Posted 12:29 PM by MelanieandSteve
July 7: We actually wrote this blog on June 27, in Belgium, but thanks to unexpected and unsolicited "improvements" in the blogger website program, we couldn't get it to post then.

June 27 (almost Steve's birthday), Last day in Brugge, Belgium:

Do you think we had better luck in Brugge? (See last blog entry) Well, no sooner than we arrived and began to enjoy the town did Steve get bird-pooped on the head. You've got to be pretty lucky for that. But hey, we're not superstitious (even though Steve would never let Mel walk under the ladder next to our hostel) but since then, things have gone just fine. We've spent almost a week in Brugge, Belgium, and we used it as a sort of hub or home base for day trips. (We've come to appreciate the true value of a Eurrail train pass.)

But first, to settle in, we spent one local day taking in the atmosphere of Brugge itself. While the town is loveable and attractive for tourists, one can step off the beaten path and find a virtually silent ghost town with only the occasional local bicyclist riding by with their daily bread and groceries. Brugge is a charming gettaway with its northern renaissance architecture, cobble streets, happening market square sporting lots of Belgium chocolate, waffles, and lace as a backdrop to the periodic clip clopping of horse and carriages and the hourly fortisimo of the church bell tower.

A note on bell towers: If it's true that a bell rings every time an angel gets its wings, then the European Angels must abound in heaven because the chimes flourish from the bell towers everywhere. But European angels must not be very punctual because you certainly couldn't set your watch by the sound of their bells. Towers seem to ring out at will and at random (such as at 20 after the hour, or five before.) The scheduled time for a sonorous chorus can be set, not based on practical time keeping, but on seniority. In Luzerne, for example the city reserves the oldest clock tower the right to ring first each hour; one minute before any other bell... sort of has a political ring to it.

On day two in homebase Brugge, we train-travelled to Waterloo near Brussels of the famed 1815 battle where Napoleon was finally defeated. The "Duke of Wellington Museum" (The Duke is credited with winning the battle) was very informative. The grassy green Lion Hill Monument stood proudly like an egyptian pyramid against the blue sky over the battle field. We walked along a small road admiring it and imagining the thousands of men lined up to fight the bloody bayonette battle, vulnerable and unprotected in the gentle rolling wheat fields (about 50,000 people died that day). Now, the serene hush of the waiving grasses only conveys a quiet peace. This was the beginning of a string of battles we'd come to understand more deeply through travel.

Belgians are very proud of their lace, chocolates, mussels, and beer. Belgians brag that they have over 400 kinds of beer and that a person can sample a beer a day and be here well over a year. We would be glad to stay for a year, but we'd sample the chocolates which clearly outnumber the beers.

A few final notes:

Steve got a perm. Remember, he shaved his head when ge left his job. Until now, his hair has been our calendar. We'd travelled about 4 inches, when his hair started getting in his eyes. Rather than lose the calendar, Steve curled it. He looks great with his soft spiral locks.

Melanie has enjoyed observing how language differences fall more on a gradiant than on a lolid division. Belgiums's Flemmish words and Amsterdam's Dutch words often sounded like a mix between German and English.

Travel brings books to life. For example, Melanie read "A Tale of Two Cities" after we visited London and Paris. The book took on vivid dimensions after having known its sites and settings personally. In Switzerland, Evi, who knew we were planning to go to Normandy, gave us the book "The Longest Day." The book captivatingly describes personal accounts of the events of D-Day on June 6 1944. It was a perfect preview for what we saw next. (Now we're getting ahead of this "June 27 log" - stay tuned for next log.)