August 3, 2002

Hello. Sorry to make you wait for our tale of Bruges - we did start this update just a couple of days after we got back but, well, that's the way it goes around here. Maybe we just wanted to feel like we weren't back yet, as Bruges (Brugge in Flemish) is a wonderful place. It's a beautiful town, much like Prague in appearance only smaller and more relaxed - less touristy by nature, I think. (Americans don't really know about it yet!) It is known for beer, lace and chocolate - what's not to like?

Our journey started on Wednesday night when we headed in towards London to spend the night at our English folk's house - the Mosses. It's really nice to have a home away from home here where we feel comfortable enough to call up and invite ourselves over for the night.

Thursday morning we took the train into London to catch the Eurostar to Belgium. Yup, right through the Channel Tunnel. It's conceptually cooler than the reality (20 minutes in the dark tunnel), but pretty neat nonetheless. It's a fast, quiet train. A nice ride through the English, French and Belgian countrysides. We had to switch to a local train in Brussels, but didn't spend any time there. Word around here is that Brussels is pretty boring. (Unless of course Tom's cousins are there;-) We were surprised that the train to Brugge did not say Brugge (or Bruges) on the station sign - you'd think that such a popular destination would be listed to be seen easily.

Bruges was a trading city and the economic capital of northwest Europe from 1200-1400 (until they lost their outlet to the sea and then made some political mistakes). It is a small, very walkable city. In fact, they have strict regulations regarding driving in the city so there aren't that many cars around. (Although the ones that are there are pretty speedy.) There are a few main squares in Bruges, and it seems that no matter where you think you are, you always end up back at one of them. There are also a few canals that sort of snake through the city and are full of tourist boats - packed with tourists. (Bruges is sometimes called the Venice of the North.) Of course we were in one of those boats for the canal tour of the city - really nice. Especially on such a beautiful day. Everything our guide pointed out was said in Dutch, French and English, as were most things there. After the boat tour, we took a horse and buggy ride around the city - also very popular.

Here are some pics, and more down below.

Click on a picture to see a bigger version
Market Square (Markt)	Belfry in the Market Square	Canal tour via boat	Another canal shot, with swans
Nice lunch by the canal	A miniature of the belfry with Braille plaques in 4 languages.	Tom eating mussels for lunch. A Belgian favorite. Yum!	A working windmill museum
Inside the town hall	Fountain to give the horses a drink	Statue of Hans Memling (artist), near our hotel. Don't know why the sandbags are there	Veterans marching in the Independence Day Parade

Took in a brewery tour as well. It was a good tour, with a nice view of the town from the roof of the building (part of the tour), and a nice tasting belgian blonde beer afterwards. Very tasty stuff, that Belgian beer. Even better than the chocolate (says Tom).

We climbed the belfry - unfortunately it was on Sunday morning at 10:45 with the bells going off for half of the 366-step climb. Very loud when you are walking by. The bells are rung like a big music box, with a wheel going round with pins (or something similar) to set off each bell. Guess you'd have to have something like that when you have a belfry with 47 bells. Next to the belfry is a very detailed small model of it with Braille plaques next to it in 4 languages. It was donated by the Kiwanas so the blind could see what they were missing. How cool is that? Picture above.

We did other usual touristy stuff - a museum here or there, a parade - it happened to be Independence Day while we were there, some street theatre...you know the drill. Mostly we walked all over and spent a lot of time outside enjoying the beauty and relaxing.

More pics. Click to see a bigger version
Another town square (Berg)	The classic Bruges picture	The Berg from the top of the belfry	The fish market, with lots of crayfish
	Belgian waffles - ready to go	Toby on the brewery tour

On Saturday night, we met Sharon, my (Toby's) boss, and her friends (in town for the weekend, coincidentally) for dinner. It was a fun time, although I heard afterwards that Tim got food poisoning later that night - rats! Sharon has been calling me 'cheeky' since I had her grayed out of my department photo (see May 25, 2002) so I made sure to have the camera with me. So here's the photo. Didn't quite get a smile out of her, but it is a much better picture than the last one (click for a bigger version). That's her, second from the right. (From the left it is Autumn (a Texan), Alex (hiding), her husband Tim, Toby, Tom, Sharon and her husband Steve.)

Since we got back on Sunday, we've been in to London twice; first to see Toby's family friends, the Abarbanels, on Thursday night for dinner, and then on Saturday to see Tom's friend Elon's mother for lunch. The picture is of us, the Arbabanels (Joan and Saul on either end), and their niece, Miriam; unfortunately, we didn't manage to get a picture with Elon's mom. Despite the fact that no one has come to visit us specifically, we do seem to have a lot of visitors who are here for other reasons. Never knew what a popular destination England was. Always nice to touch base with home - no matter how or why it happens.

On Saturday we decided to take advantage of being in London and got ½ price, same day tickets to see the play Blood Brothers - a musical about twins separated at birth who live near each other and become best friends (blood brothers) without knowing that they really are brothers. It's a good play - a comedy (especially the first half) with a tragic ending. It had some great vocals and really good performances.

The Commonwealth Games has been going on here (Manchester) for the last week or so. It's like the Summer Olympics, but for the Commonwealth nations. Here's the quick history lesson:

The Commonwealth is an international voluntary association of independent states, which includes over a quarter of the world's population and land surface. Previously, membership had been based solely on allegiance to The Crown but now all member countries of the Commonwealth recognise HM Queen Elizabeth II as the Head of the Commonwealth. The Head of the Commonwealth acts as a focus for the free association, but has no constitutional or executive function. It is simply symbolic.

Summer may have come and gone, we're not sure. This week it made it to 86°F - that's pretty hot for around here and people were complaining quite a bit. I actually enjoyed it - one day of heat is good for you! It was humid too - felt like Boston. I actually went out and bought a fan, which was great. The next day, it was 75°F, and today it was 71°F, and no sign of hot weather like that again. I also bought some blueberries the other day - that really makes it summer!

I (Tom) missed the annual visit of my brother and sister to our summer place near Cape Cod (Plymouth). Really too bad, not being there at all over the summer makes my summer somewhat incomplete. But check out the fish that my sister caught in Plymouth - wow - this is a 22" pickerel - darn big for our lake. She always manages to catch at least one big fish per year. Probably using her favorite lure - the Kastmaster. That's her (Amy), my niece (Hannah) and my brother (Peter).

Bits & Bobs:

• In Bruges they have square pillows. Odd.
• Bruges is mentioned in the new Austin Powers movie! Which, I think, can be most appreciated by Americans living in England who get all the jokes!
• British bathroom etiquette: If you need to use the bathroom (toilet or loo as they call it here), make sure and lock the door whether you are in a public restroom or a private home. The rule here is LOCK, whereas in the States it is KNOCK. I learned the hard way. (Hi Frances!)
• 99% of petrol stations (that's gas stations to you folks back home) are self service here.
• Vocabulary lesson: Panty hose are called tights here. I don't know what they call tights yet. Something that is stolen from someone is said to have been 'nicked'. When you are exhausted and worn out you are said to be 'knackered'. Try using it some time - it's a great word.
• When giving phone numbers, or spelling a word or something, the English will use 'double' and 'treble' to describe multiples. Our phone number, for example, is 0-1-8-6-5, 3-1-8, double 9 - 7. Sometimes, they'll say things like 'double 0, treble 0' for 00000. It's like using military time - you just have to think about it for an extra second.
• Fortnight. They actually use that word here a lot (yes, it means two weeks). It still sounds very Shakespearian to me, but I'm getting used to it.
• Already mentioned that Derby is pronounced 'Darby', but also clerk is pronounced 'Clark'.
• Mathematics is always referred to in the plural. For example, they might say "I was never any good at maths" or "I'm not sure I did the maths correctly."

And there you have it for this report.