Day five: back to Holland

Reveille matin
The last day of our trip has arrived. Marcus had set his alarm for 08:00 this morning but “snoozed” his alarm three times for me. He made soup for me from the warmest tap water he could get and he helped me to take a shower if I had to reach for odd places. Afterwards I had to apply several creams to my skin. Then we had breakfast. I felt again sick and very weak and didn’t want to eat and drink at all. After a few swallows of tea and a few bites of bread I became that nauseous that I had to make a run for the toilet. Marcus was still eating his breakfast but now as quickly as he could.

We went back to room and I went to bed for an hour while Marcus took some pictures inside and outside our room. At half past 10 he woke me up to get dressed and packed and at 11:00 Marcus had checked out. We loaded the car with our bags and went straight home where I arrived at a quarter to two in the afternoon. After unloading and loading he drove his car out of our garage to prepare for his own trip home.

Wrap up
Marcus, I’m so grateful to you for this trip. First of all for making the effort to take me out of this house and giving Monling a chance to not have to take care of me. Believe me she appreciated it immensely. Secondly I considered this a try-out. I was right to be worried that I would be too tired from continuously travelling. Fortunately you didn’t follow a rigid schedule (as any other seasoned Black Belt would do) but allowed me to rest a few hours every day. But what I didn’t expect was that my energy reserves that I still had on day three were completely depleted. From that day on my energy didn’t come back and I became sicker by the day. I needed more than a full week to recover from the trip.

What I also didn’t expect was that Marcus and I became even better friends, (if at all possible) like brothers. I can’t decribe it better than Marcus did in an e-mail to me: “We had the unique opportunity to talk, to laugh, to take baths, to eat, to rest, to listen to each other and eachothers music and to have fun with eachother for five entire days.”. Thanks brother for this unique experience! Hopefully I may live still long enough to do it again.

Day four: Belgium (Leuven)

Reveille
We woke up at 8:00am and when I wanted to sleep a few minutes more Marcus simply pushed the snooze button again and again and again. I took a shower in a huge bathroom on a medical looking shower chair with Marcus assisting now and then. Marcus prepared my soup for me with warm water straight from the tap (because there was no boiling water available), the creme ritual and then dress. The breakfast was of great quality (5 star) comprising champagne, crêpes (pancakes), scrambled eggs and fried eggs, sausages and mushrooms (the well known full English Breakfast). It was delicious. After an hour we went back to the room.

Abdij van ‘t Park

Marcus had planned a trip to the nearby “Abdij van ‘t Park” (Abby of the Park) to see and especially hear the Sunday morning mass. We could only reach it by riding cross country because of road constructions. I don’t know whether Marcus was serious or not but he dared not to get into the Abby. The door was also closed so we didn’t know if mass had already started. We did however walk around to see the the main and the supporting buildings, the ancient graves and the pigeon house (see picture). There also was a muddy lake behind the Abby.

Diest

Then we went straight to Diest, a small town close to Leuven. My mother and a girlfriend of her went to this city by bike just after WWII (1954). They stayed with an aunt of either my mother or this girlfriend (so she told us in a text msg-conversation). We learned by experience that the town center of Diest is on Sundays the central gathering place for all local (surprisingly well behaving) Harley Davidson riders. Marcus is sitting on what we believed to be the local Town Hall stairs (see photo above).

We had coffee with pastries in a cafe, then took a walk around (and in) the local church and then sat down again at the corner of the two main streets of Diest. Diest is a small city indeed. We took our time to order and when we finally did each of us ordered a “baguette”, for Marcus with ham and “groentjes” and for me with cheese. The order was taken by a sweet little girl (according to Marcus). I asked him how he knew but I never got a proper answer :-). We went back to Leuven to let Marcus finish a pocket by Maigret while sipping a beer (Rochefort) and me to have a 2-hour nap.

Back in the centre of Leuven

At 19:00 we went to the centre of Leuven again. We walked around on the “Groote Markt” (Large Market) and on the “Oude Markt” (Old Market). We watched the people passing by while sitting on a terrace and drank something.

Dinner in a Sicilian restaurant
We decided to grab a bite but because I didn’t feel well (I also was very tired) and I suggested that the most safe option for me was the Sicilian Italian Restaurant we found in between the hotel and the center. We went to that restaurant and I fell immediately in love with “mamma”. Such a typical Sicilian woman. Marcus and ordered the same: ravioli filled with truffles with a sauce of fungi porchini.

The food was delicious until the moment I felt a fried maggot in my mouth. The kind of small maggots you can find in old fungi porcini (I regonized them at once because I lived in Rome for a while and often went the market to buy fresh fungi porchini). After that experience I didn’t fancy my food anymore. Marcus however finished his plate, such a Tiger. We asked for the bill and had coffee in the hotel in the still warm night (al fresco).

Day three: France to Belgium

We got up at 07:30 and after Marcus had prepared my vegetable soup we went straight to the Jaccuzi (Marcus again swam in the still cold pool). We got some shampoo and washed and after some time we (wonderfully relaxed) went straight to our room for the ritual creme session.

Le petit dejeuner
We had breakfast in the breakfast room (we had delicious jam made of ginger and apricots) and took our time. Back in our room we tried to recover from the early start (not easy at all), packed (also not easy at all) and checked out. Marcus made some pictures from the room and the view from the window (note the Dutch flag). Then we got our car and drove to drive to the upper city.

The upper city of Boulogne-sur-Mer
There was a fun fair planned for that day so we could park for free. We went straight for coffee once we had parked and found an acceptable place: a walled court yard. I would have liked to sit in the sun but Marcus didn’t allow it for some weird reason. After coffee we walked up the stairs to the walls around city and made many pictures.

Marcus needed still post cards and walked suddenly quickly to a local bookstore. He must have had the smell of just made post cards in his nose. I must admit that his cards were much much much more beautiful than mine (jealous?).

Lunch
We had lunch on a terrace next to the town hall and a crowd for a wedding was slowly building. The wedding was long enough to order, eat, write the 3 beautiful post cards Marcus had bought and to mail them. Marcus had a fish pie, I had a soggy salad with pieces of bacon. Without thinking I put the pieces of bacon automatically on the edge of Marcus’ plate as I would have done with Monling. When I saw the photo of Marcus below with his plate covered with pieces of bacon I felt so ashamed.

Begijnehof Congress Hotel
“En route” to Leuven which took us two and a half hours due to many “deviations”. On the way Marcus became very sleepy so I tried to keep him awake by playing some CD’s, making him drink some water and switching the airconditioning to 0 degrees C. At around 17:00 we arrived at the “Begijnhof Congres Hotel”. Immediately after checking in we took a nap of about 1-2 hours. Later in the spacious garden we found many comfortable seats and a large pond with koi. Marcus asked for a local beer called “Begijntje” and I ordered a “Spa Rood” (a local mineral water) accompanied by some nuts.

To Leuvens centre
While we were on our way to Leuven’s center I realized that I had forgotten to bring my medication. Marcus offered to go back to the hotel alone but the outlook of remaining alone behind in silent Leuven made me decide to accompany him. So we went back (15 minutes), found my medication (10 minutes) and walked back (15 minutes) to the same point. Argghh! That was probably the first moment that I felt serious sick. Marcus asked me what to do and I answered “I’ll be fine!”.

Restaurant “De Wieringe”
We continued to our destination: the famous Leuvenese restaurant “De Wieringe”. This restaurant was specially mentioned in the Marco Polo guide for it’s food but it’s location remained for long a mystery. We asked and asked and subsequently walked and walked in every direction that we were told to do but all in vain. Finally we found it. It was famous for its roof terrace but Marcus agreed with me that the many stairs would probably kill me. We stayed at the ground floor (as the only guests).

Marcus ordered lamb and I ordered (actually while too sick and tired) spaghetti with a vegetable (vegetarian) sauce. The dishes quickly came but I had one spoonfull of the sauce and I knew I made a mistake. It was not the spaghetti sauce but I was just too sick and too tired to eat. Marcus quickly finished his meal (poor guy, I know that lamb is one of his favorite dishes), Marcus paid for the meal and we went (via an alternative route) “straight” back to the hotel. Marcus put me straight to bed.