Our Trips Around The World – Page 11 – Blogs from All of Our Trips

漫步阿姆斯特丹，梵高博物馆（Wandering about, Van Gogh Musuem）

You’ll find some English neatly aligned below …

7月9日星期一

今天多云，天气其实非常宜人，我和PJG决定在阿姆斯特丹市中心四处转转，看看这里的大街小巷。除了追踪了PJG父亲当年的足迹之外（他应该自己会记录），在这里记录一些阿姆斯特丹的独特吧。

阿姆斯特丹周边 ( Marken, Volendam, Monnickendam）

Skip the jibberish below to find some nice familiar english words in line …

7月8日星期日

今天是很有收获的一天，早上先去了安妮之家参观，然后坐巴士先后去了阿姆斯特丹的周边的小城马尔肯，福伦丹和蒙尼肯丹。去这三个地方是因为PJG的父亲在他1950年的旅游中是也到过那里。

安妮之家 (The Anne Frank House)

7月8日星期日 – Sunday, July 8

今天算是第一天在阿姆斯特丹，第一件事是去参观安妮之家。PJG在出发前就购买好了的早上9点半的票，这里的票需要提前在网上预定，否则到了再买应该是买不到的。安妮之家坐落在王子运河边，和西教堂相邻，离我俩的民宿走路大概只有5分钟。

Today is our first full day in Amsterdam, the first thing on our plan is to visit the Anne Frank House. PJG purchased the 9:30am tickets before we left; tickets here need to be purchased online in advance, otherwise it is impossible to get in.

初到阿姆斯特丹 (Amsterdam by the Canal)

7月7日星期六 Saturday July 7

早上收拾妥当坐40多分钟的城际快车去比利时的另一个城市安特卫普，在那里坐大力士高速列车去荷兰的阿姆斯特丹。时速高达200多英里的火车，1个多小时就到达了目的地。下了火车在一路走到我俩的民宿住处的路上，虽然看到很多典型的欧洲的古建筑，有些类似于比利时的阶梯式屋顶墙建筑，但是还是顿时感受到了一个和根特非常不同的城市。这里充满了游客，自行车，游船，整个城市贯穿着繁多的运河，空气里弥漫着大麻的味道，时不时看到稀奇古怪的人抽的纸醉金迷，市中心里遍地的酒吧咖啡餐馆供游客消遣，感觉在这里可以真正的随性的做自己 😁

In the morning we took an intercity express train to Antwerp which took about 40 minutes, where we connected with our Thalys high speed train to Amsterdam. The train went as high as 200 miles per hour and we reached our destination in a little over one hour.

吃在根特（Eating in Ghent）

Aa delicious English translation is inline below:

7月7日星期六 – Saturday July 7

同样在比利时也没吃到什么惊艳的东西 😅 比利时华夫比较有名，还有就是比利时人坚信薯条是他们发明的，所以这里点餐给配的薯条！不像其它地方，配的是面包。这里还比较流行吃青口贝，我俩没吃，因为我对青口贝并不感兴趣，而且看起来觉得非常没有味道 😁

Again there’s nothing to be surprised about in Belgium. Belgian Waffles are pretty famous and Belgian people believe that French fries are their invention, so many meals come with French fries unlike everywhere else, where bread is served. It is also popular to eat mussels, however we did not try them because first of all I am not interested in mussels, and it really looked very tasteless 😅

Arrival in Amsterdam

Having cheese and wine by the canal in front of our Airbnb.

Meeting an old Friend (见朋友)

(这篇中英文在一起) English and Chinese will be in the same post …

Friday, July 6

Today is our last day in Ghent. In the morning, we returned to our AirBNB and now the water situation has returned to normal. We enjoyed our morning tea and coffee on the roof balcony, washed some clothes, checked my autumn class schedule, etc. The morning was very relaxing.

At noon, I have an important thing to do, and that is to meet an old friend, Helen! She came to visit on an intercity train from a city in Germany called Aachen, near the border with Belgium. She and I first met when I had just arrived in California, and we were in an English class together at an adult school in Mountain View. She left California to return to Germany about six years ago and I was particularly happy to see her today in Ghent! We had lunch together, took a small boat tour in Ghent, and then drank a Belgian beer together to catch up on the time, to talk about politics and talk about life.

My Hat (我的帽子)

中英文在一起

Thursday, July 5th

If you see me wearing a fisherman’s hat in later photos, it’s not because I particularly like this hat, but it’s because I have to wear it ~~~~ After more than 20 days of wind and sun, my face finally couldn’t hold up, especially around my nose and mouth. The skin under my nose became like leather and scratchy like a layer of cockroaches. 😭😭😭 I bought two bottles of PF50 sunscreen and moisturizer in a pharmacy in Paris but it seems that it still didn’t improve. Today I went to a pharmacy here in Ghent. The salesperson recommend a moisturizer for inflammation and post-operative skin care. She had a look of apology and even helped me to check if it was some sort of a disease. Finally, in order not to let my face get shackled by the sun, I bought this big hat, plus I added my own shoe lace hat band that prevents the hat from being blown away by the wind (really with shoe laces) … I feel a little more practical. 😅

根特第二天 (Ghent Day 2)

What, you can’t read Chinese?!? You’ll find English inline below:

7月5日星期四 Thursday, July 5th

当然今天早上还是没有水，房主的女儿说好9点会给我俩打电话，告知一下修水管的进程，9点半多了还没有她的音信，PJG就给她打了一个电话询问。她说咨询一下再回复给我们，过了一会儿，她说工人说下午两点也许会弄好，然后她给我俩定了一个附近的酒店。稍作整理，我俩带了一些必需用品搬去了酒店。终于可以洗个澡和上厕所了 😅😂😂😅

Of course, there is still no water this morning. The daughter of the landlord said that she would call us at 9 o’clock to inform us of the status of the pipe repair. At 9:30, there was no news from her. PJG gave her a phone call. She said that she would reply to us after a consultation. After a while, she said that the workers said that they might get it fixed by 2pm and then she booked us at a nearby hotel. We took some essential supplies to the hotel and I can finally take a shower and go to the bathroom. 😅😂😂😅

布鲁日 (The killer has no Holidays )

7月4日星期三 Wednesday, July 4

今天坐了城际快车去了布鲁日，非常方便，大概有20多分钟的车程就到了。布鲁日应该是比利时很著名一座城市，整个城市可以说是一座水城，纵横交错并蜿蜒而行的古老的河道贯穿着整个城市，很多有几百年历史的建筑依河而建，这里经常被称作“北方的威尼斯”。走在鹅卵石铺的小巷中，众多的中世纪建筑，众多的哥特式风格的教堂，每个转角处都是一幅画般的景色；再点缀着众多的餐厅，蕾丝店，巧克力店，旅游纪念品店，糖果店，手工艺品，画店等等，使布鲁日似乎多有了很多的商业气息。布鲁日整座城市在两次世界大战中幸存，基本上保留了中世纪的样貌，很多建筑虽然有经过修缮，但是那种历史感是没有磨灭的。2000年布鲁日被列为世界文化遗产。

Today we took the Intercity Express to Bruges, which conveniently just about 25 minutes from Ghent. Bruges is a very famous city in Belgium, the whole city is criss-crossed with winding ancient river channels throughout the city and many centuries-old buildings built right on the river; which is why Bruges is often called, “the Venice of the north.”

比利时的根特市 (Arrived in Ghent)

7月3日，星期二 Tuesday, July 3

今天早上离开了巴黎，乘坐大力士高速列车从巴黎直达比利时的布鲁塞尔，火车时长大概2个小时，然后转城际快车到达了根特市，大概1一个小时的车程。我俩会在根特停留4晚，这是一个非常小的港口城市，之所以停留4晚是要把这里当作中转城市，白天会坐城际快车去周边的城市，比如布鲁日。

We left Paris this morning and took the Thayles high-speed train from Paris to Brussels the capital of Belgium. The train took about 1.5 hours followed by the intercity express train to Ghent, about an hour away. We will stay in Ghent for four nights. This is a small port city. The reason for staying in Ghent is to use it as a home base. During the day, we will day trips to the surrounding cities, such as Bruges.

布鲁日100年前 – 100 Years ago – “In Bruges”

Today we are visiting Bruges to explore this beautiful town of cobble stone streets and canals lined with medieval architecture – and now, including throngs of tourists. We first went through the Beguinage community, formerly a loosely religious order of women who lived there without taking vows but was originally inhabited by nuns of the Order of St. Benedict dating to the 12th century.

今天我俩去布鲁日，去探索这个有着鹅卵石的街道和依运河而建的中世纪建筑的美丽城市，现在这里充满了游客。我俩先到了贝居安会院，这个地方最初是一些修女居住的地方，后来变成一些有宗教信仰但是没有宣誓的女人们居住的地方。

吃在巴黎 (Eating in Paris)

7月3日星期二 Tuesday, July 3

离开了巴黎，现在已经达到了比利时根特的民宿住处，简单的总结一下在巴黎的吃。

We’ve left Paris and have now reached the B&B residence in Ghent, Belgium. I had planned to simply sum up the food in Paris. Turns out, it is easier said than done 🙂

我想问～～是谁～～给了“法国大餐”那么高的名声的？我已经尽力给法国菜一个公正的接受品尝的机会了，可是为什么我俩的感觉是没～有～味～道～？？ PJG和我尝试了两次正宗的而且总是坐满了人的法国饭店的晚餐，两次的经验都是 “为什么菜没有什么味道？” 甚至似乎连盐都缺失？总之，或许是因为我们没找到好的餐厅，或许是我俩已经被重庆火锅和味道超级丰富的泰国菜给毁掉了，我对“法国大餐”失去了兴趣 😂 PJG似乎也没有很享受他的法国餐，但是他还是不会放弃法国大餐的。

I want to ask this~ ~ Who is the one ~ ~ that gave the “French” such a high reputation for cooking? Granted, we never ate at a high end French restaurant nor even real “French Food” but I have tried my best to give French food a chance to accept the taste, but why do we feel that there is … no taste there!? We tried two supposedly authentic dinners at French restaurants that were always full of people. The experience twice was, “Why doesn’t the food have any taste?” It even seems to be missing salt! In short, perhaps because we didn’t find a good restaurant and maybe we have been forever ruined by awesome Chongqing hot pot and super-rich Thai food but I’ve lost all interest in the “French feast”. PJG didn’t seem to enjoy it either (nb but he tried his best to pretend), but he still won’t give up on the French myth.

巴黎的门和门环 (Doors & Door Knockers)

7月2日，星期一

Monday, July 2

欣赏一下巴黎这个大博物馆的街头展出：门和门环

Enjoy the streets exhibition in Paris: Doors and Knocker

塞纳河游船和巴黎街景（Boat tour & Paris streets views）

Sprechen sie Deutsch? Inline translation below:

7月2日，星期一 July 2, Monday

今天是在巴黎的最后一天，我俩决定去坐那个站点停靠间随上随下的塞纳河游船。今天上午天气多云，又下了些小雨，所以意外的气候宜人，我俩便下船上船又有机会看了卢浮宫周边的景色和一些没去过的街区。意外的发现了一片儿有很多日本饭店，非常思念亚洲菜的我俩就在那里解决了午餐。傍晚时分，我俩又在一个咖啡馆来了两杯这里流行的超浓咖啡，坐在那里欣赏过往人群。晚上，又去了蒙马特高地，欣赏了一下红磨坊的夜颜 😁😁 话说这里太阳下山的真晚，快到11点了才有些夜晚的感觉。今天没有进行什么大项目，所以贴一些大街小巷的照片以作纪念。

Today is our last day in Paris and we decided to use the Hop-on-Hop off Seine River cruise. It was cloudy and drizzled a little this morning so the weather was pleasant and we had a chance to stroll around the scenery near the Louvre and some neighborhoods that we had not been. One area we were surprised to find was a large asian restaurant area. There were many Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese restaurants and I very much was missing Asian food so we decided to have lunch there.

巴黎歌剧院，万神殿葬礼 (Opéra de Paris, Pantheon Burial)

7月1日，星期日 – Sunday, July 1

今天记录的顺序有些颠倒，其实是万神殿葬礼在上午发生，参观巴黎歌剧院在下午发生的。

Today the order of this post is reversed. Visiting Pantheon Burial took place in the morning and visiting the Opéra de Paris was in the afternoon.

Driving through Cathedrals towns North of Paris

One of my goals on this trip is to recreate some of the paths that my father took on his trip to Europe in 1949. On Thursday we rented a car in Paris and set off on a day long journey that would take us to Soissons, Laon, Peronne, Amiens and Beauvais. I ended up cutting out visits to Coucy-le-Château and Château de Chantilly to save time, but the Cathedrals we saw were all worth it!