@ Marriott Ghent

The movers are gone; the house is empty only our 9 suitcases are left bursting at the seams.
I feel completely worn out, emotionless.
My hands are dry, my fingers cracked from all the cleaning and cold. My body screams for yoga.
Yesterday we took a little break from it all and took Maarten to a small authentic circus that stopped in our town.
We all had a blast! It made me forget all the hustle of these last busy days.

Before I could finish writing this post we went on again. We loaded our baggage into the car. After picking Maarten up from school we headed for the hotel downtown Ghent which will be our home for a couple of days.

As the circus is quite a personal and emotional subject to me I hope to come back to writing about it another time soon.

Ridders en Jonkvrouwen

Just after we moved to Belgium and were staying in Ghent I wanted to take Maarten to Gravensteen, a medieval castle downtown the city. But then my little 'Californian' never afraid of camping in the wilderness seemed to be frightened to enter the thick stone walls rushing me out of the dark castle gate.


Today, after a year and a half he visited Gravensteen with his schoolmates and he really loved it.

Even though he claimes that the knight was fake!

Thanks Hendrik!

Sinterklaas is in the country again! Maarten looks out the window every evening in hoop to spot the old bischop or his helpmate Piet.
At school he's learned some traditional Sinterklaas songs but he is also singing some in French! This is a little frustrating for me since 'Saint Nicolas' and 'tralala' is all I understand.


I didn't have the car today so Maarten had to miss his school.
A long planned trip to the historical downtown was a good option for me but how to make it attractive for Maarten as well?

Luckily I've recently read about Hendrik, the little ghost of Huis van Alijn, a museum right in the downtown.
All children under 9 years of age can put there their shoes at one of the many museum fireplaces.
There we had a good reason to get out to the rainy streets of Ghent!
Maarten drew a picture of Sinterklaas (and me) and put it in one of his sneakers.

After the Saint Nicholas' eve Maarten can pick up his shoe again with, hopefully, a little something in it.
If he has been good of course!

The first two days

The flight was quite pleasant.
The lay back chairs with footrest were almost as comfy as a bed and I surely used the back massage a lot.
Maarten even slept for a couple of hours but his persistent coughing made not only myself uncomfortable.
I only wish there are direct flights between San Francisco and Brussels.

The Frankfurt Airport was the first downer after landing on the Old Continent. Was it really so dirty or am I already that spoiled from spending last years in the Teletubbie like Tri-Valley Area?

The traffic between Brussels and Ghent was pretty bad and it was really pouring but we safely arrived to our temporary home. We were short on Euro cash for the taxi and the driver of course didn't accept any cards (something we have to get accustomed to again). I was really surprised when he agreed on a lower price (meaning all cash we had) for the taxi fare.
According to many expats the Belgians are friendlier than the Dutch. Was this the case or was he asking too much at first?


Our next-month-home was also a nice surprise. There are some fine hotels in Ghent but we had a preference for a furnished apartment. I believe, one week living in a hotel with Maarten was already enough.
I like a lot this little newly redone loft apartment in the downtown. Only too bad that they forgot to connect the water supply to the washer and dishwasher.