Traveling with the kids

Sunday David, Rachel, Steve and I took advantage of the continuing sunny (but cold) weather and went to Ypres, where we had lunch, checked out their collegiale (big church that's not a cathedral), and wandered the streets gazing at the architecture of buildings rebuilt in the old style after being destroyed in the war. We didn't run across any lost wallets so we moved on to Oostende, which, as you might have guessed, is at the end of Belgium. Only not the east end. Go figure. Anyway, it being October, there wasn't anyone swimming at what must be one heck of a crowded beach during the summer. It was just a wide expanse of beautiful beach and the Atlantic Ocean out there, a gorgeous sight on a sunny day. But one can imagine how threatening it must appear on a rainy, gray day. We'll attach a picture when we get around to downloading them.

Today we're playing hooky from work to take Rachel and Steve to Aachen, Germany. It's been on my list of places to visit since we got here and it's only about two hours away from us. More to come...

We solve a mystery

Yesterday Rachel and Stephen and Rita and I took Grandmother to the airport (sad face about the end of a nice, long visit) then went into Brussels for the day. As we explored a side street that led to a section of the old city wall, Rachel discovered a pile of credit cards and IDs, obviously the contents of a wallet--no wallet. We gathered up all the bits and pieces and deduced that they belonged to an American student at a Brussels branch of a US university. Once we realized we were dealing with a countryman, we decided we didn't trust the police to return the contents. Plus we had no idea where to find the police. Nor did we trust the embassy. So we called a Brussels number from a business card of what was apparently a university official, got the student's phone number from her, called him, left a message, continued our tour, and went to lunch. He finally called back while we were at Chez Léon waiting to order mussels. (I had curry flavor, Rachel had the regular--yummy! Stephen had stoemp and sausages, also yummy; and Rita had...well, it was fried salad: bacon, green beans, and potatoes all sautéed in butter; it may have been the best of all.) The guy wasn't far away, so he came down to meet us. He was grateful. Turns out he had left his wallet on the counter when he stopped in a store to buy something to drink. He was hoping to go back and reclaim it once the store opened, so he was holding off on canceling his credit cards. So even that part had a happy ending. It was pretty satisfying to have an adventure, solve a mystery, and do a good deed all at the same time.

We're still here

It occurred to us the other day that we hadn't posted lately. That's because we've been busy. With what, we couldn't say, except that the days seem to be getting shorter. Maybe it's because they are; it's dark now by 7:30 at night (or sooner - I've lost track), which means we're going to bed earlier, despite having the same workday and the same errands to run after work.

Today we hurried to get our walk in before darkness fell. As we rounded the corner about halfway through one of our usual routes, I squinted at a sight down the road and wondered, is that a big dog or a calf meandering down the sidewalk? We had just about decided it was a calf when we saw a second cow, this one definitely a bovine of some sort, in the same vicinity. Were they lost? Were they out for a stroll? Were they refugees? We'll never know because they took off across the street before we got close and then we turned to go home. Life in the Belgian countryside.

In other news, we went to France the weekend before last to visit a friend who lives near Tours. We had a great time eating, drinking, visiting, drinking, touring, drinking. Wait, did I mention that we sampled a lot of sparkling wines? Of course the trip included the obligatory visit to a cave, where we bought more...sparkling wine! Bet you couldn't see that one coming!

A Moveable Fest

This is what Oktoberfest looks like if you're really doing it right. It's getting to be a regular thing for us: last year we went to the real Oktoberfest in Munich; this year Oktoberfest came to us. Each year for the past 38 years the German NCOs Association has put on their own 2-day version at SHAPE. We'd been hearing for months that they do a good job, and we were not disappointed. It's a huge deal for the SHAPE community: two of the kids Sarah met this summer even came home from their colleges in London and Paris so that they wouldn't miss it. Of course our version of the fest is a little different from Munich's. Besides being smaller (1 tent instead of 14), they served black beer (schwartzbier) instead of märzen. One of the beer guys told me that it's a specialty of Saxony. The food was a little different (spätzle seems to be beyond their capabilities) but was still very good, and the band did all the stuff you'd expect a German oompah band to do, including bawdy skits with men dressed as women. And they had the whip-cracking guys. Now I have to buy myself one of those hats my friend Curtis has.

Fascinating discovery

The other blogspot.com users have no doubt already seen this, but for the rest, you can watch in real time the photos people are uploading to their blogs. Not only is it mesmerizing, but once in a while a real gem of a photo like this one rolls by. You can stop, back up, and resume. I bet this guy does well. Be aware that the pictures are frequently stupid and occasionally pornographic, but the overall effect of seeing what people post is just enthralling.

On the Belgian adventure front, my mother arrived Friday for a month-long visit. We haven't done much of anything yet, but it's nice just to have her around. We've set her up with email, so friends and family can contact her at her regular address.

Liverwurst for breakfast

In case you didn't figure it out from Rita's last post, we were in Germany. We had week-long TDYs (business trips, for you private-sector types) in separate cites, but we joined up at the end of the week and spent a couple of nights on the Rhine in St. Goar, where we saw the fireworks Rita described and sampled some nice local German wines. The morning we left we took a long walk along the river. It was cold, foggy, and beautiful.

My second favorite part of Germany is breakfast. German breakfasts include lots of cold cuts, cheese, fruits, grainy granola cereals, yoghurts, and really great grainy breads. One morning on my trip it was still pretty dark, so the staff had set up a candlelight breakfast for us. Too bad I had to go to work afterward.

The river aglow

David counted about 30 boats of various types idling on the Rhein between St. Goar and St. Goarshausen for Saturday's fireworks display. The whole show last over 30 minutes and was yet another spectacular display of German fireworks prowess. Most of the firepower came from a barge right on the river but the castles above St. Goarshausen and St. Goar alternated with the barge. It was a fitting end to a fun day of sightseeing and shopping.