Brugge, Belgium

So Robert left off his story about our journey on telling you that we went for dinner at Subway. That was on Saturday night.  On Sunday morning, we all went to church in the morning (they actually go to church in Heerlen, Holland) and started our drive back after the first meeting.

This time, we had a chance to stop in Brugge, Belgium.

I felt like Brugge deserved its own post this time, although our visit to this beautiful city was merely three or four hours long.  Everyone talks about Brugge here, it’s well known for being a touristy architecturally appealing place with much to see.   We braved the cold and the wind and decided to explore the city.

One main lesson learned for the future is that it doesn’t do any good for a family like ours to just say,  “Let’s go to that town” and not do research about what to see and what different buildings are (I guess Robert and I agreed on that judging from his story about Gent).  Our goal was to find the Ice Sculpture festival that just opened in Brugge that weekend.  So we parked by the train station in a huge multi story parking lot.  First time parking at a garage where it tells you on each level how many spots are available! AND as you are looking at rows and rows of cars, you can see green and red lights signifying where you have empty or taken spots.  Great ideas!

Anyway, as we sort of aimlessly wandered around Brugge, discovering the beauty of Belgian architecture, we really wished we knew more about what we were seeing.  Trying to soak in the city’s feel, we took it easy, got some fantastic baguette sandwiches at a café:

Tasted “the best hot chocolate” (and it was fantastic!):

Although Mark burnt his little tongue…

And decided to wonder around some more…

We walked

And walked…

And walked…

Crossed some beautiful canals deciding to come back when it’s warmer…

Walked a bit more…wishing we had a tour guide…

Finally we asked around about where the Ice Sculptures Festival was being held (it was easy to do because everyone seems to speak English around here).  Found the place and then found out how much it would cost…by then we had only an hour maybe an hour and a half at the most to spare before we had to leave Brugge and be on time for our train.  It was going to cost us over $60 to see it, so we decided against it…it was supposed to be so impressive with all Harry Potter/Hobbit themed sculptures…but oh well.

Instead, we walked some more…this time wishing we brought Mark’s stroller…It’s just so beautiful here.

And finally, a sweet treat would cheer up any kid—we stopped by at a pastry shop and got some Belgian waffles for the kids.

It was getting dark (it was only 4 pm) as we found our way back to the parking garage.  Apparently, we were supposed to print out our parking ticket and pay for parking BEFORE we walked back to the car and tried to get out of it…Yes, it was a bit embarrassing for us and inconvenient for the line of cars behind us as we had to back out from the exit from the garage and go pay our ticket outside.  Next time we’ll know, right?

All in all, from what we saw even in such a short trip, Brugge looks wonderful!  I am sure it has some amazing views when the weather is warmer.  We should definitely come back here.
Bye for now,
Lyana

Four Countries In Four Days

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Germany to be with our friends the Alleys, Broughs and, what was their name again, oh yea, the Farnsworths.  I told our kids that we’d be visiting four new countries that they could add to their list of places they’ve been.  Alex ( Mr. Geography himself) was particularly excited. 

The title of this post is misleading because if you count the UK, then we were actually in five different countries in four days.  No matter, I like the way it balances now.   Of course you know England is on an island, so we first had to cross the English Channel.

Instead, we have one of these with slightly more scratches and a beautiful new dent on the passenger side door (more on that another day).

Ferry or train?  Hmmm.  Years ago that would be an easy choice, but now one can just hop on a train (vehicle and all) and drop down underneath the channel for a transit time of 35 minutes.  That, compared to a 3-hour minimum ferry ride, was the way to go for us.  Here we arrive at the Eurotunnel port of entrance.

Translation:  “France, that way.”

Driving d0wn the ramp to the docking place.  Double decker cars for all cars less than 1.85 meters tall (we barely made it).  I was curious as to how they were going to load cars onto a train (and do it quickly too).  I was impressed.

We had to go on the bottom.  :(

when I tried to describe this to someone I said “imagine if you could drive your car inside a subway carriage.  Besides being just short enough, we also barely fit width ways.  Had to pull the mirrors in just to be on the safe side as we passed the lavatories – tight squeeze, you know (no pun intended).

Mmmm, crepes IN BELGIUM!!  We stopped in Gent on the way and tried some local fare.  Buckwheat pancakes, to be precise, but not the type of pancakes you are used to.  Actually, halfway between a crepe and a pancake would be a better description, with cheese, mushrooms, frankfurters and/or whatever else you fancy wrapped inside.

Old city.  Old church.  While it is interesting to see old buildings, I think it would be more enriching had we actually done some homework on the place beforehand.  As it is, we can at least appreciate it for it’s artistic quality.

And it’s gutters.

More of the same “beautiful-building-but-we-don’t-know-anything-about-it”.

You’d have to actually be there to really appreciate the beauty of this city.

In case you couldn’t decipher the message in Dutch or French, they threw in the last line to help.

I loved the big stained glass windows on this church.

And that is our first experience in Belgium!! (We didn’t stop in France – just drove straight through).

We also didn’t stop in the Netherlands on the way to our friends’ house in Gemany, though we did return later for some tourist stuff.  Our friends live in Germany very near the border with the Netherlands.  Just behind their quaint German neighborhood is this 170 year-old windmill.

 

We thought that was cool, but then later we went to this park!!  Yup, that’s for real.  It’s like this thing only you can ride on it (if you can get on it in the first place).  There’s two of them perpendicular to each other.  The only way for the second person to get on is to have another person help pull the seat down.  And I thought Japanese playground equipment was litigious.  I escaped unscathed, but I can’t say the same for Merrill’s, um, ego or for that matter, Dave’s legs when he came crashing down to the ground after Merrill bailed unexpectedly. 

 

We talk about visiting different countries, but the whole point of the trip was to see our friends.  And it was fantastic to be with them again. 

Not sure what Mark’s thinking here.

Happy wives = happy guys.

Our visit to the Netherlands.  Seven adults and fourteen children all under the age of 12.  “Ben je gek?”  Ja.

Crowded sidewalk.

Canal.

Goat.

Japanese restaurant.

Deer on Liz’s head.

The “Christmas Market” was inside a huge limestone cave.

This was one of the few “Christmas” vendors in there.  Most vendors had nothing to do with Christmas, per se, other than you could buy something from them as a gift, like a belt or some nail polish.  We bought several ornaments from here that we like very much.

And at the end of cave extravaganza, we attempted a group photo.

And then all went out for dinner at Subway.

Where else could we all fit without a reservation?

There’s more, but I need to take a break right now.  I’m hungry.

Robert

Minivan and Mini-minivan

You can laugh at all you want but we own two minivans! Okay, I give you a permission to laugh because I am laughing right here with you. It just turned out that way and it’s almost perfect-haha. With three kids, I love having a minivan. I was determined to drive our US minivan here in England, but I realized that I have to go much slower on some country roads because it’s quite a bit wider than most passenger vehicles here. So we bought a Vauxhall Zafira minivan.  It seats seven people, but the last row, that has two seatbelts is quite tiny, only big enough to transport children. When I use the third row, there is almost no trunk (boot) space BUT, it is still bigger than a regular sedan. I love that I can zoom in it all over since it’s smaller and has the steering wheel on the proper UK side.

Here is a wonderful picture for you to compare the sizes of both of our vehicles.  In American, we forget how truly large our minivans are. I even forgot until I saw our minivan on the day we picked it up here.

Our US minivan is a 2008 with only about 12K miles on it.  And our British “minivan” is a 2007 with over 80K miles—owned by another military officer, who I am sure drove lots to mainland. We’ll see how long it lasts as Vauxhalls are no Hondas by any means….Even British car guys all recommend Japanese cars, and it seems they have something personal against French car makers too (just kidding).

Cheers for now. Next time you are driving, imagine driving on the other side of the road but with your steering wheel still on your regular side. It’s so fun!

Dubno—The Place Where I Was Born.

Dubno is a town of about 35000 in population, about two and a half hour drive from Lviv.  It is the place where both of my grandparents used to live when I was little.   It is also the place where my parents met and got married, and where I was born. After we moved to Lviv, when I was almost four, we went to visit Dubno many-many times, by car, by train, or by a very-very slow train, called “elektrichka”.   I wanted to show our children this town during our trip, but it was hard to figure out what was the best way to get there and make it a daytrip.  I still have family living there, so we wanted to see them as well. After much thought, we decided to rent a big minivan and hire a driver to drive us there and back.  It turned out to be an excellent idea, and for almost the same amount as it would cost us to just rent a car and drive ourselves we had a personal chauffer for the day who actually knew how to drive in Ukraine.

Dubno is a very old town.  It was first mentioned in a chronicle from the 11st century.  It became a city in 1400s and played an important role through all the many invasions and change of rule over the next five hundred years.  Dubno was also the place where a very important WWII battle was fought, called the Battle of Brody.  We still have an old WWII tank meeting you at the entrance to the city to remind us of its historical significance.

The drive from Lviv to Dubno is pretty easy, and rather picturesque, especially during harvest time.  Since it was November when we were there, it was not so green or even yellow any more.  We still passed this famous Olesko Castle. 

And a Soviet monument that “hangs” over the road.

It looked like in preparation for Euro 2012 earlier this year, new signs with English translation of town names were installed, making it much easier for foreigners to navigate.

As we arrived to Dubno and were passing the main streets of the city, I was engrossed in the memories of my childhood.  A mental picture of how everything used to be and how simple life seemed back then overwhelmed me.  It was wonderful to see some improvements and sad to see some places that did not survive the commercial revolution of the last twenty years.

Some apartments on the right—people always try to make more room by installing windows on their balconies.

This part looks very different from what it used to be.  It says “supermarket” on the yellow store.

And some things never changed.  Robert was taking these pictures and he was still fascinated with these trucks.

This car model on the left was considered to be a luxury kind of car in Soviet times.  It’s a Volga, a bigger kind of vehicle, that mostly only rich people could buy.

The first stop was at the cemetery, to visit my papa’s grave.  He was buried next to his dad, so our kids had an opportunity to see the place where he is resting as well.

Secondly, we went to visit my Aunt Natasha.  She is technically not my Aunt, since she is my dad’s cousin, but she’s always been really close to me and my family.  I cannot remember how many times I came to visit her!  My favorite memories of her house were when I’d come during the summer months to pick strawberries and apricots.  Yum! It’s just such a unique, close to nature experience being there.  She grows most everything in her back garden!  And only maybe five years ago she finally installed an inside toilet.  I remember staying at her house when there was no inside plumbing….always an adventure.

I snapped this picture of Mark in front of the “fire place” which is really a warm radiator wall, so to speak, and the lamp.  The lamp has been in the house as long as I remember the house. 

And of course, who comes to a Ukrainian home and leaves without food?  Okay, it was more of a feast once again. Lots of good fresh food.  Robert had too  much too eat.  Again.

This is the place we always take pictures with my aunt.  I remember when I was visiting in 2001 we took pictures in this exact spot.

Our final stop was at my dad’s mom’s house, maybe ten minute drive from my aunt’s house.  This is the apartment building where my dad lived when he was young.

My grandma Valia (aka babushka Valia), my Russian grandma.  She was born in a city called Yekaterinburg, behind the Ural mountains.  The same year she was born, her dad was killed in a battle by Leningrad (St. Petersburg now) during WWII, so she never knew him. Her mom lived till she was a very old woman in her 90s.  My grandma came to Ukraine for work when she was around sixteen (one of her older sisters was married and living near Dubno).  She met and married my grandpa and then had two boys.  Her whole life she worked as a post woman, walking (never driving) for miles and miles each day. Slowly she learned to speak Ukrainian and forgave me for cutting her head scarf with scissors(something I did when I was three…).

My uncle Alex lives in the same apartment as my grandma. He has a wife and one of the kids still at home.  Mark, Alex and Danilo (technically, Danilo is ther uncle) played so nicely!

And more yummy food:)!

This is all of us—Robert, babushka Valia, me, Alex (my dad’s brother), Natalia (his wife), and all our kids.

We took a short walk from there house towards the place where I went to a preschool type school when I was really little.

That’s how we, as kids, used to sit on this fence.  Mark did not like this idea, he was barely hanging on.

It’s always necessary to let them run around and play a bit on our trips.  It was very touching for me to bring them all to the place where I played when I was their age.

So glad we made it happen.  I think it is important for them to see the place that their mom comes from.  It’s so fun to think about the town where Robert grew up and contrast it with this.  Such different upbringings

All right, I won’t get all philosophical.  Just wanted to  make sure to journal this part of the trip for children to read someday.  It was a lovely trip.

Cheers!