Day 1: Unexpected detour

My youngest sister, Gloria, has been living in Liege (I can't get accents to work, apologies!), Belgium since last August, completing her junior year of high school. Brian and I decided to visit her towards the end of her stay, and my other sister, Claire, was able to arrange her schedule to join us. And thus begins the adventure...

We arrived at the airport on Friday afternoon and were told by the person checking us in that there was bad weather in Philadelphia (our connecting city and the airport from which the plane we were taking back to Philadelphia was flying). We were told that if we made it to Philadelphia and missed our connection to Brussels, there was nothing the airline could do for us. The next flight to Brussels wasn't until Sunday, so we would be stuck in Philadelphia and lose two days from our vacation. And, because the delay was weather-related, the airline wouldn't pay for our hotel expenses in Philly.

It soon became clear that there was no way we could make the connection. Brian talked to the airline representatives and managed to get us on a direct flight to Brussels leaving the next day at a major airport about 100 miles away. At least we would only lose one day in Belgium.

We called our dad (he had dropped us off at the airport) and he made a return trip to pick us up and bring us back to our hometown, which is located midway between the two airports.

Here are Brian and Claire, waiting for our dad to arrive:

Along the route, we saw an overturned car. It didn't look like anyone was injured.
We decided that even though we weren't en route to Europe, that didn't have to stop us from drinking some Belgian beer. Determined to make the best of a bad situation, we headed off to a local store that sells many European brews. The Allagash is labeled as Belgian-style white beer (biere blanche) and the New Glarus as Wisconsin Belgian red (kriek).
Here's Brian pouring some of the red. It was delicious!

Claire got to spend some extra time with her cat, Frogger. Our parents were watching him for her while we were out of town.
We spent the rest of the evening eating and chatting, readying ourselves for the travel ahead.

Day 2: Actual travel

We woke up and were treated to a homemade breakfast of the best pancakes in the world. Brian had never had them before, so Mom made the cakes spell out his name. Claire and I had them often on weekends growing up, but it was wonderful to have them again!

Here are Alfie and Dad at breakfast:
And Mom with the cockatiels in the background:You'll see more of my mom in a future blog entry as she will be taking a trip to Europe with us in the fall!

Since it was such a beautiful day and we had hours until we needed to leave for the airport, Brian, Mom, and I decided to head out to a short hiking trail near the house.

Here are my mom and me:Brian, often the daredevil, climbed down the rocks to investigate the water. He eventually convinced me to climb down as well, but I didn't take a picture!Along the route, he saw what he thought were bloodstains, but it turned out to be a piece of candy someone had thrown on the ground:After our hike, we went to a nearby coffee shop and had a drink.Then, it was time to leave for the airport. Here is Claire, waiting in line to check in:
In the departure hall, there were many flags hanging. Here are the Belgian flags:

Our plane ride over was rather uneventful, although there was a bit of turbulence. Luckily it was a direct flight, so the next time we'd step foot on solid ground, we'd be in Belgium!

Day 3: Arrival in Liege

Our flight arrived more or less on time, and the three of us hopped on the train to Leuven, a Belgian town in between Brussels (where we arrived at the airport) and Liege (where Gloria lives). We were meeting Gloria in the Leuven train station. We hadn't seen Gloria in about 9 months, so this was very exciting!

We tried to leave our luggage in lockers at the train station, but the empty ones were broken, so we lugged it with us. As it was Sunday, most everything was closed anyway. We walked to the main square and looked around:

Then, the four of us got back on the train and headed towards Liege.

The Liege train station was designed by Calatrava:Gloria's host father picked us up at the train station and drove us to their house where we would be staying for several nights. What a welcome we received! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but we had wonderful conversation with Philippe, Claudine, and Oriane (Gloria's host parents and sister). Additionally, we had some Belgian beer and some delicious appetizers. The food kept coming! Gloria is lucky to be able to stay with such wonderful people!

We then showered (separately, of course!) as traveling tends to make us feel gross, and headed out to Liege to walk around.

The museum we intended to visit required advance registration on that day, so Gloria and Brian tried to find an alternative: We ended up walking to Montagne de Bueren, which is a giant staircase. We kept talking about the logistical nightmare of living in one of the houses in the middle or top -- can you imagine bringing groceries home, much less moving furniture? There could be entrances we don't know about, though.

Here's a view from the bottom:I was at the top, looking down. Gloria and Claire can be seen about halfway down, taking a brief rest:And here is the view of the city:We walked around some more, and then caught the bus to Gloria's second host family, who were hosting us for dinner.

Once again, we were warmly welcomed! We had some appetizers and talked, mostly in French, with translating for Claire and Brian. We watched a video that they had taken of the family ski trip to the French Alps (including Gloria who was learning to ski).

Here are some pictures from that wonderful dinner. The food and drinks were unbelievable delicious, yet again.Here is a picture of Gloria with her 2nd set of host parents:Jack is a wonderful dog that's part of the family. He wasn't always on a chair!Brian and I love fromage (one of the few French words Brian knows!), and we were treated to several Belgian and French cheeses.
Even for a dinner at home, the desserts were presented in such a way that you'd find in a restaurant.We stayed until past midnight, and then got a ride back to her 3rd family's house, where we'd be staying. Exhausted, we all fell immediately to sleep!

Day 4: Spa

Even though we had a late dinner the night before, we woke up early Monday morning with the intention of going to Aachen, Germany where there is a beautiful cathedral. Unfortunately, the bus we needed to take to the train station was a few minutes early and by the time we got to the train station, we would have had to wait about an hour until the next one.

Being flexible, we decided to instead go to the Belgian town of Spa. Originally we had hoped to go to Aachen and then Spa, so we had our swimsuits with us. Spa has been a destination for centuries for its hot springs and healing waters. We had a fantastic time and hope to come back some day.

Here is Claire taking money out of the ATM. We had some problems finding an ATM that would take her debit card, so she was happy to find one in Spa!
We walked around for a bit, and were rewarded with lush gardens and beautiful fountains:
Here is a source named after Peter the Great. The water was not tasty at all! But other Spa water definitely is. We had bottled water from Spa all over Belgium.
Spa has a casino which, according to the Belgian tourist office, is the oldest in the world. We did not go inside.
We had lunch in a little cafe across from the casino. Brian and Gloria had sandwiches, Claire had a pasta dish, and I had a chevre chaud salad. How I love goat cheese!
We then started walking towards Thermes de Spa. This place was even more wonderful than we had imagined. Located on the top of a hill, there is a funicular that you can take. However, it wasn't working so we took the long way up, through a scenic forest.

Funicular tracks:
One of my friends told me that Belgian horses are amazing. I don't know much about this, but promised to take some pictures of some if we ran across any. These were grazing along our path to Thermes de Spa:Here was a gorgeous resting spot quite close to our final destination. In the background, you can see how far we've climbed!Here is an outside look at Thermes de Spa. I didn't take any interior pictures as I wasn't sure what was allowed and I didn't have my camera with me in the pools.I am certainly not worldly when it comes to spas, but I was very impressed with this. I had always thought that spas were places where people went for massages, facials, and other treatments. While this spa had treatments such as those, we didn't get any. They also had several large pools with jets, cascading water, etc., hot tubs, a sauna, steamroom, chairs under infrared lights, and chairs under blue lights of some sort. We got a three-hour pass which allowed us to use any of these services as we wanted. We all felt wonderful afterwards!

Here are Gloria and Claire during our climb back down the hill. Gloria's host mother Claudine had given us apples for our trip, which really hit the spot! The columns in the background appear to be some sort of Roman ruins; however, we don't know for sure this is the case.Frequently in Belgium we'd run across a plaque or fountain that was dedicated to Americans for liberating the city during the world wars. Claire, Gloria, and Brian are posing in front of a fountain thanking the Americans for our aid liberating them during World War I.We took the train back to Liege. This picture is kind of blurry, but I wanted to enclose it because of the sign in the background. We noticed that Belgium is very much into positive messages. Instead of saying something like, "No bags on seats," the sign says, "Your bag doesn't need to sit down" accompanied by a funny cartoon of a person trying to sit down on a full train.Back in Liege, we were famished, so we stopped at a snack shop for some frites. Belgians are known for their fries, which are fried twice and only cooked once an order is placed, so you get them piping hot.We rode the bus back into the suburb where Gloria is staying. After appetizers with her family, it was dinner time.

Again, we were treated to an amazing feast! I cannot begin to describe how good this food tasted. Her family is very much into healthy eating and using fresh, local ingredients as much as possible.

Philippe was kind enough to reserve the next day to take us around. We talked at dinner about where we wanted to go. We brought out the guidebooks and spent a long time trying to devise the perfect day, while managing to see as many things as possible.Here is a picture of Gloria with her host sister, Oriane. For dessert, we had crepes flambees. Gloria had successfully lit crepes on fire before, but it didn't quite work when we were there. Her host parents came to the conclusion that because she was trying to do so many crepes at once, the alcohol evaporated before she could light them on fire. She did manage small flames on some of the crepes. In any case, they were delicious!After more discussions about what we would do on Tuesday, we went to bed, exhausted yet again. It was after midnight! Dinners in Belgium are more of an affair than they are at home!

Day 5: 3 countries, 1 day

Tuesday was a day full of sightseeing and adventure. The original plan was to take the train to Brussels on Tuesday and spend the next five nights in Belgium's capital. However, the train employees planned a one-day strike for Tuesday, so our plans were delayed by one day. How lucky we were that was the case!

Gloria's host father, Philippe, took the day off of work and spent it carting his four American visitors around three different countries. We did so much and I took incomplete notes of where we were, so please excuse any mistakes! Also, I wasn't always very good at taking pictures -- we were busy after all!

We started the day with a hearty breakfast at home and then loaded into the car, taking the scenic route. We stopped in an ancient Belgian village for a quick walk around. Philippe and Claudine are friends with a man who lives in a historic house in that village and we were hoping to catch him home for a quick tour. Unfortunately, he was out, so we had to satisfy ourselves by looking in his windows!

Claire really wanted to see a castle, so Philippe took us to an old castle that is now part of a park. The castle is not open to the public; it has been transformed into dormitories where school groups stay on field trips. The building has a sordid history as it was taken over by the Nazis where unspeakable things happened. It was serene and peaceful on the day of our visit.
Walking the grounds, we saw many different types of trees, flowers, wildlife, and plants. In this tree, you can see a couple of birds perching.
Then, we stopped by an American cemetery filled with the bodies of soldiers who gave their lives during WWII. It was quite moving. The plaque outside said about 8,000 soldiers were buried there. Hearing the number is one thing, but seeing the seemingly endless graves really put it in perspective.
We drove around looking for the Three Frontiers, which is the location where Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands meet. While trying to make our way to Aachen, we found ourselves in a Dutch traffic jam. Philippe was able to maneuver us out of there, so this detour only added maybe 20 minutes to our journey.

We parked in a garage in Aachen, Germany, and walked towards the cathedral. Despite living so close, Philippe had never visited before. They later explained that until recently, many Belgians felt uncomfortable visiting Germany because of its recent history. Brian and I really wanted to visit this cathedral, partly because Bill Bryson, in his book Neither Here Nor There describes it as one of the most beautiful in the world. I didn't take any pictures of the interior, but it certainly was breathtaking!

Some outside shots:
Here is Brian doing some window shopping in the streets near the cathedral:We ate lunch in this charming cafe. Most of us ordered sandwiches. We ate typical pastries from Aachen for dessert called Printens.We drove to a typical German village -- I can't remember its name right now but will add it in if anyone else remembers.

I love this view of the houses along the canal:Gloria was trying to use the telescope on the bridge. However, it was broken.More houses:This bridge had fish decorations hanging from it:The ruins of a lookout tower watch this village:We decided to climb up for a closer look:Views of the village along the route:Back in the village, Philippe stopped in a bakery to buy some German bread (that's me posing in front of the bakery!). Apparently it is impossible to find this same type and quality of bread in Belgium:Here's everyone else taking a rest and trying to decide where to go next while admiring the canal:Like many European villages, the streets are ridiculously tiny. I have no idea how there aren't more accidents!We made a few more stops, with dozing in the car along the way. We stopped in a small Belgian town that is often used in movies because of its well-preserved look. Philippe and Claudine had been movie extras in that town at one point and showed us pictures of their acting debut when we returned to the house.

We also stopped and did some hiking along a beautiful trail. Eastern Belgium is so incredibly beautiful!

We returned home, exhausted yet again. We had some beer and appetizers on the patio, and then went inside for dinner. Extraordinary delicious, yet again. Here is the family gathered around the dinner table. We retired after midnight again. We were having such nice conversation that no one wanted to go to bed!