Author Archives: Barbara

Frankfurt

The day started cold and rainy so we decided to go to the US Embassy to check on a few rules we need to clarify. We took the U Bahn (subway) and it was under construction. We walked quite a distance in the rain and found the Embassy but it closed at noon and we got there at 1pm. We then returned to our B&B for the afternoon because it was raining quite hard. It stopped raining in the evening so we set out to find a restaurant for dinner. We went and crossed the river, Main. See pics. Naturally we found a nice restaurant, the Strewwelpeter, I had liver dumplings with kraut and mashed potatoes and Marsha had fried potato cakes with mushroom sauce and kraut. See pics. It was after 10 so we headed back across the river. See pic. Tomorrow is Koblenz with the Kortmanns.

Frankfurt

We made it to Frankfurt around 6pm. On the train we passed thru Cologne and I saw the bridge of locks that my son Brian was telling me about. People place locks on the chain link fence of the bridge. There are thousands of locks if not tens of thousands. When we got to Frankfurt we had to figure out the subway system and also how to buy a ticket from the machine. Well we got all that done, has a short ride on the subway and then walked a few blocks to our B&B. We met Alexander the owner and he was very hospitable, We are in the center of Frankfurt and it is warm here!!!! The center of town was hopping- full of shops and restaurants. We decided to eat before it got too late. We weren’t very hungry so ordered light. The appetizer was a cheese in vinegar and spices. Very unusual but good. I had curry wurst and Marsha had like a flatbread pizza. All good, but too much food. See pics and picture of our waiter. We walked around some more and decided to head back. We ran into a Croatian street festival – see pick. It is 10:30 and getting dark and we are in for the night. We will do sightseeing tomorrow.

Brussels

We got up and had a nice breakfast with the other guests at the B & B, a couple from Britain and a couple from France. We grabbed our luggage and headed for the bus to take us to the train station. Rode the train to Brussels where we had a 4 hr layover. We put our bags in a locker and headed for the center square – see pics. They were getting ready for some sort big festival tonight. We were walking to the most famous statue in Brussels when a waffle stand jump directly in front of us.
Of course we had to carb up for the train trip – see pics. Marsha had a waffle with chocolate and I had one with cherry sauce. Unfortunately In the pic Marsha’s fork looks like it is going up her nose. The fruit syrups here are not very sweet so they don ‘t hide the flavor of the waffle. Then off to the famous statue of the “Manniquin Piss”. Unfortunately, no peeing today
but see pic of statue dressed in costume. Them back to the train station and off to Frankfurt.

Brugge – Day 2

We got up and had a lovely breakfast. We hopped a bus to the center of Brugge, the old section. We planned to do several tours. The first tour was of the brewery, the only one still making beer in Brugge. The tour was very informative about Belgian beers. It also included a rooftop view of the city-see picture. The steps down in the brewery were so steep we had to go down backwards. Then we were off on foot to the lace museum. On the way we stopped at the windmills-see picture. Marsha is taking a picture of a windmill while I was taking a picture of the next one. At the lace museum there was several women making lace- see picture. It appears to be a very lengthy and painstaking process. The museum had rooms of absolutely gorgeous lace. Then we headed back to do the chocolate tour. Unfortunately we were too late for the last tour. In an effort to improve our nutrition we each had a huge plate of French fries with mayonnaise. We walked around town taking in more sights (plenty of pics on my camera). Several hours had passed by this time and naturally we had to add something to make our healthy food tour complete. Belgian waffles and ice cream was our choice. Delicious!!! We walked some more and there was a flea market in one of the squares. We were walking around the flea market when one of the vendors tried to sell me something and I said
“Sorry, I don’t speak English”. I think I may have been in too many countries already. It was getting late and we thought we should head back to the
B & B. Of course we would need to get a late night snack. Belgian chocolate of course. So we hit all the Belgian food groups. I forgot to mention the brewery tour included a glass of beer. So we had beer, French fries (invented in Belgium), waffles and chocolate. We are off to Frankfurt tomorrow. The last picture is the house where we are staying.

Bruges

We had an invite for coffee with a woman from Singapore whom we met on the train, but we were headed to the train station to go to Belgium and were not able to meet. We took the tube to the Eurostar train to Brussels. Then we has to change trains to get to Brugge. Only problem was we did not know where to catch the train to Brugge. We were in a totally new train station and everything is in Flemish. Oh, did I mention we only had 16 minutes. Don’t worry- we were either good or very lucky. We made the train with 3 minutes to spare. Andre, our host met us and took us to his B & B. we are really staying in their home and it is very nice. Then we took a bus to the center of Brugge. What a charming town. It was late and we needed to eat before it got too late and everything closed. We took some pictures, but plan on serious touristing tomorrow. Food was good, but beer was terrific, Belgium does have good beer. We took the late bus back and went to a restaurant around the corner for a beer. I should mention there are bicycles everywhere. It is a main means of transportation. One of the tour brochures Is to funny and says that it is Ok to be a kamakazi cyclist and run over tourists. We are only am hour bike ride from the ocean, but don’t know if we will have time to do that. I have allergies that are killing me, so I took an antihistamine. Again it is 10:30 when I am writing this.