Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2019 Europe w/Wayments - Day 11

April 8, 2019

Last night was a nice night in a really nice BnB. The farm house was comfortable and unique. We watched both sessions of conference with the final session ending at 12 AM (midnight). As usual, great conference.

As a result of staying up so late, we kind of got up a bit later (around 8 AM). Our bathroom had no doors. Tub in the middle of the room, toilet under the A-frame roof...which seriously caused peeing difficulties for me. I could not get close enough to the toilet because my head hit the roof. I know of my accuracy, but distance, I need to work on these days. So sitting down for all toilet work was the order of the day. :-) It was kind of fun watching Denise bathe while I used the toilet. Ok...too much information.

The order of the day was to go into Gent and see the recovered art work that the Germans had taken that the allies recovered (Monuments Men movie!). I was a bit stressed as I knew we would be driving into an older downtown where the roads would be small and the parking scarce. The roads were all brick\cobblestone and narrow but we came upon an underground parking garage that seemed to be close to the church that held the art. So we went in. That worked out great.

The first order of business was to find a cafe and get some breakfast. Denise and Ilene were determined to find a place that served waffles. We ended up going into a very nice restaurant on the main square by the church that held the art. There were many large buildings\ chapels. There was also a high bell tower. In the end, we paid a few euro to go in the church and see the artwork. One piece is still missing as two pieces were stolen and the one who stole them, returned one of them. They have no idea where the other one is. The artwork is all about God the Father, Christ, John the Baptist, Adam, Eve and people desiring to come unto them. The narration was quite interesting as it described some of the intent of the artist.

After seeing the art work, we toured the old church. It was a very large and very cold chapel. Cold meaning cold air blowing in. Those who attend must come with their thermal underwear on!

After seeing the church, we heard there was a castle in town. And sure enough, it was within walking distance. So off we went. We found it easily and took the audio tour. It was kind of fun listening to the story of this count who created this castle and his tortures, wives and so on. Crazy times those days were. And to wear the medieval armor. So heavy. These guys must have been buff. We spent a good 1.5 hours at the castle. But then, we ran out of thing to do. So back to the car to head to our BnB in Brussels...or just outside of Brussels. In Belgium, it has been interesting getting gas into the car as many places are unattended and only have a machine. But the darn machines won’t take my credit card. Finally, I had Kim try his debit card and lo and behold, it worked. Really interesting.

We tried to let the AirBnb host know that we were going to be there at around 3 PM. As we drove they asked if we could come at 4 PM. So we dilly dallied around by getting gas, going to a grocery store and so on. Little did we know, we’d be walking back to that same store and eating at the restaurant in the store...which was kind of like a cafeteria. More on that in a minute. The owner showed up around 4:15 PM and thought we were just dumping our stuff. We told him that we were kind of done for the day and just wanted to relax. But he asked us if we could go get some dinner and come back as the place was a mess. And, let me tell you, kind of interestingly laid out and old. As we went off walking on no sidewalk streets back to the store, we were all a bit concerned how clean could they really make this place.

The cafeteria...no one speaks English much here. So getting through a cafeteria type thing was interesting. In the end, it turned out ok. Denise and I shared a plate with some dessert to follow. It was not our best meal on the trip but it filled a hole in the stomach.

Upon arriving back to the BnB, the place had been cleaned up really nice. It is still older with crazy wood floors on level 2 and 3. Kim and Ilene took the top floor...a mere 30 stairs to get up to their room! They have done a lot of stairs in their stay at these places. Us too. Our room last night had very steep stairs but not too many. We have probably 20 stairs to get to our room tonight and upon entering you walk through a large bathroom to get to the bed. Really interesting. It is going to be an interesting night. But I think I will survive. The hosts are really nice. He is a Pastor trying to get a flock of followers going. To make money, he rents this place out and runs an internet business. They seem to be doing ok. Anyway, tomorrow will be an early day as we have to turn the car in at the train station and then catch a train to London, then a subway out to Heathrow, an Uber to our flat. Once we deposit our bags, we catch an Uber back to Heathrow, catch the subway to Piccadilly Square (like Times Square in NYC) to see Les Miserables. After the play, we reverse it, subway to Heathrow and Uber to flat. Crazy travel day. Then Wednesday, home we go. I think we are all ready.

Pictures...

Gent Canal

Castle Audio Tour...having fun.

Tight squeeze into car park.

Our BnB in Brussels..

Denise in castle dungeon..

The Gent Artwork.

Another picture of the Gent Artwork.

The road walked in Brussels to the store and restaurant.

Flowers in Gent.

Our morning alcohol...Hot Chocolate with Whipping Cream.

The Chapel...

The Castle in Gent...

Kim and Ilene in Gent.

The castle...on a postcard.

The bell tower?

Tulips popping up.

Stairs to our bedroom in Brussels.

Someone’s waffle. Not mine. I had warm cherries on mine.

I loving moment.

The chapel where the artwork was. Pretty nice one. So old!

They do crazy things with bikes here. I’ve seen mom’s on bikes with their arms around their child, who is on another bike, riding down the road. Pretty amazing.