Quick Trip to Antwerp

We decided last Wednesday that we needed one last little trip before the baby arrives and settled on Antwerp. Jim had been there a few times in the past but it was still unchecked on my list of must see European cities.

Since it was such a last minute trip, I had some trouble finding a place to stay. All of the reasonably priced places recommended by trip advisor were already booked. We ended up in the docklands area north of the city at a gallery / guest house (www.waterfront-art.be).

The docklands area is in the process of gentrification so a number of trendy bars and restaurants have sprung up in the area. I was glad that we decided to stay in that up and coming area because we would have completely missed that part of town otherwise. However, our accommodation wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. The room was really cold and had an awful moldy smell to it which kept both of us from sleeping very well. For 115 euros a night, you expect to not have a moldy room.

We arrived late on Friday night around 10:00 and walked around the area looking for a spot to have a drink. A lot of the bars were packed and smoky but we finally found one that was a little lower key so Jim could get his Belgian beer fix and I could sit down in a smoke free environment.

The next morning after breakfast we set out to see the town in the bright sunshine. The weather had called for rain but we were lucky that the rain held off until we started our drive home that evening. Everything always looks so much better in the sunshine.

We walked toward the old part of the city and found some very cute streets along the way. In one square we found a large church which had a wedding going on and a statue across the way holding a can of Jupiler (a cheap Belgian beer). Maybe some liquid courage for the bride or groom?

Our first stop was the Grote Markt (main town square). The town hall is the largest building surrounding the plaza and people were gathering in front of it for civil service wedding ceremonies. At the center of the square is a large fountain which is unusual in that it doesn’t have a basin for the water. The water from the fountain simply seeps down through the cobblestones into the reservoir below.

Antwerp’s main cathedral (Cathedral of Our Lady) is just down the street from the main square. The cathedral houses a lot of paintings from Antwerp’s native son, Peter Paul Rubens. The cathedral had a special exhibit at the moment with 15 additional alter paintings commissioned by the various guilds of Antwerp. Each guild was responsible for commissioning paintings to adorn their alter. The closer to the main alter a guild was, the higher their standing in society. Generally the subject matter of the painting was related to the guild. So for example, the fish mongers had a biblical scene representing the Miraculous Draught of Fishes and the wine taverners had a party scene - The Wedding at Cana when Jesus turns water into wine.

After the Cathedral we stopped for a quick simple lunch of sandwiches and tea at a spot that looked to be full of locals. It was reasonably good but more importantly, cheap. We planned to have a nice dinner before heading back to Bonn that evening so we were looking for something pretty basic for lunch.

Our next destination was the diamond museum to see how diamonds were cut. We headed that way via the main shopping street Meir. The Meir has all of the big name European shops that you can find in any big European city so wasn’t too thrilling. Apparently for more unique shops one needs to head south of the Cathedral to Nationalestraat and Kammenstraat. Since neither one of us were really in a shopping mood, we skipped the good shopping district and just walked along the Meir to the Diamond Museum.

Along the way we stopped for some tasty ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s so the pregnant lady could get her ice cream fix.

We also found the diamond shop he visited the last time he was there to buy an engagement ring. I suggested in jest that a good way to erase that bad memory would be to buy me some jewelry from the same place and that husbands are supposed to buy their wives a present for giving birth. However, after looking at the prices, we both decided that buying diamonds right before having a baby probably wasn’t the most financially savvy thing to do.

We found the Diamond museum but unfortunately they didn’t have live diamond cutters on the weekend so we were a little disappointed. We decided to visit the museum anyway. It is always fun to see the jewels and learn about the history of things. The exhibit was overall pretty disappointing. The jewels were actually replicas of the originals and a lot of the hands on parts about the way diamonds are made didn’t work. I wouldn’t recommend the museum to anyone visiting Antwerp. During the week you can see live diamond cutters at Diamond Land which is a huge diamond showroom. I would suggest that over the Diamond Museum.

On Saturdays, there is a huge market in Theaterplein which is supposed to be very interesting but it was already pretty late in the afternoon so we decided we’d try to see that on our next visit to Antwerp.

Jim wanted to find a chocolate shop he had been to 8 years ago on Carnotstraat. After walking about 5 minutes on Carnotstraat which is a very dirty street and in a seedy part of town, I was ready to give up the search but Jim was not. If you’ve read this blog before, I’m sure you can figure out how this ends.

After abandoning our search for the chocolate shop, we started to head back to the docklands area for dinner. I wanted to take the shortest possible route as my feet were killing me so it wasn’t a particularly scenic walk. At one point we actually ended up in the red light district which was just south of where we were staying. We had walked by the street in the morning and didn’t even notice it. However, I’m pretty sure no one was working at 10am on a Saturday morning so there wouldn’t have been anything to see.

I had read about Lux on the internet when I was researching food and drink options in the Harbor area. We decided to have dinner there and made a reservation for an hour later. Jim said he wanted to drop off some stuff at the car before dinner so we made our way there. In reality, he wanted to check on the car to make sure it was ok. We had been side swiped while parked the night before which Jim surprisingly took in stride.

On the walk over, Jim mistakenly made a comment that he thought I was walking so slowly on purpose. Of course, it wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that I was 37 weeks pregnant and had been on my feet for the last 7 hours walking all over Antwerp in a pair of boots which were cutting off my circulation. Jim realized his fatal error and spent the next hour apologizing to a very angry pregnant woman.

Thankfully, our dinner at Lux (www.luxantwerp.com) was so wonderful that I forgot all about being mad at him. We had a wonderful meal with great service in a really pleasant setting. I would definitely come back to Antwerp just to visit this restaurant. It was a great way to end our day in Antwerp.

Pregnancy German Style

I thought I’d document my pregnancy for a few of reasons.

1) I think it would be fun for our little girl to be able to read this when she is older to see what my pregnancy was like.
2) I’d also like to be able to compare this pregnancy with the next one.
3) I want to see how the entire German pregnancy / birthing experience might be different from where ever I am for number 2.

I first suspected that I might be pregnant during a weeklong cycling trip in Provence. Obviously, this put a damper on my ability to enjoy fine French wines and stinky soft cheeses. However, I was excited by the prospect of being pregnant and relieved that it only took us 3 months before one of Jim’s little guys scored. I was concerned that all of those years of tight Lycra bike shorts might have done some damage.

As soon as we got home from France, I peed on a stick to get confirmation that I was indeed pregnant. Since I bought the cheapo pregnancy tests from Wal-Mart, the first one wasn’t quite clear. However, it could have been operator error. I had already thrown out the directions so wasn’t sure how long I was supposed to wait for the little pink line or plus or whatever sign might signal a positive result. After about 3 other tests, I was pretty confident that I was pregnant so made an appointment with my doctor.

At my first appointment the doctor obviously confirmed that I was indeed pregnant. She did a wand ultrasound and I got my first picture of what looked more like a bean than a baby.

Most of my appointments so far have been similar to this first appointment. I arrive and am handed a plastic Dixie cup with my name written in marker. I then use the downstairs bathroom and place the cup on a tray out in the open with a bunch of other urine samples. I wait an hour before getting called into the hallway, then I am weighed and my blood pressure is taken as well as any blood samples for various tests. Then I go back in the hallway to wait for the doctor to call me in. She generally asks me how I’m -feeling, goes over any results of past tests and then I get an ultra-sound. I’ve been shown the baby at every appointment except one.

My first trimester was a breeze. After witnessing my sister’s terrible morning (excuse me, all day) sickness, I was quite worried about how sick I would be. However, I was lucky enough to dodge the morning sickness bullet and felt pretty normal other than my gargantuan itchy boobs. Save for some musty tasting mangos, I really had no food aversions and the only food cravings I experienced were for sweets. Thankfully, I was able to continue my normal work outs during that first three and a half months so despite my ice cream addiction I only gained about 4-5 pounds.

I was so thankful that I was neither sick nor fatigued because I had an enormous amount of travel planned for the first trimester. After returning from Provence, my mom and sister arrived for a two week visit. During those two weeks we went to Amsterdam, Bruges, Copenhagen, Cologne, Beilstein, Bruhl, Rothenburg, and finally Frankfurt. I had four days to recuperate from that travelling stint before Jim and I were off to Tuscany for a week. Finally, I ended my 1st trimester with a weekend in Stockholm.

15 Weeks

Jim has come with me to the more important ultra-sound appointments. His first visit to the gyno was entertaining for me. When we first got into the doctor’s office, he made sure he was far across the room. He wasn’t so sure about the leg stirrups and kept eyeing them suspiciously. However, as soon as the ultra sound started he was right next to me peppering the doctor with question after question. He was amazed by the fact that there was a real baby inside me. I’m not sure if he thought that I had been growing an alien or a puppy in there all this time, but seeing it made it very real for him.

The beginning of my second trimester was really more of the same. I felt pretty good and was able to continue biking, running, hiking and swimming.

I was able to continue wearing my regular clothes until about week 23 or 24. I didn’t really start to grow until I went home to the States in mid July around week 20.

I decided to stop riding my road bike at about week 23. It was becoming just too uncomfortable. About a week later, I had to cut down on my running as well. I ran 6 miles and found I was worn out the rest of the day so shortened my runs to 4 miles with breaks in between if I felt any discomfort or pain.

24 Weeks

In my 25th week, I was wearing maternity pants but still able to get away with some of my regular shirts. I’m not sure why I was in so much of a rush to start showing. I guess in the beginning, I wanted everyone to know that I was preggers. Now, I’m realizing that along with the big prego belly comes some discomfort and awkwardness.

In Germany, the doctor who you visit for all of your pre-natal exams is not the doctor who will deliver your baby. The doctors who will deliver the baby work only at the hospital and do only deliveries and other gynecological surgeries. It is almost more comforting to know that delivering babies is what they do day in and day out.

Unfortunately, that left finding a hospital completely up to us. My doctor wrote down 4 names of hospitals on a sticky note but her assistance stopped there. All of the area hospitals have one or two informational evenings every month for expectant mothers and fathers. We visited 3 of those hospitals. When you can’t understand a word the doctors are saying, it makes for a long, boring evening. However, we did get a tour of the maternity ward to see the birthing rooms and nursery. By our last tour, we got smart and brought some reading material and sat in the back.

28 Weeks

On one of the tours of a hospital we saw a very, very pregnant woman outside on one of the available decks for the maternity ward smoking a cigarette while leaning against a gigantic, no possible way you can miss it, No Smoking sign. The woman was fully decked out in her maternity support hose and a pair of floppy old slippers puffing away her contractions. Not surprisingly, our tour guide neglected to say anything about this but allowed us to go check out the deck for ourselves. There was so much wrong with that vision that we tried to capture it in a photo, but unfortunately couldn’t get the shot without being too obvious.

In Germany, midwives play a major role in the birth. All of the hospitals have midwives and you have the option of having a midwife before, during and after the birth. Before the birth, the midwife will come to your house and bring her equipment with her for any fetal monitoring that needs to be done in the last stages of pregnancy. Some midwives will also perform acupuncture which is supposed to help speed up labor and reduce the amount of pain during labor. They also often teach the birthing classes and post natal exercise classes.

With midwives at every birth here in Germany, there are far fewer C-sections and more natural births. Germans are generally in favor of less intervention and going a more natural route. I just hope that if I need the epidural I can get it. According to someone from Jim’s office, when his wife asked for the epidural the nurses and doctors seemed to be horrified and made her feel guilty about it.

33 Weeks

You can also have your midwife assist you after the birth. She will come to your house every day after the baby is born for a week and then less regularly in the following weeks to answer any questions you might have, weigh the baby to make sure it is gaining weight and that the mother is recuperating.

Thankfully, I have a few friends who have delivered babies here so have gotten a lot of information from them. They let me know that you don’t get a hospital gown during the labor which I hadn’t even considered. I will need to bring my own nightgown or outfit to wear for the delivery unless I want to be naked as the day I was born. Granted modesty might not be an issue I’m all that concerned about when I’m squeezing a baby out of my you know what. The hospital also doesn’t provide towels which I thought strange. However I’ve never actually stayed in the hospital in the US, so I don’t really know if they have towels there either.

I had my first appointment with the midwife last week. She came to do a “birthing” class with us in English. It was pretty disappointing. She answered a few questions we had, gave us a list of things we need for the baby and also did the first acupuncture session but overall it wasn’t that helpful. When I asked her about breathing techniques she said that deep breathing was all I needed to do. I guess I was looking for something a little more structured and informational.

It was interesting to see the list of “must haves” for the baby in Germany. A sleep sack was number 1 on the recommended list. Germans go the route of a sleep sack rather than swaddling babies. Also on my list was a cherry stone pillow and fennel tea for the baby to ease gas pains rather than using gas drops. There was actually no medicine at all on the list of things I should get.

36 Weeks

I am now in my last 4 weeks of pregnancy but have decided to post this bad boy now as I will most likely be consumed with getting everything ready for the baby in the next few weeks and won’t have time to blog.

I will do another blog on the end of my pregnancy and birthing experience after we come home from the hospital. Although I have a feeling that it will be quite delayed as we get used to our new role as parents.

Back to Belgium for Chocolate, Waffles and Beer

I planned another quick trip to Bruges for the weekend of Oct. 30th with Jim's parents. Jim’s dad was here for that weekend and his parents had never seen Bruges. I also figured that since I have been there 2 other times in the past year, it would be an easy, low stress trip since I already knew my way around.

The plan was to meet them in Bruges since they would be coming from spending a few days in Paris. Unfortunately, their trip took a bit longer than expected when they ran into some trouble during a small detour.

Sylvia’s quest to see just about every Catholic Church ever erected led them to a sketchy neighborhood in Paris called the Arrondissement of Saint Denis (named after the Saint Denis Basilica). According to the legend, St. Denis was a bishop who was beheaded at Montmartre and then picked his head up and walked two miles. The Basilica was then built in his honor.

They decided to visit the church last minute so didn’t let their friends in Paris or Jim know their plan because both would have advised against going to that specific neighborhood.

Jim and Sylvia had some difficulty finding the Basilica with their GPS and after three laps of the area had finally given up on visiting the church. However, their visit to the Saint Denis Arrondissement was extended by a few hours. While stopped in traffic, two men approached the car, shattered the back seat window with a large rock and reached in to grab Sylvia’s fanny pack which was sitting on the back seat. Thankfully they weren’t hurt but only shaken up. There were some students in the area who were very helpful and could speak some English.

After an hour, the police finally showed up and drove the car to the nearest police station to start the 3 hour process of filling out the police report. I guess being Americans, driving an Italian car that they rented in Germany and not speaking French added some confusion to the whole process.

So the moral of this story is either 1) that you should stay away from sketchy neighborhoods while travelling, 2) if you’ve seen one church you’ve seen them all, or 3) that you should never own a fanny pack.

We arrived in Bruges after 9:30 due to traffic near Brussels. Since it was so late we simply stopped for a quick bite at a burger and frites spot near the hotel and Jim was able to get his Bicky sauce fix. Bicky sauce is a Belgian creation that is used like ketchup and reminds me of the Big Mac special sauce.

We weren’t able to reserve a B&B for the two nights we were there because everything was booked up for the holiday weekend. We ended up in a small hotel (Gulden Vlies – www.guldenvlies.be) that was about a 10 minute walk from the center of town. It worked out quite well due to the free parking across the street so was really convenient for our late arrival. I’d definitely stay there again.

The next morning after breakfast we set out for the town and hit most of the main sights before lunch– the two main churches and the main square. We ended up having lunch at a pita place that my mom, Stacy and I had eaten at when we were in Bruges in the spring. It was even better this time around.

After lunch we went in search of a chocolate shop to satisfy Sylvia’s sweet tooth and then did a little shopping. I got the perfect shot of Sylvia in front of another chocolate shop.

We headed back down to the Begijnhof and stopped for a beer at the Half Moon Brewery and a Belgian waffle for Sylvia along the way. We all agreed that the Dutch waffles in Maastricht were better.

The weather turned rainy while we were at the Begijnhof so Jim and I headed back to the hotel while Jim and Sylvia entertained themselves by looking for more churches and getting lost.

That night for dinner we had reservations for Tom’s Diner. Jim and I had a great meal there when we visited Bruges the first time. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to our expectations on our second visit. Jim and I have decided that the dining gods have been against us lately. I consider it fortuitous since we soon won’t be dining out at nice restaurants with a new baby. It is better not to have the memory of great meals fresh in our minds.

The next day we headed to Ghent so Jim and Sylvia could see where Jim lived for two summers. Once again we did a drive by of Kiekenstraat where Jim lived. He took pictures of three or four different apartments figuring that one of those was the right one.

The main square was undergoing a huge construction project so Ghent wasn’t as charming as our last visit. The gray skies and rain didn’t help either.

We wandered around the main square and canals before grabbing a quick lunch at a deli-style restaurant. Sylvia couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get one last Belgian waffle with ice cream and dark chocolate sauce. And what self respecting chocoholic could order anything other than a hot chocolate to top off her waffle lunch?