Tag Archives: pet friendly

short breaks

Ten things we learned on our trip to Belgium…

Whenever we take trips, I like to reflect on things we learned.  It’s become my custom to write blog posts about the new things I discover when I travel.  Since we just came back from Belgium, here’s a quick top ten list of things I learned in the land of waffles, frites, beer, and chocolate!

10.  Belgium might be even more dog friendly than Germany is.  Our dogs were well catered to on our trip and their occasional outbursts were patiently tolerated.

9.  You can find grocery stores open on Sundays!  Hours might be limited, but they do exist!

8.  Dinant, Belgium is the birthplace of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone.  This is probably my favorite new piece of knowledge since I am definitely a music lover.

7.  Public defecation is apparently a problem in Belgium.

I saw this sign… I also encountered the most disgusting rest area I have seen in a long time.  A prior trip to Brussels also revealed an apathetic attitude toward shit cleanup in Belgium.

 

6.  Renting a house, even if there are just two of you, is a great deal.  We only paid slightly more for a whole house what we could have spent on a hotel room and we had the added benefit of privacy and the ability to cook our own meals.

5.  Speaking of rental houses, there are a whole lot of them in eastern Belgium.  They seem to be more plentiful than hotel rooms are.

4.  If you use the bathroom at the Autogrill in Belgium, you get a voucher for the whole 70 cents it costs to use the toilet, rather than just fifty cents.

3.  Belgian TV has lots of English channels.  I even got to watch part of Dr. Phil in Belgium and was reminded that I don’t miss his show that much.

2.  Some hot tubs require physical labor before the big payoff.  They aren’t all jetted tubs, either.

1.  Driving through France to get back to Germany may be a lot less stressful than driving through Germany.  You won’t hit Ramstein traffic and there seems to be less road construction going on.  On the other hand, I also noticed the roads weren’t quite as well maintained as they tend to be in Germany.  You also have to pay tolls.

Overall, Bill and I had a great, laid back trip to Belgium.  I think we’re going to have to go back soon.  I was reminded why I loved Belgium so much the last time we lived in Germany and chagrined that we haven’t made visiting again a priority.  I don’t know how much longer we’ll get to live in Europe, but I think more trips to Belgium are in order, with or without the pooches!

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Our pet friendly Belgian Labor Day Adventure… Part three

We woke up Friday morning fairly refreshed.  Actually, I woke up at the crack of dawn because that’s my habit after being married to an Army man for almost fourteen years.  It was a bit chilly in the house, but the WiFi was working so I caught up on Facebook and email while Bill and the dogs slept.  Finally, at about 7:30 or 8:00, Bill got up and picked up some fresh croissants, cold cuts, and cheese.  He also bought some Senseo pods.

Now… I mentioned in my first post that Bill and I are coffee snobs.  Neither of us had high hopes for the Senseo pods.  Nevertheless, Bill tried them… and pronounced the resulting “coffee” horrible.  After fiddling around with the Senseo machine, he succeeded in making a cup of coffee that was somewhat less dreadful.  He offered to make me some coffee, but I told him not to bother.  I am very picky about coffee and don’t really have to have it to function.  When I drink it, I want it to be very good.  So Bill decided to go back to the store and find some whole coffee beans.  Once he did that, he was able to make some decent coffee that we both could enjoy.  The Senseo pods Bill bought ended up being donated to the house.

After we had breakfast and coffee sorted– that actually took a long while– we decided to check out Durbuy.  It was Friday, so everything was mostly open and it didn’t look like there were tons of tourists about.  We found plenty of parking, which we had to pay for.  You can either use cash or credit; I recommend using cash because the credit option confounded a large group of Europeans.  Besides, it was only about four euros for four hours.  Big deal.

Pretty Durbuy!

Durbuy is noted for being the “smallest city in the world” and it’s right next to the Ourthe River.  There’s also a topiary park, a jam factory, a castle, and The Belvedere, which is a vantage point over the city offering good views.  The town itself has charming cobbled streets, cute little shops, and plenty of little inviting bars.  Had Bill and I not had the dogs with us, we probably would have spent a good long time exploring the bars.  There was one called The Pirate Bar that was particularly intriguing; the bartender was actually dressed like a pirate.  One other thing I loved about Durbuy is that I didn’t see or hear any other Americans.  In fact, we didn’t run into any of our countrymen on this trip and not everyone could speak English!  I love Americans, but when I’m in Europe, it’s nice to find authentic, undiscovered places.

There was just one table of Brits at the restaurant where we had lunch.  They were enjoying lots of beer after a round on the golf course.

This was probably my favorite picture of the entire trip!  Apparently, public defecation is an issue in Belgium.  I didn’t see evidence of it in Durbuy, perhaps because of this sign.  I have seen it in other places, which I will explain in a later post…

As it was, we walked around the little city and stopped at a very pet friendly hotel/brasserie for lunch, Hotel La Caleche.  We chose this place because there were several bowls of water set out for dogs.  Durbuy is actually very dog friendly anyway.  We saw dogs everywhere and they seemed to be perfectly welcome, though most were probably better behaved than ours are.  Since Zane and Arran are fairly new to dining out, we wanted to choose a place that put out the “welcome mat”, so to speak.  Hotel La Caleche definitely did.  They also had an impressive beer list and a good menu.

Beer time!

Bill enjoyed a locally brewed beer from Durbuy which came with cheese.

He said this cheese was like butter!  I wish I liked cheese enough to try it for myself!

Zane relaxed.

I had a ham and butter sandwich and a side of marvelous frites.  No one does fries quite like the Belgians do…

Bill had what was basically a grilled cheese with ham and pineapple…

Heavenly fried potatoes!  They also brought us olives, crackers, and a mild onion dip.

Obligatory shot of Bill.

Obligatory shot of Bill after I made a disgusting joke.  Not long after Bill made this face, a wandering accordion player came around.  I got some video, which I’ll probably put on YouTube.

After the Westmalle Dubbel… I was starting to relax and some folks at a nearby table smiled appreciatively at Zane and Arran, who were both behaving surprisingly well.

Another local beer… though not local to Durbuy.  We passed this hamlet on Saturday.

A few parting shots of Durbuy as we were leaving…

Parking!

And a couple of shots of Barvaux.

 

Bill had picked up some more beer at the store, so we moved the party back to the chalet.  While I tasted some excellent Belgian brews, Bill filled the hot tub and started heating it with a fire.  The fire was a bit high maintenance, but happily Bill took care of it.  The chalet provided us with wood.  We enjoyed a very leisurely soak under Belgian stars.  It’s just now getting to the point at which it’s a bit chilly at night and coming inside was a bit of a shock to the system.  But, I must admit, it was well worth it.

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Our pet friendly Belgian Labor Day Adventure… Part one

Several weeks ago, Bill told me he wanted me to find us a place to go for Labor Day.  The only stipulation was that it had to be dog friendly, since our regular dog kennel was fully booked.  Since we were taking the dogs, Bill said wherever we went should also be within a few hours’ drive.  There are several places somewhat near that we want to see, so I did what I usually do when we need to make a tough choice between travel destinations.  I got out the champagne bucket.

I probably put about six destinations in the bucket and had Bill draw one out.  He pulled out Rochefort, Belgium.  I started looking for dog friendly places to stay in Rochefort and ended up finding a whole lot of vacation homes.  Apparently, there are lots of people in that part of Belgium who rent out their homes to vacationers.  Bill and I had never rented a house before, since we don’t have kids and usually don’t bring our dogs with us.  The idea of renting a house for the two of us and our dogs seemed a bit extreme.  Now, having done it, I think we will rent houses more often!

We didn’t end up staying in Rochefort, by the way.  Bill had to go to Ethiopia for a conference, so that delayed my decision on where we should go.  A few of the places that looked appealing to me were snatched up before I could book.  One location that repeatedly popped up in my research was Durbuy, a town I had never heard of prior to our visit.  I read that it was quite a cute town and very tourist friendly.  I also found Chalet Montana, a great house in nearby Barvaux, which is just a few minutes from Durbuy.  The price was right; the place was pet friendly; so I made my booking on Booking.com.

Bill went off to Ethiopia and I waited all last week for him to get home on Thursday.  He told me that despite the long trip to and from Africa, he’d be alright to drive the six hours to Belgium.  To be honest, I kind of had my doubts about that, but I went ahead and reserved us for four nights.  I very quickly got an email in perfect English from the owners of the chalet, who sent some instructions.  One thing I didn’t have to worry about was payment; Chalet Montana is set up so that you pay Booking.com.  We only needed to bring 250 euros in cash for a deposit.  The owners also suggested that we bring certain things with us, like towels, matches for the barbecue, and Senseo pods for the coffee maker.  Because we are coffee snobs, Bill made plans to bring a French press, our coffee grinder, and some nice fresh Peet’s.

What the owners didn’t mention in their email was sheets for the bed.  The chalet had pillows and duvets, but no sheets.  Fortunately, I bought two extra large beach towels that were perfect for covering the mattress.  Next time, we will bring sheets as a matter of course.

On Thursday morning, Bill got back from his business trip.  Unfortunately, he was delayed in Frankfurt due to someone checking bags and not showing up on the aircraft.  Then, once he got back to Stuttgart, he stopped by his office and then got stuck in traffic.  By the time he got home, it was almost 2:00pm.  I was a bit perturbed and so was he, especially since he hadn’t been able to sleep on the plane.  He took a shower and quickly changed clothes while I loaded up the car.  Just as we were pulling out of our town, I asked him if he’d remembered to pack the coffee.  Naturally, he hadn’t…  so I said, “Well, I guess that’ll give us a chance to try those Senseo pods.”  More on that, later.

Once we got on the road, we were delayed a bit by traffic and road closures.  It was pretty stressful getting out of Stuttgart.  Our route took us by Ramstein Air Force Base right around the time people were getting off work, so we got stuck in that traffic, too.  And we stopped at a couple of rest stops where I saw some guys peeing in public.  I mention this only because there was an article about kids and public urination on The Local Germany.  I shared it on my Facebook page and it sparked a very long discussion that went in several different directions!

I was awestruck by the beauty of the German countryside, especially near Trier, a town we visited in 2012 on our very first Space A hop.  Every time we drive through that area, I think I want to take a trip there again.  But we were on a mission to visit Belgium.  I was really looking forward to it.  During our first tour in Germany, Bill and I visited Belgium a couple of times; indeed, our first visit was to Brussels over Labor Day weekend 2008.  The Belgians embrace excellent beer, amazing frites, raucous humor, and chocolate.  What’s not to like?

Zane was like this most of the way to Belgium.  He gets nervous in cars and needs reassurance from Bill.

We stopped for gas in Belgium and Bill made use of the self service pay option.

 

The countryside in eastern Belgium is beautiful.  I couldn’t resist taking photos from our speeding car…

Just after I took this photo, we passed through a small town where a topless potbellied man stood on the side on the road.  I had my camera poised for taking photos, but did not take one of him.  He must have thought I did, though, because he gave me a dirty look as we passed.

We were supposed to get to Chalet Montana by 8:00pm, but traffic conspired to make us late.  We got there at about 8:30pm instead, where we were met by a very nice guy who had our keys and told us he manages 20 properties in the Durbuy area.  He showed Bill around while I held on to Zane and Arran, who were tired of traveling and very excited by the property manager.  After a few minutes, I entered the chalet and had a look around…  More on that in the next post!

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