Some Colorado BEA Folks At Six Flags Holland
John And Tina Graves At Six Flags Holland
This section of our trip was supposed to be 6 days of cycling our way to Amsterdam after sending the bike boxes ahead from Rouen to Amsterdam. However we couldn't find a simple way to get the boxes to across two international borders to Asmterdam. So we used our Eurail passes and just hand carried the boxes to Amsterdam. Then we headed back to Brugge for a few days to see some of the sites in Belgium. Although this alternate itinerary was a bit crazy, we had a very good time in this section of our trip.
Today was spent with logistics and some sight seeing in Rouen. The pictures and story for the day are included in the section on Rouen at http://www.johnfunk.com/stories/2000cycling/july19/index.html.
Today was an uneventful day of riding the train from Rouen to Amsterdam via Paris. Although we had to change stations in Paris via a cab ride, the trip was pretty uneventful. The only excitement was watching the train conductor have to physically stop a woman who had been begging and pleading on her hands and knees to catch a ride to Amsterdam. Afterwards when I talked to the conductor, he said, it's always like that in Paris!
Since we are traveling without any hotel reservations during this period of our trip, we still needed to find somewhere to stay for the night. Since our train arrived at 5:00pm and we didn't want to keep Carolyn at the office too late, we decided to try to find a hotel via the phone as we rode the train into Amsterdam. However, all the hotels in our Fodor's guide were all booked up. Fortunately a woman who I had talked to about our trip, overheard our calls to the hotels, and volunteered to help out. This worked out perfectly because she was a Dutch travel agent, who lives in Amsterdam. With her help, we managed to reserve a moderately priced nice hotel for our visit. This was really lucky because knew most of the hotels in Amsterdam, and spoke Dutch, so she was very efficient in finding a room on this busy weekend.
After arriving in Amsterdam we headed strait to the BEA office to drop off the boxes. Carolyn Sampson was working late as usual and agreed to meet us. We got a quick tour of the office and stashed the bike in its boxes in an empty cube. After stopping at the office we decided to stop and our hotel and then meet Carolyn for dinner at the Amsterdam Hard Rock Café, which is a regular hang-out for the BEA expatriates from Colorado. Before dinner arrived we John and Tina Graves joined us as we talked late into the evening.
Today we got an early start, 6:45am, because we were invited to the BEA Amsterdam summer picnic at Six Flag Holland. This outing continues the old Leader Group tradition of a quarterly event for the employees and their families. Our first night in Amsterdam was nearly as cold as our stay in Brittany, and Carolyn said this was typical for this year, so we made sure to wear our warm cloths as we headed out into the quiet morning.
Getting to Six Flags Holland was an adventure that fit right into our trip. We walked from our hotel to Carolyn's house, took a tram to the Amsterdam central train station, where we met John and Tina Graves. Then we all took a train-bus connection out to the park.
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Some Colorado BEA Folks At Six Flags Holland |
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John And Tina Graves At Six Flags Holland |
Once at the park Carolyn did a great job of getting everyone their park passes and meal tickets. We spent the entire day riding rides and socializing with different people from the Amsterdam office. I found that Peter Lo's son Eric and I had similar tastes in rides, so most of the day Dorothy and I hung out with him, using his expertise in the park and his 9 months of experience in dealing with the Dutch language, while enjoying the all the rides.
John And Tina On Water Ride |
Carolyn And Eric On Water Ride |
After closing the park Carolyn, Tina, John, Dorothy and I, all dragged ourselves back over long bus, train, and tram journey before calling it quits at about 1:00am. What a long day - 7:00am - 1:00am. Amsterdam has really taught these guys how to have a good time!
After sleeping in late to recover from a full day at Six Flag Holland, Dorothy and I headed back to Belgium to visit a scenic little town called Brugge. After carrying lots of gear all around western Europe, it is a real pleasure to travel with just two small carry-on sized bags. Since we're still traveling without any hotel reservations, when we got to Brugge the first order of business was to find a hotel. Unlike in Amsterdam our first choice yielded a nice inexpensive hotel. With a quick taxi ride to the hotel we got settled in, got a quick bite to eat, and called it quits early.
Bell Town In Brugge |
Today we spent the day visiting museums since all of the Brugge museums close on Tuesdays. First we visited a traveling Salvador Dali exhibit that is in town. Dorothy really likes Dali, but after seeing his works in the Gugenheim museum in Venice, and now this one, I think I've had my fill of it.
Brugge Town Hall |
Next we moved on to the Groeninge Museum, which houses many of the important works by the early Flemish painters including Jan Van Eyck and Hieronymus Bosch. Here we learned that the technique of oil painting had been developed here in Brugge the 1420's, before it moved south and was adopted by the Italian masters.
Van Eyck Paintaing |
Then we visited the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (Church of our lady) to see one of the few Michelangelo sculptures outside of Italy. This brick church, which boasts the highest brick tower in the world, acquired the "Virgin and Child" sculpture while Michelangelo was still alive. Seeing this sculpture was a special treat for both Dorothy and I since we've been reading a fictional biography of Michelangelo, which discussed the creation of this sculpture, and the circumstances that lead to its sale to a merchant from Brugge.
Michelangelo's Madana And Child Sculpture |
Before dinner, we wandered through the town looking at re-productions of Flemish tapestries. We'll probably buy one of these beautiful decorations before we leave, but for now it was fun to just to wander the city.
Today we got a late start but had a chance to meet up with two British women that we met at breakfast. They were contemplating renting a tandem bike to visit the outlying sites of Brugge, but after talking to us about our trip, they decided to give it a go. As we were getting ready to head out for the day, they returned to the hotel with their rented tandem, and I got a chance to take their picture.
First Time Tandem Riders From Britan |
After bidding adieu to the Brittish women, we spent the day walking the streets of Brugge. As a basic course we followed a walking tour laid out on our map of the city, which took us all over town. We visited several little churches, and roamed around the canals, and ate a take-away lunch in a very nice little park.
Brugge Resturant Reflecting In Canal |
Dorothy At Brugge Canal House |
Then we spent some more time looking for tapestries to bring home with us. We ended up buying a replica of an historical Flemish tapestry, the lady of spring. Dorothy couldn't leave without also buying a tapestry with a King Arthur theme.
This evening after dinner we wandered around the city a bit and stumbled into the Church of St. Franciscus Xaverius, which is open in the evening and plays classical music. This little church is has an unassuming exterior and not on any tourist maps, but the atmosphere inside makes it the most inspiring church we have visited during our European travels. This church was amazingly light, with tall white walls, and a white arched ceiling. The marble floor had a very open patter of black tiles laid into mostly white marble floor. The three altars somehow fit perfectly into this light airy atmosphere. To top it off they played classical religious musical themes to compliment the lights that highlighted internal marvelous church.
As we left this beautiful church, we found a flyer describing the history of the building. On the back was the following, which seemed to fit in very well with the beautiful yet friendly atmosphere:
Prayer for TouristsHeavenly Father, look down on us, your humble tourist servants, who are doomed to travel on this earth, taking photographs, mailing postcards, buying souvenirs and walking around in drip-dry underwear. We beseech you, Oh Lord, to see that our plane is not hi-jacked, or luggage is not lost and our overweight baggage goes unnoticed. Protect us from surly and unscrupulous taxi drivers, avaricious porters and unlicensed English-speaking guides. Give us this day divine guidance in the selection of our hotels, that we may find our reservations honored, our rooms made up, and the hot water running from the correct tap if at all. We pray that the telephone works, that the operator speaks our tongue and that there is no telegram waiting from our children, which would force us to cancel the rest of our trip. Lead us, Dear Lord to good inexpensive restaurants where the food is superb, the waiters friendly and the wine included in the price of the meal. Give us the wisdom to tip correctly in currencies we do not understand. Forgive us for under-tipping out of ignorance, and over-tipping out of fear. Make the natives love us for what we are and not for what they can screw out of us. Grant us the strength to visit the museums, cathedrals, palaces and castles listed as "musts" in the guidebooks, and if per chance we skip a historic monument to take a nap after lunch, have mercy on us, for our flesh is weak. For husbands only.Dear God, keep our wives from shopping sprees and protect them from bargains which they neither need nor can afford. Lead them not into temptation for they know not what they do. For wives only.Almighty Father, keep our husbands from looking at foreign women and comparing them with us. Save them from making fools of themselves in the cafes and nightclubs. Above all, please do not forgive them their trespasses for they know exactly what they do. Together.And when our voyage is over and we return to our loved ones, grant us the favor of finding a willing audience for our movies and a sympathetic ear for our stories, so that our lives as tourist shall not have been in vain. Amen. |
This morning got up early to walk to the outskirts of Brugge to see the windmills, and canals before heading out for Amsterdam. On top of an enjoyable walk, we also got some great pictures. The last stop in Brugge was at the city archives to gather information about how to researching more information on my great grandfather who took a ship from Antwerp to Philadelphia in 1879. Hopefully the information we got will move the documentation on my family tree one step further back.
Brugge Windmill |
Church Reflecting In Brugge Canal |