Tim & Denise Tiner Travels

April 7, 2019

We woke up in Muiden, our last morning in Muiden. It has. been a nice stay there. I feel sad for Kim and Ilene as they used a bathroom on floor one but slept on floor 6. 38 stairs each trip down and 38 trips up. They got their exercise in each time they had to pee. So sad...but kind of funny. We did offer our humble bathroom. But...wait until you see tomorrow’s blog and the our bathroom tonight!

We got up and made our own breakfast. I honestly thought we would never figure out the stove top. I tried everything....and finally I figured it out. We again had scrambled eggs with old bread and Mango juice. The juice was really good. I also added cheese and salami to my breakfast. Kind of fun. One thing funny was that the Wayment’s were supposed to feed a rabbit. But the darn thing escaped before we arrived in Muiden. But while we were there, the bunny reappeared and the neighbor grabbed it. So the Wayment’s were on the hook to keep it fed for a night. The bunny did not starve and survived. On a sad note, Ilene somehow left her Kindle there. So for taking care of the bunny, the hosts are going to mail the lost Kindle to the USA for her. How nice of them.

Our goal for today was to get to Bruges and possibly Dunkirk. We made a couple of stops to get gas and get things out of our car before parking our car in Bruges. We found a parking place for 3.50 euros a day fairly close to the Church of the Lady and the Bruge square. The Church of the Lady contains the famous Madonna statue. But upon inquiring about it, they said it was not available to be seen but a replica was there. Anyway, we paid the 2 euros to go into the museum and as it turns out, we could still see the original Madonna fairly close. And we had no lines to deal with. It was perfect. Now the real important part, we hit a Waffle shop quite quickly followed by multiple stops at chocolate shops. It was really good...all of it. We eventually ended up in the medieval square of churches and buildings. It was pretty impressive. Really neat town. And the food was yummy.

We decided to leave around 3 PM and head to France.....Dunkirk. As we approached the coast, it became quite cool. We drove through Dunkirk right to the beach and the boardwalk there. I found parking real close. But after my Scotland experience, I felt like it was too good to be true. So I was a cat on a hot tin roof about how long to stay there. It was cold and windy...but it was good to see the ocean and vision the men being attacked here trying to get on boats to get across the channel back to England. It is hard to believe that we were only 15 or so miles from England....and easy drive if you could go on water.

After leaving Dunkirk, we challenged Ilene to find us a good place to eat on our route to our AIRBNB outside of Gent. Things pop up on the GPS in Flemish or French...and you have no idea what they are. She chose a place that had many eateries opened. It was not far off the highway the town and MAN...what a cool town! We really stumbled into a great place to eat, watch people and see some really older looking buildings. I bet all these towns have such. This town was in Belgium. It was called Veurne. The food was good. Denise and Ilene had Carbonara. But Denise ordered a Hot Chocolate where they brought her hot steam milk, a bowl of milk chocolate and a mound of whipped cream. Let me tell you....so good. In the square in front of where we ate there was a car show of really cool cars. Pretty fun.

Our drive to our AIRBNB took us about an hour and off into the country. We are sleeping with cows and horses. And I’m not talking about the Wayment’s and Denise! :-) It is beautiful and the rooms really nice. I’ll take pictures tonight and share them tomorrow. We’re off to watch General Conference on our IPAD!

Well...we’re down to two nights and we’re back to England and then home. I am ready to come home...to relax. But this has been a great, great trip. Lots of fun.

Pictures...

Denise’s dinner in Veurne...Carbonara...Yum!

The car show in Veurne

Streets in Bruges

Taking a rest in Bruges.

The Bruges Square.

Old church in Bruges.

Inside the Church of the Lady.

The fake Madonna!

Dunkirk story.

Tim praying in a private place. Seeking peace!

Happy man on the beach at Dunkirk.

WAFFLES! Yum!

Canal tours in Bruges.

Dunkirk beach.

Can you see England? I can’t either.

Cold ones in Dunkirk.

The real Madonna! She looks pretty good.

The square Bruges.

Streets of Bruges.

Our dinner place in Veurne.

Yellow windows in Bruges.

Horse buggy tours in Bruges.

The name of our eatery for dinner in Veurne.

Pretty park in Bruges. We passed while walking back to our car at the train station.

A waffle!

Chocolate pills cure everything.

Video of something...

Free fixings for your waffle. I buried mine in dark chocolate with whipping cream.

Square at Veurne.

Inside the Church of the Lady. Confessionals for LDS members to repent per talks in General Conference.

Homemade Hot Chocolate!

A Wind Mill...actually you see a lot of them.

Storming the beaches of Dunkirk! Kim and Ilene....

Bruges street...

Mormon Alcohol...Hot Chocolate with whipping cream.

Chocolate Figures...

Bruges Street.

Bruges Street. Kim was our tour guide in Bruges. Great job!

April 6, 2019

Another day in the books! We actually had a lazy morning. We did not push ourselves to get out the door. I think we were on our way into Amsterdam around 10’ish. But prior to leaving, we took a walk to a small store in this cute town of Muiden. To get into Muiden, you have to cross canals onto very small alley ways. So to get anywhere, you cross canals. Anyway, we picked up some juice, eggs, bread and so on for our breakfast in the morning.

As folks were getting ready, I was trying to figure out if we wanted to take the train or hail an Uber. In the end, it went for an Uber. To take a train, we would have had to drive to Weesp and hope there was parking there for the car. It would have been ~20 euro for the 4 of us to take the train into Amsterdam and we would have been waiting for the next rain. The Uber cost us, with tip, 26 euro and we were at the Central Train station within 20 minutes. No brained and it worked out great!

Once we arrived in central Amsterdam, the first order of business was a canal tour. For 12 euro, we could get on a boat and take a one hour tour. We were on a boat by 11 AM. The tour was a lot of fun. It showed the cool architecture of Amsterdam and lots of cool boats turned into homes on the canals. All homes on land are built straight up because years ago they were taxed based upon width. So they built straight up. And I think the tradition continues as the apartment we are in at Muiden has 6 floors. It is very narrow and goes straight up. The floors are staggered, so height wise, it is about the same as a 3 story home. But very interesting.

After the boat tour, we headed for Dam Square...a central gathering point. Along the way we purchased the LARGEST bag of French Fries and had them buried in some type of mayonnaise sauce that we chose. It was really rich stuff and filling.

Dam Square was not much to see. However, there were TONS of people cruising the streets around. I mean a lot. Our next stop was to run by Anne Franks house to see if she could play! :-) Unfortunately I took the group on a wrong turn and if we had kept walking we would have ended up at the airport about 30 kilometers away! Ilene, who navigates really well with a map in her hand, turned us back and eventually we arrived at Sister Frank’s home. But she was not there and would not let us in. You had to pre-purchase your tickets in advance (I knew that...but there were doubters in our group)...so no entry for us!

The next stop...The Amsterdam Dungeon. That took a bit of navigating but we eventually found it. For 24 euros per person, they could keep their throat slashing and scary antics to themselves. We continued our journey.

We next ended up at a McDonalds where the Golden Arches now symbolize ‘Golden Toilet Seats’....free of charge. Unfortunately, the line was so long, I think it took them 15 minutes to complete the job. The only thing longer than that was Kim’s soda that he ordered. It was over 15 minutes to get that...and they charged him 2.75 euros! We’re not in the US McDonalds, the land of $1 cokes and free refills!

After the McDonalds adventure, we were off to find the cheese tasting. It turned out to be only 200 feet from McDonalds. The better news here was that there was a little market in between and Kim could go in and buy some cold medicine. A nice cold has hit him hard. I feel badly for him. I hope it passes quickly. Anyway, the cheese stop actually was quite fun. They had multiple tables set up with all types of cheeses to try with some sauces to put on. Now the odd thing was that these cheeks samples were about a quarter inch square in size...pretty small. And....no toothpicks...just grab ‘em with your fingers! I was a Boy Scout leader once...I’ve seen much worse. The cheese was all tasty and amazingly over priced. But the fellow there was so friendly and happy to see his store swamped with people who were paying the high prices. Kim, starting to get hunger pains for the Ribs that Ilene had promised him, asked this man if he knew where to get the good Ribs near Dam Square. He, at first, laughed and said go back to America where they have good ribs. But then he thought and recommended a place called ‘Cannibal Royale’. He said they gave you a lot for a good price. So off we went.

Now for our next stop...or passer by. I’m not sure I should share this one! Our walk took us through the red light district. And at first, not so bad. But we cut over to a street to check things out and wow...nothing was sacred there. I won’t describe what was seen and shown by live and made up things. Pretty pornographic. So we quickly hustled away on the next block back to the other side where it was not so bad. The other thing here, that I have not mentioned, is that Pot is sold and smoked everywhere. You smell it all over the place. I about bought all the grand kids some lollipops that would totally ‘chill them all out’! :-)

We finally found the Rib place and our cheese friends recommendation did not let us down. The ribs were fall off the bone great! The sauce on them was like a Teriyaki sauce. Different...but really good. We shared a full rack of ribs and had some yummy bread to got with it. Good choice Kim!

Next stop...back to our apartment. Now, we had to call an Uber. So back to the train station we went to the same place where we were dropped. I hailed the Uber and the driver said to meet him at the ‘Kiss and Ride’...their place to drop off passengers. We had no idea where that was. We asked a Sixt car rental agent who even tried calling the guy. But no luck. But then I noticed that Uber map had a blue line that led me to him. So we followed that and sure enough, we ran into him. Off we went...for a very long ride. And later, I found out that the cost for this Uber was almost double the one we had earlier this morning. So on my App, I noticed that the route this guy took was almost going backwards before forwards. He took us for a ride! So in Uber, you can challenge the route and the cost...which I did. They immediately knocked off 17 euro from the price bringing it into alignment with the price we were told that we would get. I was really pleased and gave the ‘nice’ man a not so good rating!

Once we were back in Muiden, we had 30 minutes to get ready to stream General Conference. The 10 AM session in Utah would be streaming at 6 PM over here. After last years opening session with the changes in Sunday schedule, we were interested if any new changes would be announced. Since I had 30 minutes, I wanted to walk down to see the Muiden Castle. No one would come with me. They sent me out all alone and really did not seem like they cared if I would come back! :-) I arrived back right at 6 PM as the castle is fairly close...and you could not get in it as it was all closed. So I took a couple of pictures from afar and headed back.

Now the highlight of the day...General Conference. What a wonderful way to close out our day. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ when taught so wonderfully from the pulpit in the Conference Center on Temple Square. What amazing thoughts of love, forgiveness, hope and inspiration that is shown and shared. I so wish that ALL my family would stop the outside stuff going on and watch all 10 hours of conference as it will bless their lives so much. I have loved General Conference since I was a young man and love it even more today. We will do our best to watch as much of the afternoon session (starts at 10 PM here) as we can. And unfortunately, Priesthood Session for me will have to wait. Maybe I can see a recording in the morning.

Great day...again. Trip has gone so well and being with Kim and Ilene has been wonderful. They have been our friends, close friends, for over 30+ years. I am thrilled that we planned this and have now made it come to pass. One for the memory books for all of us!

Pictures:

Amsterdam Canal..