June 21 Saturday: Brugge, Belgium

Jack's computer died. It was a netbook and we hardly ever use it at home, so we will not replace it. My netbook is working, but occasionally acts a little strange. I am backing up everyday, just in case!

We arranged for another night's stay here in the same campground, since we still haven't seen old town Brugge and that is why we are here. We bought a discounted package of ten bus tickets so we can go back and forth to the old town today and tonight, but when we got to the bus stop, we found the bus drivers were on a one-day strike. These one-day strikes are fairly common here.

 So we walked the 1 mile to the bridge over the moat that leads through the ancient gates into the town center and then walked another mile to get to the central square. This old part of town is large, probably two or three square miles and we spent the day wandering all around. We had lunch at an outdoor cafe that included a glass of Belgian beer – wonderful! We were surprised to find that none of these tiny streets were pedestrian only and traffic and tourists all competed for the small cobblestone sidewalks. And then there are the bicycles! We have never seen so many bicycles – not even in Colorado! They are everywhere, making walking and driving quite a challenge, especially in tight spaces and at crossroads.  

Grand Square where we had lunch

We took a horse carriage tour so we could get an overview of the city that is interspersed with canals and these wonderful swans.

We then went directly to the church with Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child. This is reportedly the only Michelangelo sculpture that left Italy and is the one in the movie, Monument Men that they rescued from the Germans (and Russians) by pushing it out of the mine near the end of the movie.
 It was quite a distance away, so could not make out details and it appeared smaller than we expected, but we did notice that it seemed unusual that Mother and Child are looking away from each other.

We loved Brugge, but walking on cobblestones is very hard on the feet and legs, so when we had enough we grabbed a taxi back to the campground where they refunded our useless bus tickets. A quiet evening sitting outside in the beautiful weather. Are we really here????

Friday, June 20: Brugge, Belgium

The wonders of a good night's sleep. Up around 9am, coffee and breakfast and wow – time for another nap. We sorted and organized the RV and checked with the office about an adapter. Sure, they had one, so we bought that and our fancy new step down transformer worked like a charm. We have electricity!!

We headed to a Carrefour to do some grocery shopping. It is a French 'hyperstore' the original big box store that spawned WalMart. It was a bit of challenge because everything is in Dutch, but we managed to figure most things out. Although I am sure we are in for a few surprises when we open some of the condiments and spices I bought.

The weather was cool and cloudy all morning, but the sun came out when we were leaving the grocery store. We returned to the RV for a late lunch. We couldn't figure out the difference between the blue and green labels on the mayonnaise, but the blue label tasted good – a bit thicker and creamier than our usual brand.

Jack spent a couple of hours chasing financial information and recording our expenses. An expensive couple of days, but things should settle down now that we have all the big ticket items purchased.

Today was a maintenance day just catching up with life's ordinary errands. Tomorrow we plan to spend the day in the old town section of Brugge, just a mile or so away. The entire town has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and we are looking forward to exploring the town and seeing Michelangelo's famous Madonna and Child that some of you may have seen in the recent movie, Monument Men.

Thursday, June 19 Belgium

From our wanderings last night, here are photos of the beautiful Victorian era indoor shopping mall, and the choice of Belgian waffles from a street vendor and a side street full of restaurants.  

After a great complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we retrieved euros from an ATM, and took a taxi to Brussel's Central Station. Jack worked on checking the automated scheduler while I went to the information window to obtain our tickets to Zeebrugge, the port where L'il Guy awaits.  

The train was spotless, silent and smooth for the hour ride to Brugge where we had to change trains to Zeebrugge. I managed to leave our tickets on the train and so had to purchase inexpensive tickets for the short hop to Zeebrugge. We got off the train and there we were – all by ourselves and no one around. I walked into what I thought was the train station that had been converted to a senior citizen's center where a group was eating and another was playing RummyCub. Luckily, a woman spoke English and she called a cab for us. It arrived in about five minutes and the cabbie took us the three miles or so right to the door of the Importer/Exporter Logistics Firm. I got in line behind five or six drivers who were bringing in or getting paperwork to pick up or delivery vehicles from a ship that had just anchored.

Our Shipping Company's Office in Zeebrugge

Our First Glimpse of L'il Guy being delivered to us from the port, sans front wheel covers

 They were so busy, it took one and a half hours to get the RV brought to us, sans front wheel covers. Jack quickly figured out they were inside because they had to remove them to anchor the vehicle on the ship. Everything was in perfect working order and we drove away using our new GPS looking for a gas station with Liquid Propane Gas (LPG) that we were told would be readily available – NOT!! 

We drove through very pretty countryside with quaint farm homes with loads of flowers and through a couple small towns on our way to our campground with no propane anywhere. We stopped for diesel fuel paying just over $6.00 a gallon, but way cheaper than gasoline.

We abandoned looking for the propane and went to the campground where we checked in and quickly left to find the station the woman at the desk told us would have propane. No luck there, but I used my new data plan on our phone to look up another station where the woman spoke English and showed us how to work the pump that is really meant for propane-powered automobiles and we didn't even need one of those dopey adapters that I worried so over during preparations. The propane took no time at all and then we stopped at an Aldi's, a grocery name we recognized. Same as the States, bulk quantities, limited selection, but we were able to get a few things for dinner plus bottled water, etc. Grocery shopping is a challenge because we cannot read the Flemish (Dutch) labels and things are just ….different! For example, Jack got a beautiful looking head of red leaf lettuce and when I pulled it out of the plastic bag, it came with its dirt ball!!!  

Back to the RV, absolutely exhausted, to find that our even with all of our electrical adapters, we still couldn't find one that fit the campground plug. The office was closed and so we spent the night without electric, but not really a problem because we cooked our dinner on the propane stove, the refrigerator was running our propane and it stayed light until after 10pm. Early to bed.

Quite a stressful day, maneuvering through the train stations, the shipping port, struggling to find propane, figuring out food shopping, and finding our electric situation was going to need some serious help. Ahhhh, the joys of travel.