Life in Weyers Cave

We walked up the steps of this butcher guildhouse built in 1501. A steep, curved staircase that would never be allowed in America! 

This is the middle is an itsy bitsy violin! 

Strange musical instruments. The lower right has a trombone type mouthpiece! 

Local missionaries singing in the rain! 

The statue had fountains coming out every which way, plus the rain made it a fun day to play in the water! 

Getting in to the boat for the canal tour 

This is a funny little bicycle car that they use as local taxis in antwerp. A Euro ($1.20) for three minutes.  

First, I learned to get the terminology straight. The Dutch people live in The Netherlands, which is nicknamed Holland after the largest province. I liked Amsterdam. It was different. Most of the land has been reclaimed from the ocean so it really, really flat and low with tons of canals. There are also a lot of cows. We went on the canal tour. I sat in the middle of the boat and it had windows, so I couldn't get a picture. Most of the houses are five stories tall and many are four to five hundred years old. They are embedded on wooden stilts, so it is amazing how few of them are leaning! But some do. There is a red light district, legalized marijuana, and lots of crime and pickpockets. Surprising how this goes together! We went to Anne Frank's hideout. Steep, steep steps. Not as small as I had imagined. The worst part that hit home was realizing they really couldn't even look outside at the trees for fear of being seen. Also interesting that the home...

I took this picture, then more students came up so it isn't all of them. But it is a great group and this is in the main market, surrounded by reproductions of guild houses.  

Another of the guys who stands with a bucket on a street corner. If you put money in the bucket, he turns the handle on the camera and it plays a song. His outfit is amazing and I never saw him move without being paid. Not even a wince.  

This ceiling of the town hall is just as it was in the 1400s. Beautiful! 

I loved this home, only to found out it is relatively new. They just want to make things look old because everything is very touristy. It is right on a canal, hence the waterline.  

A mix of architecture in Brugges including an old gothic church, homes on the waterfront, and the old hospital on the left. 

Beautiful beguinage built for the women left behind in the crusades. Now used as a monastery, 

We had a pink bus to Brugges. PINK! I felt like we were going to a Mary Kay convention 

Today we took a field trip to the lovely city of Brugges. Brugges was a large city in the 1200-1400s, but then faded into oblivion and everyone moved to Antwerp. It was very metropolitan, with residents from 35 countries. It started out as a port city with the motto "Shut up and work" (I kid you not!). They dug a big moat around the town around 1300. Then they outgrew the moat, so they dug another bigger one. The moats are big enough for canals and ships would come in and unload their goods. There were many artisans and royalty that lived there. Anyway, the queen died suddenly falling off her horse in a fox hunt in 1480 and the place closed up rather quickly and has been relatively untouched ever since. Except for renovations, which are controversial because some people say it looks "too new". Go figure. There are many styles of architecture there and you can see the differences in the 1200, 1300, 1400, and even 1500 buildings. The weather again was beau...

Today was the end of the first full week of classes and everyone seems to be settling in. I was able to find the gluten free foods (gluten is gluten in Flemish, so that helps). I found an iron with an automatic shutoff for the students, but had to special order it so it will be in in a couple of days. I found a nice large bake oven for 130 Euros for the students, which will really help the girl who can't eat gluten, but the power-that-be are still deciding on that one. Customer Service is different here. The large stores don't seem to care whether you buy from them or not. I think it has something to do with how nobody ever gets fired. You just have a job for life. The small stores have wonderful customer service. The people are very friendly and helpful. But they can cost more. I stick to the small stores and haven't had anyone except very pleasant, but I have heard stories about the larger stores. The men bought an oven from a discount place that doesn'...

Cathryn and Dianna ride the ant -- they gave me a hard time about posing for this, then made me do the same. Of course, I erased my picture! 

Buffalo! I feel right at home! 

I dont know what it is either

A water fountain in Belgium! 

My, hippo! What big tusks you have! 

Cathryn and I were amazed we could understand this sign -- but only the french part. 

We think this is a water buffalo 

So ugly, he's cute - a warthog 

The lions were Cathryn's favorite 

This tiger was very lively. 

Yesterday Cathryn, Dianna and I went to the zoo. It costs as much for a six month family pass as a one individual day pass, so that is what we got. But we had to wait around for half an hour to get one, since the person who sells them was gone and there was no one else. The zoo is only a little over a mile from our home, so we hope we can return often. We really enjoyed the selection of animals and the fact that they all seemed awake and alert. It may have been the fact that it was a heaven-sent day weather wise -- I guess Florida has sent all the super weather to Belgium! Thank you, Bryan! We wandered into one room which turned out to be a seal show that was just starting. Even though it was in Flemish, it was wonderful. We had front row seats. The seals were great and the lady presenting obviously had a wonderful script and was animated and interesting. The collection of big birds -- owls, eagles, vultures, etc. was fun to see and Cathryn enjoyed taking pictures. ...

First, the good news. I got a somewhat cryptic text message from Bryan on my cell phone! It said "I'm fine. The car is fine. None of my friends were hurt." So he weathered Frances all right. Now we just have to worry about Ivan. The students are settling in. They are a really great group. One of them, poor guy, got up late Tuesday, ran out of the building, realized he had forgotten his passport which he needed for local Antwerp registration that day, ran back to get it, realized he had also forgotten his key to the building, ran off to class, and then realized he also had forgotten where the classroom was. Poor guy. What a lousy day for him! We have to register at the District House. We went one day, got a number, waited an hour, then spent half an hour filling out paperwork and having them check it all, including our passports and visas. Then we had to wait for the police to come by to check that we really lived here. The police came by when just the girls were her...

This little statue is very famous, the Mannequin Pis. He has over 700 outfits. For women's libbists, there is a Jannequin Pis somewhere else in town. He is currently dressed like Field Marshal Montgomery to celebrate the liberation of Brussels.