Our first stop was in Baarle Nassau, a small town just across the Belgian border but with Belgian enclaves (a consequence of complicated history). When you enter such an enclave (by crossing the street) you're not in Baarle Nassau (the Dutch name of the town) anymore but in Baarle Hertog (the Belgian name of the town). Very interesting. One town in two countries. We stayed at a nice Bed and Breakfast called Bed op de Reth. Nice, clean, recently renovated, rural environment.
Oh dear, this was more than a month ago, but anyway let's blog!!! Jurgen and I went all the way to Amsterdam... ...by bike! But let's take it from the beginning. Our first stop was in Baarle Nassau, a small town just across the Belgian border but with Belgian enclaves (a consequence of complicated history). When you enter such an enclave (by crossing the street) you're not in Baarle Nassau (the Dutch name of the town) anymore but in Baarle Hertog (the Belgian name of the town). Very interesting. One town in two countries. We stayed at a nice Bed and Breakfast called Bed op de Reth. Nice, clean, recently renovated, rural environment. Then followed a day of biking through the southern Netherlands, the part called Northern Brabant (as opposed to Southern Brabant, which is the central part of Belgium where we Leuven and Brussels are situated) and crossing into Southern Holland. We followed the knooppunt-system (same as in Belgium) but there was a lot of confusion and we were really dependent upon our navigation systems sometimes. Our destination the second day was Gouda, the capital of cheese. B&B in Gouda was Familie Mieremet. Fair enough, not overly hospitable but OK and with a good location in cental town. And then we arrived in Amsterdam on our third day. It was like a dream to come there by bike, first along the river Amstel, then when we entered town pushing on through the streets full of bikes and other traffic. Intense but very beautiful! After a lot of searching we found our hostel, WOW, a kind of cultural centre offering long and short term accomodation. The name "WOW" was a big overstatement for a hostel in a gray and unhospitable building (a former technical university), close to the highway, situated in the poor area Bos en Lommer, with a very poor organisation, very poorly equipped rooms and a breakfast on survival level. Sadly, it was the only place we could pay - Amsterdam is very, very expensive. And the one-hour walk into town every day did us good!
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This Ascension weekend Jurgen and I went to Maastricht. The weather was very loyal and cooperative and we can now conclude that Spring, not to say Summer, has finally arrived in Belgium as well as in the Netherlands! Even to the extent that the arms and knees of Jurgen are more than just a little burned. Now I've returned from a little post-Easter trip to my parents in Alnö. I realized it was the first time in very many years that I visited that latitude at that time of year. Not a leaf, not even a bud on the trees! And still snow around! Here are some photos. After returning to Belgium I visited my friend and ex-neighbour Greet who now lives in Kortrijk. Jurgen and I had grandiose cycling plans for last weekend: taking the train to Antwerp and biking back or even biking there both ways. Me catching a cold for the third time this school year put and end to the biking aspect of the project, but we went through with the rest of it, and it turned out to be a lovely idea! The sun was shining, Katia, a local friend, showed us around (partly in Danish!), there was so much to discover: small fashion and furniture shops, beautiful views, very interesting museums... Have a look! Enjoying the sun on the top of MAS - Museum aan de Stroom. Laying a puzzle and getting inspired pedagogically and yes... my underwear is showing... Katia, our guide, explaining everything about the MAS - in Danish! When you've admired my new shorter hair, take a look at the waved glass behind me: the original architecture of the façade of the MAS. Exploring the fabulous little streets around the Schouwburg. Who had the idea of building this house next to that house??? A tunnel for walkers and bikers under the river Schelde. A tip to the town of Antwerp: decorate the walls! Sunday: a visit at the Plantin-Moretus museum. The house of a successful book editor and printer in the 16th and 17th centuries. Lovely architecture, who looks like a luxury version of beguinhof in Leuven. This royal-looking lion may represent the end of our day: we went to the Red Star Line Museum about the America-emigrants who passed via the port of Antwerp to fulfill their dreams "over there". A very touching museum whose theme is now very up to date in these days of huge emigration. As we were enjoying some coffee in the museum café after all the strong impressions of the museum and were about to leave we realized that the table behind was held by king Philippe and queen Mathilde and their children.
Neither the weather nor the architecture was very smiling this morning, but at least the ducks were happy and active and at least I missed out on the hail which came later in the afternoon! And of course it's always nice to see that the knitting-terrorist have been out to bring some colours to the Leuven harbour area. My original intention was to take a morning cycle ride, but a bad night (due to too strong coffee to late plus too many thoughts about my on-going knitting project), a tiny bit of throat pain and bad weather forecasts made me go for the light-option: a little walk up the Keizers-Berg. On that mountain there is a very nice park with an abbey in it with a huge Madonna statue (which I can actually admire from my living room window if I turn my head a bit), but today the park was closed. Probably the responsible park-people (the brothers of the monastery?) had taken part of the same weather forecasts as I.
For the rest I'm well, working hard together with my hard working colleagues and enjoying it, feeling a little bad sometimes because my creativity is somewhat in a slumbering mode, except for what I can canalise through my work. But at least a week ago I sang at an Anglican ladies retreat and I'm also really enjoying my enjoyable long-longed for relationship with Jurgen! Dear friends, I'm just now watching the news over the situation in Brussels and I understand if those of you who don't live in Leuven might be worried about me. So my Mum thought I'd better post a blog post to tell you all that I'm fine. Leuven is as calm as usual. Last Monday I was in Brussels with a group of students to go to a stand up comedy show in Swedish with among others Magnus Betnér, and just like the comedian himself emphasized it felt like a good thing to do after what happened in Paris last week. Going to a stand-up felt like a very concrete way of exercising democracy!
Last Summer I went by bike to visit friends in Molenbeek (the Brussels area where the suspect terrorists live(d)), and that was my only visit there so far. The only problem I had there was that people were very not used to bikers - as I tried to pass between the parked cars and the line of cars blocking the street someone opened a car door and I almost went right into it! A little scary, especially as my shoes were clicked to my pedals. Brussels is a place where I try to go weekly to the service of Holy Trinity Brussels. Not tomorrow however - not because of the terror threat but because my boyfriend and I have other plans. My thoughts go to the inhabitants of Paris these days. I love this city so much and I'm so sorry that I haven't had the occasion to visit it for more than two year. I hope it won't take too long before I can go again. Wow, you won't find many photos of me where I'm more "au naturel" than this one: noooo make up, hair all fuzzy. Still wearing my clothes though, luckily : ) The only unnatural thing about my appearance on this photo seems to be that I'm carrying if not the whole world then at least the castle of Horst on my shoulder. My friend Batranne (on the right - as you see her hair is naturally much more well brought up than mine. Is it because she's Flemish???) and I conquered the woods around this castle this very afternoon. At a certain point we felt like the prince of Sleeping Beauty because we had to battle with the thorns (not of roses though - only blackberry bushes) to come to our goal. And all this without a sword! (Perhaps we'd better bring one when we go to Sweden. But on the other hand there are no blackberries growing in Jämtland.) And we did this carrying rucksacks with clothes and sleeping bags just to prepare ourselves to walking while carrying a weight! Last week I also went exploring Limburg by bike together with a native Limburger friend. Limburg = the home of the thorough bike and bike shoe cleaners and the lovely coffee houses!
I just spent a few days in Frankfurt am Main, which is not the self-evident holiday destination, but a good friend of mine has moved there and as well I needed a change of air. I did work a bit whereever I could find Wifi, but also took some time to see the town and have a look in the house of its most famous son: Goethe. Wow. He's THE MAN. All German agree (and Goethe himself for sure doesn't disagree either!) Can someone find me a similar statue of a woman who is NOT an allegory for something abstract? : ) Well, I won't deny that he was a great genious and poet. And he was even a kind of rock star at the end of the 18th century. Das Leiden der jungen Werther even found its way into the pocket of Napoleon. Goethe - the founder of the first world wide youth movement. Interesting guy, but somehow everything about him is so heavy. Yesterday my friend and I went down to the Rhine and saw Schoss Eberbach - where the interiors of the film The Name of the Rose were filmed. Nice place! And at last some photos from downtown Frankfurt. The town of contrasts! Something like Manhattan mixed with a German small town. Interesting atmosphere! PS: By the way, did you know that the fortune of the family of Goethe was made by his grandfather who worked with women's wear (and called himself Göthé)? Well, look at what the Goethestrasse in Frankfurt looks like: ...it's all Dior, Gauthier, Cartier and Louis Vuitton! The circle is closed. Dixi.
I'm going with a very dear friend of mine to Sweden this Summer and we are going to walk on the St Olav trail which in its whole goes from Selånger to Trondheim. But we're going to do only a tiny bit of it, from Åre to Medstugan and back again. It's a long story why we don't cross the Norweigan border as originally planned, but we'd like to play safe and not go to far but accept our limitations and keep the holiday a holiday. Even so, we decided we needed some exercice and so we went to the Ardennes last Wednesday for a lovely walk as you can see! The temperature was very cooperative, just above 20°C and with a slight rain refreshing us. Aren't we gorgeous? Other things I've been up to lately: a BABY SHOWER... ... which is an American tradition which as you see includes measuring the circuit of the mother in spe! A great fun girl's activity which was new to me. And also I've got a splendid view of Brussels through the eyes of friends who come from there! As you see it was a little bit wet! But it could have been worse, because our guide (to the left, with the umbrella, as all guides) taught us this street (the Anspachlaan) used to be a river! But long ago they did away with the river and turned it into asphalt for the cars to drive. And very recently they banned the cars and turned the whole street into a big walking street/playground. Lovely. I'm glad for the people of Brussels. Well, and if we now go back in time to April this is what happened then: I attained the respectable age of 40 and for the occasion invited some very dear friends of mine for a little concert in my flat (many are missing on the photos I'm afraid!). Lovely and heart-warming! A memory to cherish very dearly. So, that's my little catch-up with you for now.
I bought an old, uninteresting IKEA-lamp in the second hand shop of Leuven (called SPIT) and changed it a bit! I covered the foot with mosaic (made of some flower pots I threw down from my balcony), cut holes in the cardboard screen and knitted a cover. I really like it!
Ah, and by the way, the cotton I used for the knitted covered is from and old sweater, also bought in SPIT. Recyclissimo!!!! |
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