Ostend, Belgium, End of November 2014

FINALLY, here's the last post of that wonderful trip to Belgium at the end of November over a month ago!  It was my goal to finish it all before I go into the hospital on Thursday for a left-knee replacement.  (But more on that later.)

It so happens that Astrid received an email while we were in Atlanta in October, giving us an offer too good to refuse:  4 days, 3 nights at a city-center hotel in Ostend, Belgium, full breakfast included, for €154 total.  Not per night.  Total.  After reading the fine print and seeing nothing askew with the offer, YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO ASK US TWICE.

Ostend is on the North Sea coast (remember the tram ride?).  It's a 15-minute train ride to Bruges, where we saw the Christmas market and the Snow & Ice Sculpture festival.  We arrived on Friday, December 28th, and left the following Monday, December 1st.

We loved being situated in the center of the city in a very cozy hotel and room.

Just a block away was the magical Winterijs wonderland, first day of its 2014 opening.

And since it was lunchtime, what better place to go native.

Brats with onions!

Then, we were on a mission to see as much of the city center as possible before nightfall.

We knew the rest of the weekend was "taken."

In hopes it would still be open, we first headed off to Ostend's main church,

with it's separate St. Peter's Tower across the street from 1478.

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a Roman Catholic neo-gothic church from 1899.

 And, yes, it was open!

It was the perfect time of the day to be there, with the sun prisms dancing around the stained glass.

When we went back outside, the sun caught this one spot of the rose window.

It was magical.

 Across the harbor from the church, a short walk away, was the train station.

I LOVE European train stations and boat harbors.

When you can get both together in the same photos, it feels better than perfect.

The next day, Saturday, when we took the train to Bruges, I got some close-ups.

 As we walked inland along the harbor, we came to the Zeilschip Mercator,

once a training ship for the Belgian merchant fleet, now a floating museum.

  If we can't take a joke, right?!

With the sun setting by late afternoon, we headed to the Albert I Promenade to catch it.

Sitting on a bench from 5-5:30, this is what we saw.

A brave surfer nearby was also catching the sun...and waves.

You always see things a bit differently at night, of course.

Back where we started from, even the Winterijs pavilion had perked up.

Ostend is a delightful city at any time of the year, I'm sure.

But we loved being there at the holiday time.

 As we often say, we were "short of eyes."

After all, Belgium is our neighbor to the south of us, just a 30-minute drive to the border.

We should probably go there more often!!!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

About that knee replacement:  After a volleyball accident in 1971, I have finally cried "UNCLE!"  I can hardly wait to get a new knee, even though I know I have a long row to hoe once it's done.  They say it's the most complicated of orthopedic surgeries but also one of the most successful.  So I am highly optimistic and expect nothing but the best.

Wish us both (poor Astrid!) much success, please and thank you.

And of course, I'll catch you up as soon as possible (after my 5-day hospital stay).

The Snow & Ice Sculpture Festival, Bruges 2014

First of all, happy 2nd Christmas Day from the Netherlands...an official, national holiday!  We're still full of yesterday's drive to Kinderdijk to see the sunrise between 8:15-9:15 a.m.  But that's my next post.

Today it's a gift of WINTER from when we went to the Christmas market in Bruges, Belgium, on Saturday, November 29th.  I wanted to make this a separate post because...well, just because.

Since our hotel was in Ostend for our 4 nights, we decided to take the train to Bruges,

only 15 minutes away.  It was a no-brainer for the car and parking and hassle.

Ostend's train station from 1913 is gorgeous!

Astrid had already researched the Snow & Ice Sculpture Festival in Bruges before our trip.

It is literally just outside the Bruges train station.

It was a no-brainer to see it, even at €15/€13 each, because of the theme:

Ice Magic:  The Land of the Hobs, based on JRR Tolkien's Hobbit stories.

Where do I start?!  The Magic was everywhere.

Do you see a wizard?

Photography was challenging, not only because it was cold (-6° C = 21.2° F)

but because the lights kept changing color.

Do you recognize anything from the Hobbit stories?

The dwarves and trolls and goblins, for instance.

This archer was one of my favorites, even though he didn't come out well.

 The detail was incredible.  This is all ice, Folks...

...except for the chandelier, I assume
(300 tons of crystal-clear ice and 400 tons of snow in 12,000 sq. meters of space). 

It was so C.O.L.D. we had to stop for some hot Glühwein midway through.
Seriously.  It's been a long time since my hands have been that cold.
Have you ever been to an ice bar to get warm?  HA!

It was easier to get chummy with the natives once we got warm(er).

But Astrid was the true hero when she was willing to do the ice slide.
The left image was one we bought for show-n-tell (why not!), since we're both in it.


And lucky for me, I actually caught her!  You get the feel of it, don't you.

After the show (totally worth it) we then walked into Bruges for the Christmas market,
which I've already shown you here.  It was such a beautiful day.

By 5p we were ready to go back to Ostend, catching the 5:29 train, from where we started.
Look how the tents were lit up for the snow and ice festival.

It all really was magical and we're so glad we did it.
Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Longest Tram Line in the World: Belgium

This is still the "last trick" of 2014, going backwards in time from our 4-day trip to Belgium at the end of November.  In the last post I showed our stop in Veere, NL, on our way home, December 1.

Today's post is what we did Sunday, November 30, celebrating our 7th year of meeting on the internet, via our Shutterchance photography blog.  Has it really been 7 years?!

One of Astrid's co-workers told her about the tram line the full length of Belgium's coastline.  And since we were staying in Ostend, around midway on the coast, we both got very excited about spending a day on the tram, getting on and off wherever we wished.

The Coastal Tram, as it's called, is 42 miles long with 70 stops, making it the longest in the world.

Since we started in Ostend, we first went south to De Panne, near the French border,

and then back all the way north to Knokke-Heist, near the Dutch border,

then back south to Ostend, making the full trip up-n-down in one day.
(image from Wiki)

And it cost only €5 each for that entire day!

We started at the Marie-Joséplein tram stop in Ostend around 10:15 a.m. that Sunday,

just a 5-minute walk from our hotel, on a very foggy day.

Disclaimer:  some of the following images may be hampered because of the fog or moving tram!

I knew we'd see the North Sea, of course, but had no clue about anything else.

The architecture was just astounding along the entire coast, and still building.

Astrid says the English and the Germans in particular come to vacation here.

I grabbed whatever churches I could get along the way...

...as well as these 5 water towers.

The Dutch aren't the only ones who build these magnificent water structures!

We figured we'd have a hot-chocolate break in De Panne at the southern-most stop,
which we did, right on the coast.  That's a Belgium waffle, yes.  We're not dumb.

Little did we know that at that exact time, the 19th Panne Beach Endurance international bike race
was happening!  Talk about serendipity!  It was our biggest surprise of the day.

So, both before and after lunch, we were spectators of the 1000 plus participants,

at the starting line of their 52 km endurance ride.

A real beach race over one distance, a struggle against nature and against yourself.

Are you ready for the race of your life?  We were all waiting.

Finally, they started coming, gaining speed to climb the ramp...

...over which they would then hit the quagmire of loose sand before riding the beach.

While many sailed through with flying colors, many others didn't.

Once they saw the water, I bet they thought they were home free, almost before they started!

But of course, they still had miles to go!

Here's where I was standing most of the time, seeing mishaps and all.
You can actually see Astrid at the end on the right, crouched down in the crowd (red coat).

 Back in the tram again, heading north to Knokke, we enjoyed the Ostend sights as we passed by.
We had already seen many of them on foot the previous two days (a later post).

It would have been fun to get off at many of the tram stops, of course.
But the purpose of the day was to get off at the "bottom" and the "top" only,
and just look at everything else while passing by.

Speaking of which, we did see all kinds of fun things (besides sand dunes, of course).

You could spend much longer than a day on this tram to see everything.
And yes, that's a windmill (bottom-left) and my one weathervane of the day (upper-right)!

All along the way we had looked to see where we might stop for our anniversary dinner.
At the end of the line in Knokke, we switched trams and started back down the coast.

We had picked the Blankenberge Pier once we passed it going north!

The present Blankenberge Pier was built in 1933, crossing 350 meters into the North Sea.
(The original pier built in 1894 was destroyed by the Germans during WWI.)
The pier is now a leisure complex with several catering businesses, an auditorium and exhibition space.

And that's where we chose to eat our anniversary meal.  How exotic!

Besides choosing the local Blankenberge beer,
we noticed they had spaghetti carbonara on the menu.
Have you ever seen it served with a raw egg like that?
Hands down, it was the best carbonara either one of us had ever eaten.
And the pork dish suited it well (we always share, remember).

By then the daylight was "setting," with the fog ever-present as we left.

What a way to end the day, get back on the tram and go home.
Look at Astrid's sheepish grin.  We had the time of our lives.

It really doesn't get much better than this, Folks.