four months left of our European adventure, and with two kids who look more grown up every day, I resolved to take the plunge and buy a decent camera. Donna told me she has a DSLR made by Nikon. I settled on the entry-level Nikon D3000, and I bought it yesterday. You know you’ve made a smart purchase when you later find yourself asking, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” After just one day with this camera, I am kicking myself for not getting it months ago.
Today, Sunday, March 7, 2010, was cold and clear, perfect for a test drive. We made the usual rounds:
Bargain hunting in the Sint-Jacob flea market
Sunday bird market. Probably the strangest market in Ghent, when you think about it.
Wes crossing the Zuivelbrug. Who dresses this kid?
Book market
Vera staying warm in the Bjorn
We then took the 1 Tram to one of Ghent’s more unique museums, the Dr. Guislain Museum, a museum of psychiatry. It is housed in a wing of an authenic, still operating, psychiatric hospital. The hospital, or asylum, was completed in 1857 and was one of the first ever established on the belief that insanity was a disease that could be treated. Dr. Guislain, a Belgian pioneer in the field of psychiatry, conceived, designed, and directed the institution. It was intentionally built outside the city walls, in a tranquil natural setting where the patients could be at ease.
Plans for the asylum (image from www.museumdrguislain.be)
Over the years, urban Ghent has expanded and encompassed the hospital grounds, but it’s a rather different looking part of Ghent than the one with which we have become familiar. It is an area of light industry and concrete apartment blocks.
Tram stop near the museum
The psychiatric campus itself is more-or-less in its original condition. Shutter Island or One Flew Over Over the Cuckoo’s Nest come to mind.
The grounds of the asylum
Water tower?
The main entrance of the museum
We saw the museum’s permanent collections of psychiatric artifacts and “outsider” art, plus a special exhibition on memory.
Electroshock device (left) and straight jacket (on the bed)
Patient facilities (Katie photo credit)
A view from the interior
A creepy art installation
Most of all, though, we enjoyed strolling through the gardens, courtyards, and hallways of the old buildings.
Architectural details of inner courtyard (Katie photo credit)
Architectural details (Katie)
Wes in the garden
In the courtyard of the asylum (Katie photo credit)
Signs of spring (Katie)
Chapel
We spent a few hours at the museum, rode the tram home, had coffee at Mokabon in the Ghent center, and wrapped up the day with a pasta dinner and Skype call with the Borgens and Grandma Rickabaugh. It was a fun and relaxing day, and it would be hard to overstate how satisfied I am with the new camera. I look forward to learning how to use it more effectively, and thereby keeping you up to date in vivid, colorful detail.
