Taking One (or four) for the Team

Where to begin dear reader? Where to begin?

How about...Belgium! Home to dear friends, delicious chocolate, and really really (did I mention really) great beer.


Now if you've ever been out with me for a night on the town, you know that I am not a cheap date. I don't drink beer. I prefer a good Pinot Noir or a nice mixed drink with spanish flair: mojitos, palomas, etc... But rarely ever beer. Dear reader, I have been converted. Belgians, specifically Belgian monks, know how to do beer. Our first night at Emily and Jack's place was started off and wrapped up with a beer tasting. What I mean is we taste the whole bottle, and some of the beers (such as the blue St. Bernardus bottle) have an alcohol content of 10.5%. So after "tasting" the four beers to my immediate right in the picture, I was having a wonderful cultural experience. Another fun thing about Belgian beers is that each beer has its own special glass. Some glasses make the bubbles do certain things. Others are shaped to build the head and still others to discourage foam. There's a real art to it.

Emily and Jack live in the town of Luven, the biggest college town in Belgium, where Jack is doing his post-doctorate linguistics research. The university is the oldest Catholic university in the world, operating for the last six centuries, and the town is beautiful.


The original city hall takes Gothic decor to a whole new level. Too bad they didn't spend more time on the sculptural program of the building. There just aren't enough little statues under stone canopies for my taste.


This jaunty little fellow is a fountain whose purpose is to denounce brainwashing through education. I agree schools shouldn't brainwash their students; the monk's beer does it just fine.


The university library was bombed in WWII. School libraries from around the world donated books to restock it, and now the names of all the donating libraries are carved into the edifice of the building in fancy script.

After a couple days of relaxing and eating delicious Belgian food (steamed muscles, pork shank, and Flemish stew), we were ready for our next adventure.

Welcome to Amsterdam!









We had a great time roaming the streets and crossing the canals of the city. I checked another souvenir off the list when I bought a pair of European skinny jeans. Skinny leg jeans are in style in the US, but the Europeans take it to a whole new level. It's like the 80's when you had to sew yourself into your jeans (or so I'm told), but nowadays there are zippers on the pants legs to save sewing time.

The redlight district (sorry no pictures) sneaks up on you. At least it did on this tour group of senior citizens that stumbled into it ahead of us. We thought it was a laugh and that seeing the shops and the scantily-clad ladies in windows was a must if you were going to say you'd seen Amsterdam. I'm not sure the white-hairs would have agreed.

The highlight (read as "art historical freak out") of the trip to A'dam was a visit to the Rijks Museum. The interior of the museum is being completely overhauled, so they have a "greatest hits" show up. 12 rooms of the highlights of the Dutch Golden Age, including Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals. We got to see Rembrandt's most famous work, "The Night Watch," and a couple of my personal favorites "Syndics of the Cloth Merchants' Guild" (basically a bunch of old rich dudes in period clothing, but geese it's great) and a self portrait where I think he looks like the orneriest old man ever. Vermeer is never a let down, and I was surprised at some of the what I would consider modern aspects of Rembrandt's and Hal's use of paint. Definitely a stop worth the 12 Euro.

After a couple days in A'dam, it was back to Belgium for some low key sight seeing. The dutch countryside is gorgeous, so we headed out in the car one afternoon and ended up in the town of Namur. Our first stop was the hill top and citadel of the ancient town.




I guess every good citadel needs a creepy old archer's tunnel. While it was fun to see how this place would have been defended in the past, I couldn't believe Barrett and Emily got me to walk into this long dark tunnel of a thing. I didn't know if I should be more on the lookout for ghosts or ferrel animals.


Another gorgeous view from the top without Barrett and me in the way.


The Chateau Namur is also at the top of the hill. It's a hotel and reception hall now. Anyone else thinking of the Shining? Anyone? This place looked so haunted on a cloudy day!


We didn't stoop to McDonald's, but sometimes you just need a fast food break. So we did it dutch style and hit the Quick Burger. They're obviously modeled after Micky D's, but not quite there yet.

After a little local research we decided to ditch Brussels and visit Antwerp.

Barrett and Emily pose for a quick picture at the impressive Antwerp train station.


The original building defies categorization and the subsequent additions for high speed trains makes it truly unique. Jack said he feels likes he's in the league of extraordinary gentlemen when his train pulls into the elevated platforms. And before you ask, I have no idea what "WINKELS" are or why they were on both my left and my right.


The Antwerp cathedral is home to a famous Northern European Renaissance triptych and had a Ruben's show up, but THEY WOULDN'T LET ME IN! We arrived five minutes after the last entry time. So after the ticket taker told me what an awesome show they had, he told me to come back tomorrow, which I couldn't. The worst was that I could see part of the show through the entry way glass, AND there were still people in there milling around. It wasn't closing time. They just weren't letting more people in. Arrgghhh! Art historian torture!


Who loves a gothic portal? I do! I do!


I have no idea what this building is used for, but I thought it was pretty. The statue is some unknown to me hero killing the Antwerp giant. I guess the giant deserved it.


More beautiful buildings on the main square in Antwerp.

We had a phenomenal time hanging out with Jack and Emily and added two new countries to our list. Now it's back to Italy for a couple days of family time till we head back to the US. The final Italy post is forthcoming, and we are getting excited to head back to Oklahoma and move into our new home.

Packing up,
Megan