Sewpippy

It was not a hard decision to leave Fairbanks, Alaska - while it was experiencing yet another cold snap (-45F on Tuesday morning) and to head south - really south! So the wisdom of EIC's and my decision that going somewhere warm in January after the holiday seemed just short of devine intervention! We left Fairbanks at 10am, and flew to Anchorage (going from -45F to -5F). From Anchorage we flew into Seattle, only to learn that a major snow storm was right on our tails! We were VERY anxious to "get out of there" before flights started getting cancelled. Our flight left Seattle at 10:40pm, and the snow hit sometime around midnight! Whew! When we arrived in Miami the temperature was 68F. Miami airport felt like a foreign country - English is definately not the ... read more

Today was another hot day - was 91F, humid and cloudy - the weather report called for 70% chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. I felt like I got no sleep at all due to the hot weather - and was feeling pretty puny - so we hung around the apartment trying to get past the hottest part of the day. We needed to return the bikes today - so we finally headed out around the city - taking the scenic route! We had lunch in the park - Jean wanted to stop there yesterday, but I thought we hadn't biked far enough yet - so no stopping yet. We had a great lunch and felt like true locals - they got us an English menu, but it left off all the great Flemish food, so ... read more

The weather man called for cloudy and 0% precipitation! A biking day indeed! We chose a biking route that would take us out of town and along what looked like canals, some of our favorite riding! We headed to Deurne, a town of 70,000 that dates back to 1185, from there we biked to Wijnegem, one of the most expensive municipality of the Flanders with a small population of only 8,800. Wijnegem has the biggest Shopping Mall in the Benelux, oh dear, we were with the chickens and the roosters and missed it, oh me oh my! This is where we picked up the Albert Canal, a very very wide canal! The riding along the canal was wonderful, no big wind, and although it was cloudy there was no rain! It was a very busy day ... read more

The first thing we did was to check the weather report - 70% chance of rain in Antwerp, so then I checked Brugge (where we spend 3 weeks, 2 years ago), there was a mere 30% chance of rain in Brugge. It was raining already in Antwerp, our shoes had not dried out yet and we were dubious to spend another day wet. SO - off to the train station (by foot) we headed. When I went to use my camera on the way to the train station - I found that it was water logged from yesterday! DRAT DRAT DRAT. We jumped on a train to Brugge as I was oh so sad to not be able to take pictures. When we arrived in Brugge we felt like such veterans as we jumped on the ... read more

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 First, Happy Birthday to our youngest daughter! Have a wonderful day celebrating! While I was up and about early, Jean was sure that she should sleep until noon - or at least sleep until she was sure she could sleep no more. By 8am I think I "guilt-ed" her into thinking she should be up - as I was up, bed made, breakfast eaten, showered and dressed! We began our day heading back to the bike shop we had found, only to be told that no, they did not rent bikes. The young man sent us to the Central train station. Here we found bikes for rent (red bikes) that are checked in and out of parking stations through out town, set up like a borrowing short commuter stations. They are set ... read more