The Hyphen House

Our friends the Bowsers who teach in an American school outside London graciously let us crash with them for four days, then were the best tour guides ever.

Saturday we walked from Waterloo Station to the Thames and down the river to the Globe Theater. We wanted to see a show but it was sold out, so we settled for an archaeological tour of the area. That was cool b/c they told us how things would have been in Shakespeare's Day. We also got to see the Rose Theater, currently under reconstruction, where Shakespeare did plays before he got popular.

Then we went to the Tate Modern museum, which has completely altered our view of modern/contemporary art. The works are explained enough to appreciate them more fully but not so much as to take away the viewers' interpretation. Of course some of it we really didn't "get", but it's a fantastic museum and I enjoyed it much more than I anticipated. We ate dinner on the 7th story restaurant with fabulous views of London and enjoyed a leisurely evening walk along the Thames.

We just arrived yesterday in jolly London, but I figured I should catch everyone up on the end of our Netherlands trip.

The Hague is such a great city. It is the cleanest city I have ever seen. It is also a seamless blend of modern and traditional (as is so much of Europe). Aside from the power-tripping tram cop, everyone there was extremely nice and very friendly, and they all spoke English. Some of them probably spoke it better than me, with just the slightest accents. I was quite impressed because I could barely pick up a word of Dutch. Dutch has many things in common with English. Some words are exactly the same, but it has for some reason been the hardest language for me to catch on to.

The second day in the Hague, we walked to the beach and rented bikes. The Dutch bikes were a little challenging to ride, at least to get on. Lauran just never stopped and would go in circles until we decided where to go next. She was sore the next day from trying to get on and off the bike. The North Sea is beautiful, but too cold to swim in. Instead we had lunch at a place called Noah's Ark. It was not the greatest dining experience, which is sad because everywhere else we ate in the Netherlands was amazing.

The next day, Lauran and I visited the Peace Palace in the Hague. It was very inspiring. The palace was originally built by the Carnegie Foundation in order to house the International Permanent Court of Arbitration, where countries and multinational corporations come to work out their differences peacefully. It has prevented much warfare and bloodshed. In return for this valuable service, the countries have given lavish gifts to the palace. For example, China gave four Ming vases that are literally priceless, they can't even be insured. Because of these gifts, the palace is simply stunning. Furthermore, the UN International Court of Justice is located here. We got to tour the courtroom. I found it so inspiring to see peace and justice held in such high regard, and the building was beautiful and fascinating.

The last day in the Netherlands, we took a quick train trip to Gouda (pronounced How-dah), where Gouda cheese originates. It is a small and somewhat traditional Dutch town, complete with canals. It was very beautiful, especially the church with its gorgeous stained glass windows. It is where Erasmus was ordained. Gouda was his hometown. We also visited the cheese museum and dined on some Gouda with mustard, the Dutch way of eating cheese. It was tasty and informative.

On our last night, our host took us out to eat at a great Italian restaurant. It was a wonderful way to end the visit, with great food and great friends in a wonderful atmosphere. We are so spoiled.

The Netherlands was a pleasant surprise overall. I had no idea what to expect, but I didn't imagine that it would be able to capture my interest like the other places we visited. It did thanks to its charming culture, beautiful cities and towns, and to wonderful people like Jess, Josue, and Randall.

We really knew nothing about the Hague, and probably would not have come here on our own, but are so glad we came. We're staying with friends so we are getting a more personal view of the city, too.

Our friends were going to pick us up at the train station, but we miscommunicated about the details (i.e. we were at the wrong station) so we took a tram (like the light rail in Houston) to their house. We accidentally free-loaded on the first tram b/c we couldn't figure out how to buy tickets. On the second tram, 3 tram cops surrounded Eric and demanded to see his ticket. He played the dumb tourist (which fit us in this moment) and said he didn't know how to get a ticket. One of the police condescendingly asked him, "Where do you come from?" Eric replied the U.S. "Do you have trams in America, or buses? Where do you buy the tickets then?" We explained that we buy the tickets on the bus, and after some more condescending remarks showed us to the machine. He could have told us in the first place, but I think he has such little enforcement power, this was some sort of power trip.

We talked until midnight and took it easy the next day, as the 2 weeks of non-stop traveling started to catch up with us. We at in the Plein, a nice downtown square, and visited the M. C. Escher museum. I have always loved his work, and now I'm even more fascinated. They don't have any of his woodcuts, but do have many of his original prints, including his last work. The third floor of the museum houses interactive exhibits exploring how Escher accomplished his optical illusions. After a dessert of sorbetijs (sorbet) we spent the evening at home, where I beat them all in Scrabble (of course :).

We spent two magical days in this charming village in Belgium, where we splurged to stay at a medieval house in celebration of our anniversary. The bed and breakfast is run by an artist who raises his 7 year old daughter in this fairytale. When we arrived, he popped his head out of the second story window and said "Hallo, welcome!" It's the only 15th century house in Bruges with an intact medieval interior. It's just as magical as it sounds, with a beautiful garden and overlooking the canal, which is connected to the other side by the Lover's Bridge. The owner gave us a print to commemorate our anniversary, even. We stayed on the third floor with vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows with a projection screen movie. It was paradise. We were even served a 3 course breakfast in our room. We felt extremely spoiled and pampered, and all this for less than the price of a basic room at the Woodlands Marriott.

In Bruges, we had no agenda, b/c we wanted to enjoy each other and a slow pace. We took the canal tour, where we saw the Lover's Park, a famous dog that sleeps in a window overhanging the water, beautiful swans, and lots of old churches. Bruges has 27 Catholic churches for its relatively small population. It's all stone pathways and very old and romantic. The evening of our anniversary, David (the b and b owner) recommended a fabulous "gastronomic" restaurant where we ate lobster salad, raw salmon, lamb, and dessert.

The next day, we toured the chocolate museum (complete with demo and tasting of how pralines-filled chocolates-are made). Then we walked through the "romantic heart" of Bruges, where we saw the nunnery and old fish market. Finally we toured the brewery of the only beer brewed in Bruges, and had a tasting of that. (It was a tasting, mind you, not a chugging, b/c "Belgians are no Germans." :)


Oh, and we consumed inordinate amounts of chocolate. There are streets lined with fresh chocolate shops, so every time we got hungry we at chocolate. It's the perfect way to live!

Well, we have safely arrived in the Hague, The Netherlands. We have gotten behind on our blogging because we were celebrating our anniversary in Bruges. Lauran is going to blog about that amazing experience later. I am going to talk about the day before our anniversary when we took a brief trek to Wallonia to visit the hometown of one of my Heraly ancestors.

Well, we arrived two days ago in Brussels. We are staying in a hotel on the outskirts of the central part of the city. Brussels is a very interesting city, somewhat schizophrenic. The neighborhood we are staying in is inhabited by mostly immigrants from the Middle East and Africa. I have heard ,any different languages spoken, but officially, people speak either Dutch of French, depending on which part of Belgium they come from. In Brussels, everything is in both languages because it is right in the middle. It is also the headquarters of the European Union, so many people speak English.

Yesterday we toured the central part of Brussels. The Grand Place is the main attraction, a beautiful market square surrounded by old buildings that used to be the town halls and administrative buildings. I have enjoyed connecting my family's past and present. For exanple, there is a huge church dedicated to St. Nicholas, one of Belgium's favorite saints, and still a favorite with my family. As a kid, my grandparents gave us gifts on St. Nicholas's day, a popular Belgian tradition. I have also noticed that Brussels is in general a very eccentric, even goofy city, also like my family. The national symbol seems to be a statue of a boy peeing into a fountain. They dress him in various costumes throughout the year. It really helps explain where I got my cheesy sense of humor from. The patron saint of Belgium is the archangel Michael, and there is a huge cathedral dedicated to him. Strangely, there are no Michaels that I know of in my dad's family, but coincidentally, it is my middle name.

The food here is awesome. Yesterday we hqd waffles with strawberries and ice cream. We also had waterzooie, a Belgian stew. Today we had waffle sandwiches for lunch. We want some fries before we go - they are Belgium's most famous food product, even though we insist on calling them French fries in the US.

We are about to catch a bus to the village my great-great-great grandfather was born in. I will blog more about that later.

I have been to Paris 4 times, its the European city thats easy to fly into and its central so you have to go through it. But its worked its usual magic on me and has completely captured Erics heart.

Today I saw mostly places I hadnt seen before. Vincennes is a medieval castle just outside town with the tallest keep in Europe. My imagination went wild inside the stone walls and royal chambers. we even got to climb the bell tower. The chapel is now a museum housing an exhibit of Bulgarian icons.

Then we visited the Orange museum; which has been under rennovation every time I came. The ground floor houses renoir; Gaugin; and others. But the main attraction is Monets water lillies; 8 mural sized paintings that were his final pieces. He painted them specifically to donate to France; and left instructions on how they were to be displayed; so they are stunning.

We also walked thru the Tuilleries which I dont recall doing before. They are a lovely large garden/park that used to be part of the Louvre.

We were to catch a train at 7 to Brussels; but the metro route we had taken all week changed just the day before and dumped us off halfway. we had to take a longer route which put us at the train station 3 minutes before departure. we rushed to print off our eticket but the Machine would not recogniZe our name and we missed the train. After an hour in the ticket line the very nice clerk simply moved our time for no fee and we made it to Brussels last night.

Forgive my typos because French keyboards are very different from American ones.

I must say that Paris has truly surpassed my highest expectations. It must surely be the most beautiful city in the world. Of course, we have benefitted from lovely weather and a nice air-conditioned hotel. Still, the city is breathtaking in so many ways. I won't say much about the normal tourist stuff. It is all great of course. Our hotel is right down the street from the Eiffel Tower, so we have seen plenty of it. It is stunning, much different in person. I always thought it was black, but it is actually brown. Who knew? The Musee d'Orsay (which features the famous Impressionist painters) is my favorite museum ever. It is housed in a beautiful renovated railway station. I liked it much better than the Louvre, which Iwas mostly bored by, except for the beautiful castle it is housed in and the glass pyramids outside. Notre Dame is also beautiful, inside and out.

Here are my real highlights though. First of all, I love the people here. Most people have been so friendly and lively. Maybe it helps that yesterday was Bastille Day, but everyone has had such high spirits They have defied every stereotype Americans have of the French, just like I though they would. Second, the food is amazing. So far I have had crepes, baguetttes, chocolate mousse, foie gras, and not a bite has been anything but delicious, whether from a cafe or street vendor. Third, I love walking the streets and sitting outside the cafes. It is a magical experience. Fourth, we got to see the most amazing fireworks show yesterday to top off Bastille Day. The show was at the Eiffel Tower. It was thirty minutes of amazing pyrotechnics coming off every inch of the tower. It was stunning. It made all other fireworks shows look like sparklers in the backyard. Not to mention that while waiting in line for the Orsay, we got to see the French air force fly by for the Bastille Day parade, a great way to wait in line.

Paris is wonderful, a magical place.

I am having a hard time going to be on our last night in Spain. Also, I cant figure out much of the punctuation on this keyboard, thus the seeming lack of enthusiasm. I am in fact quite excited.

We decided to see a Flamenco show, we were so tired but talked ourselves into it and we loved it. It was an Opera and Flamenco, a showcase compiled to introduce tourists to the art form, but with some of the top dancers in the country. A male and female dancer traded off and did some dancing together. I didnçt know men did Flamenco. This was a particular form, zarazuela or something like that, that is very passionate and uses clapping or snapping instead of castinets. She had about 5 costume changes and in one dance the 5 foot train was an integral part of the choreography. Interspersed a tenor and soprano narrated in operatic form the tumultous love story, and the whole time musicians played. It was so impressive.

I am going to buy a dress and start dancing.

Today is our last day in Barcelona. We have had a great time, but we are on our way to Paris tomorrow.

We decided to tour the mountains of Barcelona today. It was a very hot day. We booked a new hotel for today because of some previous complications. It is not nearly as nice as the other one, but it is very centrally located. Lauran says I needed to experience a trashy European hotel sometime on this trip. Anyway we left our bags there this morning and headed off to Tibidabo, my new favorite word to say out loud over and over again, just ask Lauran. Tibidabo is the mountain that overlooks Barcelona. It has spectacular views of the city and ocean, and at the top is an old amusement park and a beautiful church. We took the old Blue Tram and a funicular to the top of the mountain. It was really fun. We did not ride any of the rides at the top because the lines were a little long, and it was really hot today. Still, we really enjoyed seeing Barcelona from so high up.

We then ate the best meal we have had yet on our trip. It was at an old traditional Catalan restaurant. We ate fideo, it is like paella but with vermicelli noodles instead of rice. It had prawns that we had to shell ourselves, and it was also covered with allioli, a garlic mousse that is very delicious. We must try and make some when we get home.

The other mountain we visited today was Montjuic, where the old administrative center of the city was. It is a smaller mountain that is right in the middle of the city, beside the beach, again making for beautiful views. We walked around and went inside the Olympic Stadium. We were going to visit the Museum of Catalan Art, but it was closed. Instead we rode the cable cars to the top of the mountain where there is a really cool castle. It was a fun alternative and my first time visiting a castle. We spent some time sitting on a bench on top of the castle, gazing out across the Mediterranean Sea. It was beautiful and relaxing. The cable car ride was really fun too.

We are now just resting and cooling off, but we are about to head back to the Rambla in hopes of finding a cool flamenco show. We have loved Barcelona. It is a very laid back and beautiful city. The people are welcoming, and the culture is amazing. It has been a great start to our European adventure.

We started out the day with a trip to teh Picasso museum. Picasso lived in Barcelona off an on throughout his life, and went to drawing school here. At age 15, he began winning awards as a realist artist. School turned him into an anti establishment painter, and he rebelled with explicit cartoons and cubist works. Many of the paintings he completed whilst in Barcelona are housed in this museum, including works as a teenager and his entire study of Las Meninas. The museum is housed in two Roman mansions, which are great to see by themselves.

The Parc de la Ciutadella (castle park) is the big city park with zoo, a few museums, acres and acres of grounds, and the famous cascada (which unfortunately is under repair at the moment). We got some icecream here and strolled quite a bit.

Thanks to teh miracle of advance online internet deals, we´re staying in a 4 star hotel right across from the beach, with a view of the Mediteranean from our window, for less than teh price of a hostel. We took advantage of this in the afternoon to chill at the beach. The water is gorgeous but too cold to get in.

We had a delicous meal of Catalan sausage with curry cream sauce and other goodness, making up for the terrible Buffet LIbre last night that we ate simply b-c we had waited too long to find a place. Catalan food is great.

Finally we spent the evening on Las Ramblas. We got some sangria from La Boqueria and walked the entire length. It´s basically devoid of Barcelonans save teh market, so very touristy, but still worth the stroll.

We just spent two amazing days in Barcelona. Yesterday, we had quite a hard time finding our hotel, considering we were very jet lagged, soaked from all the rain, and misled by our transportation map. We were happy to get to our hotel and find that it is pretty nice (and right on the beach). The only weird thing is that we have to leave our room key in a little box to keep the electricity on.

Yesterday, we got a two day ticket for a tourist bus. It was well worth the price. We got to see every major site along the way. Barcelona is a beautiful city. Almost every building is a work of art, even regular office buildings. There are parks and trees everywhere, and for such an old, big European city, it is very clean and nice everywhere we have been.

Last night we spent a little time near the Olympic Port. It is a newly developed area that is very tourist friendly. We ate seafood by the harbor. It was delicious. We also tried paella yesterday and loved it.

Today, we spent most of the day touring the most famous works of the brilliant architect Antoni Gaudi. We woke up at 11:30 because of our jet lag, but we have felt better today. Gaudi´s La Sagrada Familia is probably the most impressive work of art I have seen. It is an amazing temple that is only halfway finished. They have been working on it for more than 100 years. It is breathtaking, incredible, and inspiring. Words and pictures don´t do it justice, so you all must simply come to Barcelona and see it.

Next we went to Gaudi´s Park Guell, a huge public park filled with his archtecture. It has interesting viaducts, a chapel that looks like it came right out of a fairy tale, incredible houses, beautiful plants, gorgeous views of the city, creative fountains, and everything else a public park would have. It was quite a hike to get there and walk around. We were very tired afterward, but it was wonderful. I felt like a child there. It was magical, the perfect park for such a magical city.

If you never see us again, it is because we decided never to leave Barcelona.

So how´s this for a small world? Eric´s principal sat right behind us on the plane to Newark. She was going elsewhere in Europe, but what are the odds? So random. And we also got a great view of the NYC skyline when we left the U.S., so that was fun.

But here we are, loving Barcelona! We had 4 different subway maps that gave 4 different instructions, so getting to our hotel from the airport was a chore. Add the map debauchle to just a few hours of sleep and a downpour of rain and we were quite a site! Nonetheless we are delighted to be here and fell instantly in love with the city.

Our church tour has stalled a bit this summer, as we have been gone most Sundays. In truth, we're starting to feel a little homeless and ready to choose a home. We miss the corporate community and the service opportunities and the spiritual encouragement.

So we've narrowed it down to three. After we return from our trip, we'll re-visit each one, try out a Bible study or small group, and meet with a pastor or deacon. We'll see how God leads us together and choose from there. Stay tuned!