Houseguest!

I've been MIA for the last few days, because we have a houseguest. Pam from The Gypsy Chef, is here visiting.

DAY TRIP: Amsterdam

Sunday morning Dan and I got up bright and early and took the train to Amsterdam. Dan had a meeting there and I had free time. I had arranged to meet up with Oz, from Kitchen Butterfly and to spend the afternoon with her exploring Amsterdam.

The train ride up there was really interesting--we passed a lot of pastures with canals around them instead of fences. From some angles it looked like the animals were running free. The Dutch are experts at water management. Since a large part of the northern Netherlands is below sea level, they have to be!

We met up with Oz, and Dan went off to his meeting. Oz and I found a cup of tea and began telling our life stories...

...and continued as we walked around snapping pictures.

Amsterdam to me is all about water and darling houses.

There was a kayak race on one of the canals.

And it wouldn’t be Amsterdam without the headshops. I love this photo of the family on the bicycle in front of the head shop. New shipments of ‘hemp’ had apparently been received, and business was brisk.

We took a walk through the narrow streets, heading for the Old Church. We passed some colorful shops, one of which specialized in ...ahem....protective appliances, shall we say. In all sizes. I don't want to think about how they measure for them...

LOL, there was a couple taking photos of the merchandise in the window and their daughter, about 3, asked “Mama, what’s that?” I wanted to stick around and hear the answer, but I didn’t.

As we made our way toward the old church...

...we ducked down a very narrow passage. It was full of shops, and they all had large windows. Most of the windows were covered with curtains, but in a few the curtains were opened, and there were women inside, wearing bikinis and, um, sort of dancing. One of the windows was open, and the woman was leaning out and, um, dancing, towards some guys. I was carrying my big honking Nikon, but I was holding it by the lens and my hand was up by my shoulder to make it clear I wasn’t using it. When the woman in the open window saw my camera, she shouted, “Oh NO. NO. NO CAMERAS. GET THAT OUT OF HERE.” I held it up over my head and shouted back, “NOT using it! NOT using it!”. We kept walking. So I’m sorry to say that there are no photos of the Amsterdam dancers. Ahem. Sorry.

At the old church there is a statue commemorating the working girls of Amsterdam.

But there’s a lot more to Amsterdam than the red light district. There's the Anne Frank House. There is the Beguinage. There's the Dam. And there are macarons, of course.

There are narrow, charming streets. There are more darling houses.

And bicycles. Lots of bicycles. Everywhere.

There are interesting contrasts--here between the shop and the name of the alley...

There are tourist shops. This one was our favorite. He liked us too.

He promised low prices, although we know that the Euro didn’t exist in 1992, so that can’t be right...

We walked a lot, we saw a lot--yes, we got an eyeful! We missed a lot, too, because it was Sunday and a none of the markets were open. We didn't get to the Anne Frank House or the Beguinage. The Dam is under scaffolding right now, and there's a Ferris wheel in front of it. The amazing museums--the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum--we decided to save for another day. We had adventures enough for one day! But the best part of the day for me was meeting Oz.

NUTS! A tale of two bloggers

Several months ago I was lamenting the fact that I couldn’t find good pecans here in Belgium. Shortly thereafter I got an email from Mardi at Eat, Live, Travel, Write, offering to send me pecans in exchange for a certain type of Belgian Chocolate--Manons by Neuhaus. A good deal, I think!

At the time, I was traveling a lot, and when I got home Mardi was traveling. Last week, though, she was in Paris, a couple of hours from us by train. Now, some people might say that it was nuts to go to Paris just for some pecans. HA! I say they have never had really good pecans.

Last week the day finally arrived to make the grand exchange.

We arranged to meet at Angelina’s, on the Rue de Rivoli, at 3 pm. Dan and I bought tickets for the train which would get us to Paris in time to also do a little shopping and maybe have lunch with some friends.

Normally, it's an easy thing to do: train from our town at 7:30 am, Thalys (fast train) from Liege at 8:40, arrive in Paris at 11. Return by 6 pm train to Liege, home by 9 pm. But the day we had arranged to go there was snow and ice. The Thalys left Liege an hour late, and arrived in Paris TWO hours late! We missed lunch.

Did we care? Nope. Paris at Christmas is wonderful. The City of Lights puts on her special party clothes for Christmas. We walked around the Louvre and all the way up the Rue de Rivoli. We got to Angelina’s in time for hot chocolate with Mardi and her husband Neil and her friend Alicia. We weren't sure we'd be able to get home that night, but HECK - we were in Paris! Spending the night in Paris isn't too awful. Except for the no clean underwear thing. But we didn't care. We knew it would be ok whatever happened. A lot of people might say it was nuts to make a trip like that in that kind of weather. I say they must not be pecan lovers.

Over some pretty wicked hot chocolate, we made the big exchange: I brought Mardi her beloved Manons, along with some double truffles and a few pralines from La Maison Saive. For Neil and Alicia there were more chocolates, and cookie towers too!

I love Christmas!

Left to right: Mardi, Neil, Alicia, and Dan.

Mardi brought me my beloved pecans, as well as some maple syrup and some totally wicked vinegar. PLUS some lavender caramels. The only problem with those is that Dan knows about them--I have to share.

Isn’t it a blast to meet someone IRL that you know from the internet? This day was no exception. We had a great time with Mardi and Neil and Alicia, and before we knew it, it was time to go. Why, you’re wondering? Did we think our train would be on time? A lot of people might say that it was nuts to think our train might be on time. Hmm. I’d have to agree with them on that.

On our way back to the Metro we passed by Louvre, took some more photos, and made it back to the Gare du Nord in plenty of time for our train. Even if it had been on time we’d have been there in plenty of time. We’ll pass blessedly over the return trip by saying that the only good part was that by the time we got to our town that night the station was closed, so we didn’t have to pay for parking!

A lot of people might say that this day was too difficult, that the trains should have been on time, that the weather was no excuse. A lot of people on our trains WERE saying that, and a good deal more. To them I say:

Thank you, Mardi!

Lunch in Cologne

Blame it on Thanksgiving. Not the Canadian one, which is already past, but the American one, which is in November. Not that it’s celebrated much in Belgium. This year, we’ve invited some Belgian friends for Thanksgiving dinner. I’m doing my best to prepare a traditional one, in a country where you can’t find fresh corn and mincemeat is unheard of.

In Cologne, there’s a shop that sells English food. They don’t have corn, but they have Mincemeat. I needed some. Cologne is only 90 minutes from here, and it’s an easy and cheap train ride. So Dan and I decided to go to Cologne to see if we could get some mincemeat for Thanksgiving dinner. And for lunch.

One of the nice things about arriving in Cologne by train is that the incredible cathedral is right outside the train station. As soon as you step out of the station, you risk whiplash--you can’t help looking at this incredible building.

But we’ll save that for another time. I’m thinking that I’ll take you on a tour of Cologne around the time of the Christmas markets. So no Cathedral today.

Instead, we’ll head down the Hohe Strasse, and turn onto Brückenstraße, where we’ll find our favorite lunch place in Cologne. This is the Eigel Cafe and Konditorei. TIP: any time you’re in Germany or Austria or Swizerland and you see the word Konditorei, check the place out. Konditorei are pastry shops, they have some amazing stuff.

This one also serves lunch. Quiches, sandwiches, salads. But I never eat those, because they have wonderful soups. This day it was cold and drizzling, perfect soup weather. I ordered the same thing I always order, tomato soup. I don’t know how they do it, but their tomato soup is some of the best I’ve ever had. It makes my stomach smile. It makes me warm through and through. It’s served with cream. What else is there?

Dan had lentil soup, which came full of veggies and with some bits of ham in it as well. Hearty, stick-to-your-ribs lentil soup.

This was a wonderful lunch.

Then came dessert. Heh, heh. In this konditorei, you go to a counter and pick your poison.

They give you a little ticket to put on your table while they prepare the goodies.

The kellner comes to the table with your order takes the little ticket and adds it to your bill. I had cherry tart. NOBODY does cherries like the Germans. This one is worth the trip to Cologne, it’s so packed full of cherry wonderfulness. Dan had a chocolate torte. Full of chocolate goodness, with lots of whipped cream--I gave him mine so as to not dilute the cherry-ness of my tart.

Then there was nothing left but memories and some photos...

I ate that last cherry.