This and That, Through the Rear View Mirror

While we're traveling, we often think of things to mention in the blog that either don't fit in a particular day's narrative, or that we just forget when it comes time to write at the end of the day.  Some are generalizations, some strike us as oddities, and others just observations of cultural differences or characteristics.  Here, then, is our mixed bag of random end-of-the-journey thoughts.

At the Eiffel Tower

At the start of our trip, we noticed a number of Japanese tourists using a gadget we'd never encountered before, the selfie stick.  These extension poles have a bracket on one end to secure a phone and, using either a manual button on the handle or a Bluetooth signal, the photographer/subject snaps a photo.  By the time we reached Paris, we were seeing these monopods everywhere, though we're not sure how many users managed to get shots that didn't include the stick itself.

Unlike the norm in several European countries, cathedrals in France do not charge an entry fee for visitors.  This is due to a 1905 law establishing the separation of church and state, but giving the state ownership of church buildings while guaranteeing free access to worship.  Interestingly (to us), just in the last week the French Cultural Ministry (without informing the Church) has begun considering instituting entry fees.  The Bishops are not amused...

Parking meters in towns in Brittany and Normandy are free between noon and 2:00 pm, so that everyone can just chill and enjoy lunch.

It seems that town in Brittany and Normandy has memorials to its sons "Morts pour la France" during both World Wars.  In addition, there are many plaques in churches and other public places honoring the British and American allies who lost their lives in France.

Lots of public libraries in France are now known as "mediatheques", rather than bibliotheques; it's all about marketing.

In Belgium and The Netherlands, it's water, water, everywhere.  Bikes, too.  And windmills, old-school and modern.  In rural France, as well, we saw lots of evidence that they're taking wind power seriously.

In Paris, we were twice targeted by potential pickpockets or related scammers.  A "gold" ring mysteriously appears on the ground near our feet, and a "helpful" native retrieves it, asking if we'd lost it.  Things never got any further, as we'd known about this particular ploy, but it's easy to see how you could become distracted, engaged in conversation, or whatever was intended.

Among the many charms of Paris are the small street corner carousels found throughout the city.

And, last but not least, we encountered some interesting comparative rest room practices.  If this is not something you care to consider, this would be a good place to stop reading!

• In Brittany and Normandy, there were lots of free public rest rooms.  This fact did not prevent men from relieving themselves pretty much anywhere en plein air, as long as they turned their backs to most bystanders. 
• In Belgium, we found both free and pay rest rooms, as well as signage admonishing the populace not to pee in the streets of Ghent!
  
• In Amsterdam, while public rest rooms charged a fee, there were outdoor, screened (barely) urinals on street corners.
  
• And, in Paris, we found both pay toilets and free, street-corner kiosks that automatically flush and clean after each patron.

We're not sure what any of this says about anything (other than our own unusual interest), we don't know, but there you have it.  

Display window at high fashion store

And with that, we bid a fond adieu to Road Trip, October 2014.  See you next time.

Paris: One More Spin Around the City

Monday, October 27, 2014

As we've walked back and forth from our apartment, several times we've passed the Shoah (Holocaust) Memorial; after reading a bit about it, we decided to make it today's first stop.  It's set well back from a main street, at the end of a pedestrian block; day or night, we've noticed that there is always a police car stationed outside.  Security to enter the complex is tight; we were buzzed into the security station, bags went through an X-Ray scanner, and we passed through a metal detector, and only then were we buzzed into the entrance courtyard.  Before entering the exhibit area, we passed along the Wall of Names, engraved with a list of the 76,000 Jews deported from France between 1942 and 1944.  (On the pedestrian block approaching the memorial is the Wall of the Righteous, listing the names of those officially recognized for their efforts to help their Jewish countrymen.)  In addition to documenting the historical developments on a national and international scale, the permanent exhibits provide detailed descriptions of the lives of many individuals.  A burning flame  within a Star of David flickers in a crypt containing ashes from the victims.

In addition to extensive exhibits, the Memorial also contains vast archives, photographs, and a research library.  It as especially moving, as we've been staying in the center of Paris's Jewish life and, here and elsewhere in the city, we've passed many plaques memorializing the deported;  as it was in Brittany and Normandy, the past is always present here.  Leaving the museum, we had to pass through two set sets of locked doors; the outer door would not open until the inner one had been locked.

Leaving the Marais, we walked a bit and took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower.  The lines to ascend were VERY long, and the vast area beneath the tower was full of people.  We decided to forego the trip to the top, which we've done on previous trips, and take advantage of the photo ops at ground level, which were plentiful.  We enjoyed our lunch in a park in the shadow of the tower; there was a lovely tranquil little lake just steps from the crowds under the tower.  We crossed the Seine to the Trocadero and Palace of Chaillot for more tower views.

From there, it was a straight shot along the wide Avenue Kleber to the Arc de Triomphe, and more classic views, before walking along Blvd. Haussmann to the Jacquemart-Andre Museum.  This is the city  mansion and private art collection of a 19th-century couple who traveled the world to amass a huge collection extraordinary works.  Their  home itself is a work of art, an enormous residence situated at a bit of a remove and seemingly a world away from the busy boulevard.  The collection included works from Rembrandt, Van Dyke, Botticelli, Donatello, Della Robbia, Reynolds, Fragonard, Tiepolo, and so much  more; it was impossible to even imagine living amid such treasures.  Talk about lifestyles of the rich and tasteful!

Another late afternoon walk, another Metro ride, and we were home for dinner, our trip is at an end; we fly home tomorrow.  It was another great experience for this traveling duo, and we're so grateful to have been able to do it.

Autumn in Paris

Sunday, October 26, 2014

France went off Daylight Savings Time overnight, so we either got an extra hour's sleep -- or woke up an hour early.  At any rate, we had plenty of time to make it to 10:00 Mass at Notre Dame; we even arrived early enough to attend the singing of Lauds that preceded Mass.  We chose this Mass because it was to be said/sung in Gregorian Chant, and we were both amazed at how many of the sung prayers came back to us from our days in the elementary school choir.  Makes me wonder what else is stored in our mental attics...  The cathedral very helpfully provided a bulletin that had English, Spanish, Italian and German translations of the French Liturgy of the Word; thanks to that, the Latin chants, and the universality of the Mass, we were on top of everything except the homily.  That gave us time to take in our remarkable surroundings; as the incense rose to the vaulted ceilings and we looked at the glorious stained glass windows above, we couldn't help thinking that this immutable rite has been celebrated in this church for nine centuries!

After Mass, we walked through the nearby flower and bird market on the island and then took the Metro to the Abbesses  station, part of the way up Montmartre.  We climbed the rest of the great hill, stopping for lunch (and a much-needed breather) in a small, quiet cobbled square. A short but steep distance later, and we were in the anything-but-quiet Place du Tertre.  This square epitomizes he Disney version of bohemian Paris and is chock-a-block with sidewalk artists, cafes, and tourists.  We inched our way through the crowds to the steps below the hilltop Basilica of the Sacred Heart and then made a quick circuit of the church, with its rich mosaics -- no photos allowed.  Tiers of steps and plazas below the church offer wonderful views of the city at its feet, but though the sun was beginning to break through the clouds, a lingering haze limited the photo ops.

We decided to walk down the hill to the center of the city, and it was an easy and interesting descent.  Once we passed the busy Place Pigalle, the streets were quiet and we soon found ourselves at the famed Opera Garnier (think: Phantom of the Opera), with Baron Haussmann's beautiful boulevards radiating from the massive gilded building.

After a stop to visit the church of La Madeleine, we walked past the swank shops and Maxim's on Rue Royale to Place de la Concorde.  We picked a shady bench in the park at the end of the Champs Elysees to sit and watch the passing scene for a while; the sun had come our in full force and we were shedding jackets by then. 

Deciding to have a look at how the powerful and beautiful live, we walked from Concorde to the Rue Faubourg St. Honore, past the American and British Embassies, designer shops, and the Elysees Palace, the French White House.  Here, as elsewhere in Paris, a heavy security presence was obvious.  Local gendarmes, national police, and the army (with submachine guns) have been at the major transportation hubs and high profile attractions.

As we headed back across the Champs Elysees and walked between the Petit Palais and the Grand Palais, both with queues for their current exhibitions, all of Paris and its visitors seemed to be out enjoying the absolutely fantastic afternoon; autumn colors and late summer temperatures are hard to beat!  The throngs extended along the beautiful Pont Alexandre III, with its gilded statuary and ornate lamps, to the Left Bank and the grand esplanade leading to Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides, its gilded dome shining in this afternoon's brilliant sunshine.  (Paris does gilding VERY well!)

After a short walk along the Quay on the Left Bank, we crossed the pedestrian bridge to the Tuileries and walked toward the Louvre along a quiet elevated allee of trees between the Sunday crowds in the park and the Seine.

By late afternoon, we walked through the arched Carrousel du Louvre to I.M. Pei's pyramids in the Louvre courtyard. The entry lines were gone and the crowds were beginning to thin, and this made a good last frame for a picture-perfect day.

A few stops on the Metro, and we were back in the Marais for happy hour and dinner at home.

On Foot in Paris

Saturday, October 25, 2014

We spent the first part of the morning close to home in the Marais.  Just a few blocks from our apartment is one of Paris's loveliest squares, and our favorite, Place des Vosges.  It's a square that actually is a square, ringed by 36 townhomes, nine on a side and all perfectly symmetrical.  The centerpiece is a lovely gated park, with large trees, grassy areas, fountains, children's play areas, and lots of benches; it seems like the epitome of civilized, sedate urban living.  Once the setting of royal and aristocratic residences, now the arcaded ground floor spaces are occupied by shops and restaurants, with the upper levels devoted to residences.

One such home was the apartment of Victor Hugo and his family, which is open to the public.  It was a wonderful opportunity to have an inside look at these fabled homes, to look out the windows on to the square and the hidden courtyard, and to learn a bit about Hugo's life.

 Leaving the square, we walked through the beautiful courtyard of the Hotel Sully, a mansion which now houses state documents, before stopping to visit the Jesuit Church of St. Paul and St. Louis.

In the Marais, the Rue des Rosiers is the heart of the old Jewish quarter, and home to many ethnic restaurants and bakeries, as well as plaques memorializing residents deported during World II, as well as the victims of a terrorist bombing at at Jewish delicatessen in 1982.

The Marais is hip today, with lots of new shops, cafes and restaurants occupying the ground floors of old buildings.  In the 1960s, the National Assembly declared the area a protected zone, and many of the new shops still bear the signs of their former occupants.  This explains why a sophisticated clothing boutique is housed in a space proclaiming it to be a bakery or pastry shop!

Leaving the Marais, we headed for the Left Bank, crossing over L'Ile St. Louis and L'Ile de la Cite.  On the Pont de l'Archeveque (the Archbishop's Bridge), the bridge is crammed with the "Lovers' Locks" that have taken the world (and this city's many bridges) by storm.  Traditionally, a couple writes their names on the locks, clamps them to a railing on the bridge, and throws the key into the river.  We did notice a certain percentage of less-than-fully-committed couples; they used combination locks!!

 

On the Left Bank, we walked along the Blvd. St. Germain, through street markets and past the Sorbonne (University of Paris), and then along Blvd. St. Michel to the Luxembourg Gardens, certainly in the running for the city's loveliest park.  It was gorgeously decked out in fall plantings and was the perfect place for our picnic lunch.  The original palace, built by Catherine de Medici, is now the home of the French Senate, and the fortunate Senators certainly have a terrific work environment.

A couple of blocks' walk from the gardens brought us to the massive Church of Sulpice, with its renown 7,000 pipes, some of which we heard being played (loudly) during our visit.  A bit farther on, we visited the Church of St. Germain des Pres, one of the oldest in the city, with its first iteration a 6th century Benedictine abbey -- atmospheric.

Walking along Rue Bonaparte, we soon reached the banks of the Seine, where we enjoyed browsing les bouquinistes, the booksellers whose stalls line the quay.  Crossing to L'Ile de la Cite, we found a long line of people lined up to visit the cathedral; we checked out Mass times for tomorrow and plan to return then.  We wandered around the back streets of the island and L'Ile St. Louis before walking back to the Right Bank and the Marais, where we made a short stop at the Musee Carnavalet, which is devoted to the history of Paris.  The museum, housed in two former mansions, has an extensive collection, so we decided to just have a look at the exhibits devoted to the prehistoric and Roman periods.

The streets between the museum and our apartment, a couple of blocks away, were just jammed with the young and the beautiful, many of them toting their shopping bags from the neighborhood's trendy shops.  We were happy to enjoy our happy hour at home, looking down at it all from above.

Dinner tonight was in a bistro about 10 minutes' walk from our apartment.  We had a fine meal it what seemed to be a real neighborhood place -- no English menu, and everyone in the place was speaking French.  The atmosphere was relaxed and lovely, a sweet way to cap off this day.

Off and On the Beaten Path in Paris

Friday, October 23, 2014

En route to a Metro station in Republic Square, we walked along Rue du Temple past dozens of shops carrying fashion jewelry, leather purses and other accessories. Many were run by Chinese proprietors, and most were either wholesale only or had a minimum euro amount for purchases.  I would have had no trouble meeting the minimum...

We took the Metro to the western part of the city to visit the Museum Marmottan Monet, an inexplicably relatively undiscovered treasure trove of the works of Monet, Berthe Morisot, and other Impressionists.  Housed in what had once been a duke's 19th century hunting lodge far from the center of the city, it is home to the world's largest collection of the works of Claude Monet, thanks to a bequest of the artist's sole surviving son.  The permanent collection just overflows with the works of the Great One, and it's currently augmented by pieces from all over the world in a special exhibition on the origins of Impressionism; it was simply extraordinary!  We especially enjoyed seeing scenes of Rouen and Normandy that we had visited earlier on this trip, as well as many works of Eugene Boudin, Monet's mentor, and Honfleur's favorite son.  The museum's collection also includes bequests of Berthe Morisot's heirs, an extensive assemblage of medieval manuscript illuminations, and the fabulous house and its furnishings.  This was a Wow! morning for us. (No photos allowed)

As we were very close to the Bois du Boulogne, a huge park in western Paris, we decided to walk over and through it to see Frank Gehry's latest architectural extravaganza, the Louis Vuitton Foundation.  It's set to open officially on Monday, but preview ticket holders (which we were not) could get in today. We'd just wanted to see the outside anyway, so we were satisfied, if not exactly wowed by the masterwork.  We walked through the children's park-within-a-park and beyond so that we could have a view of the monumental arch of La Defense, built in1989 to mark the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.  We stood on the esplanade with the modern arch to our west, the Arc de Triomphe to the east, and beyond that, unseen but on the same axis, the Place de la Concorde and Carousel du Louvre.

Deciding to save our feet a bit, we took the Metro to the Champs Elysees, and were definitely on the tourist track.  We moved with the crowd along the grand boulevard, across the Place de la Concorde, and into the Tuileries.  The gardens were full of flowers, ponds, fountains, sculptures, and people as we headed toward the Louvre.

As we headed back to the Marais, we stopped in the large church of St. Eustache, which used to stand next to Les Halles, the city's famous old wholesale food market.  St. Eustache remains, but the landmark market was razed and replaced by an underground shopping mall and street-level plaza, to the horror of many.  Now, that plaza is being updated, trendy shops line the adjacent streets, and St. Eustache watches it all.

Several blocks away, the Pompidou Center's modern art collection extends to the design of the building itself, a striking "inside-out" construction, with the heating, plumbing, and ventilation ductwork all visible on the exterior of the building, rather than concealed within its core.

A few blocks later, and we were back home after a great Paris day.

Amsterdam to Paris

Thursday, October 23, 2014

We spent most of the day in the car, driving south from Amsterdam, back through Belgium and northern France to Paris.  We dropped our car back at Charles De Gaulle airport, took the express train into the city, and then a quick two stops on the Metro to the St. Paul station in the Marais, our home for the grand finale of this trip.  

Our apartment is everything we could have hoped for in a great Paris neighborhood.  Marais is the French term for marsh, which this area was, until it was drained and turned into farmland in the 13th century.  It later became the preferred home of the king and the aristocracy moved in, building appropriately beautiful mansions, or hotels particuliers.  When the court decamped to Versailles, their beautiful baroque residences remained. During the 19th century, when Baron Haussmann leveled many of the city's old houses and narrow streets to create the city of wide boulevards we know today, the Marais escaped destruction.  Since the 13th century, the Marais has been the Jewish quarter of Paris; today, there are remnants of that, even as the neighborhood has become one of the city's trendiest.  The mansions have morphed boutique hotels, apartments, and museums, narrow lanes and alleys remain, and the streets are lined with chic shops, cafes, and restaurants.

We were delighted to find our apartment filled with art and books, with large French windows overlooking the porte cochere of the building across the street.  The neighborhood is lined with many of the massive pairs of wooden doors that once admitted horse-drawn carriages.  Now, they enclose private courtyards, and we have a peek into the one opposite our apartment.

We stopped at a nearby market, ate in tonight, and then went out for a walk.  The neighborhood is lively, restaurants and cafes full.  A few blocks on, we crossed the small L'Ile St. Louis to L'Ile de la Cite right behind the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  It was beautifully lit, gloriously decorated with intricate carving and statuary, standing solid and serene, as it has for centuries, over the noise and traffic congestion surrounding it.

Quite a way to end the day -- just magic...

Amsterdam: Gables, Canals, Bikes, and Bridges

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

We awoke to skies that went back and forth from clear blue to cloudy gray, and that was a foretaste of how the day would be.  It was a real patchwork that pretty much ran the gamut from the sunny clarity of a perfect autumn day to the chilly rain of a perfectly awful autumn day.  Luckily, the periods of rain were brief and we were amply sheltered by awnings and covered passageways as we waited out the heaviest of them.

Arriving at the Central Station, we walked up Damrak, Amsterdam's main north/south thoroughfare to the large Dam Square, home of the Royal Palace and the National Monument, commemorating the suffering of the Dutch during World War II. From there, we set out on a walk through the Jordaan, an area in the western part of the center city. As we wandered over bridges and along canals, we found ourselves on streets where real people live, seemingly removed from tourist crowds and the shops catering to them  -- except for one area where lines of people were snaking along the sidewalk for blocks.  They were lined up to visit the Anne Frank House, and I cannot imagine how long their wait was; we were just happy that we'd visited it on a previous trip.

In addition to walking through the Jordaan, we walked through the city center and some of the oldest parts of the city.  Rather than describing them blow-by-blow, it's just easier -- hopefully on the reader, too -- to just write about some of the general aspects of the city we observed.

Amsterdam's core is ringed by series of concentric canals; there are scores of other canals throughout the city.  The city is below sea level, and built on wooden pilings driven into the marshy delta, the canals are the result of the channeling of the water.  The canals are crossed by hundreds of both stationery and draw bridges and lined with former cargo barges that have been converted into houseboats.  (Mooring spots are highly prized and handed down through generations.)

The Netherlands was a trading and colonial colossus and, as such, a world power during the 17th century, Amsterdam's Golden Age.  Members of the merchant class built beautiful homes along the canals, which are lined with them even today.  While the homes of the richest have quite imposing facades, most canal homes are narrow and deep; taxation was based on the length of street or canal frontage.  A variety of styles of gables -- stepped, pointed, flat, curved -- top the houses; protruding from the gables are wooden beams with hooks. Ropes and pulleys are hung from the hooks and used to haul large furniture and equipment to the upper floors.  The buildings slant slightly forward to avoid broken  windows or damaged furniture as heavy loads swayed when they were being raised.  The houses also list in various directions due to the shifting of the underpinning piles with changing tides and currents.

Amsterdam has over twenty hofje, small courtyards surrounded by almshouses, homes reserved for the poor.  We wandered into several of them, hidden oases just steps away from busy streets.  As in Bruges and other places in Belgium, Amsterdam also has a lovely and very tranquil Begijnhof, a cluster of homes around a courtyard, built to house religious widows and single women around the time of the Crusades.  Amsterdam's has two churches, an English Reform Church (where the Pilgrims prayed before leaving on the Mayflower) and a smaller Catholic Church.

After the Reformation, Catholics needed to worship in secret, and the city is dotted with "hidden churches", some simply small and unassuming, others actually constructed and hidden within homes.  Interestingly, we've read that The Netherlands today is about equally divided among Catholics, Protestants, and non-believers.

This is probably as good a place as any to mention that Amsterdam is a VERY diverse city.  With the country's history of colonialism and trade throughout the world, and the current the rise in immigration throughout Europe this shouldn't be surprising; nevertheless, it is striking.  The shops, restaurants, and people's dress all bear witness to the multiculturalism of this society.

Amsterdam is also known as a very tolerant, live-and-let-live city and there was lots of evidence of that, too.  "Coffee shops" are licensed and controlled retail outlets for marijuana sales and offer a bar or cafe atmosphere for smokers.  "Smart shops" offer natural supplements, magic mushrooms and hallucinogens, with detailed descriptions of each one's effects.  And, the Red Light District endures along the narrow lanes and canals right in the imposing shadow of the historic Old Church.

As always, we enjoyed shopping in the street markets wherever we find them.  In the De Pijp neighborhood, the Albert Cuypmarkt runs for blocks all day, every day, and sells everything from clothing to fresh fish; we happily found ourselves there at lunchtime and enjoyed some of the vendors' offerings.  Later on, we strolled through the Bloemnmarkt, the canal-side Flower Market, with stall after stall offering cut flowers, flower seeds,  marijuana starter kits, and of course, tulip bulbs.  While we're all familiar with this country's famous tulips, we were surprised to learn that they were once prized even more highly than they are today.  For several years in the 17th century, the country underwent Tulip Mania, with financial speculators investing wildly in exotic varieties of bulbs.  Before the bubble burst, it was possible to buy a house with just three tulip bulbs!  And we think we've seen housing markets out of whack!

 So, that's our taste of Amsterdam for this trip.  Tomorrow, we're off to Paris!







 

Rainy Amsterdam

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

It poured overnight and we awoke to lots of wind and rain ranging from downpour to mist.  We decided that, rather than walk to the closest Metro station, it  be a good idea to drive to a Park and Ride lot and catch the Metro there.  It rained heavily most of the way to Amsterdam's Central Station and the tram from there to the Rijksmuseum was packed with soggy passengers.

The museum, one of Amsterdam's star attractions at any time, seemed to be everyone's top choice of how to spend this windy, rainy day.  Oddly enough, the entry line for those with advance tickets was far longer than the one for those of us arriving without them, and we were soon warm and dry.  We wandered until mid-afternoon through centuries of Dutch art.  The crowds at Rembrandt's Night Watch made extended contemplation of the masterpiece too much of a challenge, and it was easy to spot his works, and those of Vermeer, just by the groups clustered around them.

The rain had let up by the time we left the museum, so we walked along the canals streets most of the way back to the Central Station.  The wind and rain came and went, and finally got the best of us, so we hopped a tram for the last part of the trek.  It was just getting too hard to see and/appreciate our surroundings.

As we enjoyed our happy hour at home, occasional sightings of blue sky gave us hope for better wandering conditions tomorrow.  We also learned that many flights in and our of the Amsterdam airport were cancelled today due to high winds; guess we weren't the only ones who threw in the towel today!

On to the Netherlands

Monday, October 20, 2014

With mixed feelings, we left Bruges this morning. It's hard to leave a great place, but we're looking forward to what's ahead -- specifically, Amsterdam.

But first, an interesting road trip that illustrated dramatically why the meaning of The Netherlands is Low Country.  We drove along a "coastal" route that actually took us along, on top of, and through part of the country's efforts to deal with the fact that, while it has a long North Sea frontage, it is actually below sea level.  After 1800 people lost their lives in flooding in 1953, it was evident that the centuries-old system of dikes that had once held the sea at bay needed to be upgraded.  A new system of dikes and levees, along with electronic monitoring of sea levels now keeps the dry land dry.  We drove along causeways, dunes, a tunnel and bridges that are part of the land-sea demarcation; at times, we were driving on a roadway that was in a slight valley between large berms.  The Dutch long ago learned to reclaim their land from rivers and seas by using windmills to lift dammed water, channel it into canals, and drain the land.  The fertile farm land that makes up much of the country was painstakingly developed as farmers planted crops that removed salt from the soil; this now-productive earth is known as polder. We saw lots of windmills, both old school and high tech, on today's drive.

We stopped at a beautiful beach -- long, probably the widest we've ever seen, and almost certainly the windiest.  Kite flyers, parasailers, wind surfers, and carts propelled by sail and parasail were crowded along the gorgeous stretch of sand, and on the water. 
It was quite a sight!  At that point, the road we were traveling on was atop a levee, with the beach quite a distance below us.
Europe's largest port is Rotterdam, and its size was apparent as we bypassed it on the highway.Also impressively extensive were the nearby oil refinery and gasoline storage facilities that went on for miles; it the New Jersey turnpike tank farms seemed to pale in comparison.

In marked contrast was our stop in the pretty city of Delft, proud home of the 17th century painter Vermeer and the famous Royal Delft Pottery.  We wandered around the canals, bridges and quiet brick streets of the old town, which seems like a Dutch version of Bruges.

Then, it was on to our apartment in Amsterdam's southeast outskirts. We're in a quiet neighborhood, with easy parking and access to the Metro, which we'll take into the center city tomorrow.  Meanwhile, we're delighted that our apartment has now only a washing machine, but a clothes dryer, probably the first we've ever encountered in Europe!

Sunday in Ghent

Sunday, October 19

Happy birthday to our dear Kevin!

This morning's was warm and sunny, and a slight breeze was blowing autumnal leaves into the canal nearby as we set out.  Our little street and the surrounding area were part of the route of a foot race, and we enjoyed seeing the runners pass by, right through the Fish Market, and over the bridge crossing the canal.  Then, we were off on a day trip to Ghent, just 45 minutes away. 

Once the second largest city (after Paris) north of the Alps, Ghent was a center of the wool trade and textile industry.  Because of its size, rather than one central square, Ghent has several squares, most centered on a specific trade, product or guild.  Guild houses are scattered throughout the city's old center.  Three of Ghent's most important buildings are near each other, extending from the Korenmarkt, or Corn Market Square.  St. Nicholas Church is massive, solid, and soaring.  The nearby Belfry, constructed beginning in the 14th century, houses a clock tower, carillon, and -- most importantly -- an elevator.  We rode up, walked around the exterior gallery, and stopped at a couple of lower levels to wander around the bells and try to understand the workings of a carillon -- sort of like a music box, and that's as far as we got.

Back at ground level, we walked across St. Bravo Square to the Cathedral of St. Bravo, Ghent's patron saint.  Here, and also in the church of St. Nicholas, there were monuments honoring St. Peter Damien, a Flemish priest who cared for lepers in Hawaii during the 19th century.  The cathedral has an ornate rococo pulpit and an altarpiece painted by Rubens.  The cathedral's artistic treasure is the Van Eyck masterpiece, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, which we actually returned to see later in the day, when its special viewing gallery opened.  The altarpiece is so popular that a replica is kept in the chapel for which it was originally painted, and where guides provide commentary on the work.  In the room where the original work is displayed, an audio guide explanation runs 50 minutes;we did not stay that long!  The 12-panel triptych is richly colored and detailed, the "wings" can be closed; their paintings are less colorful, perhaps to heighten the drama when the interior was revealed, originally just on Sundays and feast days.  At any rate, the altarpiece has been treasured for six centuries; it has also been endangered.  In order to prevent its destruction during the Reformation, it was hidden in the cathedral tower, in the early 20th century two panels were stolen (one never recovered), and during World War II, the altarpiece was stolen by the Nazis and eventually recovered in a salt mine.  Viewers of The Monuments Men may recall that the ultimate prize was the discovery and return of  "the Ghent altarpiece." (No photos were allowed)

We wandered through more of the old city center, past the town hall and down the narrow "Graffiti Street," where the city's spray paint artists can legally let loose before heading for the "Vegetable Market Square", where we lined up at what looked like a popular vendor's stall.  After a hungry policeman waiting for his order translated the menu for us (and recommended a few favorites), we had a lunch of Flemish beef stew -- on fries, of course!  

As the day turned cloudy and cooled, we returned to the cathedral to view the altarpiece before driving back to Bruges.

We'd deliberately planned to take our day trips to Antwerp and Ghent on the weekend to avoid an expected crush of tourists here in Bruges.  Upon our return this afternoon, we realized just how good an idea that had been.  There were mobs, throngs, hordes, crowds of people all over the center of town.  Between people, bikes, and horse-drawn carriages, our car just crawled down the streets!  We parked the car in our spot and then walked toward the outer perimeter of the old town and along the lined with parks and windmills; nobody out there but locals enjoying late Sunday afternoon strolls, bike rides, soccer games, and park benches.  

We wound our way through a quiet residential neighborhood and back to a small street off the Markt to visit a family-run chocolatier as part of our commitment to eating local.  A few last photos of the Belfort towering above the Markt, and it was time to call it a day.

We're so happy that we decided to return to Bruges and use it as our base of operations for a few days.  Now, we're ready to return to the 21st century!