Cheese Lady

Yesterday Keith had off for Armistice Day, marking the end of WWI. We were pretty happy to have a day to take it easy; we've obviously been on the go with the cruise and Mike's visit. As part of our day of chill we decided to check out a farm nearby that someone at the base told me about. The farm is own by a woman and her husband that make cheeses. We took some of the craziest one lane roads, winding through fields of cows and sheep, thank goodness for the GPS, I don't think we would have found it without it. The whole thing was so awesome. This was one of those unique experiences that makes living here really cool. Thea Oostendorp owns the farm and hand makes the cheeses from milk produced by their own organic cows. The cheeses are amazing, she has garlic, Italian spices, peppers, beer, nettles, plain... and so many more. After taste testing almost all of her cheeses, Keith and I bought a bunch of different flavors, our only regret.....not buying more. We both thought this unique experience was going to cost us a bundle, but were completely shocked at how cheap it all was. It was significantly cheaper than the grocery store, and so much better. Guess it just means we'll have to go back soon! Although not a glamorous destination, still one of the neatest things we've done while living here.

Mike's Visit

We were honored that Mike chose to visit us for his frist trip outside the U.S.; it was really great to see him. Surprisingly enough we didn’t leave Belgium during his entire visit. He was pretty clear about his interests…..Beer, Chocolate, Waffles, and Military History...probably in that order. So, we did our best to make sure he got to experience the best of what Belgium has to offer. He actually flew into London and took the Eurostar into Brussels which can be a real cost saver but also can make a long trip even longer. We took it easy for the first couple of days so that he could adjust to the time difference, but I was sure to take him into Mons for his first waffle. He was happy to discover they are not the breakfast waffles we are use to back home but instead are a sweet, fantastic dessert. We made our way up to Brugge to see all the chocolate shops, hopefully he can resist eating all his purchases and manage to get most of the chocolates home as gifts as intended : )

On Friday he and I headed up to Waterloo, a neat historical site, but in terms of tourism needs a lot of work, as the films and explanations are clearly dated and vague. Still incredible to see the spot where Napoleon was defeated. Although climbing the 226 stairs was not all that fun in my out of shape condition! Next, we stayed on the historical kick and the three of us headed to Bastogne (Battle of the Bulge) on Saturday to check on the WWII memorial there. The site was much better in terms of information and background, but still not as comprehensive as I might have liked. Keith also took him to a cemetery near the house that apparently is the only one to have U.S., British, and German soldiers buried in the same location. Now that Mike has seen some of the actual WWII locations he is re-interested in the Band of Brothers mini series, so we watched a few in the evenings. So with Chocolates, Waffles, and history checked off the list the only thing left was BEER.

On his last day Keith took Mike into Brussels to check out the Grand Place and a bar that we’ve been meaning to try. The Delirium bar has the Guinness World Record for having the most beers available at any one time, which amounts to 2004 different brews. So, Mike had an opportunity to try the best of what Belgium has to offer. Obviously we had plenty around the house for him to taste test, but we certainly can't compete with their selection. Due to some scheduling complications Mike decided to head back into London a day early to make sure he was on time for his flight. Although they don’t have the beers we do, I am sure he is having a great time.

Cruisin’ the Mediterranean

Last week we finally took off on our week long Mediterranean cruise that we've always dreamed of doing. Seven nights at sea on the Norwegian Gem visiting exotic places sounded like just what I needed after a few of my taxing 38 hour workweeks and work trip to sunny San Diego.

Our cruise began with a short flight to Barcelona...or so we thought. We decided to take the low cost airline, Ryanair, not realizing that when they said Barcelona, they meant Girona...a town over an hour from the city. This wasn't an issue on the way out, but since we scheduled our flight back for 6:15 am the following week, it made for a brutal morning wakeup call at 2:30am. In hindsight, we should have done more research, but live and learn I guess. After an uneventful flight and hour long bus ride to Barcelona, we were on the boat by 2:00 pm and relaxing with an umbrella drink by 2:30. The boat didn't leave until 7:00 that night, so we had a few hours to sip drinks and enjoy the views of the city from the top deck of the enormous cruise ship.

Day one was a day at sea, which we used to sleep, drink, and gamble. The ship had a large casino and plenty of areas to sit and relax and listen to music. It was a nice relaxing day, just what we needed after all of the recent travelling. The next day we arrived in the island country of Malta, a place which I had never heard of and knew nothing about. It's a small island off the southern cost of Italy and a former British colony, which meant that most people spoke English. Malta was one of those places that looks amazing in pictures and from a distance, but once you get into the city (called Valetta) there isn't a whole lot to look at. It's nice enough, but was a little old and rundown, and not many exciting things to see. We took a bus to the center of the city and then spent a few hours walking back to the ship. There were some beautiful ocean views, but not much else. The highlight of Malta was finding a small area full of little shanties housing local fisherman. There were two men on the dock fishing, with three cats waiting impatiently to pounce on anything they caught. It was fun to watch the cats jump up in anticipation every time they pulled their lines out of the water.

On day three we arrived in Naples, Italy. Since there is a major NATO base there, many of my coworkers have been to the city and warned us that it is not a place where you want to wander around on your own. We took their word for it and scheduled an excursion to a small village just south of the city called Sorrento. The drive down took us through Naples, which I must admit didn't look too impressive. However, Mount Vesuvius loomed in the background and was an amazing sight to see. Our tour guide was a native Italian whose broken English made her sound just like Borat..."we stop here and you can make the picture niiicccee." Sorrento turned out to be exactly what we were looking for, a beautiful little seaside town with small shops and restaurants. We wandered the city a little bit and then had coffee and gelato (Italian ice cream...AMAZING stuff!) at a cafe overlooking the ocean.

Day four was in Rome...or more specifically Civitavecchia, the port about 1 1/2 hours from Rome. As we had just been in Rome a few months ago visiting my mom, we decided to stay on the boat that day. Despite the predictions of rain, it was 75 degrees and sunny, so we spent the day in the pool and jacuzzi. Usually these were too crowded to enjoy, but with most of the guests in Rome it was quite pleasant.

Day five took us to Livorno, Italy, which is the port town close to Florence and Pisa. Here we decided to pay the money for a tour to both cities. After an hour drive to Florence, we had a nice walking tour of the city. Unfortunately I think we had our expectations set too high for Florence, as we were both a little disappointed. The city was very nice, but nothing too spectacular. It is a several hour wait to see Michelangelo’s David so we didn’t have time for that, and the full size replica was under renovation, so we didn’t even get to see it. The tour did include a nice lunch at a 5 star hotel which was fantastic. We had authentic Italian lasagna (good but no Stouffer’s…kidding of course) and more gelato. At the table we even sat next to another American family living in Belgium…what a small world!

After Florence the tour took us to Pisa, where we were able to stand under the famous leaning tower. This bizarre building did live up to expectations as it was both beautiful and scary…it really looks like it’s going to fall over at any minute. We took our obligatory photo of Elizabeth holding it up, and then headed back to the bus. I have to say that if you’re ever looking for a fake Rolex or Gucci bag, that is the place to go. I can’t even count how many times that I was offered a “Rolex” for only 30 Euro.

Next on the list was Villefranche sur Mer, a small town just outside Nice, France. There wasn’t really a port here, the ship just anchored in the bay, and they stuffed us on the lifeboats to go to the shore. This town was absolutely beautiful. Mansions built on the side of mountains overlooking the crystal blue water and little seaside restaurants and cafes were everywhere. We took the ten minute train ride into Nice and spent the day wandering the town and strolling along the shore. We are definitely going to plan a trip back to Nice…it seems like the perfect city to spend a few romantic and relaxing days.

Finally, the boat brought us back to Barcelona, where we spent our last day. After getting off the ship and checking into our hotel, we took the bus tour of the city, getting off a few times to see some touristy spots. There is a famous architect named Ghadi who designed many buildings there so we spent a while hunting them all down. His designes alone are worth the trip to Barcelona, as they look like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Dramatic colors and siding that appears to be melting seem to be his signature, and his buildings are both beautiful and bizarre at the same time. The church that he designed (Sagrada Familia) has been under construction for over 100 years as it’s entirely funded by donations. There really aren’t words to describe it, but it’s worth a few minutes of web research to see some photos of it…simply amazing.

The next day we woke up at 2:00 am to take a cab to the bus station, then a bus to the airport, and then fly back to Belgium. Unfortunately the fog was so bad at our airport that they circled for an hour, attempted two landings and aborted, then finally redirected us to another airport. From here they put us on another bus to the original airport where we finally picked up our car and drove home.

Despite the long trip home, it was still a wonderful vacation. Next up, a Scandinavian cruise!

Oktoberfest: We Came, We Saw, We Drank

Our trip to Germany consisted of five nights in four different beds. We planned our trip to Germany with some of our friends here, Dan and Susana and their daughter Sophia. Dan is the man with a plan, so we were happy to tag along when he said he had a place to stay in Munich. This story is full of family ties, so I'll do my best to explain. Dan's wife Susana has a sister, Sandra, who lives in Stuttgart with her husband Michael. Susana, Sophia and Sandra were in Portugal their home town and were flying back to Stuttgart on Thursday. So we left Mons with Dan and on Wednesday right after work for Stuttgart. With me so far? Hopefully most of the confusing stuff is out of the way :) Five hours later we pulled into Stuttgart and met Michael, our friend's wife's sister's husband! We crashed at their place for the night.

On Thursday we took turns ducking our head in the shower; Michael, Sandra and their one year Lucas live in a truly European apartment with really cool funky space right out of an IKEA catalog. They have done an amazing job maximizing the little space they have. After a German breakfast of breads and pastries from a local shop we headed out to see Stuttgart. First we headed by the Porsche factory, awesome! They have a skyway crossing the road from one building to the next that actually has the Porsche bodies rolling across it! Michael, a native German, took us to a local beer store and loaded us up with a crate full of different German beers. Really cool experience, nothing we would have been able to do if we weren't traveling with Dan and his family. We then made it to the festival in Stuttgart, not technically Oktoberfest, but basically the same idea. Huge beer tents and major festival activities. I clearly had no appreciation for how huge these festivals are and what a production. I had no idea how many major rides they have. This is no state fair with a ferris wheel and some bumper cars. This is full size roller coasters, a full size log flume, things right out of Kings Dominion (or better). We hung out in a tent for lunch and some German drinking songs, then strolled through the grounds of the fest. The guys went to pick the girls up from the airport while we checked in to a local hotel. We all met back up for dinner then Keith and I took a stroll into the city center of Stuttgart. The city is amazingly green, you would have no idea that it is somewhat of an industrial city, so cool in that it twists and turns through the hill sides.

On Friday morning, Dan, Michael, Keith and I packed up the car again for the two hour drive down to Munich. Dan knew a guy who lives in Munich who was going to be out of town and said we could use his place. Despite the five flights of stairs and TOTAL cigarette saturation it was worth it, his place was five minutes from the festival and free! We dropped off our stuff and made it over to the festival. As warned it was packed and we couldn't get into a tent, but the food was yummy! We found some benches under some outdoor heaters and just took our seats for the day/evening. We all said we wish we could have a tape of the night to playback at high speed, to watch all the folks who came went around us. We had a fantastic time meeting all sorts of wonderful characters. Of course I befriended the Irish at the table next to us with my trademark "For fucks sake, it's feckin' grand". We did finally go into a tent at the very end of the evening, amazing to see about 90% of people dressed in authentic Bavarian dress. The term tent really doesn't do it justice. These "tents" makes tents at weddings look like you are going camping. They are huge! I've already been asked how it compared to Mardi Gras, and I guess I would say that it was significantly less sleazy and less sexual than Mardi Gras. The drinking was about the same though. A major difference is that the tents close around 12:00, so it's really meant to be a day time festival, not something that starts at night.

As we strolled back to our nicotine patch apartment, mild manner Michael suddenly burst with excitement over a Japanese restaurant/bar, so we strolled in at midnight. What better way to end an evening at Oktoberfest in Munich than at a Japanese bar? We hung out for a good two hours, had a great time and made friends with the folks working there.

Surprisingly we weren't too hung over on Saturday.... I guess when you space the drinking out over a full day it's not too bad. Michael served as a tour guide of down town Munich, unfortunately the rain and cold really put a damper on things. We did get to walk through their amazing market, saw the Glockenspiel, the major church, and the Hoffbrau House. We wanted to go in, but the mass of people standing outside (lines are clearly an American thing) just wasn't worth fighting. They were being let in like they were at a cattle call. "I have a group of six, four, three" then had to fight your way through. Keith and I are hoping to make another trip to the Bavarian area during a non-Oktoberfest time so I am hoping we can try again.

On our way back to Stuttgart we stopped at a place on the side of the highway advertising Marklin train stuff. For those of you who don't know, Keith is really into model trains, and owns several Marklin engines. Michael, our amazing host, found out about this place and we made it just in time to see their incredible displays. Really awesome setups with loads of detail. Back in Stuttgart we checked in to our hotel and took it easy for the rest of the night, hanging out with Sandra, Susana and the kids. The journey back on Sunday was uneventful, we were pretty ready to sleep in our own bed after all our travels.