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Netherlands, Belgium and Germany – Part 3

Aachen, Germany

Let’s head out on our next day trip and take the 30 minute drive to Aachen, Germany. Our first stop and primary destination is Aachener Dom. Aachener Dom is the first cathedral we visited and also the first cathedral in northern Europe. Built by the Emperor Charlemagne beginning in 796 and consecrated in 805 by Pope Leo III. Aachener Dom is a UNESCO world heritage site.

I took a ton of pictures here, however, again I can’t find them so I borrowed a few. The photo on the left is looking up into the octagon central structure of the Aachener Dom cathedral. In the center is the view from the back looking through the octagon at the golden altar and Karlsschrein, or Shrine of Charlemagne. The photo on the right is the Karlsschrein which contains the remains of Charlemagne. The remains were moved from their former resting place, in a sarcophagus beneath the floor, and placed in the gold and silver shrine and sealed by the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II in 1215.

After exploring Aachener Dom cathedral and walking the streets of the old city, we stopped in to our new favorite restaurant called Rose Am Dom.

Gram and I shared our dinner by one of us ordering Schnitzel Rose and the other ordering käsespätzle. We then split each one and each had half. The food was delicious and the place was full of authentic old world charm. Of course we had a beer or 2 to go with the food.

Cologne, Germany

Our next day trip was to Cologne, Germany on New Year’s Eve. We visited Kölner Dom, or Cologne cathedral. The cathedral in Cologne is the tallest twin-spired church in the world. Construction of Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 and was not completed until 1880, a span of 632 years!!! Kölner Dom is also a UNESCO world heritage site.

Time For a Beer

After the cathedral we stopped at Früh Am Dom for a few beers. Cologne, like Dusseldorf, has it’s own local style of beer, Kölsch. These 2 cities are only a 40 minute drive from each other and both are fiercely loyal to their respective beer style. Kölsch is traditionally served in a cylindrical 6 to 8 ounce glass. The server, called a Köbes, carries eight or ten glasses in a circular tray resembling a crown or wreath.

You don’t order a refill, instead, the Köbes replaces your empty glass with a full one, marking a tick on the coaster under each glass. If you do not want another refill, you place the coaster on top of the empty glass and pay for the number of beers marked on the coaster. We had 3 or 4 beers before we headed back to my brother’s house to ring in the New Year.

New Year’s Eve

We were counting down to 2018, drinking beer and enjoying ourselves and it turned out that I was the only one to remain standing until midnight. My brother made a valiant effort, but passed out on me about 10 minutes too soon.

Fireworks!!!

I had been hearing fireworks going off outside so with no one else to welcome in the new year with me, I went to find the source of the fireworks. At least I should be able to see them. As I walked out of the overhead garage door, the small street party outside became very obvious. I walked toward the sound of the partiers, and as I rounded the corner of the building, I heard the garage door behind me closing! Oh well, I’m out now, may as well join in the fun.

Locked Out

As it turned out, my brother had gotten up and with no one around, secured the house, closing the garage door, and my only return access, and went to bed. The source of the fireworks outside was the neighbors next door, who gladly accepted me into their party and we welcomed in the new year with beer and fireworks! After some time had passed, it was time for me to find a way back in to my brother’s house.

Getting Back In

There was a small, fenced in patio outside Gram and my bedroom, so let’s see if I can climb over the fence. Just as I was weighing the options of dropping into the dark unknown of the patio or finding a different way in, the door opened. Gram scolded me with “what the hell are you doing?” and I explained myself, to the best of my ability. She decided it would be best if she opened the garage for me instead of me dropping in over the fence. Good choice! I found out in the morning just how good that choice was. If I had completed my fence jump, most likely I would have ended up tangled up in empty coolers, a few gardening tools and other miscellaneous stored items hidden to me by the darkness.

Brussels, Belgium

For our last full day on this trip, we drove to Brussels to see the Grand Place and take a chocolate tour. We also spent the night in a hotel because our flight left from Brussels to return home the next day.

The Grand Place

The Grand Place is the central square of the City of Brussels. There are many historic buildings which create the walls of this cobbled courtyard, including the City Hall, Guild houses and the Maison du Roi. The Maison du Roi translates to King’s Household and was the Royal household of the King of France. Several of these buildings are decorated in gold, or at least what looks like gold.

Chocolate Tour

Our chocolate Tour was to meet in front of the Godiva chocolate shop in The Grand Place, and we didn’t go in! Apparently, Godiva is way too widespread and commercial for this tour. We were given a historic walking tour where we visited 5 high end chocolate boutiques, explored the streets of the old city and made a selection of our own chocolates at a maker’s workshop. All five of the shops we visited had outstanding chocolate treats for us to try. One specialized in hot chocolate and other drinks. Another had small bars with tons of real ingredients covered in chocolate. The last shop we visited was simply called Mary. Mary has been an exclusive chocolate supplier to the King since 1942!

Elisabeth Chocolatier Brussels, Belgium

After the chocolate tour, we wandered in to a nearby restaurant and got dinner and a couple of beers before heading off to our hotel for the night. The next morning, it was up and off to the airport for our trip home.

I hope you have enjoyed my trip down memory lane as much as I have, and I am working on more to come!

In case you missed part 1 and part 2, you can find part 1 – Our first trip to Europe! Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and part 2 – First Tri p to Europe Netherlands, Belgium and Germany – Part 2 at these links.

Visit my other blog posts HERE.

Check out my other websites:

For the Green Thumb – mygardengreen.com

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July 13, 2023
First Trip to Europe Netherlands, Belgium and Germany – Part 2

After visiting Valkenburg, we continued to my brother’s house and got a good night’s sleep. The next morning it was time for a road trip. We started off by taking a 15 minute ride to the small city of Sittard. Our first stop was an ATM machine. When traveling to Europe, the best currency exchange rate we have found is our own bank at a local ATM. Then we walked through the open air market with local produce, meat vendors, cheese shops and other stands. This was like going to the grocery store back home, except it was set up like a flea market all around a pedestrian only market square.

After browsing through the market, we stopped in a small cafe for lunch. Cappuccino is extremely popular all over Europe, and we had our first real cappuccino. I think we had gotten a paper cup, push button machine one as we exited the airport, but this was hand made, ceramic cup the size of a cereal bowl, real cappuccino. Excellent!! I ordered mushroom croquettes for my lunch, that may not be what they were called on the menu, but that’s what they were.

About half way through the first one, I bit into something hard. This is not unusual for me, I’m the guy that always gets the single bone or knuckle in the chicken salad, but mushrooms don’t have bones or knuckles! It turned out to be the connection end of a bright yellow zip tie!! Fresh, handmade from local produce, something came zip tied and when the zip tie got cut, that end got lost in the mix. No harm, no foul, but it left me with a lasting memory.

Dreilandenpunt, Henri-Chapelle and Val Dieu

Dreilandenpunt

After lunch, we traveled to the southernmost tip of the Netherlands to a point where the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany all meet called Dreilandenpunt. There is a small obelisk that stands on the point where the borders meet, and you can stand in all three countries at once.

Dreilandenpunt obelisk

I had a lot more pictures of this area, but now I can’t seem to locate them. At the time of writing this, we were on this trip 5½ years ago, 3 or 4 computers ago and 3 or 4 phones ago. That is still no excuse to not keep better track of the photos from our trips. So, after doing the digital gymnastics trying to find all the pictures from trips in the past, I went and bought a flash drive, specifically to store photos. Now I will probably lose the flash drive.

At this location there is an observation tower that we rode the elevator to the top, and took in the views. It was very windy, cold and snowing when we got to the top, but we walked around the observation deck and looked out over the landscape of all 3 countries. On the Netherlands side there is a maze that you can see between my elbow and the frosty binoculars in the photo of Gram and me.

Looking out at the Germany side, you can see the skyline of the city of Aachen, which we will get to a bit later. To the southwest is Belgium where you can see the Ardennes Forest and Henri-Chapelle, which is where we are heading next.

Henri-Chapelle, Belgium

Henri-Chapelle is an American military cemetery and memorial where 7992 US soldiers are buried. These troops were mostly killed in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII in the local area. There is a certain feeling that you get at places like this. I have felt it at very few places, Gettysburg battlefield, Arlington National Cemetery, Ground Zero in New York City, the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pa and of course, here at Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. It’s that haunted, solemn, eerie feeling that is hard to describe, but when you feel it, you know.

Val Dieu, Aubel, Belgium

A short distance from Henri-Chapelle is Val-Dieu Abbey. This Cistercian monastery was founded in 1216 by monks who moved to the uninhabited valley and began clearing the land to establish their remote community. The last 3 monks at Val-Dieu left in 2001, but the abbey is still run and maintained by a Christian community associated with the Cistercian Order.

In Belgium, monks, abbeys and monasteries mean beer! That is why we are here. We visited the chapel first, which being the first church we visited, seemed like a cathedral. That assumption would soon be shattered when we visited some actual cathedrals later on in the trip. After our self-guided tour of the chapel, we headed to the basement for a snack and a beer.

My brother and I both went for the Grand Cru. The name Grand Cru goes back to a grading system for champagne and essentially means the best, or highest quality. Val-Dieu Grand Cru is a dark strong ale weighing in at a whopping 10.5% ABV! In side by side comparisons, it is definitely the best, in my opinion. They also produce a blonde ale, a seasonal Christmas ale, and a Trippel. All are very good, but Grand Cru is, well, Grand Cru. Between the four of us we sampled a meat and cheese plate, made at the Abbey, and some dessert crepes also made on site with chocolate and caramel drizzled on top.

Gulpener BrouwLokaal

After Val-Dieu, we stopped for dinner in Gulpen, NL, at a brewery/restaurant called Gulpener BrouwLokaal. This business sources all of its ingredients from producers within 30 miles of its location. Everything is very fresh and delicious. They make the Gulpener brand of beer on site and have a good selection of food on the menu. When we were there they offered a “Brewer’s recommendation” dinner for 2, but that is all the information you get. It’s a mystery daily special, so my brother and I “rolled the dice” and it was awesome! 3 or 4 different meats, 2 or 3 different potato dishes, and sides too. I don’t remember exactly what we got, but I do know, if I ever go back, I will order that again!

Dusseldorf, Germany

Day 3 we headed out for Dusseldorf, Germany. We had a walking tour scheduled for the evening with Altbier Safari tours. Before the beer tour, we visited what remained of the Christmas Market.

Weihnachtsmarkt

This open air market had booths that completely filled the Marktplatz (market place). It was 4 days after Christmas, so most of the stands were closed, but a few were still open. The Glühwein (Mulled wine) stand was my favorite. They had a huge pot on a turkey fryer burner that was filled with gallons of delicious spiced red wine. Served in a little snowman shaped souvenir cup, it warmed your hands and your insides.

Christmas Market, Dusseldorf

Christmas Market, Dusseldorf

Manger scene, Christmas Market, Dusseldorf

Christmas Market, Dusseldorf

Altstadt

The Aldstadt is the old city, this is the area of Dusseldorf that we visited. It has many very old buildings, cobblestone streets and plazas and sits tight up to the Rhine River. We looked around, took pictures and then made our way to get some dinner before the beer tour.

Altbier walking tour

Altbier is the local style of beer in Dusseldorf, and we are off on a walking tour to show us more about it. This tour took us to 5 different brewpubs that all make the same style of beer, Altbier. They all have their own method of brewing, and each beer is a bit different from the others, even though they are all the same style of beer. We did a lot of walking that evening, but apparently not a lot of picture taking. The only one I could find was this one of me in a beer tent at a table full of Germans.

I want to get this one posted, so there is going to be a part 3 of Our First Trip to Europe. In that one hopefully I can wrap this trip up. After that is Ireland, some more from Germany (a second trip), Switzerland, France, Austria and England for Europe. I am also planning on writing about trips we have done here in the States as well. Stay Tuned!!

If you somehow landed here before Our first Trip to Europe – Part 1, click the name to read the beginning of the story!

Check out my other blog posts HERE.

Check out my other websites:

For the Green Thumb – mygardengreen.com

For the Woodworker – JLH-Rentals.com

July 2, 2023
Our first trip to Europe! Netherlands, Belgium and Germany
Several factors influenced our decision to take that first trip to Europe. My brother was living and working in The Netherlands, and invited us to come visit. We had always wanted to travel the world, and our youngest child had just moved out of our house, leaving us as “empty nesters” for the first time in 20+ years. The biggest influence, I believe, was that Gram (Lorrie) had a heart attack. Our plan had always been to do more and bigger travel when we retired. With the health issues, we started to realize that plans made for the future are not guaranteed. Tomorrow is not certain. So we started planning for now.

As Lorrie’s health improved, we put the wheels in motion. We got our passports, took them on a test drive to all 5 of the Great Lakes through Canada, just to make sure the passports were functional, then we started looking for plane tickets.

Hitting the jackpot

I booked a flight and rental car through Travelocity, and when I landed on the page to select the car, the first few selections gave me a negative price per day!! We only planned to use the car to travel between the airport in Brussels and my brothers residence in Brunssum, NL, so I picked the smallest car with the largest negative price and sure enough, around $250 came off the total price! Big Win!! But it gets better.

My brother and I were talking and I mentioned the rental car deal to him. He said we didn’t need the car and it would be difficult where he lived because of limited parking space. He suggested that I cancel the car, but I was worried that my price would go back up. Reluctantly, I went in to cancel the car and when I did, Travelocity notified me that my form of payment would be credited over $300!!!! I was shocked!! I was ready to start rental car hacking everywhere I went. However, I have never found that kind of price reduction on the rental car page since that one time. I don’t know how it happened, but I hit the lottery with that one.

Getting there

We left Pittsburgh on 12/26/2017 and flew to Brussels with a stopover at JFK in New York. That leads to our first lesson. Since that trip I have avoided JFK like the plague. I absolutely hate JFK airport. To me it seems like they expect you to know exactly how to navigate through the airport, where to go, what to do and when to do it. Asking questions doesn’t help, and it was even worse on the return trip when we had to deal with US Customs, with even more of the “you should know how this works” attitude.

Our arrival in Brussels was so much more friendly and enjoyable. We walked up to the Customs officer, hand him our passport, a couple of questions about our trip and we are on our way.

If you have flown to Europe, you know that most flights leave the US in the afternoon or evening and arrive the next morning. I don’t get much rest on a flight, so I am usually tired on arrival. Second lesson, don’t let that flight fatigue waste your first day. It would have been very easy to go find a bed and sleep that first day away, but you don’t transition into the time difference as well if you do that. Besides, there is so much to see and do, and a limited amount of time to see and do it. Power through it, suck it up and do something. Luckily, my brother already knew this and had things planned for us to acclimate.

Our first day in Europe

Valkenburg Castle Ruins

On the way from the airport to Brunssum, there is the small town of Valkenburg, which is just to the east of Maastricht. We visited the Kasteelruïne Valkenburg, which is the ruins of the only hilltop castle in the Netherlands.

Fortifications were originally built in the 12th century, with destructions and rebuilds continuing through 1672 when the castle was blown up to prevent it from falling into French hands. The castle was never rebuilt after that, and has been a tourist attraction since 1863.

Valkenburg Castle

Kasteel-Ruine Valkenburg

The Dungeon, Valkenburg Castle

The Velvet Cave

After climbing up and down the castle ruins, we went next door to the Velvet Cave. The Velvet Cave is a series of underground rooms that were created as the local marlstone was mined. The cave is directly beneath the castle, and some of the stone was used to build the castle. There are even hidden passageways that were used as escape routes from the castle into the cave.

We took the tour of the cave which was narrated entirely in Dutch by our tour guide, so we didn’t get much of the story he was telling. The cave itself was awesome, with wall murals that are unique in the way they were made. Artists through the years had built fires inside the cave next to the wall they wanted to “paint”. The fire would create soot on the wall. The artist would then create the artwork by carving away into the soft marlstone. Along with some of the rock, this removed the soot and left some really beautiful work.

After the tour we completed the trip to our first stay in Europe, at my brother’s house in Brunssum. By going back in my memory, assisted by pictures that we took and looking up history of the places we went, the story of our first travel to Europe is much bigger than I thought. I am going to end this first part here and make this a multi-part series. Part 2 of Our First Trip to Europe can be found here.

Check out my other blog posts HERE.
Check out my other websites:

For the Green Thumb – mygardengreen.com

For the Woodworker – JLH-Rentals.com
June 25, 2023