A restless night in the coffee bean

Another busy few days and another road trip, this time to Belgium. We seem to travel places at the most inopportune times, two more examples of that this week.

The first was on Saturday when we headed into Amsterdam for another day. We had discovered there was a special Egyptian exhibition at the archeological museum and Sam's class is studying ancient Egypt this term while we are away. One of his teachers' suggestions was to visit any relevant museums. We were a bit surprised when the train was so full as we hadn't experienced this before. We thought it must just be a popular Saturday outing. We were mistaken, after noticing a few extravagantly dressed individuals on arriving at Centraal station we also noticed the signs advertising Amsterdam Gay Pride. We had arrived a couple of hours before the city's gay pride parade, which they do in canal boats rather than marching through the streets. Well we certainly saw some interesting sights! We managed to miss the busiest parts, a bit of a challenge as the canal parade route circled the city. It absolutely poured right at the end of the parade just as we were heading back to the station, I'm sorry to say their parade was rained on.

On Sunday we headed off for a 2 1/2 hour drive to Brugges in Belgium. It is a beautiful old city known as the 'Venice of the North' with lots of cobblestoned streets. Unfortunately we arrived in the middle of a festival and market day so many streets were closed. We had to try and navigate to our hotel which was right in the centre of town. Jane the GPS had warned us the Hotel Koffiebean, our destination, was on a street that cars weren't allowed on.

We missed one critical turn off as the road was closed for market stalls so we proceeded and Jane quickly and efficiently recalculated another route. This one led us to a one way road that was closed at the end for road works. We stopped and had no idea where to go next. Another car came along and continued in the direction we needed to go so we followed. We were now on a road that had been completely dug up and was being relaid. We were able to turn into the road Jane wanted and followed a series of narrow one way cobble stoned streets until we again hit a dead end. This time there were bollards blocking the end of the road, it was permanently closed! We were only a couple of hundred metres away but we couldn't see another way to get there.

Tan and Sam set off on foot to get directions, they eventually returned with a map and a likely route provided by the hotel receptionist. We set off but missed one turn and then couldn't turn until we were miles out of town. We eventually got back in the right direction, this time we ignored the closed roads and drove through the markets as it seemed to be the only way to get to the hotel. Nobody seemed to mind too much and we made what should have been our final turn. The lane way went past a church with about two metres clearance between it and the house next door, we had hit bollards again. It seemed the receptionist had never actually driven to the hotel as we were following a foot path!

We reversed back out onto the street and continued until we were at the main square just near our hotel. After our success so far I was quite prepared to drive through an al-fresco dining area to get to our hotel. Tan and Sam set off on foot again. They found a short one way street we could go down the wrong way to get there, Sam guarded the street to make sure no traffic came down and we finally arrived. I was more than ready to be out of the car and on foot, which is exactly what we did.

That afternoon we visited the Frites (chips) factory to learn all about the history of potatoes and making chips. Belgium was one of the first European countries to eat the potato and claims to have invented the chip. It was all quite interesting. The experience wouldn't have been complete without a tasting, including one of the many sauces the Frites shops offer. Sam had his usual tomato ketchup, Em mayonaise but Tan and I experimented. She tried Curry Ketchup and I had pickles, we were both quite happy with our selection and the opportunity to have our own sauce!

Next stop was the Choco-story, a museum of Belgian chocolate. Again lots of really interesting history including how the Belgians invented praline chocolates. There was also a demonstration and sampling, what a yum afternoon.

We then stopped for a quiet drink in the square while we worked out dinner arrangements. An opportunity to sample Belgian beer which has quite a reputation as well. Dinner was back at the hotel as the menu pleased all, Tan and I went seafood as we hadn't had any since our England fish and chips. Mine was local mussels, a 1.2 kg pot full! They were delicious but I finished eating last for the first time in family history.

We finished the night with a horse and carriage ride which was a lovely way to see the old town on a beautiful summer evening.

Unbeknown to us though we were in for a rough night. The room wasn't air-conditioned and we couldn't have the windows open as it was too noisy as we were above a bar. We tried sleeping with them closed but it got too hot, when we opened them it was too noisy and the room filled with mozzies. We eventually turned the heater fan on without the heater and that helped the kids a bit in their room. It started to rain though and the down pipe was right outside our window, about 1m from my head. It was like a drum beating, I think it must have been 2am before I got to sleep, I think it was later for Tan. All up not a fun night in the Koffie Bean!

Breakfast was included, our first truly continental breakfast. Ollie coped best out of all the kids, he's developed a liking for salami, and of course as long as there is fruit he is happy. Sam missed his vegemite, and Em just wanted bacon! We were able to make lunch from the selection though so that was a bonus.

The kids and I explored the town on hotel bikes while Tan did some shopping. Cycling on cobblestones isn't much fun though so we lasted less than our hour.

Em had researched the WW1 battle of Messines Ridge for a history assignment. Ypres and Mesen were only an hour's drive away from Brugges so we decided to visit. The battle included the destroying of Hill 60 occupied by Germans which I think has recently been made into a movie.

Some dodgy Dad navigation got us near to the area. We eventually got to Mesen and figured out roughly where Hill 60 was and were eventually able to find the location. The hill itself has been preserved in its battle scarred state, due to the number of human remains trapped under the hill the site was never cleared. The whole countryside is littered with Commonwealth war grave cemeteries. It's hard to believe this scenic farmland was once the site of so much horror and bloodshed.

That was our last road trip before France, we've only got two more days in Bussum before we head to Paris. While we were away they've been filming a reality TV show in the street. There is a theatre across the road they are using to find "The Voice of Holland" so lots more people and cars than usual.

Belgium