International travel...the usual "getting there" blur. Tucson to Dallas, half-asleep, Skytrain between terminals. Beer and a shoeshine, the travel rituals that make us feel we're really going somewhere. Shuffle onto the big plane, hoping for enough overhead bin space. Sleep, eat a little tray of food, sleep...try to ignore the tirelessly shrieking unhappy infant a few rows back...
Fast forward some number of hours to Frankfurt. Ever-prepared world traveler Robert had already scoped out the rail options on the Deutsche Bahn website, and handled getting our tickets (passes actually for four travel days plus the extra to go to/from Belgium) in the Reisezentrum. So off to Köln from the Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbahnhof, with a tight 8-minute connection, then on to Brussels.
Our hotel, the Berlaymont, was just a few steps from the European Commission complex, which itself was adorned with blue EU flags. An embassy row of sorts was a few blocks up the street past a very pretty park with a lake and some waterfowl. The area being the business center was pretty quiet on weekends and evenings, and many restaurants were closed for August (EU break?), but a few remained open, including a good greek place across the street.
Our first full day (Saturday) was a day trip to Antwerp, or Anvers to the French. We first went, through the intermittent rain, to the Rubenshuis, where the artist lived and had his studio. It dates from the late 1500's and was restored in the 1940's. Beautiful examples of Rubens work and those of his students. The Annunciation (the angel Gabriel giving Mary the news) in the studio was alone worth the visit.
From there we were making our way to the Cathedral of Our Lady when we came across a big weekend festival in the squares around the church...the best being a local products expo in the Grote Markt. There we enjoyed beer (for only €1!), filet d'Anvers (like prosciutto), and a selection of cheeses, all excellent. We spied a popular-looking frites joint but saved that for another day.
Not to short-change the cathedral - beautiful gothic structure, largely destroyed but restored. It still has impressive stained glass and a number of Rubens pieces, including the altarpiece, the Assumption of Mary.
As we were in Flanders (Vlaanderen), we heard a lot of Flemish (Vlaamse), aka Dutch - very interesting. Robert commented it sounded familiar in two completely different ways, German and English. So you'd think you were getting it, then come across words that rang no bells at all. "Deze trein stoppt in..." was pretty clear...but others, "oetgezondern" on a street sign? No clue.
Our next day trip was out to Brugge, about an hour by train northwest of Brussels. The cobbled streets and shops were charming, and the imposing church tower and belfrey helped keep one oriented in the historic center. Robert took in a Dali exhibit while I strolled around checking out the numerous chocolate, lace, and tapestry shops. We both visited the chocolate museum (demo and free samples!), avoided being run over by smartly clip-clopping horses pulling buggies, enjoyed baguette sandwiches while sitting near the main square, and lastly had some local brew - Bruges Zot blond and bruin - at a corner café.
Another day found us out at Namur, in Wallonia - so no more signs in Flemish! The French we did hear was a bit difficult for me to understand. The high point of the city, literally, was the 15th century citadel with a commanding view over the confluence of the Meuse and Sabre rivers. Vieux Namur was largely a pedestrian zone with little cobbled streets and shopping. Outdoor cafés lined the various squares, and we ate lunch at one in the leafy square outside the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Église.
Our last full day in Brussels we spent in the city itself. I opted for a morning at the nearby Army and Military History Museum (Musée de l'Armée et le Histoire Militaire) while Robert went to the Royal Museum of Fine Art. The military museum stood at the top end of a pleasant park with a formidable arch reminiscent of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. We met at the Brussels Central train station, strolled the nearby Grand Place (Grote Markt), enjoyed cappuccinos, and then went our to nearly the end of the 1A metro to catch the end of a stage of the Eneco bike race. We had a great view of the finish from the 50m mark and watched the last 50k of the race on a nearby giant television screen.
The metro in Brussels was easy to navigate and ran frequently even on weekends - we never waited more than a couple of minutes. We bought the "5 voyages" tickets, twice. Largely operates on the honor system...but not entirely. Our next to last Metro ride, we almost didn't punch the tickets (we'd missed one the day before), but it is good we did, as I was asked for mine when we exited at the our stop ("votre billet madame"). I nearly blew by the guy asking as I didn't want to be bothered, but got it when he insisted. :-)
The next day we departed from the Bruxelles-Midi (Brussels-Zuid) station on the Thalys train to Köln. A quick tour of the Kölner Dom (right on top of the train station) was followed by lunch, then onto our ICE to Nürnberg. We transferred to a regional train for the short ride out to Erlangen, where Johannes met us just outside the station. He had just celebrated his 80th birthday (indeed, why we were there) and he looked fit and relaxed, enjoying the fine warm weather in shorts and sandals. We checked into the gasthof he booked for us a few kilometers from his house, then spent the late afternoon until nearly midnight enjoying the company of Johannes, Bärbel, and Dorle Freudenberg. The next few days we explored the altstadt of Erlangen, visited Nürnberg (not finding a Volksfest, oh well - but we did see an interesting simulation of the history of St. Sebald church and reconstruction after the war), and spent time with Johannes and Bärbel - talking about family history, sharing travel stories, getting a look at his model trains, and generally just having a relaxing time. We were also able to show them a few photos of our house on the web site.
We left Johannes on a Saturday morning after he kindly picked us up at our gästehaus and took us to the station. We had an ICE direct from Erlangen to Munich, and there would have easily made the connection to the S7 (Wolfratshausen), except it wasn't running as usual - the sign said "es fällt aus". Robert got us to Donnersbergerbrücke (two stops over) and eventually the S7 came along, about 40 minutes later than we hoped. We walked the short distance from the Pullach stop to the Pruggers' home on Gistlstrasse, and Lisa was there, but poor Hans had gone on a search and rescue for us! Eventually we were all together.
We had a great time there overall. The first day after a marvelous lunch in their garden - carrot soup and weißwurst - and a nap, we bicycled with Hans through Pullach and along the Isar, eventually making it to the Großhesselohe beer garden where we met Lisa (also on a bike). Beer, music, even more food - just a great time overall. The short ride back was broken up with a stop at a gelateria.
The next day we had a full day excursion with Hans and Lisa out to the Starnberger See. We stopped first at a small chapel in the countryside, the Maria-Dank-Kapelle, then a church in St Georg (with appropriate art of St. Georg slaying a dragon), then went on to the lake. Robert, Hans, and Lisa all went for a short swim while I opted to take photos...a light lunch at a café followed, then a wonderful visit to the nearby Buchheim Museum. The museum is known for its whimsical collection of folk art and "phantasie", as well as the prolific output of the artist for whom the museum is named.
Our last full day in Munich was spent in the city; we bicycled to the S-bahn stop, and went on in to Marienplatz. Watched the glockenspiel, walked and window-shopped, and enjoyed lunch (and beer) at an outdoor café, under cover, during a midday rain shower. We visited churches in the area too, including the Peterskirche, Asamkirche, Theatinerkirche, Frauenkirche, and last, closer to the Karlsplatz, the Michelskirche. The Theatinerkirche remains my favorite! I took in the Spielzeugmuseum (Toy Museum) to see 100 years of Teddy Bears, 50 years of Barbie, and some Märklin trains. We ended our outing back in Pullach at the Café Dolce near the Burgerhaus with a couple of fine cappuccini.
Parting Thoughts
Overall we enjoyed Belgium and in particular Flanders. Brussels gets my vote as easily the most cosmopolitan city we've visited - you hear a multitude of languages here and it seems easy to get by, moreso than Switzerland. Flemish is interesting, to say the least. Everything in Flanders is in both Flemish and French, and lots of people seem to speak English, German, others as well... On the other hand, over in Wallonia, it was as if the Flemish didn't exist.
Food and drink
Food was generally pretty good. The fast options were better than home, serving sandwiches and the like, with better bread, fine cheeses and meats. Outdoor cafés - why can't the US figure this out? Sit-down restaurants near the hotel in Brussels were quite cosmopolitan, we enjoyed both greek and indian. In Namur we didn't get the escargot (les petits gris) but did try the moules et frites, and a fine salade niçoise. The waffles, or gaufres de Liège, were everywhere in Belgium and yummy - chewier and denser than I expected. Frites - double-fried and with a choice of sauces (I chose andalouse) - a street treat! The Grand Place (Grote Markt) of Brussels was a bit reminiscent of the Latin Quarter in Paris, with lots of "ethnic" foods - greek, lebanese, tunisian.
Beer...the white and blonde beers (Hoegaarden blanche, Abbaye de Leffe blonde) were citrusy and almost fizzy. Leffe bruin was a nice dark beer. Bruges Zot and Bruges Zot bruin on tap were quite good. The trappist ales we tried - Rochefort and Chimay rouge - had a higher alcohol content (9.2 and 7% respectively) and were rich and smooth. De Koninck and Maes on tap were good lighter brews. Everything seemed hoppy to my tastes. In Germany of course there was Spaten dark at the Großhesselohe beer garden, and a "dunkles weißbier" at a café in Seeseiten on the Starnberger See. (Robert commented how "false" it sounded to have a dark white beer...but it was really a dark wheat beer.) Lighter pils we enjoyed with the Pruggers in their garden.
Chocolate - well, the Belgians do know what they are doing. We sampled Leonidas and Neuhaus "pralines" among others.
It wasn't terribly obvious when service was included and when not.
We
probably tipped a few times when it wasn't necessary. Some credit
slips had a space for, some not...but that alone was no guarantee!
Nürnberg, of course, had the bratwürstl and lebkuchen, not to be missed. We had a nice lunch in the shadow of St. Sebald church, and ate a lebkuchen with, of all things, a Starbucks latte.