Haapsalu, Padise monastery, & Paldiski

Today was a great day!!!

First we went to Haapsalu. At first, after 1.5 hour ride from Tallinn, we were disappointed when we approached familiar Soviet blocks that lined the suburbs. But after we got to the city center with its winding streets and beautiful castle, we were sold. The old monastery was magnificent. Starting with the best playground we ever saw. It was made to look like a castle. Georgia refused to go anywhere and she stayed back with Irina.

Dan, Isabella and I went to see the monastery. It was started sometime 13^th century. After switching hands a number of times it was abandoned in 16^th century and renovation started 1970. They did a great job. Some rooms are still empty. But they have excellent exhibits related to monastery’s alchemist room and doctor’s office accompanied by a man in the anti-plague masque and bloodletting manual for a she-male.

It was our turn to feel stupid for having made Isabella go with us up the two winding staircases up to the watchtower and medicine room. She refused to stay on the ground with either one of us so we had to drag her along. It was a bit scary.

When we came back to the playground, Georgia and Irina were playing with some ducklings. They appeared out of nowhere and their mom was missing. Chances are someone will eat them soon. Pretty sad.

Speaking of eating, next we had pizza for lunch at Pizza Grande. Highly recommended. That's no duckling. Fast and good, and the amount of cider they serve with your order is enough to give one a serious buzz. We stayed in the courtyard. In addition to having entertaining signs it was also possible to see laundry drying in the backyard next door. The funny thing, it did not register – it felt like a part of scenery. We must be pretty desensitized. I wonder what would someone from another part of the world think seeing this.

Next we walked ourselves to the promenade – walking area around the coastline. This was historically vacation town but a very small one. The place was just amazing. To start, it was quiet, with very few people. Along the walk there were a few glass gazebos out on the water so that you could enjoy the sea without the wind. You can see the water inside the opening made middle of the gazebo. This is nothing like Klaipeda or Jurmala.

We walked up to the old dining hall. It was made to look exactly like it did in the beginning of the last century – paint, colors – impeccable. Some real old places deliberately have a shabby look to convey the “old” feeling. I think that this building really accomplished this goal by doing the opposite. You could perfectly imagine families of vacationers with ladies wearing their beautiful hats and hoards of children in brilliant white dresses and hats accompanied by nannies going to have their lunch or breakfast at a place like this. And they had a few old photos inside that showed that same exact place with vacationers around. Waitresses in crisp white bonnets served our cappuccinos and cakes. Even the bathroom had the right look.

A bit further out in the sea was a sculpture of a polar bear, hanging out on a piece of ice. I guess to give the perspective or something to relate to vacationers depending on the time of the year they were vacationing.

We walked further, fed the birds, continued around the salt water lake of this Estonian Venice. Really lovely town.

Next we asked our TomTom to take us to Paldiski to see the cliffs. On the way we quite randomly passed Padise monastery. We stopped and got out to see it. It was totally awesome. It was the one castle where you can go anywhere you want, cellars included, without any stop tape, or chains or warnings. Unfortunately we did not bring our flashlights so cellars were out (Never again!!). But we went just about anywhere else. We tried to find the treasure around the ruins on the outside wall but found lots of ripe wild strawberries and had to content ourselves with that. Near the monastery there was a little pond. Grass around it was teeming with little frogs. Probably hundreds of them. Georgia tried to sneak one home.

Next TomTom took us for a trip through some fields. The road got pretty bad. Some of the places had the holes so deep with puddles so big that it looked like we might not get out without someone pulling us out. Georgia got pretty worried and said: “Are we going to be stuck here for ages? How am I going to marry my love back home?” "My chto - ostanemsya zdes' naveki?" We tried to convince there that there are plenty of nice looking Estonian boys but she was very determined. So we kept going and eventually got to the normal road.  

We stopped on the way to look at what appeared an old submarine in the shallow water near the coast. You can see from that point that it a pretty enormous bay that would be a perfect place for the ships.

Finally, the last stretch . As promised, Paldiski looked very ugly. We kept going and going and it seemed like those Soviet blocks would never end. Then we checked TomTom for the local attractions (in Estonian) and clicked on one that seemed to be on the beach and kept going. It was the right place. There were wind turbines around, Estonian largest lighthouse and huge limestone cliffs. This was a closed town that Russians relinquished only in 1995. Maybe there is a giant cave under there housing those nuclear submarines under those cliffs. In the end Dan did some cliff edge driving for the last bit of adrenaline of the day. For the last bit of meal we stopped at local Maxima and stacked up of some freshly made food including 5 cent buns right out of the oven.

A note about Estonian weather. When it is sunny, it gets pretty warm, you take your sweater off and bask. When, a few minutes later, the sun hides behind a cloud and a light breeze starts to blow, you grab that icy sweater and put it on while shivering. In a few minutes the cycle repeats. It seems that the best way to go is to either have the sweater on or to have it off and try to disregard the changes in the weather entirely. Isabella, Irina, and I go the sweater route, Georgia and Dan do without. It is a matter of personal choice.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday

This will be a long one – did not write for 3 days. Still cannot figure out my schedule here. BTW, if anyone is reading, please feel free to comment. This is not the most exciting stuff so if it is really boring, maybe I could skip.

Thursday was St.John’s. We took trolleybus to the Zoo and from there walked to the Open Air Ethnographic Museum where festivities were to take place. There was a good number of families and older people. The museum is a bunch of buildings from the different regions of Estonia spread over a fairly large territory on in the forest near the coast. It is really beautiful area. Festivities involved lighting up several fires, music from several stages, programs in the different areas, and of course food kiosks.

Possibly because the territory was so large, the event really did not have much of the festive character. There were pockets of fun and the minute you walk away all the sounds die off and you are alone in the forest. Which was not bad by itself, but from the perspective of the holiday, kind of boring. I was expecting a kind of a huge pagan feast.  

Friday was very memorable. Georgia and I started the day at McD. We finally got to do her homework. The music was playing, people were going by… very nice and lively. Then we went for a walk around and got to an old Dominican monastery. It was founded some time in 1240s. Beautiful old building was armed with a fake nun in white who was kind enough to point the highlights out to us. The place was tiny and had an interesting architecture. Current entrance is through a steep staircase to the large room that served as a bedroom to 8 monks. Next to it is the 2 story library/bedroom to the main monk. Downstairs, reachable by narrow internal stairs, was the chapel. Outside the window we saw another old abandoned monastery that we put on our radar for the next time.

Next, in the same courtyard we saw the sign saying that this cellar is the entrance to the oldest building in the city, that was now a gallery run by Alexander (did not catch his last name). A sign next to it said “Closed.” We figured that people make mistakes and walked right downstairs. Alexander was inside vacuuming. He stopped when he saw us and waited for a few minutes trying to figure out what nerve we had to disregard the sign upstairs. He finally asked what language we spoke. I said English and Russian and asked if he had preference for any other. He said “Ukrainian.” I said “maybe a little” in Ukrainian. He was sold. Apparently he is originally from Lvov. He is a character, funny and a little crazy. Tried to convince us to baptize Georgia in the Ukrainian church. The cellar, with the fireplace sized like “it came from hell,” was covered in Alexander’s works done is a wide range of media – ceramic, oils, metal. He is very talented. The works are great but also the presentation and attention to detail is amazing. We had a great time talking to him. Learned a little fact about Georgia’s name that warms my heart. Will have to come back. Just as we were leaving, he was quite rudely showing the way out to some tourists who spoke only English. A little Ukrainian saves the day J

After that we decided to climb the wall into the upper town on Nunne street. The way up partly through the giant old steps and partly the dirt path along the wall looked pretty innocuous and we kept going until Georgia scraped her hand. She started crying and I rushed her up hoping to find a staircase down once we get to the top. There was no staircase down. We walked around and found a door that led to the other section of the wall. But we would have to jump down from 3 meters to get down. So we had to go down the same way we got up. And it looked a lot steeper from up here. Georgia was complaining about her wound and I was upset with myself to having made a five year old take the trip. But we had to get down. So I asked Georgia to concentrate and she did. We walked down holding on to the gaps in the wall. She was not crying, she was following the instructions and we got down OK. She is amazing.    

But her adventures were not over. After lunch Irina, Isabella, and her went to the Zoo. When they got to the elephants a really bad thunderstorm had started. They held out as long as they could but eventually had to head home when Isabella started running out of food. Even with their rain gear on they got completely soaked. Meanwhile we had a productive afternoon at work in the comfort of a Magic coffee shop inside Viru Mall.

But we all had a relaxing evening. Went to Viru supermarket to get pizza that we ate right there, while shopping for some other stuff. And then we walked around the entire old town on the outside of it. In one section there is a really beautiful park with sculptures. In another you can see a separate castle within the walls of the upper old town. It is pretty interesting. We never saw it when inside the upper town. Maybe it is concealed behind some other buildings there. Pretty cool!

A couple of funnies for Friday.

Georgia said "I am a righty" and here is my righty - and showed her right hand. In Russian it is funnier: "Vot moya pravsha."

When we walked around at night, Georgia was telling some story about princesses. In the end she showed how princesses bow to the queen. Isabella immediately repeated the gesture. Only in her case she put her head down and her butt was up to the sky. We laughed. She figured it is a new game and repeated her bows every couple of steps. We were dying laughing and people around were laughing too. In the end she got tired and decided to go home on her butt. Sat down on the ground and tried to move. It was successull but pretty slow. In a few minutes we got tired of waiting, picked her up as she was squealing in protest and carried her home.  

Finally Saturday!

Today we went to Lahemaa National Park. It is a giant national park 70km east of Tallinn. It features beautiful forests with bloodthirsty hoards of mosquitoes, water stone parks, old manors, and a very nice Viru Bog.

We had the most awesome, incredible Cheese Danish. Dan had 3, I had 2. We contemplated a return trip.

Stone parks formed when receding glacier left large boulders along the way and a bog were a special highlight. Mosquitoes were something else. We were covered in the insect repellant, and yet they found the most creative places to latch on. If you stop moving for a second, they figure its their only chance and went for all parts covered in repellent anyway.   

Leib & Helsinki

Got lazy yesterday. So no post. The only two highlights were going to the doll museum with Georgia and dinner at most sought for Leib restaurant. Dolls museum was very nice but definitely catered for Estonian kids - there were probably dolls from their favorite shows so they could relate to something every step of the way. Exhibits are really interesting, lots of interactive ones. Georgia enjoyed it.

Leib was good and solid but not OMG. All the food is really fresh. Prices are reasonable. Staff is nice and courterous and a bit on the clumsy side. We must have gone on a preggo night. We've seen 4 of them which is kind of funny for such a small place..

Oh, and there is military music festival going on. So there are marching bands and performing bands in all sorts of uniforms. Isabella likes that.

At night we went to the port to figure out where the fast line to Helsinki (Lindaline) leaves from. It took a little figuring out because there are no signs. It is actually on the left side of the ugly Soviet era monstrosity.

So today, Dan, Georgia and I went to Helsinki. We were so sorry to leave Isabella -  she is always in such good mood in the morning and greets every new person that wakes up with laughs. And we all just left!

The ride there was pretty smooth. I was worried that Georgia would get sick but she was OK. Enjoyed her cartoons and games, had breakfast on the ship, spent some time outside.

In our typical fashion we did not have any plan for Helsinki. But it was pretty easy to orient. First, we went through the covered market on the pier - one of the highlights - it is a wooden building with tiny coffee shops, and stalls selling the most enticing baked goods and fish.

Next, we went to the tent market a bit further. One of the vendors was offerring fried sprats to try and we tried. And stayed back to have breakfast #2 - fried sprats with calamari. Next we walked around for a bit. It is a large city with long city blocks. It has a pretty building every not and then but overall it is not very pretty. It does not have the small old town character that we so much like in Tallinn and Vilnius. Just a regular modern city. With the overload of shops. Some locals look like they take advantage at least of the food ones in a big way.

Dan tried to get a roll of Euro coins at the bank. Apparently you cannot just give them banknotes and expect a roll of equivalent currency back. You have to have a bank account. First time. The one and only coin store that we found (they do a great job putting a flyer with their address in the banks) sells that stuff at such premium that it can explain in part the relationship between a dollar and euro.

After that we went to the information desk of the Main Train Station and asked the indifferent Russian lady there what you can do with a kid there. She directed us to amusement park and Oceanarium. At her recommendation we took the tram 3B to get there. The crowded ride took us over 40 minutes and in the end we got off rather than to contigue following the zigzag pattern. The line was inhuman for the amuzement park - and anyway it was better for older kids so we just went to see the fishes. Pretty decent collection though not spectacular. The one in Baltimore is waaaay better. They do a good job with the interesting kid exhibits and stations - like what the brand new shell of of a crab feels like and petting of a sea urchin. We walked back through the park. This way was only 20 minutes, and so much more pleasant. Feels a bit like a Central Park.

Some promos were going on on the streets and we got several bottles Monster & some candies. Georgia was very impressed. The day continued to proceed well for her - she got a pony ride at the promenade on the main street. Finally, we had some more food at the outside market, and some pastries at the covered market to close the day.

The ride back was so so. Starting with waiting in the line (or rather in a disorganized crowd of young and committed beer drinkers) for 45 minutes to get on the boat, followed by a bumpy ride on the boat and Georgia throwing up. She felt much better afterwards though. Despite some ups and downs it was a very good day overall. It was good to go back to Helsinki after not being for the last 12 years since our big summer backpacking trip. It was good to spent some alone time with Georgia.

And then we went home. Isabella was very happy to see us.

Kung Foo Panda

Today we went to see a movie with Georgia at noon. That was the only time they have it in Russian and in 3D. Pretty cool! It is a bit on dramatic side if anyone is rushing out to take their five year old. Georgia was a bit sad afterwards and said she wants to go eat and then to sleep. It took a long time to explain that parents really did not abandon Po, in case someone wants a spoiler here.

Check out the water right from the source. I don't know whether  I would want to try it.

Georgia and I went searching for a new shiny euro coins in several banks. On account of Euro being the old news here they don't have them any more - just beat up old bags with quarters now. Dissapointed! But it is amazing how everyone speaks English and Russian.  

Georgia said a few funny things today. First she asked which part of my organism I would prefer for her to draw. Then she told a story of doves outside the window playing "Godi Godi." I asked how to play it. She said they race to the edge of the roof and then jump. And added that they told her about the game as they played together. Hmm... Woosed out and decided not to seek clarification on that one at that moment. I did ask later about that and she looked incredulously at me and said it was make believe and that she did not have wings, obviously.

Isabella is going through intense discovery stage. She only wants to walk. But as she walks she stops and asks for the explanation of EVERYTHING. Spot on the wall, grease on the ground, a bug, stones... each one of them... She is starting to repeat some words. Georgia is very patient but after a while just wants to skip ahead.

No culinary discoveries today. Ate at home in all the way. Other than McCafe for coffee. Donuts dunots.

Our landlady took our 3 days worth of our laundry to cleaners. For 20 euro. Either we will have a washing machine delivered soon or we will go European style. Whichever is first. 

To The Zoo

It was cloudy this morning and we went to the Zoo. The trip was very easy: we took trolleybus #6 from Victory Square. It was new and comfortable with an easy platform to get on with a stroller and digital display showing upcoming stops.

The Zoo is very impressive. It was spread over a pretty large territory and most animals with the exception of large cats and bears have large and comfortable homes. There are many other places that no one really thinks of including in a Zoo but they make it a more enjoable: picnic areas, walking trails in the woods, and of course the usual fare of kiosks, food huts, and even a cart selling flavored nuts complete with a "nuts nun" dressed like the rest of them in the old town. 

Maps inside are not very helpful so we just wandered around running for the cover of tall trees when it started to drizzle every now and then. Yesterday we set out on our long walk to the beach with just a bottle of milk and unfortunately did not encounter any eateries on the way to feed the carb-hungry kids. Today we were all set in that department but did not bring any raingear other than a stroller cover. But it was only a drizzle.

The zoo has impressive collection of the different types of sheep/deer. One of the enclosures had the sign "please do not disturb, very old animal" on it. I've asked a young girl who was cleaning out the enclosure how old the animal was. She said, "maybe 4." I've asked how long do they live. She shrugged: "I am not a zoologist, how am I supposed to know." I guess either she gets asked this question a lot or she is probably not going to progress much in her line of work. 

Elephant house the best I've ever seen - there is a very large enclosure with a pool and a waterfall. You can look at the elephants from a raised, covered viewing platform that can be reached by an elevator.

We really enjoyed the hippo area. Just as we approached, this little hippo came up to the fence and opened its mouth wide. One of the onlookers put a sandwich in it. The animal seemed to have swallowed it without chewing and opened the mouth wide once again.

There was a little building that had a picture of a coffee cup on the window. We could see a table with chairs next to it. Dan sent me inside for a cup of coffee. Inside was a terrarium accompanied by a bit of characteristic smell. But they did not lie about the coffee: there was also a coffee machine next to the table and chairs that we could not see from the outside. Amazing! If you wanted to enjoy your hot cup of coffee in a company of snakes and lizards how many places in the world would give you the opportunity to do so!

 When we were back in the old town we passed a bunch of executioners inviting people to visit the museum of torture. The same one as the one in Vilnis last year. On account of the rain they were wearing rain ponchos. We thought that it would look really interesting in a Renaissance type of movie if executioners and the crowd, and even a convict were to wear one of those.

 After the zoo we went to a little coffee shop near Lido and had some coffee with chocolate cake. It was OK. We relaxed at home in the afternoon with kids taking the turns dancing to the sound of the Black Eyed Peas that was playing on MTV. In the evening we went out again. Checked out McCafe. It is more bitter than what comes out of the Coffee In (just one “n” in Estonia, which is a bit counterintuitive). But it is pretty good in terms of the taste, size and cost. And presentation is not too shabby either.

Here is a forward-looking statement from Estonian history. We went down the passage from the old town square. There were some stone markings depicting the key dates. It was pretty informative and interesting. Imagine some aliens finding these stone tablets way forward when in the future.

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.