To Brussels Airport

We did some cycling Wednesday and found the area cycle unfriendly. No bicycle racks, nor designated lanes and very few cyclists. The cycle trip took us to our destination, the local artisan bakery for freshly baked croissants. 

We wanted the croissants for breakfast, as we are on our way to Brussels airport early in the morning for our stand-by flight to Montreal. This is peak seasons and the flights are full for the next few days, all returning in time for school in the beginning of September.

We did a trail run to the train station with the local bus, which stops close to the marina. I was intrigued with the €38 fee for a senior yearly pass, as well as with the designated senior, pregnant ladies and handicapped seats. These were upholstered in plush fabric embroidered with all the symbols. 

On our bus ride we came across a wine bar called Bord de L'ô and has since gone out of business.

At the train station there was a "working Corner" that you can sit and do computer work and simultaneously cycle on a stationary bicycle.

All went well in our timing, only to find out that the Thursday the 15th is at statutory holiday with a reduced bus schedule and none early enough for us to make the train to the airport. Our flight leaves early at 10:50 am and with a two hour prior check-in time and a hour and a half train ride it calls for an early start. We rejigged plans and reserved a taxi for 0545.

Belgium Chocolate

We weren't that enthusiastic to jump on our bicycles and check out the area, instead we walked to the supermarket. There we scoured the chocolate isles and brought home a few samples to try.

What makes Belgium chocolate so unique is the quality of ingredients and the old world manufacturing techniques. There are still some small chocolate shops that continue to make them by hand using original equipment and old recipes.

Belgium chocolate is considered to be the gourmet standard by which all other chocolates are measured. The Swiss, known for their own high quality chocolate, imported the basic recipe from chocolatiers in France and Belgium.

Tuesday - This is Belgium

We entered Belgium uneventfully as we never did locate the "Bureau De Perception Des Droits De Navigation", the Office of the Overview of the Rights to Navigate. We had received detailed instruction from our last havenmeester of its location. While we were still searching for its location, the lock gates open and the parade of boats started making their way into the lock. We followed and kept looking for the office for the next thirty kilometres. With no sirens or hovercraft speeding alongside us, we assumed we had unofficially arrived in Belgium.

The Meuse is industrial and perhaps we shouldn't judge the rest of Belgium by it. The area is dirty with fifty shades of dust, rust and soot. We did not meet many boaters along the way and the ones we did meet were heading towards the Dutch border.

The area must have been of great importance once as their are signs of old wealth. Beautiful mansions appear between the trees, not far from a sandpit, gravel and limestone works.

Undulating hills have emerged and it is almost strange after the flat landscape we had grown accustomed to. Castles are poised on strategic locations, and as the size of the hills grow, so does the size of the citadels.

I already miss the Netherlands with its friendly and helpful people, designated bicycle paths and well maintained homes and boats.

The Dutch and Their Bicycles

This photo is of Princess Juliana and  Bernard on a tandem bicycle taken around 1930. There were later many photos taken of Queen Juliana on her bicycles.

The Dutch have a passion for bicycles and these present themselves in many colours and shapes  There are colourful ones, practical ones, decorated ones and collector bikes, just  to name just a few. In the Netherlands, bicycles far outnumber the population and have become the popular mode of transportation. So popular in fact, that the inner core of cities have prohibited cycling, making more room for the ever growing pedestrians.

There are the yellow rent-a-bikes that can be seen throughout Amsterdam, some with some very wobbly first time pedelers.

Then there is the family cart that can hold a few children, shopping bags and groceries. Who said it can't be done?

As Rastafarian taking his dog for a ride.

Do it yourself decorations which include flowers, hearts and any design you can think of.

A candy coloured bicycle in front of a candy store.

Always lock your bike or hire a guard cat.

The Bicycle Club of Rotterdam with my bushy moustache grandfather in the middle, my father on the right with some of my uncles.

In the eighties the Gelin family went on extensive bicycle trips through France, England, and Japan.

Now our Dutch oma and opa bikes accompany us onboard Zonder Zorg. We clip on our grocery basket, get on our bikes and blend in with all the other Dutch bikers on route to Albert Heijn.

Leaving Maastricht

Our ten days in Maastricht have passed quickly. We have been patiently waiting for Michael's International Certificate of Competence, the barge driver's licence to arrive. The overdue package finally arrived in the mail Saturday and the only thing missing among the contents was the license. So today we need to move on to Belgium, as we have a flight to catch on Thursday to New Brunswick.

Michael holds his Masters Certificate, Unlimited Tonnage as he was a Naval Officer and a Captain of a Canadian naval ship. We hope they will let us pass through the border and into the Belgium canals. Our plans to be in France by mid-August did not materialize.

In the meantime we say "Good-Bye" to the Netherlands and "Hello" to Belgium.

The White Village of Thorn

The village of Thorn is located in Limburg, near Maastbracht and was once a miniature principality led by the abbess of the convent and her chapter of twenty ladies of the highest nobility. It had formally been a drained swap near the Roman Road between Maastricht and Nijmegen and today it is known as the White Village for its white washed brick houses in the centre of town. 

Count Ansfried and his wife Hilsondis founded Thorn Abbey and their daughter Benedicta became the first Abbess of the abbey. Later in 995 the Count became bishop of Utrecht. In the crypt of the Abbey are the remains of Hilsondis and Benedicta.

The ladies were of the highest nobility and had to have proof of their pedigree. It was also a place for the nobiliy to house their unmarried daughters. Two sisters Clara Elisabeth of Manderscheidt-Blankenheim and her sister Anna Salome of Manderscheidt-Blankenheim were both Abesses of the abbey. Clara was known as the "ill lady" and suffered from disease all her life.

Previously the abbess and the chapter were endowed with religious tasks as it was originally a convent of the order of the Benedictines. Since the twelve century it developed into a secular order and became a convent community for women and at its peak included twenty female canons. They still worn the nuns habit and were involved with the local community. The Vatican did not approved of them wearing the habit and asked for them to change to lay clothing. They refused the request.

They formed the government of a truly sovereign miniature principality the smallest independent state in the German Holy Roman Empire approximately 250 x 250 metres. They lived in harmony and six canons performed liturgical services. The female canons lived in a large complex of convent buildings from which only the church remains.

After the beheading of Marie Antoinette in 1793 and with the French invasion in the winter of 1794-1795, its inhabitants fled, leaving behind their homes. Most houses were destroyed by the French and the poor of the area started to move into the large vacant homes. The French applied a window tax, based on the size of the windows, which the new occupants could not afford. They bricked in the windows and covered it up by whitewashing the walls. 

In 1797 marked the end of the miniature principality of Thorn that had lasted for eight hundred years, run by women without need for fortification, ramparts or a moat. It later became a municipality of The Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Many alterations have since been made to the church and its now baroque interior has been painted white giving the church once more a feminine touch.

The Harbour of Heusden

Before we left the town of Heusden we entered its little harbour, which was once of important to the region. In 1357 the harbour received the rights as a fish market. No one in Holland was allowed to transport fish past this market, giving the city full control of the fish trade and taxes.

At the turn of the previous century, the Maas river received extensive works opening up traffic to Rotterdam Harbour. With the rerouting of the Maas, the difficult to reach harbour of Heusden became a backwater and in 1904 the harbour was filled in. A total restoration in 1968 brought this harbour back to life.

The tiny picturesque harbour is quaint and Zonder Zorg made it through its small opening with ease. She looked at home as went ashore for more photos and to absorb the atmosphere.

Through the City of Rotterdam's Digital Archives I have traced my fathers' family "Heusdens, from the town of Heusden" back to the mid 1600s to Antwerp. I stopped my research there, thinking this was Belgium, not realizing that at the time Antwerp was still a part of the Netherlands. I will need to take more time and patience to search the Belgium Archives. As more archives, church records and town registries are steadily being added to the Internet, some records which had once been inaccessible, have now been digitalized and added for public viewing. 

As for Michael, I released him, cleaned him up and he is now back with me on Zonder Zorg