Belgium - Ghent/ Brussles

Back in the states my typical work travel consisted of middle of January trips to South Bend, Indiana, and frequent trips to small towns in Illinois where the best lunch spot was McDonald's and the best hotel was a motel, where the entrance to the rooms was on the outside of the building. Built more for hourly service, than that of the comforts required by a traveling business-woman.

Our jobs here in England, however, have afforded us a great opportunity to take impromptu visits to various countries. In January, after a work visit to Paris and Dusseldorf, Brett met me for a weekend in Belgium, where we spent the weekend exploring the medieval town of Ghent, drinking delicious Belgium beers, eating Belgium waffles, and experiencing our first Jenever (flavored Dutch gin) bar.  I guess the weekend was a bit glutenous, but what holiday isn't!


Ghent is also home to the famous Ghent alterpiece, a super old artwork that was stolen during the Nazi occupation of Belgium, and thankfully safely returned post-war. This artwork was featured in the movie Monuments Men.


We spent Sunday night in Brussels so that we could hop on the first Eurostar train back to London, in order to be back for work on Monday morning. While in Brussels, we expanded on our bar crawl, by opening it up to a bar crawl and frites (french fries) crawl.

Frites is a way of life in Belgium, where the best frite places often include adjectives such as handcut, double fried, and duck fat, with more sauce options than one can count- our favorite being the spicy sauce, a combination of mayonnaise and hot sauce. Ketchup, on the other hand, is for amateurs.

There are annual rankings of the best frites in Brussels, and we were fortunate enough to try two of the best places. Our first stop could easily be described as the point in time upon which all future time is measured against, Fritland. The place was packed with college aged travel abroad students, looking for a cheap meal, regardless of the impact on the waistline. And the other place we went was Friterie Tabora. I think the final verdict was a tie.

If you like beer, do yourself a favor and visit Belgium!

Nice is nice

Location: Nice, France
Actual date of event: Late May

A costal town along the Mediterranean Sea, Nice is a beautiful city where hiking to the top of a vantage point or sharing a bottle of house wine are the only items on the itinerary. With the picturesque buildings all in a different shade of orange or pink, it is a dream to an expat with a DSLR.

Our first day in Nice, we walked along the boardwalk and took in the scenery. We enjoyed a casual lunch, along the cobblestone streets of the old town, with house wine and Napoli-style pizza.

One of my favourite parts of visiting cities in Europe is their old town areas which include, narrow cobblestone streets, quaint 10 table restaurants and more cafes than one can count. Where drinking a glass of wine at 11am is normal and the pace of life seems to move much slower. Like for example in Nice, one morning we were enjoying our morning pastry and café and the gentleman next to us was drinking a glass of red wine while reading the paper and wearing a dinner jacket. To which we then said "When in Nice..." and shortly thereafter got ourselves a glass of wine as well.  

There are a few staples that we look for when visiting a new city- the local deli and cheese shop, the local bakery for freshly baked bread and pastries and the local wine shop. Although it is easy to think that a city like Nice is only inhabited by tourists, there most often is a very lively local community that depends on those shops. Another perk is that these shops are not very often frequented by the tourists. Our first day in Nice, we found a cheese shop and a wine shop where the house bottle of wine cost 3.25 euros. We enjoyed cheese and wine while we cleaned up and got ready for dinner.

We went to dinner that night at a small restaurant called Papayou, where we dined on pate, homemade mushroom ravioli, seafood pasta and lots of wine. There is some saying where dinner is about the people and that the food can only complement the company and conversations being had. So the company was perfect (Brett’s parents), the atmosphere was perfect (Nice is nice) and the wine and food were perfect, hence a perfect evening in the south of France.

Wine shop: Caves Caprioclio 

Pastry Shop: La Fougasserie

Dinner first night: Papayou

Dinner second night: Bistro de Antoine

Until next time-

Mary

Semana Santa- Seville, Spain

Semana Santa is the religious celebration leading up to Easter. The celebrations are carried out over the month leading up to Easter and they occur all throughout Spain. Holy week in Seville, however, is the largest, most well know of the celebrations.

(Tip- watch the processions from the Dona Maria Hotel rooftop bar. Access to the bar is free, and it apparently wasn't very well know, as we got a seat right up against the edge.)

The core events are the processions of the brotherhoods, through the streets of Seville, from their home church or chapel to the Cathedral and back.



A procession can be made up from a few hundred to near 3,000 Nazarenos and last anywhere from 4 to 14 hours, depending how far the home church is from the Cathedral. The largest processions can take over an hour and a half to cross one particular spot.

Each procession includes two ornate floats which are the main attractions. The first one being of Jesus in a scene from the Passion, and the second float is typically of Mary. Each float can weight over a metric ton, and are physically carried by 12-15 strong men. This is why the processions take so long, because even if their church is only ¼ mile from the cathedral, the men have to take frequent breaks due to the weight of each float.

Why don’t they just put the floats on wheels?I asked the same question! Carrying the float symbolises the pain and suffering Jesus incurred while carrying his cross. Carrying the float is considered a small sacrifice to what Jesus endured.

Strictly speaking this is a religious festival, but for most of the week it is a major party- however not a party like freshman year of college, more like a family reunion. Entire families of Sevillanos, including grandparents and small children, will hang out at the bars all day long and into the early mornings, 3:00 or 4:00am. Brett and I were walking back to our hotel one night at 12:30 and walked by many older women 80+ years still hanging out at the bars.

What is with their crazy outfits?!

As most of my followers are American, I am sure that these pictures are quite shocking to see, as it reminds us of a very negative part of our history. Seeing a white hood and a white cloak spawns similar feelings as the swastika.

However this tradition of the hood and cloak has existed in Spain for hundreds of years. So we know that it carries a completely different meaning in Spain than it does in America.

The cone shaped hood is supposed to symbolise a rising toward the heavens and therefore bring their presence closer to the heavens. Additionally, their covered faces symbolise a united mankind.

Seville was amazing and I highly recommend going during Semana Santa as you really got to see Spanish culture at its finest. For the most part, the spectators were all Spanish, which proves that this is a very proud festival for Spaniards.
                                            

Have you ever visited Seville? What was your favorite part?

Thanks for reading guys! 

Cheers- Mary