Ghent, Delft and Amsterdam

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We had a fairly early departure this morning from lovely Bruges. On the way to Ghent, our program director, Laura Cross, provided us with tidbits of information about our travels. There are three different national languages spoken in Belgium. The first one is Flemish which is Dutch with a distinct accent. The next is French, which the Flemish don’t like too much and the last is German. That’s probably why I was confused much of the time! Also, Belgium is where French Fries originated. They used to eat tons of sardines, but when there became a shortage, the people needed something to eat. There was an abundance of potatoes and they were inexpensive so they cut them up in the shape of sardines and deep fried them. They are fried in oxen oil twice, although, they still don’t get very crispy. The servicemen that came over during World War II would eat them in the region where French was spoken, so they assumed they came from the French. Belgians are very proud of their food, so don’t dare order French Fries over here in Belgium! Also, there is no country named Holland. Holland is a region or province; Northern Holland or Southern Holland which is found in the country, The Netherlands. I had no idea.



Our first stop was in Ghent. What a cute city! Even though the local trash pickup was on strike and trash was piling up, it was still a wonderful city. I sure would like to have stayed a little longer. There are three major churches there. Sint-Baafs, Sint-Michielskerk, and Sint-Niklaaskerk. St. Baafs has the painting, “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” which was stolen (along with the Madonna with Child and other great works of art) in WWII by Hitler and when he found he was losing the war, he put all of this art work in an Austrian salt mine and was going to blow it up. A group of American Military Art hunters came in and helped find and rescue that painting and others from destruction.



Then off to Delft. Now the temperature was getting pretty warm, so the first thing we needed to do was stop and get a beer! Had a nice lunch and then went to a pottery shop where they make Delft pottery. It is the blue painting on a white background and very “old world”.



Our last stop for the day was at our riverboat cruise ship in Amsterdam. We had a housekeeping meeting and then a tour of the Red Light District. Now…Chandler is young and sweet and somewhat innocent so when I heard how excited she was to go to there, I was a little surprised. She kept going on and on about how much fun she thought it would be and how she really wanted to experience it! We thought we might have to run an intervention! Finally Mary had to ask a couple of pointed questions and Chandler came to understand what the Red Light District really is!! She thought it was a bunch of bars and a place to party like in Kansas City! Then we took the tour. Wow! Did she have a rude awakening! J

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Comments

[Jerry]

Hey Jules, that Red Light story about Chandler is pretty funny. Great pics,,, thanks for sharing your trip. Jer