Next to Last Day

E-Mail Musings, Travels

The weather has changed! Rain and clouds have rolled in. The day was very
grey. It is in stark contrast to the weekend — a weekend that hasn’t been
all that wonderful. Today I’m feeling much better and not as well as I will
feel tomorrow. That is definitely goodness.

I moved to a much better hotel in Gent (the Sofitel Belfort). The
difference between the two hotels is simply amazing. The price is almost
twice as much (particularly when I include the cost of parking), but the
difference in services and amenities is also more than twice. For instance,
the availability of English-language newpapers. It is good to get
re-acquainted with what is going on in the world. I think my
experimentation on hotels is coming to an end. I may look at another hotel
here in the area but the looking in Ourdenaarde is over.

This week is also a week of a couple of sad anniversaries. Traci was born
and died on the 15th of January and Trevor died on January 18th. The week
helps me remember how fragile this life is and how suddenly it can come to
an end. Perhaps that’s why a bad weekend at my age is such a waste. There
are far fewer weekends left in my life than I’ve already enjoyed. Traci, we
never knew you and have that opportunity to look forward to. Trevor, we
miss you terribly and the reunion will be sweet. We love you both!

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The Battle of Waterloo

General, Travels

LionHill

The Duke of Wellington came out victorious and the victors always write (and possibly rewrite) history. Following the battle of Waterloo, Wellington consolidated his army. The Prussians, meanwhile, pursued Napoleon and eventually captured him. The description of the Prussians at the visitor’s center was that they were “vengeful”. Based on what all Napoleon had done to them, I think they had some right to be seeking vengeance. The pyramid-shaped hill was built by hand, one peasant basketful of dirt after another. The walkway to the top is barely visible on the right side of the hill and some folks can be seen on the staircase. It was far more climbing that I wanted to do!

Napoleon had escaped from prison and rounded up a huge army. He headed north towards Brussels in an attempt to cut off the Prussians from meeting up with Wellington’s bunch. Unfortunately, Napoleon was at least a day late in this venture. The Prussians arrived in the late afternoon and caused Napoleon to have to fight on two fronts. The result was defeat. Off Napoleon went to exile once again. This time he did not escape and died in 1821, some six years later.

For such an important battle, there isn’t much readily available to describe or interpret the events leading up to, during, and after the battle. Waterloo is in French-speaking Belgium and perhaps that has something to do with it — a battle the French would rather forget. I had a pleasant drive down, a nice couple of hours looking around, and a nice drive back. As I was leaving the parking lot, a couple walking along the other side of the street flagged me down and wanted to know if I was headed into town. They had been out on a walk and the four kilometers back to the train station was now more than they wanted to do. I had them climb in and off we went to the train station. They are living in Brussels. He’s from Berlin and spoke better German than English. We had a nice chat for the short drive into the city. They said that this was going to be their Sunday activity when the weather was reasonably descent — take the train out of town somewhere and go for a walk. Their goal is to walk as far as from Brussels to Paris by early summer. Good for them and I hope it all works out. I can also sympathize with getting as close as 4 kilometers and not be able to walk another step!

I’m now in the hotel lobby in Gent. The Sofitel has installed wifi access in the common areas of the ground floor in the hotel. The cost is 10 euros for 2 hours — that’s about $6.50 an hour, a pretty steep rate in my opinion. I’d like it a lot better if the access was available in my room, but this is certainly better than nothing. While I’m writing this I’m downloading a whole bunch of podcasts. I haven’t been able to access any of them since arriving in Belgium as this access is blocked from work for some dumb reason. I’ll make at least one more swipe at downloading podcasts for the flights back home on Wednesday. Some of the downloads are pretty slow from here. It looks like the bandwidth from the hotel out to the internet isn’t very large.

The Battle of Waterloo

E-Mail Musings, Travels

On June 18, 1815 Napoleon was defeated by Wellington in a day-long battle
near the Belgian city of Waterloo (just south of Brussels). I’m here at the
battle site waiting for an audio visual presentation to start. The
battlefield was not easy to find. There are no roadway markings pointing
out the way to the battlefield until you are there and can see the Lion’s
Bluff. That tall hill (pictures to follow) was hand-built by peasants
carrying pails of dirt. On top is a statue of a lion representing the Duke
of Wellington. There is a staircase up to the top of several hundred steps.
I think I’ll not do that this afternoon!

My first stop was a kind of a diorama overview of the battle. When that 10
minute piece was finished, we moved into another room for a film which
hasn’t started, yet. The diorama presentation was supposed to give an
overview of the day and I think the film should then fill in some detail.
Napoleon with 130,000 soldiers outnumbered Wellington who was being
reinforced by the Prussians under the command of Bluecher.

The film was very good. It showed parts of the battle from a child’s point
of view. The next stop was the Panorama Display which showed what the heat
of the battle would have looked like in a 360 degree painting. The final
stop was a very tired wax museum.

The whole complex closes in a few minutes. Most of the souvenier shops were
closed anyway for the season. There was very little available in English. I
picked up one post card and that was it.

I’ll now turn the car back towards Gent and go back to the hotel there.
I’ll probably have some more comments when I get on the Internet at the
hotel.

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At Church

E-Mail Musings, Travels

I’m in Priesthood Meeting. This branch has the same meeting order as in our
ward in Pocatello. One of the missionaries here is from Pocatello. I’ll
find out more later. We’re talking about lesson #2 in the David O. McKay
book — right on schedule. There are 17 brothers here and one baby in a
crib. The Branch President started Priesthood Meeting by making assignments
for the opening and closing prayers in Sacrament meeting as well as who
would bless and pass the sacrament. That’s one good reason for having psthd
mtg first!

There’s quite a debate going on about something and I’ve no idea what it
is. Some fellows are quite involved in this discussion.
I’m actually quite tired. I’ll probably not take a nap, but will likely be
early to bed!

Priesthood is coming to an end. The arguement isn’t concluded as there are
still a couple of side discussions. Oops, I just got called on to say the
closing prayer! Fortunately, I understood his question.
Sunday School has started. There are about 30 people here so far. Others
are coming in so the total number will definitely increase. I’ve no idea
what the discussion is about. I’m hoping she will write on the board to
give me a clue…. The opening prayer was in English and the woman who gave
the prayer doesn’t look like she understands any more than I do.

The lesson seems to be about the founding of America so that the Church
could be established. Some discussion about whether or not that could
happen in America today because the government is so bad. I think there are
some folks here with strong political feelings.

Sacrament Meeting is now well underway. The Sacrament has been passed and a
youth speaker is talking about free agency. The transmitter isn’t working
very well but we’re getting the gist. The earphone is also very
uncomfortable as the earpads are gone and only the bare plastic plugs into
the ears.

The second talk is a young lady who played the piano to accompany the
hymns. She is talking about weaknesses and the necessity of faith.

The rest hymn was True to the Faith. The closing speaker talked
about preparing for the 2nd coming. Then Church was over.
A couple of people recognized me from the last time I was here. That was
interesting. I’m not sure I would remember someone from that long ago.

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Scratch One Restaurant!

General, Travels

The Chinese restaurant from last night has been scratched from my list. The food made me quite sick last night and I spent the greater part of the night either sitting on the throne or embracing it. Quite a mess. I’m finally feeling much better, but have quite a ways to go before I’m back to normal. These episodes don’t happen very often, but when they do it takes quite a toll on my body.

As a result, everything I had planned to do today went by the board. I slept on and off until 3 this afternoon. About 4 I went outside and drove 30 kilometers to Kotrijk. The main reason was to find a wifi Hotspot and get connected. The McDonalds at the Expo turned out not to have a hotspot, yet. It was installed but wouldn’t be in their cash register until Monday. Next door was a bar / restaurant that advertised on a sign in the window being able to surf the internet. They do indeed have the capability, but it also very new. I’m the first customer to make use of the capability. I’ve bought 60 minutes of time and have ordered a cup of hot chocolate. I don’t feel like eating anything, but the hot chocolate sounded benign enough. Perhaps by tomorrow my system will have recovered enough for me to want to eat something. I’ll probably feel like I’ve been starved!

Tomorrow I also check out of the hotel in Ourdenaarde and move to Gent for two nights. My new boss arrives here on Monday and I’ll meet her for dinner in Gent on Monday evening and then show her how to get to the office in Ourdenaarde on Tuesday morning. Tuesday night I move to the Holiday Inn at the Brussels Airport and will fly back to Salt Lake City on Wednesday. The trip is coming to a close. Today I feel crappy enough that it’s a good thing the trip is ending.

Chinese (continued)

E-Mail Musings, Travels

I mistakenly pushed the send button rather than the save button on that
last post. Consequently, it went out raw — mispellings, errors, and all.
This little Blacberry keyboard causes lots of fumble-fingered spelling.
I’ll correct it online whenever I get an internet connection.

Dinner was good. It was indeed shrimp fried rice. There was apparently a
large birthday party at the restaurant. While I was eating, they set up a
long table and seating for about 30 people. They started to arrive at 7:30.
The party looked like it was for an elderly lady as everyone coming in came
up and greeted her with a kiss. The Belgians greet family with either one
kiss on the cheek or three kisses (left, right, left). I think the decision
about 1 or 3 depends on how close the family relationship is.

The birthday meal was going to be a buffet. It looked pretty good. I don’t
know how they would have served everyone otherwise.

So I’m back in the hotel and drawing a bath. I’m a bit chilly so that
should feel good. Then I’ll read for a whie and head for bed. A big
sightseeing day tomorrow!

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Friday Night Chinese

E-Mail Musings, Travels

The next restaurant on the schedule is a Chinese place. It’s well appointed
inside but there is only one patron besides me. There is some takeout that
has just come from the kitchen so that is a good sign. The proprietess
speaks Cantonese so my meager Mandarin isn’t impressing her very much. I’ve
ordered a spring roll and shrimp fried rice (or at least that’s what I
think I’ve ordered.

It’s clear and quite cold tonight. I had to scrape ice off my car this
morning and will have to do the same tomorrow, I’m sure. This weather is
forecast to hold through Monday.

Several more takeout orders have been picked up. This place seems also to
have a delivery service. A couple more patrons have come in. The spring
roll was huge. Sections of it were stuffed with different vegetables and
meat. Very different from what I’ve had in other parts of the world. It’s
still a bit early for eating out, so we’ll see what the patron count is by
the time I’m finished.

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A Fried McDonalds

General, Travels

No More Cholesterol

The other night I was looking for a quick meal to take back to the room so I decided to go through McDonalds for a sandwich and a soda. I drove along the road where the store used to be, but it wasn’t there. I turned around and drove back along Route 60 and where I was pretty sure the McDonalds used to be, I saw the big M sign (turned off) and a McDonalds with all the lights off. “They must be closed,” I thought. Problem was, in addition to not getting a good dose of fat, calories, and cholesterol, McDonalds also hosted the only wifi hotspot within 20 miles of Oudenaarde! I was quite disappointed that the place was closed.

The next day I asked about the McDonalds at work and found that it was indeed closed — because the place had caught on fire. A daylight picture shows the damage. The roof is gone and there is a lot if internal damage. According to people at work, the building will be torn down and completely replaced. A spotlight on the roof illuminating seasonal decorations overheated and shorted out causing the fire. Last year I remember McDonalds complaining that they hadn’t sold as many gift certificates as expected. Apparently the holidays aren’t good for McDonalds in Oudenaarde in several different ways. Meanwhile, there is no place to get an internet connection. There must be a conspiracy at work here!