Belgium...six days of friets, chocolate and beer

We departed Scotland on August 25th for a wee sojourn to Belgium.  Our first stop was Antwerp where we met our friend Patricia's friend Pran and his son, Raj, the world's most poised and polite kid.  When we first entered the house the power was off and after a number of fits and starts and flipping enough switches we finally hit the right combination.  But Pran was already riding to the rescue and offered susggestions on what to see and where to eat.

Our first stop was to try friets, the famous Belgian fries.  Yes, they are served with mayonaisse, but other choices abound, including samurai sauce, ketchup with curry.  Our one day in Atwerp, cold, rainy, blustery was spent in the Museum aan de Stroom (MAS), a rather eclectic collection of oddments and art.  Peter Paul Rubens, of course, van Dyck, naturally, but also a strange tribute to power where the Japanese claims to fame  included shoguns, the Walkman, and Pokemon. We also saw the Cathedral, another church and Rubens' house.  With the exception of the Cathedral, everything was free, a culture day in Antwerp.

On Monday we departed Antwerp's Central Station.  Amazing train station with trains leaving from three levels.  Our destination, Bruges.

We stayed at Hotel Patritius, owned by Garret and Elvie, who in addition to operating a lovely, family-owned 16-room hotel, we're equally generous with recommendations for dinner and must-see sights.  We purchased a Bruges City Card, €35 for two days and then tore it up.

• A canal ride
• Climbed the Belltower made famous by the movie, In Bruges, and it is impossible to toss anyone from the top as it all screened in
• The Groeninge Museum
• The Church of Our Lady, where a Michelangelo adorns the tomb of a wealthy Bruges merchant
• De Halve Maan Brewery tour, the last remaining brewery in Bruges
• The Chocolate Museum
• The Dali Museum
• Gruuthouse Museum

OK, we learned more about chocolate than I ever wanted to know, and we drank less beer than expected, but we made up for it with the fries and chocolate, stopping in a number of stores to try the wares before deciding on Dumon Chocolatier to lay in serious supplies.

Another train ride brought us to Brussels, the home of NATO and the European Union.  More museums, including the Rene Magritte Museum and the Comic Museum (think Tintin.). 

We saw far too many depictions of Madonna and Child, the Last Judgment (Hieronymus Bosch by fa the best), apostles painting Madonna and Child, and portraits of dour Flemish merchants.  

With Belgium the home of the Euro-nanny state we were surprised to see people smoking in restaurants, specifically the bar in Brasschaat and a restaurant in Bruges where we were dining al fresco. 

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em!

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The Tattoo, the Fringe, fly-fishing, rubgy...and a wee rant

When we mentioned we were planning on visiting Edinburgh for the Tattoo, a number of people thought we were embarking on an L.A. Ink like mid-life crisis.  Our son Justin was concerned we would return with cryptic Chinese symbols.  Friends of Lynn at work harbored similar thoughts.

Not that kind of tattoo.  This was the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a collection of military piping bands and other entertaiments performed in the massive courtyard of Edinburgh Castle.

What worked:

• The Lone Piper...a huge brute of a guy, a corporal, who first gave an elaborate toast in Gaelic and then drank a ceremonial dram with the guest of honor, the Royal Navy's Second Sea Lord. When he finished the Lone Piper turned over the quaich, a drinking vessel, and kissed the bottom, signifying the whisky had been finished to the last drop.
• The massed piper bands who both finished and ended the show.
• The Top Secret Drum Corps from Switzerland.
• His Majesty The King of Norway's Guards Band and Drill Team...though comprised of soldiers performing their one-year of mandatory service, they were sharp. (Can't hold a candle to the U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Team.
• The sentries posted by The Black Watch. Unlike the toy soldiers from Norway these were hard men, bemedalled, all carrying the latest combat weapons.

What didn't work:

• The United States Naval Forces Europe band playing a selection of comic-book hero theme songs.
• Disney-Pixar invasion with songs from Brave.
• Children dressed as Picts roaming around the courtyard to begin the show.
• An inordinate fawning tribute to Queen Elizabeth and her Diamond Jubilee.

We also attending the Fringe Festival which truly has to be experienced to be believed.  Hundreds of shows, from comedy to cabaret singing to plays.  The plays could be adaptations of Shakespeare or other classics to new productions to one-man or one-women shows.  Every public space in town had been converted to a performing arts venue.

Our favorites...Four Screws Loose and their show, Screw the World.  Four talented guys performing sketch comedy, including an opening with one of the troup wearing a Borat-type swim suit complete with faux pubic hair and a three-minute rendition of Titanic using brief excerpts from a number of songs.  Our next favorite was a one-man play, Big Sean, Mikey and Me.  Rory is still trying to break in to the acting scene, at age 36, and following a number of life's challenges.  Gangs in Edinburgh, an enigmatic friendship with Mikey, and the voice of Sean Connery distributing, on balance, poor advice of life, love, and career.

On Thursday I went fly-fishing with Nigel and Callum.  Due to concerns about the weather the trip to a loch morphed into a pond expedition.  I had one on and Nigel landed a nice three-pounder.  When we finished the day a wag who was sharing the pond with us mused, "A good result, Scotland 1, America 0." Callum shared a bit of philosophy: "The only thing more boring that fishing is watching fishing."

We ended the week by visiting Pollok House and The Burrell Collection and then attending a tribute to the late Gordon Mackay, a rugby player and former owner of Jelly Hill (our home away from home in Glasgow) who died of a heart attack in 2008.  Rugby game, bevvies and food.

The wee rant...quite frustrated with Verizon Wireless.  First Lynn's phone didn't work, and when Verizon entered her SIM card number my phone didn't and then it took hours to sort that out.  No service available in Edinburgh and when we landed in Belgium yesterday my phone had no service requiring another call.  

Trivia, 56 steps, and the death of Scottish football

We are shameless homers.  Wanting to support the latest effort to provide non-stop service from San Diego to London, we booked the British Air flight with a continuing flight to Glasgow.  A bit of a disappointment,  British Air has a distinctly user unfriendly website hat required me to scroll back and print each of the four boarding passes separately.  On the flight itself, while the service was top note the equipment was old and crowded.  The experience of passing through Heathrow was also a trip.  Through customs then about fur other checkpoints including another security screening as well as having our photos taken twice.

After finding our bags in "Baggage Reclaim" we walked into the waiting area of the Gkasgow Airport to see Andrew Kevan, our intrepid driver and owner of  Milennium, and I broke into a huge grin.  Seeing Andrew makes it official...we have arrived.  What followed was a spirited discussion on the state of the worldwide economy, the future of shipbuilding in Scotland, and the upcoming election in the United States.  We then met Callum who, along with Andrew, deposited us squarely into John Rae's flat.  Graciously Callum and Andrew struggled up the 56 stairs hauling the two large pieces of luggage.  We unpacked and headed to The Wee Curry House only to find...

...The Glasgow Curry House.  Renamed, remodeled, a tribute to famous Glasgow curry, but staffed by the same team and greeted by the irrepressible Jimmy, who remembered us frm our previous visit.

And then to The Rock where I had a couple of pints of Guinness while helping our friends with a few answers in the trivia quiz.  Who directed  Mystic River?  (Clint Eastwood). Tom Joad is a character of what American novel? (The Grapes of Wrath) What novel is narrated by Nick Carraway?  (The Great Gatsby).

On Friday we laid in supplies, built a solid foundation of food in the belly before strollling over to Jelly Hill.  We were surrounded by friends and caught up.  Callan and Kirsteen are a couple of weeks away from opening the Siempre Bike Shop and Cafe.  Gylen, firmly entrenched in a new business incubator, has launched a vide production company.  Nigel is running a large construction project, building a new distillery in Arran.  Lucy is hip deep in designing a 600-page fishing catalog.  Four drams of Bruichladdich, two being doubles, and Marion's shout looking suspiciously like a triple, and we strolled home, none the worse for wear.

On Saturday we took the train to Helensburgh to visit Hill House.  We stopped in Tourist Information to inquire on the location.  Three ladies were in a deep discussion with Stewart, who was manning the shop, on the merits of bed and breakfasts versus hotels on Iona.  When Stewart said, "I'll be with you in a minute" we said to take his time that we weren't in a hurry.  He then gave us directions and suggested a taxi to get us up the hill.  The trio of women offered to drive us, once again demonstrating the hospitality of the Scots.

Hill House was amazing.  Walter Blackie, a successful publisher, commissioned Charles Rennie MacIntosh to design his home.  A must see for anyone interested in art and architecture, especially fans of Frank Lloyd Wright, who appears to have "sampled" a few of MacIntosh's designs.

We finished the day with dinner at Cafe Andaluz and a visit to Tom and Marion Brodie's lovely home.  The former ceilidh performer regaled us with stories that went from the mines of Campbeltown to puffer boats to kilt belt buckles.

The death of Scottish football...while riding for a couple of stops on the Clockwork Orange, Glasgow's loop subway system, we shared the car with a number of Rangers Football Club supporters, off to Ibrox and a match.  The club filed for bancruptcy and was relegated two leagues down, effectively ending the Old Firm, the pitched battles and fierce rivalry with Celtic, the other Glasgow club.  The two clubs were perennial winners of the Scottish Premier League.  With one c,ub now gone, the league is effectively left with a singe strong team.  Muhammed Ali needed Joe Frazer, the Yankees need the Red Sox, and who is Roger Federer without Rafael Nadal?