Blogs from Brugge, Saint-Raphael, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 8

Our little tour of Europe continue today to the north. We woke up in rainy Luxembourg, and drove three hours through the rain to Brugge. I wanted to stop in Louvain-la-Neuve, the University town where I studied...but the rain was too much for Ma'ri and I to give it a proper stop. Louvain-la-Neuve is a new city, established in 1968 form the departure of french speaking students of the city of Leuven. At the origin, back in 1968, the city "remained" a construction site for years. I did study here back in 1991 to 1996...at the time, the population was around 25,000, half of us students. Today the "student town" has mutated in a proper city, with the students being a minority. But Louvain-la-Neuve keep her main amazing specificity. The car are "under" the city, while ... read more

On Friday, May 29 we arrived nice and early at the airport. Because our trip had been delayed by one week, we had to scrap the nonstop flight from DC to Brussels, and change to a one-stop via Munich, meaning we would arrive in Brussels 5 hours later than planned. That's not a big deal for a two week trip, but a non-stop is nicer, and as luck would have it, the nice gate attendant switched us back to the direct Brussels flight! Of course a thunder storm caused our flight to be delayed by almost two hours, but it was still a good deal. Plus we were upgraded to the more spacious economy plus section. We arrived in Brussels on a bright and sunny Saturday morning and made easy train connections to downtown Brussels and ... read more

All our family arrived on Tuesday and the flu hit the house on Wednesday. Emily, Christine and Josh are the lone standing soldiers that it has not hit - and with Eric getting sick yesterday we are hoping that all else will be spared! Blake is being a trooper - sleeps soundly, smiling and waving at everyone and being good about being in the stroller on cobblestones! We have discovered Brugge - and the gang went to Gent on day - I think I slept through that day! Christine and company head out in the morning for two days in Amsterdam, and J2 head to Milan for the night tomorrow. Hope that BAM has a GREAT Sunday! Jean, BAM and I will take the train to Brussels on Monday to meet up with J2. Hope to ... read more

Sunday - HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! Today we spent a relaxing day in Brugge - we thought we would see what the town of Brugge looks like on a summer (early) weekend. We headed off to church and came upon St. Salvator cathedral as the bells were ringing and all the people were filing in for mass. So we joined them. The organ music was great - and some of the traditions of the parts of the mass were different, but we understood and was great! They even gave out a printed English version of the homily! Then we explored the city by foot, and enjoyed walking up and down the tiny alleys and along the canals, discovering places we had been before and some new places as well. Brugge is a beautiful city - and the ... read more

Wednesday, May 6, 2009 We started out on Wednesday morning by going to the local Farmer's Market that is held weekly in the Markt - there were wonderful herbs, flowers, fruits and vegetables. Vendors also sold waffles and cooked meat, was great fun to walk through - it looked like it was a weekly MUST SHOP adventure for all the locals. We headed out of town, going North - so we rode along the canal that we had previously ridden to Damme and then kept going to Oostkerke. Jean had forgotten her water so we did a 5k circle around town, no water for sale, but a nice tour of the town! We continued north along the canal to the northern western shore of Belgium - an area called Knokke-Heist. It is a group of 5 ... read more