Natalie and Jane's Visit

This past weekend, my cousin Natalie and her friend Jane came through Belgium on their 2 week tour of Europe. I was so excited to get out of the house and have someone my own age to spend some time with, and I definitely enjoyed their visit.

After arriving late Friday night, our first trip was to Brugge on Saturday. The day was chilly and rainy, but we were still able to enjoy our delicious waffles with nutella and strawberries:


After lunch we decided to burn off those extra calories by climbing the 366 stairs in the Belfry:


It was a tough climb with very narrow stairs and a lot of people trying to come up and down at the same time, but the view from the top was great!


All summer I've been going to Gent on Sunday evenings for church, so we decided to go around lunch time for some sightseeing before going to church. It started a little rainy, but by the time we finished lunch it was beautiful outside - perfect for walking around town all day. We were able to see a lot of beautiful churches, a couple of castles, canals and of course, climbed the Belfry.


Monday and Tuesday afternoons were spent in Brussels where we met up with Natalie's boyfriend Andy and his friend Aaron. Monday began with a nice breakfast of waffles, nutella and strawberries and hot chocolate. It was very delicious, and the sugar gave us the energy needed to walk around town until lunchtime. The museums were all closed, so we just spent the morning looking around town at all the old churches and government buildings.


For lunch we went to a local grocery store and bought sandwiches and took it to the Grand Platz where we spent the rest of the day. Following lunch we looked at a nearby church before shopping for some Belgian chocolates. From there we found a local cafe where we ate our chocolates and coffee,


and then made our way to a brewery just off the Grand Platz. When Andy and Aaron had had enough beer, we found a restaurant serving mussels and frits (an authentic Belgian meal) for our dinner. Basically all the calories burned walking around for the previous 2 days were consumed with our day of eating and drinking, but it was a fun and relaxing day.

Tuesday we made our way back to Brussels to visit the Museum of Musical Instruments. Andy and Aaron are band directors, and I think they were in heaven for those two hours that we were in the museum!

We were able to go into a couple of the churches we had found while walking around on Monday and walk through a beautiful park before it was time for the four of them to head off to Amsterdam.


Their visit was the most activity I've had in the past two months and it wore me out, but I definitely enjoyed having them here!

I amsterdam

This past Sunday I decided to take a day-trip to Amsterdam. When I was in Europe in 2006 I spent a day and a half in Amsterdam, but since then the SANDEMANs new Europe touring company added Amsterdam as a site for their free walking tours. I figured between that and going to a couple of museums, the $50 train ticket would be worth it just to get out of the house for the day.

The day started very early - the train from Dendermonde left at 6:30am! I had to take the train from here to Mechelen, wait an hour, and take another train to Amsterdam. By the time I got there it was just after 10, and the tour didn't start until 11, so I went to the tourism office, bought myself a map, and planned out my route for the day. (But that only wasted about 15 minutes, so then I just stood around and people watched until 11.)

This is a picture of Station Amsterdam Centraal.

At eleven o'clock, the tour guides showed up outside the tourism office and led us to the Nationaal Monument in Dam Square, where we were divided into smaller groups. From there we were taken on an almost 4-hour tour of the city center and all it's historical sites and points of interest. The weather was perfect - cool enough that I wore a sweatshirt comfortably, but very sunny.

This is the Nationaal Monument where we started the tour.

Some other highlights included the Royal Palace,


The Red Light District, It wasn't really all that bad - probably because it was a Sunday afternoon. But our tour guide said there are half as many windows now as there were two years ago because Amsterdam is trying to "clean up their image".

The Hidden Church,

Begijnhof,

and many, many canals!

The thing I love about these tours (I did their Berlin tour in 2006), is that it's completely free, running on donations, and the tour guides are SO enthusiastic about their jobs. Our guide waited until the end of our tour to tell us we were his first group to give a tour to, but I never would've guessed. He was very knowledgeable about the area (even though he'd only lived there for two years) and told us all sorts of stories and interesting facts that you wouldn't learn about walking around the town on your own.

Once the tour was over, my plan was to go to the Van Gogh Museum. I decided I didn't want to pay for public transportation, and I had plenty enough time (and calories to burn) to walk the whole way there. But, as luck would have it, I took a wrong turn, heading in the opposite direction of the museum by about 15 minutes, and then it began to pour! I had to duck into a bookstore until the rain let up enough that I felt like I wouldn't drown trying to reach my destination. However, about 10 minutes outside the store, it again began to pour. This actually worked to my advantage, however, because I stumbled upon a photography exhibit I had read about and wanted to visit anyway, but had planned on saving until the end of the day if time allowed. I was excited to learn that this particular exhibit was also free!

Once I finally found the Van Gogh Museum, I was able to relax and enjoy myself. I didn't pay the extra 4 euro for the audio tour, which probably would've made the museum more interesting, but I enjoyed myself all the same.

By the time I finished up at the museum, I had just enough time to buy a few postcards, take a picture of the "I amsterdam" statue:
take a picture in Vondel Park:
and buy some frits and mayo for dinner (healthy, I know...):
before catching the seven o'clock train back to Dendermonde. It was a busy day, but I had a lot of fun!

Not much to say

I realize my initial goal for this blog was to update regularly so everyone could see how my summer is going. However, I have failed this goal due to the fact that there is pretty much nothing to tell anyone about. I know I'm in Europe for a whole summer and should be having the time of my life, but honestly right now it's pretty boring.

We've been to the beach again since my last post, but were only able to spend one day outside due to rain.

I've gone to the Church of Christ in Gent twice, and really like it there. It's a small group of people who meet in the home of the minister, Luk Brazle. Everyone is very friendly and the whole service is translated for me and a few others who are English speakers. Going to church gives me something to look forward to; a chance to get out of the house and do my own thing. The process of going to the train station, taking the train to Gent, getting on the bus, going to church and then doing it all in reverse takes about 4 1/2-5 hours. It's nice to have conversations with young adults (not that I don't love hanging out with two little boys all the time...) and to experience church away from home.

Right now I have plans to go to Amsterdam for a day this weekend. I'm very excited to do a bit of traveling, even though it's not far and not long! Next month there will be a group from Ohio and a group from Oklahoma visiting the Antwerp Church of Christ, and I have been invited to their 4th of July cookout. We're supposed to go to the beach that weekend as well, so hopefully I'll be able to make it to both. Then in mid-July, my cousin Natalie and her friend will be visiting for a week and I'm hoping to be able to actually sight see in Gent and make a trip to Brugge.

My big trip is planned for July 17th. The whole family is flying to Dublin to visit one of Jan's friends, so we'll spend the weekend there. On Monday, July 20th, I've signed up for a 6-day tour of Ireland - a new city every day. I'm a bit nervous traveling with a big group of people that I've never met, but I feel safer traveling that way rather than on my own for 2 weeks. I'll have someone making sure I'm alive and well every morning when we leave the hostel and every night when we get to our new hostel. On Sunday, July 26 I will fly to Edinburgh, Scotland where I'll spend 2 full days and wrap up with a day-trip to St. Andrew's.

I'm so thankful for all the travel opportunities I've been blessed with. Now that I've started, though, I'm not sure I can stop!

Belgium

As many of you know, I will be spending three months (May 12-August 12) nannying in Dendermonde, Belgium. As I understand it, this is just outside Brussels, the capitol city.

I will be living with and working for my mom's cousin, watching her two sons and helping out with some housework and errands. Though I've never spent a significant amount of time with this family, I have met them once before, and the boys, 3rd and 5th grade I believe, seemed very friendly and well-behaved.

I'm very excited to return to Europe, however I am a bit nervous to see how this summer works out. I won't have any friends (with the exception of two other friends who will be in Europe around the same time and might come visit), and will have very few ways of actually making friends. I'm hoping to begin attending a church where the Brazles (many of you are familiar with this family) are missionaries. Hopefully this will provide me the opportunity to not only meet some new people, but to also plant a seed with the boys I will be watching who currently do not attend a church.

This blog will serve as a way to keep in touch with those of you who are interested in knowing how my summer is going. My hopes are that I will be able to be online often so that I can keep in touch with everyone that I will miss, and of course those who will miss me :)