Well this week is practically over already! Not sure where it went, but I will say that the last four days have been rather travel-filled. Roughly 2000 km and 22 hours of travel took up a large portion of the holiday weekend. That, however, did not prevent us from seeing two new countries and four cities! Not to shabby…
As I stated in my last blog post, the weekend was to be filled with a “tag-along” business trip to a technical school in Holland. That demonstration was to take place on Tuesday at the HAN University of Applied Sciences. There we would meet up with another BMW department manager for the demonstration. Before that day, however, my two fellow interns and I would explore Belgium on Sunday and Monday.
Saturday, June 11, 2011 (Munich to Maaseik)
I did my usual last-minute packing before our manager arrived at 8:30 AM to pick us up. Micah and I loaded our bags next to the test equipment in the rear of the BMW X5 we would be using as our “lab vehicle” during the demonstration on Tuesday. From there we drove to pick up Christian, our German intern colleague. For our manager, this trip was one back to his home town. He actually grew up in Belgium, went to school in Germany, obtained his doctorate from Canada, and now works in Munich. Three languages and a few countries later, he is quite the intelligent fellow! Altogether we were four… and together we traversed the entire country of Germany. Sounds impressive, right? …well, maybe if Germany was a bit larger it would. For Germans, however, a six hour drive is a LONG “Fahrt”.
Before I get too far, here is a good visual of where the weekend took us…
Belgium is a small country just northwest of Germany (near Cologne where I started a few months back). Holland is just north of Belgium and contains the famous city of Amsterdam. And now for some quick facts…
Belgium is the birthplace of frites (French fries, as we call them) and Belgium waffles (glad they got the correct country in this food’s name!). Belgium also is home to some of the world’s finest beer, lace, and chocolate. The northern part of Belgium speaks Dutch and the southern part speaks French. The easterners speak a little German and nearly everyone can speak a little English (again… English is becoming the language of the world). Currently, the government is at a stand-still and in a state of change because of tensions between the northern Flemish region and the southern Walloon region. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is the unofficial home of the European Union as it contains some of its main parliamentary buildings. It is a proud country, but homey and very friendly.
Okay… back to the Autobahn…
We drove for most of the day, taking a short stop in Königswinter for lunch along the Rhine River. Along the way, I really enjoyed the hilly country side and we passed the starting point for this entire journey (Frankfurt Airport). I am now convinced after a couple of big trips, that the Germany country side is never dull or boring. Almost the entire country is filled with cities nestled between hills and rivers.
Through the Frankfurt area we found the German radio station, AFN the Eagle. This was a station created for American troops stationed in Germany (particularly for post WWII until the reunification in 1989) and it plays current American music and posts the most current American news. We actually found most of the commentary rather humorous. All ads were accompanied by over-exaggerated sound effects (lawn mowers, chain saws, chirping birds, idling motors) and they were always saying, “We salute you!!” nearly every 10 minutes in a most gregarious manner. Besides these things, there wasn’t much difference between the German stations and the Eagle. Most popular songs in German come straight from the USA. Biggest difference between our radio and theirs is that they get the news on the hour, every hour, on every station. They also get compulsory traffic updates for the region in which they are currently driving; they simply play over the station being listened to.
We crossed into Holland around 4:00 PM and then finally into Belgium at 4:30 PM. Our manager’s mother lives in Maaseik and that is where we were staying for the first night. After unloading our stuff, we had enough time to explore the 1000 year old Flemish town and the flea market it was hosting for Pentecost weekend. The entire town and “Markt” was filled with peddlers and stands… most of which were winding down business for the day. Lucky for me I was able to catch an evening mass at the church just as it was starting! Talk about good timing. I knew I wouldn’t have time Sunday morning, so that worked out well. God’s always looking out for me.
After mass, I met back up with Micah and Christian and we had our first Belgium beers. As I stated earlier, Belgium is really well known for their world class beer (more so that even Germany!). Especially good are the Abbey and Trappist brews. Even in Belgium, the monks brew THE BEST beer available. Trappist beers are especially strict with their brewing requirements and are few in number. There are only several Trappist monasteries in the world that brew with the Trappist label… all but one are located in Belgium. Abbey beers are similar as they are supposedly also brewed in monasteries, but they have no set rules for brewing and some are just regular commercial beers with a good marketing strategy. In Maaseik, I had a Leffe Brune, and it was indeed as good as the “hype” called for… although it was not one of the Trappist varieties.
That evening we had dinner prepared by our supervisor’s mother. It was the traditional German late dinner (8:00 PM) with portions of bread, cold cuts, and salad. I was hit by a bout of homesickness at this point as I hadn’t sat in a small house at a family table in a while. Having a homemade meal and good company really made me miss meals at home with the family. It also made me appreciate homemade meals even more (as if that were possible!!). Suddenly I couldn’t hold back thoughts of my mom’s dirt cake, my Grandma’s baked apples, or my aunt’s homemade pies and cookies… **slight pause for nostalgic moment of the day**
At 10:30 PM, it was lights out. Thank God for warm, cozy Dutch beds. Well… futon, actually…
Sunday, June 12, 2011 (Maaseik to Brussels to Bruges)
Christian, Micah, and I set off early on Sunday after breakfast for our tour of Belgium. Our manager drove us to Genk (great name for a city, right?) where we took a train to the capital city of Brussels. Arriving around noon, we dove in with a mission to complete our “check list” for the day. Immediately we saw St. Matthew’s cathedral and then walked further to the market square where the wonderfully restored and/or preserved medieval buildings still stood. What a cool sight! The gorgeous Hotel de ville de Bruxelles was the center piece and old guild houses lined the sides of the square. Gold paint, bronze statues, and ornate architecture brought everything to life. There was even a small market going on at the time!
That afternoon, we were able to see many other sights, including chocolate shops, many cafés, comic shops (another well know Belgium tradition!), fry stands, palaces, and churches. Some of the featured items were the statue of Everard ‘t Serclaes (which supposedly brings good luck if you rub it), the Manneken Pis (I have no idea why this is such a highlighted masterpiece in this city. He is everywhere in chocolate shops and in souvenir shops! EVERYWHERE…), the stock exchange building, Arc de Triomphe (which looked sort of like the Brandenburg Gate), and the E.U. parliament buildings. I could likely go into some pretty detailed descriptions of each, but let’s leave it at this… Brussels is a city steeped in culture and history. We literally flew through the city with our coined phrase of “CHECK!” One could easily spend a week in Brussels alone.
Before leaving Brussels that evening, we had accomplished a few other important things. We successfully devoured our first Belgian waffles (which, by the way, can be found even in vending machines!!) and we had our first Trappist beers. Micah purchases a 12 Euro beer which was supposedly the best in the world. I settled on a more reasonably priced selection and Christian chose a Chimay (which I will claim as my favorite Belgium beer). Another interesting thing to note here is that every Belgium beer has its own glass. It is not uncommon for a Belgium to reject a beer if it is served in the wrong glass. My favorite glass was associated with Kwak beer. Very odd! In any case… Cheers! …Prost!! …I’m not really sure what the Dutch say…
At around 7:30 PM we hopped a train to Bruges where we would be spending the night at a hostel. It was a quick one hour trip and we found the small city of Bruges to be quick easy to navigate upon arrival. I dropped my stuff off at the Lybeer hostel where I was staying and we proceeded to explore the village a little before sunset.
Bruges reminded me a lot of Altoetting in Germany. Very small, very quiet, and very beautiful at night! The town market square glowed at dusk as the small restaurants lit up their colorful medieval facades. This was the perfect time to enjoy some Belgium fries! We found the best fries 3 Euros could buy and enjoyed their savory goodness under the glow of the giant Belfry. At that same time, I was scanning the city map to determine what we wanted to see that night and the following day. On the suggestion of a local fellow(who laughed heartily at my pronunciation of a local bar), we enjoyed a few drinks at a couple establishments before turning in a little later. We kept things pretty low key as we had a LOT to see on Monday.
First full day in Belgium… SUCCESS!
Monday, June 13, 2011 (Bruges to Maaseik)
First off, let me tell you that Hostels are the way to travel! I spent 13.70 € for one night and breakfast at the Lybeer. Sure, I was in a room with nine strangers, but really… we’re all doing the exact same thing, and since we’re poor college students, what is to steal? Heck, I might as well pay this amount for the breakfast alone, considering it is upwards of 20 Euros per meal at any normal restaurant in the more tourist-filled parts of Europe! Better still was that the friendly staff here let me keep my backpack in the hostel until I left that evening. Win!
After breakfast, I did some church exploring before meeting up with Micah and Christian. At around 10:30 AM, we disembarked for another day of sight-seeing. Unfortunately for us, we discovered the biggest Belgian tradition of all… rain. The entire day was WET. Fortunately, it was warm and the rain was more of a light drizzle. It was time to man up and truly embrace the culture!
We began the day with a city wall walk. The entire city used to be surrounded by a giant city wall along its outer canal. Now there is a serene walkway along the tree lined outer boundary where you can watch the old motor boats float down the canal and under bridges at the old city gates. On the far east city boundary were four medieval windmills left over from many more that used to line the outer city wall. These were perhaps my favorite sights in the city! It was straight from a knight tale!
At 1:00 PM we ate lunch at a local sandwich shop and naturally stopped by the supposed “best” ice cream place in town for a little dessert. Throughout the rest of the day we enjoyed seeing the many canals running through the town center and visiting some of the local buildings. We saw the old city hall and stopped at a pilgrimage sight at the Holy Blood Basilica. As the name infers, the chapel contains a vile with some of Christ’s blood. I was blessed to spend some time in prayer here before we moved on.
Our next hit was Bruges’s local brewery. The De Halve Maan Brewery is Bruges’s one and only local brewery and has been family owned since its founding in the 1800s. For a VERY reasonable 6 Euro we enjoyed a full hour tour, a beautiful view of the city from the roof, and a complimentary Zot at the end of the tour. I would highly recommend a stop here for any visitor!
The rest of the afternoon was shop hopping and catching a few last minute sights. We ended our tour of the city with a walk through the peaceful Begijnhof of a local convent. The entire town was so photogenic it is hard to really express just how impressive all the sights were. It was wet, but completely worth the visit. Exhausted, but satisfied with our day’s adventure, we boarded the first evening train back to Genk where we met up with our manager again. We stayed that third night again at his mother’s place.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 (Maaseik to Arnham to Munich)
Today was actually our “work” day, and the only day we actually spend in Holland. We drove up to Arnhem from Maaseik around 8:30 AM. Once at the HAN school, we met up with some of the professors and our other manager from BMW. In the morning, our main manager gave a presentation in Dutch to the Holland students. The slides were in English, so it was easier to follow than I thought it would be. Again, a good example of how much we take English for example!
After a brief lunch, we went down into the engine test labs where the students work on cars. This was a technical automotive school, so many of the students were learning how to test engines in laboratory settings. It was a very clean and up-to-date lab center and I could tell that the students were getting a really great experience at the school. I was certainly impressed with the facilities. We did a physical demonstration of what we do in the BMW labs for the Holland students, and many were very interested in how we rig up and set up the car bodies. It was pretty cool interacting with a group of guys from Holland who shared similar engineering interests. I can’t speak enough for how neat professional intercultural relations are.
We wrapped up around 3:30 PM and were back on the road around 4:30 PM. We decided to make a run for Munich before midnight and were successful in the effort! We followed all speed limits exactly… except when there wasn’t one! I love the autobahn! Can we have one in America, please?
So… it was a busy four days! Wow, they were busy. But, for a trip to a country I hadn’t planned on initially visiting, that was a pretty incredible journey!
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