I've been waiting weeks to say that. I am half Flemish you know. . .
So we're staying with my family on the Keldermans side. Rombout and his wife Ann and their three beautiful children, Gijs, Wout and Korneel. Such a great young family. I last saw Ann and Rombout in Texas in 1997, and before that I think I was 11 and Rombout was like 23? Anyways it's been a while but I recognized him at the train station right away. Ann and Rombout are remodelling their house so it's in turmoil. But of course they didn't tell us until Rombout picked us up from the train station. They keep telling us to come back in a month.
So yesterday we went into Antwerp for the day and say the major sites--the Cathedral, the river Scheldt (sp?), the Steen (9th century fortess, oldest building left; used as a prison for years), Peter-Paul Ruben house, that building with all the flags of the EU all over it next to the huge fountain (okay so I'm not the greatest tour giude), and the big shopping street, the Mier. I managed to find Libby some REAL, flaky Belgian waffles (oh so tasty) and we also had some asparagus soup and croquettes. Good Belgian fare. Ann promised to take us for frites (fries) sometime before we leave. There is no such thing as 'french' fries; who ever started that rumour need to take some European geography. Hopefully I can convert Libby. So much better in Belgium.
Today we're in Brussles. We first went to see the Church of St. Madeleine, and then wandered the market nearby and say the Cathedral and the beautiful old buildings. So dirty and still so appealing. And we'll do some more sightseeing after this and then head back to Antwerp. Ann or Rombout (or perhaps both if they can find a babysitter) offered to show us the nightlife. They told us stories about when they went out in college--often until past 5 AM!! We had to explain that you can't go out until the age of 21 (unliek 16 in Belgium) and that bars close at 2. . . such a different world. But we'll give it a whirl.
So Leuven (Ann's hometown and the university town) on Sunday. The beach (coast, but what's a little optimism going to harm?) perhaps and Bruges on Monday. Back to Paris to pick up our stuff on Tuesday, and then at the airport at 5 AM for our 7 AM flight home on Wednesday.
Four days and my European odessey is finished. I'm not really sure that the United States exists anymore except for in my imagination. It will be good to come home.
Oh and everyone wish your mom a HAPPY MOTHERS DAY.
So it shut me down. . . but Libby wanted more time! Lucky me.
Neil Young. Amazing. We almost didn't make it. . . somewhere between entering the concert hall, going to the bathroom, buying t-shirts and getting up to the door, the tickets disappeared from Libby's purse. So close to not getting in. . . luckily I remembered our seat numbers, and I had to sign a form saying we'd lost the tickets. No one came in with our tickets, so I don't think they were stolen or scalped.
It was an excellent show. I almost can't really believe that I saw him. . . I guess because so many other people I'd like to see are dead. Right.
The first set was new stuff he's recorded but hasn't released yet. All the songs had overlapping characters and a good message. The rhyming was often painful (ex. disbelief and grief) but his voice was perfect. And I don't know, something about protecting Alaska because it's the last great wilderness on the American continent. . .
The second set was better but too short! He played "Expecting to Fly," "Don't Let it Bring You Down," "Old Man," and other favorites. His only encore was "Heart of Gold." We hung around after and saw him get into a Mercedes. So darling. He's all wrinkly and wearing a cap backwards with a Canadian flag on it :-) It was a great time--even though we were surrounded by middle ages couples and balding men wearing faded black t-shirts. Not the most enthusatic crowds. . . but the concert hall was amazing!! Philharmonic Munchen. So nice. Even Neil commented on how good the sound was.
When we got to Amsterdam, we first went to Ann Frank's house. Another downer. I can't take all this emotional turmoil--from Dachau to Neil Young to Ann Frank. When we first got in, I was surprise at how big the rooms seemed. Then I realized they had hardly any furniture in them. It was a well put-together place--lots of video boards with interviews of Miep the helped and Anne's father. It was another site that was unreal and depressing all at the same time. I'm glad we went.
What else have we done in Amsterdam? . . .
Musuem of Modern Art-- Stedelijk Museum. We walked past the massive Rijksmuseum (State Museum) and the Van Gogh musuem on the way. The Van Gogh musuem had crazy long lines! It was also fairly expensive--like 8 or 9 Euro. And no museums in the Netherlands have student discounts! I'm so spoled by the $1 fee in Budapest. . . even Vienna had cheap student fairs. Oh well, it was worth the money. They brought out the best of their collection, and a random exhibit on Pop Art. There was a lot of really intriguing Dutch painting from the 80s.
Since we were south of town, we headed into Vondelpark. Also beautiful, full of cyclists and children and shouting homeless men. We had one come up and ask us where we were from, and I said the US. He snapped at me: "I know HEARD you are from the US! I didn't ask WHAT COUNTRY you're from, I asked WHERE are you from? I couldn't place your accent." I left rather than explaining my life story. . . I've just been telling people I'm from Kansas, for lack of a better explaination. It was a nice park anyways. We enjoyed the sunshine.
It seems like we've also seen a lot of churchs in Amsterdam. . .English Church, West Church, New Church. . . so many! We've also been around Dam square a lot, and wandering the canals.
Today we're off to Belgium! To stay with my mom's cousin? I think that's the relation. Not important. I get to show Libby some of Belgium--waffles, fries, and chocolate! Maybe we'll squeeze in some sites or something :-)
Hello from Amsterdam! I know my intros all sound the same. . . what can you do?
Munich was a very nice, very friendly city. So much more friendly than Prague.
Dachau was sincerely moving. Like the flyer promised, it is meant to be a memorial for the prisoners, not a horror show. The scene is so painfully familiar, rows of barracks lined by trees. We saw the iron gate with the inscription "Work Brings Freedom." And we saw the crematorium. They had two at Dachau, and a gas chamber that was never reported as being used. The barracks were so simple and quiet, and then you could see pictures of them crammed full of people. I also got to see the figure of the Madonna used by all the resistant priests who were sent to Dachau. There's a Carmelite convent, Holy Blood, right on the edge. I guess only the German priests were allowed to say mass or pray; all the Polish (and Czech, Slovak, Belgian, French) priests were punished if caught praying. Also, Dachau was where they performed experiments in the infirmary, under the direction of Himmler. Tests on healthy people for hypothermia, so the army would know after what time they should give up looking for German parachuters in the English Channel. How cruel is that?
I'm sure you've heard some of it before, but it was strange to be there. Much like it was strange to be on the beachs of Normandy, or at St. Peter's, or Wencelas Square, or the square where the Bastille stood. But at least those weren't places of unimaginable suffering.
Little shout out to my European Studies teacher, Matt-- we went to see the sight of Hitler's failed 'beer hall putsch.' Not what I expected. It was an open loggia with sculptures on it of lions and dead men, right by an open square, next to a bright yellow church. Maybe location was a factor in the failure? I guess Nazis had to salute the place when Hitler was in power.
What else did we do in Munich? Saw a good number of churches, but mostly from the outside. Marianplatz, the square of our lady, is the center of activity. The old town hall and the new town hall are right there. A statue of Mary tops the new town hall. I guess Germany isn't a secular as I thought. . . Karlsplatz, St. Charles square, is active and near by, with pretty fountains. The open market was nice, but more permenant than others we've been to, in Italy and Hungary. The English Garden north of town was beautiful--grassy open places, cool shady spots. There are biketrails, wading ponds, a rushing stream with surfers. Something for everyone! Playgrounds, beer garden, and a nudist area. I think in Munich we ate Indian and pretzels. And beer. Libby really liked the Hofbrau (which tastes more like lemonade than beer)--you could only get them in huge liter mugs in the English Garden. Intense.
Hello! I'm in Munich! Libby said something funny at dinner last night. . . something like "Do you realize that one day, soon, our existance won't be like this? We won't be quickly packing up our stuff to check out of our hostel to get to the train station to ride a train for several hours to get to another hostel to wander a city looking for a restaurant with vegetarian opitions when most restaurants are already closed?"
I'm not complaining at all. . . but that's been my life for the past two weeks, and it feels like much, much longer.
Alright, what did we do in Prague?
St. Charles Bridge crosses the Danube. It is beautiful and lined with statues and street vendors. On the West bank there is a dirty old man with his arm in a cast. He shouted at me to come and look at his work. He paints pictures of himself (complete with his hat and the headband that has red bumbs on it), and he used bring neon colors. He had at least a hundred of these self portraits. When Libby tried to buy one, he wanted 900 crowns, which is like 30 dollars. He gave her a little one for 250, more like 10 dollars, but only after he'd grabbed the money out of her hand and they were both holding the picture. A crowd had gathered around. It was sad, the poor man. But he certainly wasn't all there. All the vendors have to have permits, and he had one.
On the other side of the river, we say the Church of St. Nicholas. Reminded me of my brother! Very Baroque, but also different from the western Baroque. We climbed a huge hill looking for the Prague castle. Instead we got a great view of the whole city. Lots of green. I'm so glad it's spring. Speaking of spring, we somehow wandered into the Wallenstein Gardens. Beautiful walled in gardens--with an outdoor stage! What seemed to be a high school band was practicing while we were there.
The 15th century clock tower was very cool. The twelve apostles come out, and the Grim Reaper rings a bell on the hour. It is in the Old Town Square right across the street from the Church of Our Lady of Tyn. The towers of that church match the clock tower and the end of St. Charles bridge. Very hat looking. When we went to visit, mass was being said. I almost couldn't find the entrance, because shops and restaurants have almost completely surrounded the outside walls of the church. Crazy.
The Communism Museum was fun, if not biased. . . we saw lots of old posters, schoolbooks and equipment. It was interesting after having read "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" by Milan Kundera this semester. Kundera left communist Czechoslovakia, but described Prague a lot in his book. We also saw a little video on the protests in 1968 and then in the late 80s and early 90s. Small museum but full of anti-communist sentiment.
We also got to see Wenceslas Square, which is now surrounded by a shopping area. It was the sight of the huge 1989 protests for the Velvet Revolution. The joke in the communist musuem said the downfall of communism took ten year in Poland, ten weeks in Hungary and ten days in Czechoslovakia. Haha.
Umm, what else? Ah on the last day we saw the Jewsih Quarter. The little synagogue is one of the oldest left in Europe. We saw a memorial from the people of Israel thanking the Czech Jews for their support in their wars.
And so yesterday we arrived in Munich. Don't ask how my days have gone, it's out of control. We took a day trip to Ulm yesterday. We climbed to the top of the world's tallest cathedral. Very very cool view for the very cramped sprial staircases. Ulm was the birthplace of Albert Einstein. We also saw the Bread Museum. I bet you didn't knwo they had pretzel (did I spell that correctly?) makers guilds back in the middle ages. I learned more about bread than I thought I could. . .
And today I went to Mass in Frauenkirche, the Church of Our Lady. Interesting building--the towers are topped by domes that look like onions. Not at pointy as Russian domes, but different than I've evr seen before. It was built in the late 1400s and the doems in the early 1500s. Mass was really long, with all the mass part being sung by a full choir as whole pieces. They also did typical high mass things--incense, Latin chanting. It was beautiful and peaceful. Everyone was friendly even though I understood little of the readings and sermon. At least I finally have the mass parts down in German. . . kinda. . .
I think today we're going to try to make it to Dachau. So at that, I will leave and write more later. Most likely I won't be in such good spirits. . .
