deTOUR

Sunday, 7/10

Whether or not the city of Köln was able to clean up after itself in a timely manner, we'll never know, because today Greg and I decided to take a detour from our plans. The thought actually formed last night. We had already seen what we'd come to see and we had a whole day left here. Greg got out the map, "Did you know we are only about an hour from Belgium?" I did not! We do have two days scheduled in Belgium later in the trip, but in the south. We both wondered what there was to see in the east of Belgium and more over Greg wondered if he could get a good Belgian beer. On one of our travel guide maps, we saw a note about an open air folk museum. I had read about these type of places that maintained some houses in the old style and re-enacted life in earlier times. After a quick trip the breakfast buffet, which was packed with hung-over but still chatty festival goers, we were on the autobahn headed out of the country. Within an hour, we crossed over to the Netherlands for a few minutes, seeing the countryside level out and spotting many slow moving channels of water, even a few modern day windmills. Only ten minutes later we saw the sign indicating we had entered Belgium! Off the freeway, we found ourselves in a beautiful forested area, tall fir trees crowded together with various ferns thriving in their shade. Soon we had arrived at Bokrijk, offenluchtmuseum (which we think means open air museum). There were droves of parents and kids here, we figured this must be a very popular place. Through the entry gates, we spied fields of sheep, thatched roof homes, and even our first authentic old time windmill! There were blacksmith, breadmaking, and various other demonstrations of life in the olden days. Children walked on stilts and made wooden stick horses to ride. Greg chased the sheep herding dog and the horse drawn wagon around the the main courtyard seeking the perfect photo. When we reached the outdoor cafe, it was completely packed. We were in desperate need of refreshment so we watched from the sidelines to wait for a table to open up. At this point we were beckoned by a friendly Belgian woman, who invited us to share a table with her husband and son. We soon learned that Catherine and Rudi were gardeners and seed savers. They have an amazing garden in Belgium (probably we would think of it as more of a farm because of the size of it). These wonderful friendly people said if we were in the area again we should visit them. They also enlightened us as to why the park was so busy today. They had brought their son Ben (and most of the rest of the children his age were also there) because a famous comic was being featured. We then realized many of the children had been dressed as this character...and here we thought Belgian children just favored blue and white shirts! The character "Jommekes" is featured in a comic book series that apparently are extremely popular with Belgian youths. A book signing and various kid friendly activities were happening all around us. After our beer and frites break (and yes they do put mayo on them in Belgium, but our new friends instructed us that if you mix the ketchup and mayo it creates even a better sauce, of course they were right!), we were off to explore more of the grounds. Gardens were everywhere, so I got to get my fix (I have been missing my garden!) We also got to see pigs, goats, sheep, horses and cows. Time for another snack break. (Of course more beer for Greg, and we shared a pancake with brown sugar and ice cream with caramel, sinful, I know!) The Belgian beer is sweet and rich, so far my favorite of the trip! We finally headed back to Germany where we ordered some simple sandwiches from the motel for a late dinner. While we hadn't planned this excursion in advance, we both shared so much fun and entertainment today. This unexpected trip was one of my favorite days in Europe!