A day at the spa...in Spa (the town)

There really is a place in Belgium called Spa! In Spa, we went to Thermes de Spa which was a blast. Now, this CB girl has never been to a spa before, ever...and I loved it! Thermes de Spa is located at the top of a steep cliff overlooking the town of Spa.

It has 800 square metres of indoor and outdoor pools with bubbles, pressure things and spouts that you can lean against. We arrived around noon and stayed until about 7:30 pm and enjoyed every moment. I spent most of the day in the outdoor pools (pictured here). The indoor pools were nice too, but breathing in the cool air while swimming around in the heated pools was so nice - I have never done anything like that before! In the evening the steam coming off the outdoor pool was really pretty.

There is a sauna and a steam room, but I don't like to breath in hot air, so that didn't interest me too much. I tried the relaxation room which where lounge chairs in a room with black light with calming music above, but that didn't really do it for me either....I just wanted to get back into the huge bathtub!

Another thing that I did love was the heat lamps. There were lounge chairs set up with your own heat lamp above so you could dry off under the warm red light after getting out of the pool. That was really nice. They also had a little canal that you could float through as the jets would push you along - I did this over and over - it was fun - would be more fun with an inner tube though!:)

I literally spent about 6 of the 7 hours we were there swimming around in the pools and was a complete prune by the time we left last night! Anyone who comes to Belgium, this is a must! Thanks to our friends Andrew and Alison for taking us there on our last weekend in Belgium!

Munich and Frankfurt, Germany

After exploring the Alps, Austria and the Black forest, our goal was to make it to Munich and find a hotel that night. Because the trip was kinda unplanned, we had no reservations. It was easy to find the hotel in Triberg the night before - we walked in to the first one we saw and got 2 rooms....in Munich, a huge city, it proved to be a little more difficult!

We arrived in the evening around 8pm and couldn't find anything that looked remotely in our price range. 'Donna' only knew how to take us to the city centre and that was it, so it wasn't easy to get around. We went to McDonalds and used the internet there and some of us (mainly me) may have gotten a little cranky when finding a hotel wasn't as easy as we'd planned!

After a few hours of roaming around and a little cursing (mainly from the bus driver that Dylan cut off while pullling into a gas station - the bus driver pulled over and started screaming at him in German), we arrived at our hotel at about 10pm, had a well deserved beer (I was craving a drink) and some supper and crashed!

The next morning we explored Munich and my favorite part was having a few beers at the local joint and listening to the Oompah Band....it was classic! We went to the Residence museum in the city square which was impressive and walked around the city.

Although I was dying to try some weiner schnitzel and other German specialties, it didn't happen. I did have the option at one point, but once I found out what they were, I opted for a salad!

We left early afternoon and headed home....well, the direction towards Belgium. We drove and drove and drove and stopped in Frankfurt that evening for a late supper before arriving in Brussels about midnight!

The Alps

Crossing the border from Germany to Austria, we got our first glimpse of the this spectacular mountaing range. The Alps stretch through 7 countries - from east to west - Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, and France (and yes, Liechtenstein is a country)!

I was in awe at my first glimpse and was so glad we decided to drive to Austria at the last minute to see this amazing sight! Kelly's Mountain is no comparison to what I witnessed here!

Once into the Alps, we drove through a ton of small communties that were totally based on ski tourism. In some spots, we'd be driving down a road with mountains surrounding us on all sides and looking at the mountains, all you could see were ski lifts....it was hard to tell where they started and where they stopped, but the mountains were filled with skiers at every angle. The most popular ski town we passed through was St. Anton where we read they have 600 hotels in the area....now this was a small town - we drove through in about 4 minutes, but it was scattered with hotels. We had to go about 25km/hr because people were everywhere carrying skis and walking around in their ski boots - I have a craving to go skiiing in St. Anton now and have made it one of my goals!

We spent alot of the day driving through the alps and through some snowy areas. I was much calmer driving through the snow at this point in time, since we were mostly at the base of the mountains and not at the top this time. I'm not sure of the elevation we reached while driving, but the highest mountain in Austia reaches almost 3800 metres. We stopped the car numerous times to get some pictures and spent most of the day gazing out the windows!

The Black Forest

One thing I recommend when travelling to unknown places is to get a book with the details of the areas. I went to the library and got 5 books for our travels. We all have spend hours perusing through the books and they have given us some insight on what to see and where to go! Reading about Western Europe, Germany, Netherlands, Munich and Austria has helped us decide where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see!

We knew in advance that we were driving to Germany, but weren't exactly sure where....I thought Berlin, but after checking out some of the literature, it was decided that we were heading to the Black Forest - 200 km mountain range in south-western Germany. The Black Forest is famous for its Black Forest Cake - no joke! Although we all wanted to taste some of this famous cake (especially Linda), we never had the opportunity!

We left Friday morning and headed towards Germany. Funny when you leave Brussels, you can pass through so many countries in a little amount of time! We drove through Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and arrived in Germany late afternoon. No one was expecting it, but Germany was very snowy in some places and filled with blooming flowers in other places!

We followed the directions that 'Donna' gave us (Donna is our fake GPS via CD - who would say stuff like "drive straight 500m and make a u-turn if possible") towards the Black Forest and ended up passing through some wonderful towns along the way. We took the scenic route which allowed us to see some great places that we may not have been able to see otherwise. We arrived at Baden-Baden and drove to Fruedenstadt in the afternoon and then up a mountain where the roads were so bad that we ended up turning around and taking another route. The rental cars here hardly ever see snow, so the tires weren't great and there were a few people stuck ahead of us....I was extremely glad to get off the snowy mountain with the narrow twisty roads - my heart couldn't take it! The picture above was taken in Shiltach which was said to be the 'prettiest town in the Black Forest' and it lived up to this standard! We stayed in Triberg that night in a small quaint hotel along side a waterfall. Triberg gets its name from the 3 mountains that meet at this little town. This is where the 2 largest cookoo clocks in Europe are found (see pic below).

At 9am the next morning we went to see the big cookoo clock 'coo'....it was funny. When we went into the store we thought they would all be going nuts at 9am, but it ended up that they all had different times set so they went off randomly every few minutes. Cookoo clocks are all handmade here and were very nice, but not necessarily nice enough to buy one (they ranged from about 100 e to 3500 e).

On Sunday morning we continued through the Black Forest and headed towards Austria. We drove through the Alps which is one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen! It was quite surreal being surrounded by snow-capped mountains and some of the nicest scenery I have ever seen!

This trip was filled with lots of laughs, sights and some great times with Dylan's family!

Adventures in western Europe - Netherlands

Dylan's parents - Kenny and Linda - are here to visit for a week and we are having a blast and taking in lots of sights while doing some road trips. They arrived last Monday and we celebrated St. Paddy's Day in some pubs around the city. We checked out 2 Irish pubs and drank some Guiness, although the Irish pubs were both blasting dance music - so we didn't last too long. We went to the "coffin bar" which is located close to the city square and drank our beer out of skulls and our table was a casket - how fitting for my family! St. Paddy's day was very low key compared to my experiences in Halifax - that's for sure!

On Tuesday morning we headed towards the Netherlands to visit Amsterdam and the surrounding areas. Netherlands by car was an interesting excursion! Previously I had only been there by train so was nice to drive along the outskirts and see the farms and fields on the outskirts. We stayed in a cozy apartment close to Dam Square and went to see the sights. The weather was off and on raining all day but we toughed it out and walked around all evening. We visited the red light and the coffeshops - the most famous sights in Amsterdam. Later in the evening we went to the jenever bar called Wynand Fockink (introduced to me by Alison on my last adventure to Amsterdam) - jenever is a type of gin made in Holland. There are 'rules' to drinking jenever. The bartender fills the glass (shot glass on a stem - see pic) up to the very top almost overflowing and before you pick it up you have to bend down and sip the top of it off the bar . It is very strong, but tasty as you can pick from a long list of flavors. We topped the evening off with supper at a pizzeria and headed back to our 'apt' for the night. The next morning we checked out the flower market and walked the canals. While we were eating breakfast, we got our first glimpse of snow this winter - I was surprised to see it, but little did I know how much snow was to come in the next week.

We left and drove to check out the many tulip fields in Holland. We saw some scattered tulips, but most of the fields were covered in daffodils for easter. The colors and flat fields were beatiful - and easy to see what it would look like in about a week's time when it would be in full bloom! There is a yearly tulip festival called the Keukenhoff Tulip Festival near Lisse, Netherlands where and many people come to check out the bulbfields. The pictures of the tulip fields are not what we saw - they are what we would have seen in a week's time!

Wednesday night on the way home we stopped in Den Haag (The Hague) for supper. We walked along the windy freezing beach (see the waves in the pic) and stopped in lots of places until we finally found somewhere good to eat. At one of the places we stopped to check out, we sat down for a minute before deciding that it didn't look good, and left. I walked up the road and all of a sudden realized and screamed "I left my purse there"! Can you beleive it? How stunned am I? After what I went through last week in Greece, this was one of my dumbest moments. It was there waiting for me, but since then, I've gotten abused and hounded with reminders making sure my purse is always by my side!

Athens & Aegina, Greece

On Friday evening, we left for Athens, Greece. To get there from Brussels, we caught (barely) a connecting flight in Frankfurt, Germany with about 2 minutes to spare. Because of our late flight leaving Brussels, we had, literally, 10 minutes to run to our gate to get our connection. We made it, but our luggage didn't.

Once at the airport, we got a bus into the city, then a taxi to our hotel - the Economy Hotel. When we arrived, they had lost our reservations and didn't expect us, but we got a room and besides a very upsetting experience (I'm going to save the details for another post to make sure I don't ruin the details of this trip) - had a good sleep.

On Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny day, about 22 degrees, and headed out to start this wonderful vacation! We went to the Acropolis (acropolis is a general term, but b/c the most famous is in Athens, it is known as The Acropolis) - where the most famous ruins overlook the beautiful city of Greece. You can see the Acropolis (Acro - top, polis - city, the "top-city") from all over the city - at night it is all lit up and breathtaking! We explored many sites at this location - including the Parthenon (pictured here), the Propolaea, the Erechtheum and many other unknown ruins. The Acropolis is covered in pieces of marble - like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Actually, everywhere we walked, there were piles of marble on the sides of the roads, in fenced in areas and shelves - Athens is a huge puzzle and they are trying to put it all together.

Surrounding the Acropolis is grounds covered in ruins, so as you walk up the paths to the top, the grounds are scattered with parts of buildings and statues. One of the most interesting pieces of this is the Theatre of Dionysus. It is a huge open air theatre dating back to 6th century B.C. The theatre was carved out of the side of the mountain of Acropolis and although there is little left, it was an amazing site! In this picture, I'm reading about the theatre - there isn't much left of it as you can see, but imagine what it was like almost 3000 years ago.


To the left is a picture of the Temple of Hephaestus which was my favorite site and sight! This building is in the Agora district close to the Acropolis. It was lit up at night and was right next to a street of cafes and restaurants.
On Saturday night we ate our first real Greek meal - salad, tzatziki, moussaka and souvlaki - everything was delicious. We literally had Greek salad at every single meal (except breakfast). We tried mostly everything except the octopus which is quite popular in Greece. On the streets, there are vendors everywhere selling Kritsinia which is a round breadstick coated in sesame seeds. They cost about 50 cents and you can choose from soft or hard. I tried one, but Dylan opted for the chocolate filled bread (of course). We ate Gyros for many lunches also- souvlaki in pita with tomatoes and onions - they were cheap and quick to grab en route. The food was really delicious and made the experience more authentic!

On Sunday we went to see the changing of the guards at the Greek Parliament Building in Syntagma Square. It was interesting to see, but the best part was their uniforms. They wear pleated skirts - not like a kilt, more like a linen dress just past their bum - with tassels around their knees and big (actually, enormous) pompoms on their shoes (see picture of fantastic uniforms). The best part of this was the little old man skipping around the crowd dressed like a woman - you could see his thong, panty hose and mini skirt as he skipped by - it was hilarious! He wasn't part of the show, but put on his own act and sang as he skipped by the crowd....he may have been a little simple, I'm thinking!

We headed towards the flea market after this. The largest flea market is on Sundays and goes on for many blocks. We walked through, but didn't buy anything, although we were haggled a lot by people with briefcases full of watches, sheets full of purses and stacks of ripped movies....it really got annoying after awhile. We experienced these vendors everywhere we went!

We ate at an interesting restaurant on Sunday afternoon - it was an 'authentic' Greek restaurant on on the other side of the hill of the Acropolis. There were no menus, just a man who came to your table with a large tray of small plates of food. You pick what you want off the tray and they charge by the plate. We tried eggplant, pork, meatballs, salad (of course) and tzatziki. It was a lot like tapas, except the tray was filled before heading to the next table.

This picture is the Temple of Olympian Zeus which has 15 columns still remaining. Construction began in the 6th century BC and the column that you see on the ground fell in 1852. It was quite impressive!

On Sunday night we walked around the Monastiraki - which is full of walking streets - and took in the sites of Carnival. It is celebrated before lent and people dress up and hit each other with clubs to get the bad spirits out of you. We got bonked on the butt and head many, many times while walking through the streets. They sell plastic clubs (like you would picture a caveman to have) on the streets. There were street DJs, dances, costumes everywhere and it was great to experience part of the Greek culture. This is celebrated weeks before lent, but this was the last weekend - Monday was a national holiday - Monday Pure.

One thing that was very sad in Greece was the amount of stray dogs on the streets. At any given time you can see a half dozen dogs roaming around (as there are 6 dogs in this picture hanging around the entrance to the ruins here at the bottom of the acropolis) - some with collars, some without - looking for food. They weren't dangerous at all (we walked by all of these dogs on the way into this site), but it made me upset thinking about them without a home. Nobody really payed any attention to them (I talked to them, but never touched them as they were very dirty). I asked someone why there are so many and they said there is no animal control in Athens, so if a dog runs away or is abandoned, they just live on the streets. It was very sad! One thing I have to say though is that none of them were starving - they were all overweight! So they definitely get enough food! I saw many dishes of water set out as well, so there are people who do think of them regularly. It broke my heart to see them though because they were beautiful dogs and I would have taken any one of them home!

Another culture shock was the amount of smokers everywhere! There were no places that people weren't allowed to smoke. In our travels, I have never seen a country where smoking is embraced like it is in Greece. The airport, buses, taxis, restaurants, clothing stores...everywhere we went, people were smoking. It was so different to walk into a souvenir shop and the woman would come up with a cig in her hand and ask if she could help me find anything - it was so different from the strict smoking rules at home and even here in Belgium. There is no smoking in any airports that I have been to - except maybe a small glassed in room that I saw in Frankfurt....in Athens, people lit up as soon as they were off the plane and smoked while waiting for their luggage.

On Monday morning we headed for the ferry terminal and went to the island of Aegina. It was about an hour and a half by ferry and was great to see the city from the water. The ferry was very similar to the PEI ferry boat. Once we got there we walked to the beach and took in some of the views of the other islands. Seafood is sold on the streets here and we saw the fish market where sea urchins and octopus were most popular. We walked to the ruins, but the area was closed due to the holiday, so we just enjoyed the calmness of the island and sat on a patio and had our fill of Greek beer! We went around 3pm to get tickets home, and realized that we just made the last boat at 6pm since all the others were sold out. We heard of many people getting stuck on the island, but we were lucky to get seats on the last boat. On Monday night once we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up, we went out for night photos (a must when you're travelling with Dylan) and saw all the ruins lit up at night - it was gorgeous! We walked around for hours taking in the sights and getting our fill of more clubbing from costumed Greeks!

On Tuesday we spent most of the day figuring out my huge problem (next post), but got to travel up Mount Lycabettus by cable car to see wonderful views of the city. Once we got up there, i was shocked to see how big the city really was! There are 5 million people in Athens and 11 million people in surrounding areas. It was huge! The views were fantastic and we got to see the ocean from the mountain which was like a story book setting!

Tuesday afternoon we finally got my situation straightened out and headed for the airport by metro. The metro in Athens is the cleanest metro I have ever seen! It was mostly built for the Olympics, so it is fairly new, but there were staff in every station sweeping and cleaning (I've never seen anyone clean the metro in Brussels).
We arrived safe and sound in Brussels last night around 11:30pm and were exhausted! The change in Frankfurt was quick (we had 10 mins), but it was only 2 gates away so we made it with no problems!

I recommend Greece highly to anyone who wants to experience a different culture. Out of all the countries I've seen, Greece is definitely the most interesting and most fun - whether you want to visit a big city or tropical location, Greece really has it all!

The Case of the Missing Purse (and its contents)

Imagine - being in a foreign country and realizing as you reach down to get your passport that your purse is missing - that was me on Friday night! We arrived in Athens late Friday night and got the bus into the city from the airport. On the bus, I got a piece of gum - that was the last time I remember having my purse. The bus dropped us off at a square in the city where we got out and tried to get our bearings in order to find our hotel. A few men came over to help us figure out the map and where we were going - one was the taxi driver - we didn't know who the others were - and we hopped in a cab and headed for the hotel. I'm not blaming the other men....I didn't feel anyone cut if off my shoulder....I have been analyzing this since it happened and really cannot figure out how and when I lost it.

When we got to the hotel, I realized that it was gone about 2 minutes after getting out of the cab. Dylan ran outside, but the cab was gone. I could have left it on the bus, could have left it in the cab, I really have no idea.

After crying for awhile, Dylan gave me a pen and paper and instructed me to write down everything that was missing. He started calling credit card companies and I sat and cried. The worst part was not having a passport - I had no idea what we were going to have to do to get me out of the country in 4 days. I called the Canadian Embassy in Ottawa and the woman I spoke with was pretty much useless telling me that I should never keep my birth certificate with my passport - thanks for the advice and compassion but it's a little too late for that!

That night I slept a bit on and off, but dreamt about a knock on the door from someone who was returning my purse or our luggage because that was lost too....it never happened. The next morning I was still quite upset, but I got direction to "get over it" and make the best of the vacation. That is what I did! I tried to forget that I lost everything that was important to me - my passport (most important), my license, all IDs, camera, phone, MP3, sunglasses, etc.....

All weekend I kept reaching for it or looking for things that were in it. I had to buy sunglasses and lypsol right away and that was all I carried with me the whole trip! Dylan took the pictures and I supervised :)

On Saturday morning, we went to the Athens Police Station to file a report. It was like a prison there, dark and dirty. The detective who took my statement was sitting behind a desk smoking and barely spoke English. No one there was very helpful, but i got my report alright and I didn't' realize it then, but I needed the report to get a new passport reissued, so was lucky that I did.

We knew the Embassy in Athens was closed on Saturday and Sunday, but we walked there Sunday anyway to make sure we knew exactly where it was. We talked to a guard outside and he said to come back at 830 Monday morning. We were there early Monday to find out that it was closed for the Greek holiday "Monday Pure". It was so upsetting to find out that Monday it was closed and our flight left at 6pm on Tuesday, so I only had the day to get things straighted out. On Sunday, I bought a Greek good luck charm (a glass eye) that I wore around my neck for the rest of the trip, but felt that it didn't work too well since I was having terrible luck so far - my luck ended up changing for the better.

I called the Embassy in Ottawa to tell them that I needed to get things started in order to get my passport for Tuesday because we were told it takes a minimum of 24hrs. Thank goodness that Dylan told me to do this or I would still be in Greece right now! It was this phone call that sped up the application process so when the Embassy opened in Athens on Tuesday morning, they had all the information they needed to get me on my way!

We enjoyed our day - really, our whole trip - regardless of my huge loss.

On Tuesday morning, without any ID, it took a bit to get into the Canadian Embassy, but I got in there and started the paperwork! How do you get in somewhere where you need ID when I didn't have anything to prove who I was except my fingerprints? (btw, I've never been arrested and therefore, never fingerprinted except when i was about 10 years old when my Dad worked in Ident and my brother and I got gag mugshots taken).

Dylan took this shot of me while we were exploring while waiting for my passport. It was kind of a joke like the "where's waldo" of the Canadian Embassy. The flag is very small, but you can see it between the tree and to the left of my shoulder.

Originally, I was told that the only way to get replacement passport was if I was going back to Canada, they wouldn't issue one to someone who was continuing on in Europe, so I thought I was going to end up arriving in the snowy weather in capris and a tee shirt. Once I turned on the tears and explained that I needed to go back to Belgium for 3 weeks, they were very helpful - tears really do work, ladies!

I had to go get new passport photos done (with sun burnt face) and was told to come back at noon. We went out for a bit exploring and were back shortly after noon to find out that it was going to take longer. At about 1:30pm, I left with a temporary passport and a smile on my face! This is me finally smiling with my shiny new white passport, my worry beads and my Canadian tee (I thought the tee would help me at the Embassy)!

This was quite possibly the scariest experience of my life. Besides losing my passport, I am still a little upset over losing everything else that was important and private to me in my purse - I know all the ladies out there will understand - I have to start from scratch now and start getting things replaced. I owe a lot to Dylan because he was so calm and knew exactly what to do. I was lucky to have him there with me to keep me thinking clearly and to support me - Thanks!

Another trip home...

As many of you know, I lost my Grampie on Sunday, February 24th. Life is going to be hard with him not here, he was a wonderful man and he will be missed. We share the same birthday, so every year I will celebrate his life on this day.

It was so hard being away from my famly at this time and I think Dylan and I both realize now, that we want to be home. Being in a different country, on the other side of the ocean is so different than being a few hours drive away. We are both really looking forward to getting back to Canada. We both lost someone close to us since Christmas and travelled home to be with our family and friends during the hard times, but it is not the same as being home and having them close at both the good times and the bad!

I am lucky to have great friends at home who really looked out for me and helped me - putting me up for a few nights, lending a vehicle, making me smile and taking care of me - thank you!

When I was driving back to Halifax after being in Sydney with my family for a week, there was a blizzard on the mainland and the driving was rough. I'm not comfortable driving in snow at all, but this was bad! I decided to stop in New Glascow to get a coffee and see what the forecast was. After talking to a few people at Tim's, I decided to stop and call home to get Dad to check the weather forecast. I heard that there were multiple accidents on the way to Truro and was too nervous to keep driving. I walked over to the hotel next door to Tim's and used the payphone in the lobby. While on the phone, I heard a familiar voice and turned around to see Dylan's Aunts Bev and Darlene, who were driving home from Halifax and decided to stop because the weather was so bad on the way home. It was so great to see some familiar faces when I was worried about the drive and they kindly offered to let me stay with them for the night. It was like someone was looking out for me! I thankfully accepted and had a wonderful evening with the ladies. I even got my own bed, which was very kind!
Thank you both Bev and Darlene for the great hospitality!

I left the next morning to drive to Halifax. On my way, I stopped in Dartmouth Crossing, then continuted to get lost in Dartmouth. While driving down one of the main roads, a cop walked out into traffic and motioned for me to turn the corner and pull over. I thought there was an accident ahead, so immediately followed the orders and rolled down my window. When he came over, I was shocked to see that he had the gun (speed gun, not bullet gun) pointing at me to show me that he had just caught me doing 72 in a 50....ugh....what bad luck!

I passed over my license and waited in the car thinking to myself that since this was the first time getting pulled over for speeding that he would issue a warning and I would be on my way....slowly. He returned with a fine for $279, I lose my license for 10 days and lose 3 points on my license....imagine! I was shocked and upset...the tears didn't help me this time though!

I rode the break the whole way to Terri's in Dartmouth, getting passed by every other car on the road. I still don't beleive that I got a ticket - HRM cops are on a power trip!


I flew out on Wednesday after a bad ice storm on Tuesday night and made it as far as Montreal where my flight was cancelled to Washington. I ended up having to wait in the Montreal airport for 8 hrs to leave and flew to Frankfurt and finally arrived in Brussels the next day at 11am....was a long 24hrs, but I made it finally safe and sound.

Little did I know at this point that my bad luck would continue...