Around Brugge.....

The pictures above are from the Markt (center market) in Brugge. During the summer-time, all of the restaurants have seating outside underneath the awnings. It's sad to see it all come to an end for the fall and winter. September has been a beautiful month. Hardly one day of rain and the temperature between 68 and 76 degrees during the day.

Scott's mom will be coming this weekend so let's all hope the weather stays great for at least a couple more weeks. We will be picking her up at the Amsterdam, Holland airport. Hopefully, we'll have time to do a little site-seeing. I'm dying to see the Anne Frank House!

We went biking on Sunday around the ring that surrounds the center of Brugge. It's about 4km long (2 miles). We're not ready for the Tour de France or anything but it gives the city a different perspective on a bicycle.

So, am I the only one who hasn't actually biked on busy streets before? My extent to biking was around the block of my neighborhoods and in my back yard as a child. I actually considered (please note the past tense) myself a great biker. I have plenty of scars on my knees to show the many falls I had as a child when taking the curve too fast or driving with no hands on the bars. I quit biking once I had a car but could still ride, with confidence. Until now.....

I've never biked in traffic or had to maneuver around crowds people so, before we left Atlanta Scott and I went biking to practice for Brugge. Gwinnett county isn't exactly a place I'd call bike friendly. Scott gets me out on Satellite Blvd. (For those of you who aren't from ATL let's just say a very busy street where people are not looking for bikers) I panicked so badly, I ran into the curve and almost fell off my bike b/c I was for sure the car behind me was going to hit me. There wasn't a bike lane and this car was in a hurry. Needless to say, I put the bike back in the garage and said I would just learn to handle my surroundings once we got to Belgium.

Scott is super-biker. Apparently he had to bike to his caddy job at the golf course at 10 years old. The golf course was a couple miles from his house. Then, even though he had a vehicle in college he still biked to class even in the snow, sleet, hail, or rain. His bike is all equipped with rain guards and things to handle the conditions of the road. I never had a bike that had speeds on it until Scott bought me one 2 years ago!

Your probably wondering since we've been here 3 months why are we just now biking....Well, we actually tried it a few times but I felt like I was going to have a panic attack...Scott calls it adrenaline! Who knows? Here's a recap of our short lived experience a few months back:

I was all ready to bike in Brugge doing great and then a very large city bus comes up behind me. The street is just big enough for him to pass but not without a little scare. When he started to pass, the adrenaline started and anyone's reaction is to move the opposite way of the bus, so I went into the gutter of the road and couldn't get out so my peddle hit the curve and I almost fell. I've asked around and people say that it is possible to ride in the gutter (it's not really a gutter but just where the road dips in and starts to from the curb) it justs takes practice. Where's Scott you ask...riding in the gutter like a pro...the bus didn't even startle him. URGH!

What's the phrase...if at once you don't succeed..try and try again...well I did on Sunday and I did quite well actually. Not quite as good as you know who. At one point in the ride Scott was like Fred Flintstone and peddling with one foot on the peddle and one foot on the ground and going through all 30 of his gears. I was quite content in the same gear and maybe one day I'll learn the foot on the ground technique.

Until next Monday!

Wow, What a morning.....
No, this didn't happen this morning, but this is what we continue to deal with since we've moved into a recently renovated home from the 1800's. By no means am I complaining because we have an awesome house compared to what others have in Brugge. Most are 3 times smaller and out of the city center. We don't have to pay for repairs so we're good.

The picture above is from a few weeks back when the drain was blocked outside and where else is the water to go but inside. After getting absolutely soaked pouring buckets of water outside the rain finally stopped after about 45 minutes.

Mis-adventure #245 of Lacy: while I was cleaning the floor the next week after that happened, I was on my hands and knees and all of a sudden the weight of the water in the globe caused the globe to fall ON MY HEAD and break. What are the chances that I'd be right there when it fell. Again, soaked from head to toe I had to clean up the broken globe. For some reason the landlord didn't understand why I was so unhappy? I had emailed her right after the major rain leakage happened to let her know that the globe was full of water and it needed to be emptied. We didn't have a ladder at the time so couldn't do it. They don't know the word liable or sue in Europe.

The point of me telling you all of this is because someone just rented the house next door and they are having water problems. They think her problems are with the pipes in our walls. So, this morning I had the general contractor, two plumbers, and a random woman treck all through our house trying to find the problem. I'm just going to go out on a limb and say there probably going to cut a large hole in one of our walls. I'll keep you posted.

We also had the toughest Dutch lesson yet this morning. I think we may just have to wing this chapter. We were both mind boggled.

Just a random picture of the canals around the corner from us last night. We stayed in Brugge all weekend. Friday night we went to De Garre. This is the pub where you can only have three of their house beers because the alcohol percentage is so high: 11%. Next, we went to Opus Latino and had mojitos and tapas. Probably my new favorite place. The food was outstanding. We ended the night at a restaurant in the Markt looking at the Belfry Tower.

Here's our Audi. Just the right size in Belgium. Any larger and we wouldn't be able to fit down some streets. Our old Tahoe couldn't fit in any parking spot here. I had my normal driving lesson and learned how to "rock" on a hill without using the break. Go me! I think I'm ready to finally start to help drive especially on our upcoming 9 hour trip to Prague.

Can you believe we've been here 3 months......



And we are already attending our first Belgian wedding? Catherine, the girl who reports to Scott, was married about 6 months ago in the government ceremony and this past weekend was the big family/friend wedding. It's expected in the Belgian culture that colleagues of the couple attend to show support. The ceremony started at 11:30 am and the friend/colleague reception was from 4 - 6 and the family/close friend dinner/dancing reception was at 6. We went back and forth all week as to if we were actually invited to attend the ceremony. We finally settled on a native Belgian's advice and only attended the 4-6 reception. The reception was about 30 minutes away from Brugge, close to Gent. It was a beautiful day for an outside reception. Of course everyone is speaking Dutch so Scott and I are just hanging out on our own and a group of people our age decided to join us. They noticed Scott and I speaking English and then started speaking to us in English and look what we found out: The guy, Oliver, actually lived in Atlanta for a year(2001-2002) and graduated from GA TECH. He stayed in Sandy Springs off of Riverside in the huge castle-like mansion on the corner. His girlfriend, Alice, also lived in Atlanta for 3 months. They live in Ghent now but grew up in Brugge. They actually know our landlord and where we live. We really hope to keep in touch with them!

After the reception we decided to go to Gent for dinner. Ok, I'll just go ahead and tell you before you notice the dates on the pictures below. MY CAMERA BATTERIES DIED AGAIN!! I usually bring the camera bag (with the extra batteries) with me but since I only had a small purse for the wedding, only the camera would fit in there. URGH! However, since we visited Ghent back in January, I've posted those pictures so my stupidity doesn't have to ruin your viewing pleasure.

We had dinner across the street from the Gravensteen Castle at a quaint Italian pizza restaurant. Europe has the best thin crust pizzas. I always get the Pizza Funghi (pizza with mushrooms) and Scott always gets the Pizza Salami (Pepperoni Pizza - it's has a little stronger taste than the pepperoni's we are used to in the U.S.)

Gent is a very beautiful medieval city. I love to visit Gent right around sunset. When the sun sets the city becomes magical. The lights shining off of the castle and the canals. Very romantic. Who's looking forward to the Fall TV line-up - ME!!! I don't think I've mentioned it before but my favorite new invention is the SLING-BOX. It allows us to watch U.S television on our laptop (which we use an s-video cord to view through our television) The slingbox is connected to my friend's house back in the U.S. (There's a lot of technology involved so I won't go through the whole instruction manual, but if you want more information just call us.) They have an extra TIVO box which we use so we can record or watch any channels they have. Tonight we'll be tivo'ing Monday Night Football with the Vikings!

There's not too much happening our way until October. Scott's mom will be visiting us starting Oct. 1 and then we will start our traveling up again. We're taking 2 trips while she is here: the first trip (just a Saturday and Sunday) is still a secret for her so we won't mention it until later, but the second trip is to PRAGUE, Czech Republic.

Nog een pretigge dag. Dag!
Have a nice day. Bye!

Heidelberg, Germany

We traveled 4 1/2 hours Friday night after Scott got off of work to see my cousin, Shanell in Heidelberg, Germany. She works as a civilian for the U.S. Military. (Shanell and I are in the picture above) Thanks Shanell for showing us around your city. We had a great time. It's also great knowing you have family so close when we are so far away from home!
This was my first time to Germany. Scott had been to Heidelberg briefly about 10 years ago. He just drove by the castle so this time we got to go in. Heidelberg is known for its medieval castle. You can't really see it in the picture, but it is the red sandstone looking building in the back. We were able to walk the grounds and take in a few museums. Scott especially liked seeing one of the worlds oldest and largest kegs.

Click here to see all of our pictures! I added comments as well.
Hooray for the U.S. military! They serve the U.S. bravely and proudly....and they also have this thing called a commissary. My cousin said she would take us to the commissary if we needed anything from the U.S. that we couldn't get in Belgium. Scott and I just figured it would be the size of a gas station and we would just get some mountain dew and go on....boy were we wrong. The commissary is the size of a Publix with EVERYTHING American you could possibly want! As you can see from the cart we got a little excited.

Next weekend we are off to our first Belgian wedding in Ghent.

You know how much we enjoy weddings!