Jim Van Damme relates an experience of traveling to Europe with the whole family. This article hasn't quite gotten finished and polished yet, but you may yet see it in FAH. |
In 1996 our local PBS TV station had a travel auction
and we got a great deal on a week's lodging in Fatima,
Portugal, in August. To get to Portugal, we had to go
through London, which is, hey, right next to Belgium! MM
(Mary Margaret, my wife) has numerous cousins there
(Van Houts), and last visited them in 1968. We'd just had
one cousin for a visit and showed her some of the USA, and
they were eager to show us around Belgium. So, off we went,
with Leo (20), Jan-Luc (19), Marieke (17) and Kateri (10).
We roamed jolly old England for a week, then took a
hovercraft and train (electric) to Brussels, where we
stayed in MM's cousin's house. After a week in England, it
was good to get back to where they drove on the right side
of the street. The occasional roundabout was still a
problem.
We were fortunate to have family to visit and tour with. Reading a guidebook is just not the same. The Van Houts liked using us for an excuse to get together, something that they seldom did because, well, they live so close and could do it anytime, but never did. We and most of the clan took a cruise down the Schelde, and had a few parties. The little kids built an "authentic" teepee, and we tried to show them how to roast marshmallows.
Tuesday we did Mechelen, starting a routine that was:
tour the Cathedral, drink beer at the brewery, shop and
gawk inbetween.
We visited friends in Tremelo and saw Fr. Damien
DeVuester's birthplace and museum, and a "wild west town"
left over from the World's Fair. Waterloo was the highest
spot in Belgium that we saw. The road signs and buildings
abruptly turned French on the way there.
In Brussels you have to see Manneken Pis, but down a narrow alley, there's a similar, female Janneken Pis. The Grand-Place is the most beautiful town square with its flags, ornate guild halls and carillons. There's the Saint-Hubert gallery, the 19th century shopping mall. You could spend days looking through museums, but if you're guided by somebody who knows the really interesting places, it won't all look like the last old European town.
Brugge is a picturesque city of canals. Marieke gets her
name misspelled and mispronounced often here, but in Brugge
there was a Marieke statue and a Marieke van Brugge
restaurant. After touring the beguinage we biked a few km
along the canal to Damme, near the coast. There's a
nice fully restored windmill along the canal.
The old church tower in Damme, which affords a great
view of the town and the coast from its heights, was the
scene of a modern sculpture exhibit and we climbed up
endless stone stairs past huge bright sculptures.
Damme is an art town, and the "birthplace" of Til Eulenspiegel. You've read about it in a past issue of FAH. At a souvenir shop, I explained that I'm a Van Damme. The saleslady eyed me briefly and then said, "Well, there's a Damme in Germany..." Just for that, I didn't buy any of their "Pater Van Damme" beer.
We zipped through Brussels, saw the Atomium and some government buildings (the Capitol of Europe, actually) , then searched for the " Devil's Barn" of legend. We're not sure if the one we saw was the "real" one, but we did talk with a farmer's wife about their methods. Their barn was 200 years old. In the afternoon we saw Antwerp; the cathedral, flags, bells, and town hall seemed even bigger, more colorful, and more beautiful that Brussels. Rubens outdid himself on the facade of St. Charles Borromeo Church.
A few things seemed to define the character of Flanders
to us:
Language
In England, it was sometimes difficult understanding
the local adults, but the kids were almost impossible to
understand. Most of the Belgians speak Californian because
they learned English in school, and they watch our TV shows.
That was fortunate because we had no way of learning Dutch
before our trip. It doesn't seem too hard, however, since
it's probably the closest to English of any language.
Between hearing the words and reading them, the meaning got
across. At Mass in the church, the hymns were familiar.
Architecture
The older buildings are of stone and brick, with orange
tile roofs, like many across Europe, but with those curious
zig-zag roof edges and other Flemish touches that make them
look like they belonged there. There were interesting, even
bizarre buildings to see everywhere. There were castles,
pubs, mills, summer houses of Rubens.
The Zimmer Tower is an outdoor astronomical planetarium
with 13 dials, and on the hour it displays portraits of
noted citizens (of 300 years ago) through a window. Some
day we'll find out who, and why. At Rupelmonde, we saw a
Spanish tower that dates from the 16th century where
Mercator the map-maker was imprisoned, and in Humelgem, a
3 story stone tower used to house racing pigeons. In
Berlaar, we visited the "American House" where MM's dad
grew up. With its front porch, it would fit right in on 7
Mile Road in Detroit.
The churches and cathedrals were the best preserved and
most beautiful of the buildings. Inside, every church
had the most fascinating carved woodwork on the altars,
walls, and pulpits. In contrast were the roadside
Kappellekes (little chapels), that were only a few feet
square. There aren't that many left.
Food
Belgians certainly enjoy food, and it's displayed like
artwork everywhere in the marketplace. Mussels were in
season, the big juicy ones, not the little rubbery ones you
get in the USA (rarely). We had mussel stew, which is like
stone soup but with mussels instead of stones, and rabbit
stew with pear and beer sauce. The blood sausage wasn't SO
disgusting. The horsemeat was tender and lean. And the
chocolate - well, we overdosed on that!
Beer
Beer is to Belgium like wine is to France. There are
over 300 labels brewed, and each one is different, needs it
own "special" glass, and tastes, smells and even looks
great. Even Kateri tasted them all. The breweries were
museums in themselves; one in Brussels was full of old
religious statues.
After Belgium, we took a train through Paris and Spain,
and stayed our week in Portugal. That was all art,
architecture, and history too, but somebody else's heritage.
After our tour of most of Flanders in a week, it was
relaxing.
So, Belgium. Nice place to visit. We have tons of pictures, 8 hours of video, and a lot of good memories (part of Belgium's thousand years' worth). The kids will remember it for a long time. I hope to get them to add their impressions to this article someday....