We just had our 7th round of visitors in 8 months! We know Mary and Jeff from Charlottesville, but they now live in upstate New York (both are teaching at Colgate University). They converged in Belgium to visit us after conferences and research that took them to England and Germany, respectively. We hadn’t seen them since they got married a few years ago so it was wonderful to have a chance to catch up. Plus, it’s so much fun to introduce people to some of our favorite places and things to do in Belgium.

Of course we took them to hang out on the Graslei/Koornlei. Now that the weather has been nicer, this spot in the historic center of Gent along the canal is the place to be. There are lots of cafes in this area, but you can also just bring your own beer and just sit along the canal, which is what we did.

Troy, Jeff and Mary on the Koornlei

The Graslei

Much of our visit revolved around beer tasting. We rented bikes one day in Diksmuide and rode over to the Trench of Death and then the De Dolle brewery in Esen. Our friends enjoyed De Dolle’s brewery tour. It’s quite a unique experience since the tour is given by the brewer’s spunky mother, who is in her nineties. She convinced us all that beer is good for your health!

Jeff, Mary and me at De Dolle

I was really happy to hear that the De Dolle crew enjoyed my recent article about the brewery in Flanders Today.

Kris Herteleer, the brewer, also sat with us and chatted for quite a while and gave us tastes of some special beers.

We came across a record number of automaats on our ride. We bought fresh milk, strawberries and bread from machines!

Verse aardbeien!

We had hoped to make it all the way to the Westvleteren cafe but we ran out of time. Luckily, we had one bottle of the Westvleteren 12 to taste with our friends. In order to have some means of comparison, we tasted it against the Rochefort 10 and St. Bernardus 12 (which is supposedly made with the same recipe as the Westvleteren 12). These are the top beers of this particular style, though Westvleteren gets the most attention for reasons I’ve mentioned in previous posts.

Excited to taste!

Examining the color

We sat down and really examined the flavor, nose and color of each beer. Troy took copious notes. It was surprising to note how very different each of the beers is since they are all the same style (Belgian quadrupel or more specifically Abt). Jeff’s top pick was the Westvleteren, Mary’s was the St. Bernardus and mine was the Rochefort. Troy had a hard time deciding.

In any case, we had a ton of fun. Hopefully we’ll be making it up to New York before too long to visit Mary and Jeff. They promised to take us to Ommegang, a Belgian-style brewery in their neck of the woods!

Here are some more pics from their visit.

Some of you may know that Belgium is functioning right now without an official government. Prime minister Yves Leterme resigned in the end of April. Although I don’t completely understand all of the complexities of this, I feel the need to try to understand and explain what I know.

Belgium has a coalition government. One of the key parties withdrew support of the government in April based on struggles around voting districts and language issues. Flanders (the northern part of the country where we live) is Dutch-speaking, while Wallonia (the southern part of the country) is French-speaking. Brussels is officially bilingual but largely French-speaking. Each of these three portions of the country function very independently much of the time. In fact, though the Belgian government has fallen, everyday life goes on just fine. This is because the regions are really pretty autonomous. The federal government handles major issues like national defense and high criminal court matters.

Brussels’ sprawl into Flanders has created some contentious issues. The gist of it is that French-speaking voters who officially reside in Flanders are being allowed to vote for French-speaking representatives. This is really controversial since Flemings who move to Wallonia are not allowed to vote for Flemish representatives.

There is a long history of language struggle in Belgium. Under Protestant king, Willem I, the Netherlands and Belgium officially spoke Dutch. When the Belgian state separated from the Netherlands in 1830, French was declared as the official language. But French was the language of the aristocracy, which eventually led to Flemish nationalist movements. One big impetus for Flemish emancipation was the tragic result of French-speaking officers commanding Dutch-speaking soldiers on the front lines and in the trenches during WWI (most soldiers were uneducated workers and farmers and therefore, not French-speaking). Dutch was only officially recognized as a language in the 1930′s but change was still slow. The Belgian constitution wasn’t even officially published in Dutch until 1967!

But I digress… Basically what I’m trying to say is that we are in the middle of some highly complicated and heated politics. It will be interesting to see how this weekend’s federal elections play out and influence the future of this tiny country.

Here’s an interesting article I found on the current election climate.

*UPDATE – The results are in. This is the best coverage I’ve seen so far by the NY Times on this issue. When the country dissolved, they only had a one paragraph story about it!

P.S. On an unrelated note, I added a couple of videos of Irish music to the Galway post!

As I mentioned in the last post, we had an incredible time in the County Clare with our friends Ben and Jessie. After parting ways with our friends, Troy and I ventured on to the Cliffs of Moher. We took our friends’ advice and parked up the road to avoid paying the hefty parking fee. We expected to have to pay to see the cliffs but managed to get in for free (after a long walk through some cow fields).

The views were outstanding!

View at the Cliffs of Moher

Another view from the cliffs

Couldn't resist a funny photo opp

There were some crazy Irish base jumpers at the cliffs. We didn’t realize it at the time. We walked past and it looked like they just had some backpacks. A few minutes later Troy heard the guy say “Bye guys!” and jump of one of the rocks! We watched as he opened his parachute and floated down to the rocky beach below. I was thinking, “Whoa!” but of course, Troy would have liked to try it!

On our way to Galway we stopped also at the Poulnabrone dolmen–the most famous ancient tomb in Ireland. It was a rainy day so this pic doesn’t really do it justice, but it was an impressive thing to see.

Poulnabrone dolmen

In Galway (Lower Salthill), we found an excellent B&B called Tara House. The owners, Anna and Michael, were incredibly helpful and friendly. Anna even gave us each a big hug when we departed!

We had dinner at a local brewery, the Oslo. Only one of their beers was on tap at the moment but it was pretty good. We also had a delicious Pilsner Urquell there from the tap. Though we aren’t huge beef-eaters, we had burgers for dinner and they were good! We actually ate a number of burgers in Ireland, something we’ve been missing here in Belgium. After dinner, we went to a really cool, old pub called O’Connor’s with lots of antiques, it was basically like a museum.

Walking around town the next day we happened upon a restaurant called “Riordan’s.” I took a picture because that is my stepdad’s last name. Little did I know, his great-grandpa was from Galway! I’m wishing we would have stopped in now to try to chat with the owners!

At Riordan's restaurant in Galway

After walking around Galway we headed to Dublin. I found a great deal at the Charleville Lodge through booking.com and we even got upgraded to a suite for free! We had a blast in Dublin checking out the local brewery (at this point we were getting tired of Guinness and I was disappointed to discover that it’s not even Irish-made anymore). The Porterhouse had some really great beers. We especially liked their hoppy and strong beer, the Brain Blasta! The Temple Bar neighborhood was really fun at night (despite one aggressively drunk person bugging Troy for money). We saw some great live music at The Temple Bar and The Vat.

Here’s a clip of the band at The Temple Bar playing “Galway Girl.” It’s been stuck in my head ever since.

And here’s a clip that features the Irish piper that I recorded for our friend Ben since he’s a bagpiper.

Troy was happy to get a whiskey flight at the Vat.

Troy and his tasters

Our final day we spent a lot of time walking around. We checked out some major sights like Trinity College and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We were sorry not to make it to the Leprechaun Museum, but all in all, we saw a lot in less than 24 hours and really enjoyed Dublin!

I took a TON of pictures on our trip. You can see them here.

Troy and I returned this week from one of our best vacations ever. I’ve been hearing from people for a while now that Ireland is a wonderful place, but it was really incredible to experience it firsthand. Everything is so green and pretty and the people are incredibly friendly.

What spurred the trip was an e-mail from our friend Ben saying that he and his family would be coming to Ireland and wondering if we could meet up. As it turns out, they were renting a house and had a spare room for us. We’re very appreciative of the Hunters’ generous offer to let us stay with them and crash their family vacation! Thanks also to Troy’s folks for the travel/birthday money!

We flew into Dublin without incident but getting out of the airport was a bit of an ordeal. It’s pretty tough to find a car to rent in Europe that doesn’t have a manual transmission. Troy had some practice driving a stick in Cornwall this past winter so I figured it would be okay. But damn, it was scary! Not only did he have to drive a stick, he had to shift with his left hand and drive on the opposite side of the road! I was alternating between being terrified and having hysterical fits of laughter at his driving. It took a while, but to his credit (I wouldn’t have been able to do it) he got us safely across the little country to Mountshannon where our friends were staying.

He was happy to see signs for Kilbeggan (the name of his favorite Irish whiskey) on the way and couldn’t resist taking the exit. We just happened upon this old whiskey distillery with an impressive museum.

Excited about Irish whiskey!

We met our friends Ben and Jessie in Oregon. Ben and Troy were in the same composition program at the U of O. We became fast friends. And though we don’t see each other that often anymore, we always pick up right where we used to. That’s the great thing about good friends. Seeing them this time was really special because we got to meet Seamus, their adorable little boy. The last time we saw Jessie she was pregnant with him!

Seamus showing off some flowers

Seamus at the dolmen near the house

Ben’s family rented a great house in the countryside near Mountshannon (45 minutes from Shannon). The view was gorgeous.

The view from the house

We took a lovely evening walk near the house as the full moon rose. The heathland was spongy and interesting to walk on. There were places where they were digging up chunks of peat in the fields. Some people apparently still burn it for heat.

Me, Jessie and Ben on a walk near the house

Full moon rising

We spent a nice day at the Bunratty Castle and folk park and then went to the winery to sample mead and potcheen (Irish moonshine).

Ben and Jessie at Bunratty Castle

We stopped at a great place called the Merriman Tavern for drinks. Irish pubs are so welcoming!

The fam at Merriman Tavern

We also went to an Irish music festival in Ennis. It was really amazing to hear and see traditional music and dance. I’ve got some video that I’ll hopefully get around to posting sometime soon. The coolest was going out in Ennis with Ben and Jessie in the evening for a pub “session.” Essentially, musicians just sit down and start jamming together. Some were better than others, but it really worked. The energy was great, you could tell they all were having a great time. Jessie (who is an avid Irish dancer) even got to dance a little with a local!

Jessie getting her Irish groove on

We had such an excellent time with our friends and Ben’s family. What a generous and kind bunch of people! We feel lucky to know them.

Lots of folks have come all the way to Belgium to visit us this year. We count ourselves lucky to have such an adventurous bunch of family and friends. I think we’ve actually had guests every month except December. Thanks to all of you for making sure we don’t get lonely! It’s been really fun to show everyone around.

Last week we had a reunion with two of our favorite Charlottesville couples, Steve & Aurie and Scott & Sarah. We had such a terrific time with them. We did lots of eating, beer drinking and touring around while they were here.

Too early for beer, having coffee at Dulle Griet

Frieten and waffles were eaten. And chocolate too.

Staurie eats a waffle

We went to Bruges one day (minus Troy) and tried the deliciously dangerous (at 11%) house beer at De Garre. We also sought out an amazing chocolate shop I had heard about called the Chocolate Line. This place is incredible! There were interesting flavors like ginger, caramel apple, and Earl Grey tea. The owner/chocolatier is nicknamed the “shock-o-latier.” I knew Troy was bummed to be working and not with us, so I consoled him by bringing home a chocolate tequila shot.

The pic doesn't do these Chocolate Line chocolates justice, but you get the idea; it's edible art!

We also took a requisite canal boat tour one lovely day.

Scott and Sarah

Steve, Scott and Troy have been making music robots together for a while now. We jokingly refer to them as the “bot squad” but the real name of their group is Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI). Everyone was excited to see the Logos Foundation’s impressive robotic orchestra. One of the highlights of the week was an M&M orchestra concert at Logos where Scott, Steve, Aurie and Troy all had pieces. I hope to get my hands on some video from the concert to post sometime soon.

Performers and composers relax after a great concert

Scott & Sarah departed for Amsterdam the day after the concert but Steve and Aurie stayed a couple days more. We decided to go on a biking excursion with them to finally check out the Westvleteren cafe. I’ve mentioned Westvleteren several times before. Some consider it the best beer in the world. It’s a Trappist beer that is very difficult to get. But there is a cafe near the monastery that sells it by the glass. We took the train to Poperinge (the hop growing region of Belgium) and biked from there to the cafe. It was a perfect day. The biking was wonderful (nice scenery and not too hilly). We arrived at In de Vrede right after noon, the perfect time for a beer on the patio!

Aurie and Steve enjoying a quintessential Belgian experience

Excited to be enjoying Westvleteren among good friends!

Troy had really been wanting to check out the De Struise Brewery so we headed there next. They are housed in an old school and the tasting room is like a classroom, very cool.

Being schooled on the brew

This brewery is pretty highly acclaimed among beer geeks. They are putting out some strong, barrel-aged beers of late, which Troy was excited to try. We sampled a number of their delicious brews and learned the history behind some of the labels from Carlo Grootaert. We also were able meet the brewmaster, Urbain Cotteau. Both guys were down-to-earth and friendly, which definitely added to our tasting experience. It really was a pretty perfect day. Again, you can’t go wrong with great friends and great beer!

Sampling at De Struise

All in all, we had a blast with our C-Ville friends. Seeing them makes it easier to think about moving back to Virginia. We’ve got such a wonderful group of friends there!

Belgium has vending machines that sell healthy food, what a novel idea! I have mentioned bread and milk automats in previous posts, but I came across one yesterday that really takes the cake.

Eierautomaat

I was with my friend Felicia doing a bike ride through Belgium’s national park when we saw a sign that we couldn’t resist. There was a farm right off the bike path and this was their method of selling fresh eggs.

Excited about eggs!

Felicia was as excited as me about our find.

I’m currently working on an article series for Flanders Today on family breweries. It started with Cantillon. This week will be De Dolle and next week will be De Ryck. It’s been loads of fun to visit these places and talk to the brewers. And the sampling has been wonderful too! I’m trying my best to develop my beer tasting palate but I still have trouble picking out and describing flavors. When Troy tells me there’s a “hint of barnyard on the nose” or that he tastes “butterscotch,” I have a hard time believing him. Something to work on and develop I guess. It just seems very subjective to me.

I’ve mentioned De Dolle and Cantillon in previous posts, but De Ryck was new to me. I was especially interested in interviewing this brewer because she is one of few female brewers in Belgium. Also, they produce some good beer but I had hardly tasted any of it before. Their Arend Tripel won the prestigious international European Beer Star competition in 2008 and has become one of my new favorites.

We had previously been set up with a Fulbright alum who is Belgian (she had a grant to study in Chicago one summer). Her husband happens to work with the town of Herzele where De Ryck is located. Lucky for us, because I was having a hard time getting them to respond to my request for an interview. Anyway, Jan brought us on a wonderful area bike tour that he helped to develop. It’s a scenic area in the Flemish Ardennes and the route even includes another brewery–Van Den Bossche (they make Pater Lieven). We had planned to go there too but they were unexpectedly closed. In any case, we had a relaxed conversational interview with brewmaster Anne De Ryck over a beer and some beer/hazelnut cheese. She closed the brewery to the public and gave us her undivided attention for a couple of hours. It was fantastic!

With Anne De Ryck

What’s incredible to me about these family breweries is the longstanding tradition. Anne is a fourth generation family brewer. She grew up immersed in brewing culture. Sadly, beer consumption has actually gone down in Belgium in recent years. Many of these small, craft breweries in Belgium are now relying on exports for their survival and the fact that countries like the U.S. are developing more of an appreciation for good beer.

I mentioned in one of my last posts that I’m already getting nostalgic about leaving Belgium. It has been an unforgettable experience that will probably influence our lives forever.

But as I’ve also said before, it hasn’t been all beer and chocolate. The move and adjusting to life in a foreign country was at best awkward and at worst ridiculously stressful. Living in a foreign country without much of a support system can be extremely isolating and it has really tested our relationship.

In any case, we’ve been trying to really make the most of our time here lately since it’s quickly evaporating before our eyes. This has forced me to reflect a lot on what I will and will not miss about living here. I’ll start here with what I won’t miss. This is related to my “still getting used to” page but includes my top dislikes.

• Not being able to understand many things that are going on around me – This has been the hardest thing. Our 2 levels of Dutch only go so far! Accents and fast talkers really throw us off. And if you resort to speaking English you’ll be treated like a tourist.
• The horrible customer service – In the U.S. we deal with rotten customer service sometimes but overall we don’t expect it. Here the opposite is true. I guess it’s because waitstaff get paid a decent wage (and aren’t dependent on tips). Once in a while we are pleasantly surprised by good service but I think it’s because they know we are American (so we might be stupid enough to leave a tip).
• Grocery store hours – Most grocery stores close around 6 or 7 pm and aren’t open on Sundays, which means I do nearly all of the shopping.
• The weather and biking in the cold and rain – I didn’t think winter could be harder than in Oregon or Minnesota, but I was wrong.
• The ridiculous prices – Everything is so much more expensive than we are used to! Plus the exchange rate is still pretty bad for Americans.
• Biking on cobblestones – I now know how it feels to have my entire core shaken.
• Not having a freezer – I can’t even express to you how much I have missed ice. You can’t even find it at grocery stores. I was beyond thrilled to find an ice maker on our recent hotel stay in the Hague.
• Constantly having to convert from metric and military time – I’m just not that good in math.

It’s cool and on the verge of raining (yet again) today so it’s likely that the weather and my corresponding mood are influencing my post. I’ll make another list of what I will miss at another time. This list will undoubtedly be shorter than the next one because despite a decent amount of stress and inconvenience, we feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity to experience life in another country for a while!

As of earth day, Troy and I have now been together for 15 years. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long. We wanted to do something special to celebrate but didn’t have a lot of extra cash for travel. I had been hearing about the famous Keukenhof gardens for a while, so when I saw a half price weekend train fare to the Netherlands we booked it and were off. We Pricelined a hotel in the Hague and rented bikes for the weekend. We rode the train with our bikes to the closest rail station to Lisse (where Keukenhof is).

Lissa in Lisse

The biking was terrific! I thought Belgium’s bike routes were really great but Holland’s are incredible! It is somehow even MORE bike friendly then Belgium, which is saying a lot. The paths leading to the gardens went through tulip, daffodil and hyacinth fields. The colors and scents (hyacinth) were truly spectacular! And it was really cute to see lots of families riding bikes around. I realized that it’s generally pretty rare to see elderly people in the U.S. on bikes because it really stuck out to me to see old couples riding around together–very sweet.

Flower fields around Lisse

The Keukenhof was really spectacular. There were massive amounts of flowers of every color and shape you can imagine. We had planned to get their early to avoid crowds and so that I would have the best lighting for pictures but we never seem to get anywhere before noon on the weekends. In any case, I think some of the pictures turned out nice. Here are some of my favorites.

I love this flower! It's called Glasnost

Daisies and red tulips

Hyacinth and tulips

View from the old windmill at Keukenhof

15 Years!

We biked back to the Hague along the coast. We stopped for some delicious scallops, watched the sunset on the beach with some Heineken and checked out the cool beach town of Scheveningen. Not sure how we’re going to top this anniversary trip, we feel really lucky to have had this opportunity.

I took MANY more pictures. You can see a slideshow of them here.

We have been living in Belgium for seven months now. We have three months left to go. Time has been flying! Now is our busiest time ever (me with stories and Troy with trying to finish up his vocal robot). I imagine the next few months will be over in the blink of an eye. And when we return it will all seem like a dream.

We are trying to prioritize our “things to do in Europe” list the best we can. It’s unfortunate that time and money are such big constraints. But there is still a lot to look forward to. We’ve still got a bunch of visitors arriving in the next few months and we’re heading to Ireland in May. Hopefully we’ll make it to both Prague and Paris before it’s all over too.

I’m already starting to get nostalgic about things that I know I will miss when we move back to the states. A lot of these things are food related–no big surprise with me. Beer, chocolate, waffles, cheese, fries, terrific produce. I’ll also miss how bike-friendly this place is. It’s been terrific for me to be forced to either bike or walk most places. Despite eating whatever we like, somehow both Troy and I have had to create new notches on our belts. Forced exercise is good for me because I absolutely hate the idea of exercise. I really hope I can continue to be as active when I move back. It’s just a healthier way to be.

The work/life balance here also seems to be healthier. People always use up their vacation days and they place a high value on time with family. We’ve been amazed at some of the wonderful provincial parks. Each province has several free parks, all with biking/walking paths, petting zoos, and imaginative playgrounds. I’m working on a series now about some of these outstanding parks. Here’s the latest article.

Support for the arts is really outstanding here too. The Logos Foundation is funded almost entirely by the Flemish government. Can you picture the U.S. government funding a robot orchestra? And yet why not? Why are we not encouraging creativity and thinking outside of the box? We recently visited a very cool, government sponsored project to bring sound art to the general public by placing it in an openly accessible forest. Read more about that here if you are interested. The Klankenbos (sound forest) is a pretty incredible place.

A giant flute that you can walk inside of

Okay, so Belgians pay about 50% of their income to taxes. But in my last job over 30% of my income was going to taxes, and the majority of this money goes to things like military spending. I’d feel much better about paying taxes if we had a solid health care system, social programs and better arts and parks support.