there and back again, a traveling story

i'm back in oegstgeest once again. crazy to think that the in-between has held nijmegen, frankfurt, prague, brussels, aalst, ghent, brugges, and antwerp. but, the beauty of it all is that nothing has felt rushed or contrived, and it has been a joy to discover once again the natural rhythm that traveling is for me. the dynamic of arriving, discovery, and learning that manifests itself in the exponential growth in familiarity with the city streets, transportation, language, and people.

in brussels, oom ad, tante mareijke, oma, and myself met up in one of the central parking garages before filling our afternoon with the royal museum of art, the grote markt, and mannekin pis with a healthy dose of walking around and picture-taking sprinkled in. then it was off to our hotel in aalst, about a half hour drive away. we were treated to an elaborate dinner in the hotel restaurant as a part of our booking package, and while i enjoyed it, the late hour left much to be desired. one thing i really haven't adjusted to is the generally late hour of eating here in holland, and europe as a whole. five on the dot goverened so much of my life while on board ship, and while i recognize that's a bit too early, eating your main course at nine is just a bit too late. :)

still, we all survived (obviously), and were up and ready to take on brugges the next day. and take it on we did. parking near the center once again, we roamed through the streets despite the misty rain and managed to squeeze in the grote markt (there seems to be one in every belgian city), the belfry, nearly every chocolate or lace shop, the stadshuis, and the beguinage, which i learned is a place for elder, unmarried women to live in community in a consecrated life something like a step lower than full consecration as a nun. good to see there's hope for community living at every age :)

the next day was ghent and while the weather was much lovelier, the day itself seemed to drag on. maybe it was another heavy meal the evening before or the late hour of sleep, but i started the day somewhere hanging narrowly above exhausted. that plus the fact that over 70% of the historic city is covered in tarpaulins and under restoration kind of marred the fairytale like atmosphere the city normally has. still, we had a fine time walking about and spent quite a lot of time admiring the polyptych by hubert and jan van eyck that sits in st. bavo's church on the (surprise, surprise) grote markt.

the last morning, we parted ways at the hotel and birgit, merlijn, oma, and myself headed back to oegstgeest via a short stop in antwerp while oom ad and tante mareijke spent some time in aalst and also stopped over in leeuwen on their way back to nijmegen.

all in all, plenty of coffee drunk and cobblestones walked and history learned to satisfy even the hardest of history buffs, and for me it was quite, quite satisfactory. back in oegstgeest, though, i'm already missing oom ad's precise english and slow rhythm of speech that easily marks him for a teacher.

back in oegstgeest, we have a few more items on the agenda including a trip today in the car with birgit and merlijn as well as some last minute shopping for the essential dutch food groups: cheese and stroopwafels. tomorrow is oma's birthday and we will have a small get-together here at birgit's house for some of oma's friends and family before going out to dinner with the boys as a happy birthday/tot ziens treat. then thursday morning early will find oma and myself in schiphol, boarding a plane for the us-of-a.

definitely enough left to be done and experienced, but my traveling eyes are turning homeward once again...