Life: Idiotropic

Wednesday we headed over to the Sittard market to buy cheese and white asparagus (spargel or asperges) and look around, then I took Dad and Angie to the Rousseau chocolate shop and the Dutch Thrift Shop, Bis Bis. Afterwards we went to Kasteel Hoensbroek and toured it. The Dutch castle is one of the prettiest, I think, in the area surrounded by a nice lake and beautiful trees. It's a pretty popular castle and promotes itself by hosting parties and a lot of other events. One little girl was having a birthday party there, so she and her friends were all dressed up in traditional medieval type dresses.


The great thing about this castle is that you can tour a lot of it. Many castles are either closed completely to tours inside or the tours are led by guides and extremely controlled. When we toured the Burg Eltz we only got to go into a very small portion of the castle. This one is not completely opened, but most of it is, so we really saw a lot and given that it was a self-guided tour, it was a lot more fun to look around. We crossed a drawbridge over a moat to go through the large doorway into the courtyard. It was a nice open area and both Arianna and Luci enjoyed sticking their arms and necks in the stocks to pretend they were "in jail." We were hungry, so we had a snack the cafe down below the courtyard. It was a stone room - arches of stone, ceiling and floor of stone - dark, but interesting. After our snack we started our tour by going up into the 60 meter tall tower. It was amazing because they actually let you go all the way up to the top. The rooms were small and the stairways were very windy and very narrow with very little headroom. We did a lot of ducking and stooping. The kids loved the stairs. From the last room we took steep ladders up the rest of the way and got to look out the tiny little windows. The pictures below were taken from the tower windows.

This castle was built in 1250 and remained in the Hoensbroek family until just 100 years ago. Now it's redone and very nice. The rooms inside show how they lived. The beds are small and in the office there are animal heads and horns all over the wall. The bathrooms were interesting and probably Arianna and Luci's favorite attraction along the tour. They are small one-skinny-person sized stools built into the wall - on an outside wall. You lift a lid that covers a hole and sit. The hole is just that - a hole - through which you can look down and see the moat below. Potty training must have been scary! And how embarrassing to be using "the facilities" at the top of the tower or anywhere else for that matter when all your incoming visitors can see and smell exactly what's going on. Oh, the joys of modern plumbing! Oh, and in the kitchen, there was a little slant by the wall and a hole to the outside where you can sweep your floor and get rid of the gross stuff - right into the moat!

We saw all of the castle except for the dungeon which we sadly missed. Next time I'll go there. It would be fun to see. The basement in one wing is full of games for kids and visitors. It is obvious that they do a lot of events and festivals there with different activities for the kids. Arianna and Luci enjoyed "modeling" the wooden cutouts of old clothes.


Here are my dad and I standing in front of the part of the castle that we were able to tour. That biggest tower on the right is the one we were in - almost up to the very top! The water goes right up to the walls of the castle too which seems like it would be hard to keep it structurally sound. These guys were fishing in the moat at the castle. So far all the Dutch fishermen that I've seen have these rediculously long fishing rods. They're at least twice the length of anything I've ever seen.

It turns out that this blog is really a venting forum about the weather. And, may be I wouldn't have cared so much if I didn't have company, but it's been three solid weeks of rain for me and now almost two for Dad and Angie who really would like to see something other than the underside of an umbrella.

This week was spent running out to do errands and short local sightseeing in between rain showers and thunderstorms. The kids played well indoors amusing themselves with the spread of toys from one well organized playroom to every square centimeter of the house.

Monday we took a walk around Gangelt since it's old and has quite a few original walls and towers in it to see. The church is pretty too, but we couldn't go in that day because there was a funeral. The bells of the church were going crazy - it was really pretty though. I love the church bells around here. That is something I'll miss when we go back home. It really is a wonderful sound to hear.
On Tuesday we took a walk down by Burg Trips - the once castle, now rest-home in Geilenkirchen. It's a pretty little walk and the sheep were out by the reflecting pool.

I was thrilled to see a blue heron really close by and got a picture just before he flew away. There are a lot of blue heron here and even more in Holland. Just before we got to the car, we saw a family of baby ducks in the water and stopped to watch them for a while. Elise loves ducks, so she was excited to see them and I can certainly relate to the mother with so many chicks in tow. Angie didn't like walking in the rain (and who could blame her), so she waited for dad and I in the car while we enjoyed a quiet walk. It never poured, just sprinkled, so it was not too bad. We finished in time to pick up the girls and get coffee and cake at the bakery. House guests are not good for the waist line. There is entirely too much celebrating going on and now Angie and I can't seem to stomach a cappuccino without a hearty serving of whipped cream on top! My dad likes his coffee with a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream. Yum.

The other day I was reading one of my travel books and getting excited about little things that I was discovering near our house to see. EVERYONE was mocking me. But, in that book I found this odd little overgrown place that I'd walked by before in Sittard. It's in a hidden corner where no one ever goes and is completely covered with grasses and weeds. All you can see is an odd little door and some dark windows and there is no plaque or sign to say what it is. I'd always thought it was kind of strange. In the book, I found out that it's an old fort - Fort Sanderbout. I don't know much about it, but that there was an old Jewish cemetary there. There are tours available. I'm going to call for one. So during Tiara's ballet class dad and I walked there and got pictures. Below is the fort and then Tiara in front of her dance studio.

Actually, I love Brussels... but I have a friend here who says that she can't go to Aachen anymore because "everybody knows me there" and Brussels is nice, but "I just go there ALL the time." So... it's a little joke now. And, now that I've been to Brussels six times or so, it is all just sooo "ordinary." Not.

I am just now after this last trip starting to feel like I know Brussels better. This time I took Dad and Angie there without any big kids. We just had Elise and although she is fiercely independent, it was a lot easier to do a lot of walking around and see the area more than ever before. I'd known from guide books that there was an "upper" and "lower" Brussels, but I had no idea how close they were or if it was walkable between the two. This trip we walked all over each and saw a lot.

It was the first time I'd driven there and the traffic and parking really were a lot easier than I'd expected getting in. Getting out at the end of the day was an entirely different story somehow, but still, it wasn't scary to drive there. We parked by the Grote Markt/Grand Place and walked through the small outdoor market nearby that they hold each Sunday. One of these days I'll buy a painting there. They have a lot of craft vendors and the paintings of the Markt are very nice and affordable.

We walked through the beautiful glass ceilinged "strip-mall" first to stop into Neuhaus chocolates to pick up a box. It's a must-stop every time we go into town there. The "mall" is called the Galeries St-Hubert. Built in 1847, it was the first "shopping arcade" in Europe. Even now, shopping centers are few and far between seen only in very large cities.

Then we wandered back to the Markt through the street of fish restaurants who were just opening up and all tried to talk us into stopping in for some fine dining. Every restaurant had waiters standing outside trying to beckon in any and all passers by. They were setting out their displays of shells over ice and menu cards displaying set meals - 12 Euro for a three course meal or in some places 20 Euro would get you 5 courses and dessert. Some even included wine. There was no ala-carte available and telling these waiters that we just wanted something small was all I needed to say to decline the invitation. Small is not on the menu there.
Bathrooms are not always easy to find around here, so we found a nice coffee shop on the Markt. The building facades are beautiful and detailed, but the regal exteriors are deceiving. While some of the buildings are very large, this coffee s shop was very shallow inside and the stairs were steep. It extended up a couple floors, but it wasn't nearly as big inside as it looked outside. We enjoyed a nice cappuccino though and were able to take advantage of free (and clean) bathrooms which are quite a commodity. Elise enjoyed playing upstairs with the cusions on some chairs and was very happy - not disturbing anyone.


At the end of a wonderful day we had time to relax and have a little laugh. Our kitchen window looks out the side of our house to the field at our side and the street and bus stop. Cars often stop at the bus stop for quick stops - to grab something from the trunk or look at a map, so we rarely think anything of it. This evening my dad and I were looking out the window when a car drove up. No big deal, but then, in the true style of the Mannekin Pis, the man got out, strode over to the fence, and as Angie and Tiara were walking up to look as well, we all got a very clear idea that he also needed a free bathroom. I pounded on my window hoping to embarrass him, but he didn't hear us. Not the view I'd hoped to see from my kitchen, but it's not the first time I've seen people here use a rather obvious, public area for these means... oh... and you just wait until I have time to write about The Hague!

Won't it ever stop raining????? It's going on two full weeks of almost non-stop rain and we are all quite sick of it. It's gotten cold too. Kirk is almost considering turning the heat on. It is green here though - and beautiful, so I shouldn't complain too much.

Friday I tried to take Dad and Angie to good ol' downtown GK to walk around the open market and go to my favorite cafe. It rained. It rained a lot and it was cold and parking was awful, and we had the kids, so we had to walk far, and it was windy and miserable... Do I sound like a whiny 4-year old yet? I think that's about how we all felt. I was trying to show my guest around, but I think it was more like torture. They were miserable and the kids were too. The consolation was cappuccino and good cake at Cafe Shleypen. That will perk anyone up. I had my favorite - Johanisbeeren Kase torte. I think it's logan berry. It's really good. Anyway... that was the extent of the Friday outing. The cold/wet stuff is getting to everyone.


Saturday we got a late start and the weather looked iffy, so we just took a quick trip to Aachen to see the basics of the centrum... the old Rathaus and the Palatine Chapel. The weather was ok and it felt good to be out. I'd been to the Dom before, but we walked around inside more this time and took more pictures. The entire ceiling is a very detailed mosaic and the designs creep down the walls too. It's amazing. A lot of the tiny tiles sparkle in the lighting. The windows are beautiful and in the front are several large gold carved things. It's pretty impressive. Charlemagne actually ruled from this cathedral. His throne is there. He's still buried there. When we walked in, we noticed a door closed off to the side. Looking through the windows we could see a baptism going on. It was very sweet and so amazing to see that tiny baby all dressed in white in such a historic and regal place.

After we walked around inside, we went to the Treasury of the Cathedral which is the largest north of the Alps. It had a intricately carved marble sarcophagus dating from 2nd century A.D. from Rome that once contained Charlemagne. It had a golden bust of Charlemagne, his hunting knife and many other things relating to him. The cross of Lothair was amazing - beautiful gold decorated with stones and pearls and filigree with intricate engravings in gold. What amazes me most is that it's still used! It sits on display in the museum, but for special processions, they remove it and use it to head processions. It's also placed next to the main alter during holy mass on high feast days. It was made in the 900's A.D. and is so valuable. It is phenomenal to me - and it makes it even more special - that it is still used.

In one room full of paintings relating to Christ and Mary, there were panels like the one below depicting Mary's life. It began the angel coming to her and telling her of her pregnancy and ended with her standing at the cross. It's the first time that I saw Mary's grief depicted so clearly. As she stood at the cross looking at Christ, she held a spear to herself. As a mom, I can only imagine how painful it must feel to watch your child die. The three reliqueries below hold some of Aachen's old relics. One contains Mary's belt. And the other two have Christ's belt and his flogging belt. Every seven years in Aachen, there is a great pilgrimage that started in 1349. During the event, the Virgin's Shrine is opened and 4 more holy relics including Mary's dress and Christ's swaddling clothes are displayed for a time. It's quite an elaborate event. We hope to attend next year. Again, the dates on these things are just amazing. My kids can't seem to keep a white shirt clean for more than an hour and here there are belts and clothes and art that are a couple thousand years old.











After a lot of "quiet time" walking through the cathedral and the museum, we all needed a snack and an opportunity to talk in normal voices... especially the little ones. So, we all headed over to Starbucks for a coffee and a snack. Arianna and Luci LOVED helping their grandpa finish off his frappuccino. It was cold and chocolatey. I think that was their favorite part of the day. Afterwards while I shopped for some Printen cookies, the girls played on some horse statues. We've noticed horse statues all over the area... all painted differently... like the pigs in Seattle or the Buffalo in Oklahoma City. It's interesting. I would not have expected that phenomenon here.
The guys took the kids to play at the big slide by the parking place while Angie and I ducked into a couple of shops. The kids love the big slide. It's really tall and fast!










Just as Angie and I were about to walk back to meet up with everyone else, we heard music, so we headed off in the other direction to see what it was. We were too late to get photos, but a wedding caravan had stopped right in the middle of the street and the bride, groom, and bridal party all got out of their cars and started dancing. It was a Turkish wedding. The music was fun and they did the traditional dance, then all jumped back into the cars and sped off. I hope to see something like that again when I can take pictures. It was really fun to see.

When we got home from Aachen, our street was flooded. We were really lucky we could still get to our driveway. A few minutes after we arrived, more emergency vehicles came up and blocked our driveway. A water pipe broke and created a lake just a block down the street. So, we had no water. No toilet flushing, no cooking, no cleaning... The positive is that they did come and fix it fairly quickly and by bedtime our water was on again. The kids enjoyed watching the workers from the playroom window. So, the pipe was fixed in a matter of hours... during the rain... but the sidewalk didn't get repaired for another week.

32 years old today and not totally bothered by it. The kids let me sleep in a bit... not much, but the effort was made which was nice. Still, there is a toddler in the house who doesn't consider a birthday an occasion to sleep in, so in my pitch black room, she'll creep in, grab my hand, and pull as hard as she can on one finger pleading, "Get up, Mommy! Get up now," over and over again until my feet finally touch the floor and I am actually moving. She is brutal and relentless.

Kirk cooked a wonderful breakfast for me - his specialty. I wish he'd cook breakfast every day, but then 32 would not only be my age, but my dress size as well. Yeah, that would be ugly. The kids locked themselves away in the office giggling. I had to help them find tape and wrapping paper - but they did a nice job of wrapping and decorating things for me. Kirk is getting me a new camera for my birthday, but I haven't ordered it yet, so that's my fault for not having it ready to open. The girls were sweet though - a little box of chocolate, a silver picture frame, and a nice journal. Dad and Angie had brought family gifts too. It was a very nice morning. (No photos of that morning are publishable, of course... I had to open presents before my shower!)

It was raining... and raining... with no sign of letting up much. But, we had visitors and I certainly didn't want to stay inside all day, so Kirk kept the kids for the afternoon and I headed out with Dad and Angie. We first went to Sittard, but it was a Catholic holiday, so the market and all else was closed, so we plugged in Stella (GPS) and looked up nearby attractions. Valkenburg wasn't far away and had a nice old castle ruin, so we went there to explore a bit.

I was surprised, driving in, that it was so crowded. I'd thought that between the rain and the holiday that Valkenburg would be about as dead as Sittard, but there were big crowds all gathered around the eateries lining the streets. Parking was easy though and we went to find the way to the old castle ruin. Below the ruin was a ticket booth selling cave tours as well, so we did both.

Apparently, the entire area used to be under sea, so over many many years and a changing climate, the sand and sea matter pressed together to create Marlstone. The marlstone is very strong and heavy, but also very easy to cut into. The cave we explored was created in 1050 when the castle was built because they took large Marlstone blocks from the cave to build the castle. It also ended up acting as an escape route for castle dwellers at times of war. The tour was in Dutch, but several Dutch people on the tour helped to translate things at different times and the guide also took time in between stops to tells us about things. They were all very friendly and there was a lot of laughing from everyone, so I suppose the tour was funny. It was interesting to see. In the late 1800's locals started to decorate the cave to attract tourists, so there are beautifully intricate "paintings" throughout the cave. They were done by painting the entire surface of a wall black, then carving into the marlstone to add the light areas. It is amazing. During WW2, the Americans used the cave during fights with the Germans. They were able to sneak up to the castle ruin on the hill and see what was going on. So, there are also sillouettes of the American soldiers painted there and many other signs of their presence. A full chapel with confessional and baptismal is there and there was a hospital of sorts in the caves as well. (http://www.kasteelvalkenburg.nl/en/sub_velvetcave.html)


The cave tour lasted about an hour in pitch black surroundings. We only had the small oil lamp of our guide to light the area for most of the trip. It eventually led us up steep narrow stairs up to the bottom of the castle ruin. The castle is a ruin because it had been captured by the French and recaptured again by the Dutch. Upon threat of the castle being captured again by the French, the Dutch king blew it up. So, it is ruin, not by age, nor by the hand of an invador, but by the Dutch. It was pretty. I would have loved to see what it looked like before. Instead, it started to rain just as the cave tour ended and we walked around the old brick ruin getting wet.
(http://www.kasteelvalkenburg.nl/en/sub_castle.html)

We walked through an old city gate through the crowded pedestrian area just as it started to downpour. "Ron's Big Burgers" looked interesting, but we ducked into a little patisserie for a quick cappuccino break and I introduced Dad and Angie to a fresh hot waffle topped with cherries and whipped cream! YUM! Waffles here are soooo good and nothing like the US waffles. They are thick and soft and have caramelly edges that melt in your mouth. I will definitely find an iron and a good recipe for them here.

We got home in time for me to make dinner, then Tiara presented me with a nice orange streussel cake that she made. If you look carefully, you'll see a couple places where cake has been removed from my cake... Elise thought it looked good, so after Tiara had made it and frosted it, Elise reached up to the table and tore two handfuls out of the sides.

My birthday was capped off with a nice walk around the village. Nights are staying light so long, it seemed wrong to waste a nice evening after so much rain, so we took the kids and went. It was a short, but very nice little walk.

This is the soccer practice that showed just how tough Arianna is. Only 5 kids showed up and Arianna was the only girl. It was COLD - very cold, windy, and rainy. All the parents ran for their cars and watched from across the field. Dad and Angie watched from the minivan. I stood there a bit, but the wind picked up and the rain got heavier, so I ran to the van too. Arianna stayed out and practiced the entire hour and didn't complain once. She ran back to the van at break time to get her water, then ran back to practice. I was so proud of her. She's really enjoying soccer now and is learning a lot of self-discipline.

Tuesday - This was the day to pick up Dad and Angie at the airport - no problem. So we bustled around doing last minute things in the morning, then I picked up all the girls from school and started the drive for Dusseldorf. Kirk and I'd looked up mapquest directions the night before and I saw that there were several ways to get there, so I just plugged in Stella - our GPS system - and set it for the Dusseldorf airport. An hour later we drove up to a dinky, out-of-the-way, local airport with a tiny helicopter sitting on the runway. Yeah - I knew it wasn't it, but I had to go in and ask. Very little English speakers there, but someone did understand me enough to say that no, I wasn't at Dusseldorf International. Twenty minutes up the autobahn I was at the right airport. The drive was nice. We crossed over the Rhine and through a really long tunnel. The girls put their arms up and yelled, "tunnel," over and over again until we were out. I got to the airport, followed the green lit signs to the parking "frei" and ended up back on the autobahn to do another 10 minute loop - Oh fun. Eventually we got there, found parking by the departures. It was 30 minute only parking, but I was desperate, so I parked there anyway. When we walked in we saw Ronald McDonald - a very skinny version - speeding around the airport on a little scooter - the old fashioned non-electric kind. It was a bit silly. Life-sized statues of him littered quite a few benches there as well. As soon as we got to the Customs doors, Dad and Angie walked out. The kids screamed and ran towards them excitedly and we got to head back. After stopping for some snacks for the drive home, the car ended up being in parking just 31 minutes. That cost me 4.55 Euro - ouch! That's more expensive than Amsterdam! The drive home was uneventful and Dad and Angie seemed a lot more well rested than I'd expected.

Yes, rested. I'd thought that they'd collapse and rest when we got back to the house. Instead, we took a tour of the house and dad started taking pictures - lots of pictures - of everything. They loved the windows that open all the way up - like a door. The kids like that too - they can climb out!

Tiara had ballet that night, so we all went to Sittard and had coffee and ice cream in the market while Tiara danced. Her class is long on Tuesdays, so we had time for a nice walk too. I took them back behind Putstraat where the little gardens are hidden and we walked down a little pedestrian area between some other houses too. Arianna and Luci are obsessed with those wish-maker things... the little puffy seeded ends of dandelions that look like a cotton ball. They look for them everywhere and love to blow off the seeds and make their wishes. I am certainly glad that they are spreading their dandelion wishes on someone else's yard. There are tons of dandelions here - even in yards - and it doesn't seem to bother people. As finicky as people are here about their properties, they seem to really be ok with random wildflowers growing in the lawn. At our house we have cute little purple flowers and daisy's in our grass. The girls pick them and make tiny bouquets every time they're out.