Hello, hello!!!

We are here. The summer of fun and gastronomic excesses is back! We'll spend the next 3-4 weeks here followed by 3-4 weeks in Vilnius. It's our 4th day here. The time is going by really fast and our only regret is not being able to share it with anyone.

Arrival is always the scariest. Finnair took away our stroller in NYC - I think they are the only airline with such annoying practice. But plane ride to Helsinki was super smooth - we got the seats with the legroom. So Georgia slept in the legroom and steward brought a crib for Isabella. It was a bit short for her but she managed to stay asleep most of the way. 

I spoke with a Lithuanian lady from the Midwest. She has amazing life story. She moved to Indiana with 2 Master’s degrees in math and music. Went to 29 interviews before landing the job at a school of the type that has armed officers manning the floors and most teachers don’t stick around longer than 2 weeks. She told interesting stories about taming the kids by taking them to see the Nutcracker and spending time in their church with their families.

It was amazing to see someone who really loves her job and makes a difference in other people’s lives. Interestingly she does not seem to think it is such a big deal. She said that her calling was the number of days off that teachers get. In her spare time she paints, knits, plays violin in an orchestra. And 2 years ago she got pregnant and gave birth to little girl at 45. And last year she bought a run-down farm near Ignalina that she was planing to bring back to life.

 

Flight to Tallinn was 20 minutes. There was more fuzz going through the passport control, waiting for our connection, getting on the little bus that took us to a little plane than the actual flight. In retrospect, a better way to go would be to stay in Helsinki for a few days and then take a boat over to Tallinn, but we wanted to get situated and make sure that we can stay here.

At BookingEstonia office we spoke to a helpful young girl Elvira who took us to our apartment that was in the building located on the town square. Apartment is really big, but one of the bedrooms does not have any windows. The rest of the windows face a little side street with a night club. That night club is especially enjoable when it rains.

The people who are in the upper town could possibly look inside some of our windows from one of the viewing areas there but they’d have to use binoculars to see anything good. There are few minor issues in the apartment like the lack of the washing machine and a microwave. There was also no soap, dishwashing liquid, and there were precisely 5 plates. But all of these things are fixable.

We got a bike chain to secure the stroller inside the building, got all the necessary household things, and even bought the microwave for which the apartment manager paid back. Initially she tried to convince us that microwaves are dangerous to kids. She got more agreeable after Dan tried to warm up some Chicken Kiev on the convection stovetop and fire alarms went on and cops showed up (albeit 20 minutes later). They were very friendly by the way.

We are still not adjusted to the 7 hour time difference. We sleep until 9 am and go to sleep at 1am. The kids are doing a little better – they go to sleep a bit later than usual but sleep until 9-10 am as well. So schedule is a bit strange. We have lunch at 2pm, and dinner at 8 on. 

 

Speaking of eating, I don’t think there would be too many interesting inputs on the gastronomic side. It is a lot more expensive to eat out here than in US on average, especially for the 5 of us. Well, in the name of tradition, here is the current run down:

We had several meals in Lido @ Solaris mall. It is a pick your own type of the restaurant. Consistently good on every single item and one of the most affordable options.

Saw another pick your own place in Viru mall. It is called Magic Buffet. Inside it was surgically clean: in part due to in-your-face cleanliness, the lack of customers, and meager food choices. We were not ready for its magic.

We had the run of the menu at Taco Express. What I really loved about the place was menu translated to Russian (and English). In Russian, the translation seems more liberal and funny. In Russian, Jalapeno sounded like Yalopeno and Nachos became a much macho nacho. Here is a pic.  In the true fashion of a fast food place, we first got our small burrito, after we were done, 2 piece quesadilla, then pizza (standard sized), followed by a cheeseburger.

Today we had lunch at a Russian Restaurant on Lai street. Very interesting, standard menu items like pelmeni and blini but somehow tightened up, gourmetized, and in very small portions. Prices as usual here. Don’t know if it was the lunch menu but we tried almost everything between the 4 of us – Isabella missed out on account of sleeping. Great service, but we would probably not come back just on account of that.

So we will try to eat out for lunch and eat in our breakfast and dinner. And we will check out the bar scene during our night walks. Hence the microwave.

There is one place that sort of intrigued us to the point of having a dinner date. Leib Resto Ja Aed. We were looking for a place to eat dinner fast and found this place right below the city wall. It is gated and has a sandbox! In addition tables with huge sloppy peony bouquets were lazily laid out  on the lawn spattered with more peony flowers. Turns out the place was booked that night, and the following night, and on Friday, Saturday, the following Monday. So I put my foot down and said we will eat there on Tuesday next week or we will stake them out. And fortunately they were not fully booked for Tuesday.

So now that I’ve written a whole page about food a little about the town. We really did not do it justice on all our prior visits here. We keep discovering new hidden courtyards and nooks. The area outside the city wall has many beautiful playgrounds with really great equipment, pretty parks and lakes and ponds. We still did not go around the entire old town.

Today we went to a Stroomi beach. Pretty long walk but it was worth it. It was the best beach and park infrastructure I had ever seen. There must be at least 5 different playgrounds within meters of each other. Beautiful forest-like park is good for walking with a stroller and there are multiple easy bike paths. The water covered in algae does not seem very promising but everything else around, including the multiple ice-cream cabins was top notch. Kids were amazing – we were walking for a good 5-6 hours and Georgia spent most of the time on her feet. Isabella was pretty good but in the end after expressing her frustration a little bit went to sleep for her first nap in 4 days. 

Locals are really friendly. Many speak multiple languages. Tallinn is as clean as some of the towns in Japan, if not cleaner. We see people on the streets at all times. You would be hard pressed to find a cigarette butt on the ground in the old town. Store windows shine bright.

We went to the local market. It is different than the one in Vilnius. We were there at 8am and most of the stalls were still closed. We could not find the good farmer cheese lady. Most have the milk-product stock that is smaller than what you would find in a Russian store in NJ. That means 2 kinds of farmer cheese – with raisins and without. Cured meats do not look very interesting also.

We saw an interesting street performance yesterday. A band of 4 people wearing straw basket hats (not straw hats – real straw basket hats) were performing interpretive dance to the sound of Bohemian Rhapsody. After that they asked for a moment of silence to pay respects to the nine issues they would not be covering, starting with extinction of Panda, e-coli, and more. After that kids lost interest and we moved on. I am sure the rest must have been a view to behold.

We found a lot more galleries and museums. Hope we will have enough time to cover all that.

February 3-7th, 2011. Chena Springs, Alaska

Northern Lights @ Chena Hot Springs Resort, Alaska
Pictures to come.

http://www.chenahotsprings.com/

The Last Entry For Summer 2010: a Little Belgium & Vilnius

Getting ready for the next year of fun!!

Day 47 – The final day

We went to Antwerp to see Rubens festival. Supposedly there was supposed to be a giant outdoor market going on with all the vendors dressed in costumes from the Rubens period. We was looking forward to some booty.

So instead there were vendors selling everything from grandma-style night robes to bed linens and socks. There were some green grocers, a few candy vendors, and several were selling fish, meats, and cheese. No arts and crafts. A few vendors were dressed up. All the stores other than food and souvenirs were closed. We went to the main train station to get some coffee and pass time. For the next few hours we could only see people over 100 on the streets. Poor Rubens, that’s probably not what he would have had in mind.

While leaving we spotted a playground and a supermarket. Would have been a hell of a walk from our apartment if we ended up staying there.

On the way back we stopped at Michelin. Lovely town… if you haven’t had our fill of the beautiful Belgian towns.

We are looking forward to going home. The last 6 weeks did not play out how we planned originally but we had a really great time. It was the most interesting summer so far. It was also very enjoyable to spend more time with our girls and be able to watch them literally grow before our eyes. Dan and I had grown too, just in other ways.

Day 46 - More countryside

On Saturday the city has gotten so busy that it was difficult at times to squeeze through. In the morning we went to the money museum next to the cathedral. It is very nicely designed from the perspective of Belgian children – there were lots of interesting multimedia exhibits, cartoons, and stools to view the exhibits. But Dan was disappointed with the amount of the actual coins shows.
We drove to Teruven to check out the museum of Central Africa lovingly put together by the king while the colonization was going on. The African exhibits were very extensive and varied. Most incredible and creative masks. Lots of nasties – including the real shrunken human head and richly decorated skulls (incidentally there were some of those in the kid-oriented Paradisio yesterday). On one hand the people who were used for these exhibits were dead so they could not care less, but on the other they probably did not die of the natural causes. And then again how do you come up with the process for shrinking one’s head? Method 1: smoke the head for 20 hours. Result: dark, wrinkly human head, yak, no go. Method 2: boil the head for 20 hours in special herbs. Result: soup, nice idea, save for the future reference, but still no shrunken head. Method 3345: … There were also lots of dead stuffed birds, snakes, and animals including the giraffe and elephant – imagine stuffing a corpse this big. There were nice collections of African faded butterflies, beetles, and bugs; with graphic photos of what would happen to a person if the latter would crawl under their skin or lay their eggs inside a person. Finally there were some interesting fishes in marinating in formaldehyde. Very old school and pretty disgusting.

The next stop was the ruins of Villers Abbey. Having read the Pillars of the Earth the structure provides a very good perspective on what the life was like in a monastery from 800 years ago to 200 years ago. There were walkable areas of abbot’s palace, workshops, hospital, main church, guesthouse, monks and lay monks quarters, and a cellar under the whole church (alas no flashlight and the metal detector). Nowadays the church is used for the concerts. Not as lovely as the yesterday’s ruins but pretty thorough and informative. Definitely recommended.

We tried to go to St. Gertrude’s collegiate church but made a mistake and went to the wrong town. We must have driven for 10 km on the cobblestone road made for 1 car. Don’t know long old it is – cannot imagine anyone caring enough to do this nowadays. Some of it was patched with asphalt. In some spots the middle has buckled so high that it was scratching to belly of the car. Useful hint: if you see a Mercedes or a BMW heading towards you and you are not driving a vehicle made by either of these manufacturers – pull over, because they won’t.

Our final stop was Bois Des Reves. Weird place with a lake, some walking trails, pool, playground. Weird because playground costs 1.70 euro per kid, parking lot is 1 euro, and the pool costs something too. That's Belgium for you - there is no free playgrounds. There were fisher men sitting around the lake catching very large fish with very long fishing poles and then letting it go.

The city was buzzing when we were back. Near our hotel you pretty much could be carried around by the crowd. We went to the upper town (we drove around it for days and last night finally made it out there). It was much less filled up with people, especially considering that there was a music festival going on and several bands were playing in the stages around the justice palace and the park. It is a nice place.
Incidentally, speaking of the upper town, a few days ago we passed Mary Chocolatier, the vendor who supplies the king. I asked about the favorite candy of the king. The salesgirl said the king’s office always orders everything. Either they are dead-beats in the king’s office – how could you possibly like everything equally. Or Mary the Chocolatier lies. It is just not interesting. If it were I, I would say: “the king like these the most but everyone else prefers these, and these, and the other ones.” And let the client figure out what they like the most.

Day 45 - South Western Circuit

Yesterday morning I spent an hour trying to find the best itinerary for today. There were a few beer festivals going on but based on the pictures they were not a family type of event. Also, none of them were easy to reach by the public transport and it would not make sense to make the trip for only 1 drinker. We are sampling the local product every day and still did not find the one yet. So we went to the tourist information office and unhelpful lady gave us amazing booklet for 365 Discovery Days Belgium. Better than any tour book!

The first stop was the ruins of Aulne Abbey. This was one of the major highlights of our entire summer trip. The monastery is over 800 years old and now just a number of supporting walls from the structures remain. There are also a few functional buildings in and around the ruins - beautiful restarants, brewery, cellar bars. The ruins are incredible. The views all around are too much for our little camera to capture.

Next we stopped on the in Thuin to take a look at the famous belfry and the surrounding valleys. The views here are very different than on the eastern circuit. There is much more land used for farming. The farm houses are more colorful than the gray slate of the Eastern region. The area is also much more populated. Isabella went to sleep so we opted in for lunch rather than going up the tower. Lunch at a local little restaurant with only locals present was very pleasant.

Next we wanted to go to the Distillerie de Biercée but made a mistake and ended up in a Fosterau Castle (will check the spelling) instead. It is hard to miss a castle here, they are all over the place. And this one is not even on the list. A very warm and courterous lady with flawless British accent called us in. The castle was never used for protective purposes. It was initially jointly owned by an Abbey and a lord, so it was only used as a home for the manager who was responsible for taking care of the land around. It was a kind of a working castle. It looks very much like it is still used in the same capacity and that was interesting There are rooms with accumulation of furniture and rugs. They sell some modern paintings and sculptures. Host events and possibly travelers. On the first floor there is a pharmacy that was probably there for a very long time - possibly used by the surrounding farmers. There are a few tea rooms for the meetings like collecting taxes.
The next stop was the distillery. We were sort of disappointed. The building complex from gray slate is magnificent. Here and there there are gleaming attributes of distilling process. There is a desk arranging the tours and buying products and a little cafe to sample the product. There was just one waitress manning the establishment so there was no possibility of discussing a tour with her. Dan ordered a cherry liquor for me while I played with the girls on the minimalistic playground: two wave bugs and a little wooden house. The liquor was too sharp and alcoholic. A pleasant gift to see us off: there was a wall of pear trees trained to line the wall of the distillery. They were full of fruit. We stopped there and picked enough for everyone. Isabella fought with me over the tail end section.

The final stop was the Cambron-Paradisio in Brugelette - a large zoo/acquarium/play area. It was really impressive. Scrumptious is probably the word. The grounds are extensive and full of interesting buildings reminiscent of the Asian building style. There are different sections that house animals and environment is set up to show the part of the world where they live. We visited enormous Chinese section, saw a bit of Bali section. They have genuine historical artifacts. The sections are full of them to the point of them looking gaudy - 20 bansai trees all close together, a stone garden with way too many stones, not a bit subtle. I guess they do not have that much space after all.

We started at the farm animal section. It is a bit different that typical sections in other zoos - there was a black piglet out for petting, interesting varieties of goats and lambs. A large goat ate my map of the place. We could not stop him. Isabella was very excited.

One other impressive section was the Aquarium located in the classical building changed inside to look like the submarine. Exhibits looked like illuminators. Sometimes the typical submarine sounds were sounded. They have incredible jelly fish exhibit.

There is a canopy road in the trees around several areas of the zoo. When we finally found the entrance, Georgia and Dan went around it. Very brave of Georgia. This thing shakes like there is no tomorrow and she was the youngest on it. There was also a large sandy playground. Like most playgrounds here it is boring and most sections just repeat. It was enough for Georgia. Absolutely nothing there for Isabella - not even a baby swing. And we did see a lot of parents with little toddlers.

It started to rain and kids were freezing so we left. But it was incredible place. And we had incredible day.

Day 44 – Proud to be an American

There comes the time in our travels, every time, when we think back to the home country we left behind and feel proud to be its citizens. Not that we do not think that normally. But sometimes comparisons bring home better what we have.

We went to see the Atomium today. It is a giant model of the Iron molecule built for the 1958 World Fair. It was recently renovated and looks pretty good on the outside. The inside is much of the late 50s splendor so not very impressive.

First, you are squeezed like sardines in the elevator that takes you to the top sphere for the view of the city, from maybe 20th story height. Next, you are herded back to the ground floor and take escalator and stairs to 2 more spheres.

What disturbed us was the exhibition that was designed to showcase the challenges of being accepted by the Belgian society of the new immigrants. There were stories of immigrants, pictures and all that good thing. But they also had exhibit labeled “Foreign Scum.” The board said something like “6 out of 10 African immigrants think they are not being treated right.” There were other similar statistics and I do not remember them. There was also a TV with a taped interview in French presumably on the same topic. We moved to a different sphere and there was artistic exhibit – a neon sign saying, “Scum.” It was interesting that it was pointing towards the elevator that could only be used by the staff on this floor and at the moment a black cook was standing next to it. There was another sign about the foreign scum a few feet away.

The fact that the subject comes up and there is a word for it or rather label, and there exhibits showcasing it indicates that yes, immigrants know that they are scum, and locals know that immigrants are scum. And yes, indeed it is a great social problem.

Now in US, if someone so much had called someone a foreign scum they would probably arrested for racial/religious hate crimes. There is no concept such as a foreign scum here. Everyone in the country is immigrant and an American and I appreciate the great pains that country is going through every day to make sure it stays so (give or take Arizona). That’s why you can bring your family to Belgium, and dozens of other countries in the region, and give them you best and in the end, the best you would be is still the foreign scum.

I am sure that great quantities of Belgians are good people and do not think of foreigners as scum and do help them, hopefully more of them would get the message. One other note, I ranted on the first day how hard it is to find anything "Belgian" in some areas and how depressed and run down things that are not Belgian are. I guess this all stems from the scum concept. The same donner may look glorious on the market in Marakesh. But here it is a sign of decline. Fixing this should start from beginning to respect it. If you respect foreign things, you could extract and distill the very best out of them. For example, Americans were able to perfect the Italian pizza and take it to the new heights via the deep dish and the New York style pizza. Lithuanians did it by putting the entire contents of their fridge on it.  

Mini-Europe was visible from the Atomium and was  not worth it.

Our next point was the glass town but having received varrying directions for the locals we ended up wandering for 3 hours in the outskirts. Eventually we made it back to town. Walked around for the rest of the day re-sampling to local specialties. Here they are again: waffles, doner kebab, French fries with mayo, and deep fried meat. Had some beer on the street. Dan was embarrassed to have it out in the open :) Take out coffee is soo bad. Coffee Inn, Coffee Inn!! How come Starbucks never made it past the airport?

Flower carpet on the Grand Place is almost finished. It is awesome. Will try to find a high point tomorrow to view the whole thing.

Day 43 – The South Eastern Circuit

We spent today covering about 1/3 of the South Eastern Belgium circuit described in the Eyewitness guide. The circuit covers about 21 points which include several beer breweries, castles, gardens, pretty and interesting towns, and similar things. We figured we would do one of each. We missed Huy, but I heard it is not much to write home about. It was drizzling at times but usually when we got into the car to drive to the next destination. The whole thing took about 12 hours. After the 30-minute cry-fest by Isabella on the way in, we set out expectations for the day really low, but the kids were perfect even though it was a challenging. We had a really great time.

We started in Namur, beautiful quiet and empty town on the river. The main church is nothing special after the splendor of the Brussels cathedral. We walked over to the river and saw the fortifications high on the hill across. Next we wandered around the streets. Checked out a few interesting stores, surprisingly, very expensive. We were really impressed with Namur's Notre Dame: very unusual, non centered layout inside, medieval statues and magnificent glasswork.

The next stop was the Floreffe abbey. They make, no surprise, Floreffe beer, and also cheese. We got into a small town and entered the monastery. It was not like imagined - lots of monks in robes, scurrying around carrying the barrels. Instead there that a functional shop with a sales lady who looks to be very fond of the main product. We got the blond variety and some local cheese, ham and bread. They do not sell samples. The blond is very good in a solid kind of way but not beyond that. Cheese and meat helped us recover the calories lost since breakfast. Having satisfied the crucial needs, we walked around the publically accessible areas. 

The monastery is situated high on the hill above the river and has extensive grounds lots of very substantial buildings of gray stone. Nowadays they also have boarding school, seminary and other things. They also rent out the grounds for the weddings and other events. The last event probably involved a lot of laser and other specialized light equipment as we saw the dismantling efforts from the gruff looking staff.

 

Next stop were the Gardens of Annevoie. It was a very pleasant stop for kids. Georgia and Isabella played on the nice playground with wood carvings. We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and lots of varieties of fountains which were all operating by gravity. There were plenty of areas to play and tell fantastic tales. The only thing that was kind of funny were some of the areas near the vegetable gardens where flat classical statues were displayed. From afar they looked 3-d, but as you got closer you could see that they were flat. I am not sure why it is like that. Maybe a style at the period when those were done? Maybe they run out of funds for the 3-d versions? Some of the pools hosted large trout lazily swimming around confident that they will die of the old age. For the fishing conosseurs living in the castle-home surrounded by the moat with clear water, beautiful water plants, and trout would be a dream come true - wake up, walk out on the balcony in your PJs and trout is out there, waiting. I dare say it is better than the gardens of Versailles.

 

At the end of the property was the wall of the town church and next to it, inside the property was the mausoleum for the family members. Some of the dates were around early 17th hundreds. It is interesting to have a territory to large as to have the family semetary there. And it is interesting that the same family owned this property for over 300 years only to sell it 10 years ago.

 

The next stop was the town of Dinant. The city is squeezed between the river and the mountain. It is one of the prettiest towns we ever saw. Unfortunately it was also one of the busiest. The narrow streets were groaning under the weight of the non-stop flow of cars moving back and forth. And that on a Wednesday afternoon. Elderly gentlemen were screaming something into their phones (we counted 2). Old ladies were doing their promenade at the snail pace (far too many to count). Tourists of all kinds were going back and forth. We were also pretty tired at this point so all this noise in the beautiful surroundings was not helpful. While Isabella nodded off we stopped by at one of the restaurants by the river, we had late lunch and moved on.

 

The next stop was Veves Castle. It really qualifies as a stop because the castle was under construction and outside view is  the main attraction of the castle. So we looked at the one tower that was not covered by the latticework and went to our final destination.

 

Han on the Lesse river is a tiny city that seems to have been created to support the tourist industry to the caves. We took the 1.5 hour tour. It was really enjoyable. We were worried how the kids would respond to being in the closed quarters for so long and also whether they would be OK with the temperature. But both of them were great and all of us had a great time. The caves are beautiful, with lots of interesting staglatites, staglamites, other rock formations. There was a light and sound show in one of the largest caves. It must be incredible to listen to a concert here. Isabella conributed a little song too, the cave acoustics were equally obliging.

 

Afterwards another great playround and some farm animal enclosures that kids enjoyed prior to our drive home. Isabella was giggling all the way back.

Day 42 - Brussels, the right way

So, Isabella and I woke up at 5:30am today and the day began. It sounds painful but it was actually very precise on her part - it is 6:30am LT time. It was still dark out so we hanged out in the lobby and watched intense cleaning that was going on inside. The windows, floors, rugs were all scrubbed. Desk clerk treated us to a chocolate croissant straight from the oven. When it got light out we went outside and watched more cleaning going on. There were lots more people out at 6:30am than in Vilnius - mostly people going to work, having breakfast at the coffee shops. We walked around the Grand Place and did some window shopping on St. Hubert's shopping gallery.

By 8:30 everyone was up. We walked around and enjoyed the city without too many tourists at this time but plenty of locals going about their things. We walked up to St. Catherine's. It is a beautiful area and looks exactly how I imagined Belgium to be. There are lots of buchers, fish shops, and pastry houses. St. Catherine's is amazing to look at too, if in part because it looks abandoned. It is in a real bad need of the restoration. Yet, all the beautiful sculptures, ancient organ, darkened paintings, in an "unmanicured" state somehow, look more real.

Later in the day we watched the creation of the new flower carpet on the Grand Place and later still checked out St. Michael's Cathedral, the main one in the city. It is certainly "eye candy" on the highest level. One other largest cathedrals we ever saw, with incredible huge medieval culprit, clear and gorgeous window glasswork, lots of distinctive chapels in different styles, old and modern religious art, and enormous modern organ suspended near altar windows. I cannot imagine how much the thing weighs. And yet it is fitting on the giant wall. We will be back to check it out again and also visit the crypt.

We went through all the usual fares: got Belgian waffle near the Pissing boy, it is the best one so far. Isabella chewed on it like it was gum. We also got chocolate candy and marmelade. I wonder what the history of Belgian chocolate is associated with. Does it have anything to do with Congo colonization? We got some local beers, and french fries with mayo. We even got dinner from the one of the restaurants on the street with identical menues and prices behind the Grand Place. Dan was ashamed of our choice of the tourist trap for a meal but in defense I argued that the service would be faster that Lithuanian McDonalds and with 2 kids this is an important factor :). The food was good, fast and not expensive. Don't have the name of the place and it really does not matter on that street.

Isabella can walk around the furniture by herself or if someone is holding her one hand. She really loves to walk around and we let her down from her backpack frequently so she could stretch. Georgia had a mixed day - early in the morning some mean little Russian kid on the street slapped her. It happened so fast that Dan and I did not react to the kid or to his parents. His parents made a bit of a show admonishing him. We met them later in the day, he pretty much does what he wants. We promise to protect our kids better the next time. Georgia was alternating between good and bad moods, but in the end went to bed happy having watched all the cartoons she wanted. 

We pretty much covered the lower city (I don't just mean the food :)). Will work on the upper one tomorrow.

Day 41 - Loosers, Part Deux

We drove around our hotel Alma in circles trying to approach it closer with our enormous luggage. The neighborhood looks plenty eclectic, with the buildings being the only part Belgian left. Finally we pulled over behind some car where the guy was furiously doing something underneath the wheel (car jacking?). A bunch of men who, at best, looked like workers after a long day, sat nearby smoking. I took Isabella and our passports and walked over to the hotel to register. The lobby looked simple but updated. The older gentleman at the counter was surprisingly courteous. I read many reports of the hotel staff and this hotel being unfriendly but this was definitely not the case here. He showed me the Grand Place parking about a block away and explained how to get there.

We parked, grabbed our immediate stuff and walked into our room. We reserved a triple, thinking that Georgia would get the third bed and Isabella will sleep in the corner like before. The counter guy gave us two keys - for the rooms on the third and fourth floor and said that they are connected. It looked strange but we went in.

Here I pause effectively. 

There was a winding staircase in the room on the third floor to get to the fourth floor. The same nasty crickety "I have way too many 4-year olds" staircase. We went back to the guy downstairs. He was nice and helpful but essentially said that there no triples or quadrupples at the hotel. That this is what they call the rooms that are connected by the staircase. And the most that he could do is try to move us to the larger room and stick another bed in there, tomorrow, and that's not for sure.

We walked around for a bit trying to sort things out. While one is in this special kind of mood everything is affected. All we could see were dilapidated old buildings with graffiti. Massage specialists inside Shanghai massage parlor, definitely did not come from China. Even though we were meters away from the Grand Place, walking to it we passed scores Greek, Indian, Chinese, Lebanese eateries and started to despair of seeing a place that sold waffles or chocolate. We finally found one (checkmark!) and went back to the hotel.

Next Dan went out to a pleasant square next to the underground parking and checked with Novotel and Ibis that were located there. Novotel had family rooms that cost less than what we were paying with breakfast included. I think we missed it because online prices are higher. So that's our new home for the final week.

The room is really nice, the linens and the girl at the desk brought Isabella a crib and gave kids some stuffed animals. The view outside is definitely better. Wow. When the kids went to sleep, I went downstairs and got a drink and online. Ready to re-discover the city tomorrow. A shawarma for lunch would be great.