And they're off...

After managing the long flight to begin our holiday, Andrew and I have arrived in Munich, Germany. Being in the capital of Bavaria, Andrew is disappointed that we have not yet come across Bavarian cheesecake!  He might need the recipe if anyone has it. 

On our first afternoon we wandered the neighbourhood and found a coffee followed by the biggest beer garden we've seen - seats 5000 people!!!!  You can only buy beer by the litre!!!

Yesterday we organised our Eurail reservations and jumped on the HOHO bus!  (Hop on hop off). We only had time for one route so saw a few sights and discovered Marienplatz - the old town. We wandered the streets, managed to get Andrew into two churches (that's probably his quota for the trip reached) and bought three nativity pieces (don't think that's anywhere near his quota) and found the second biggest beer garden at the Markt. 

Mid-afternoon we ventured into the 'burbs and met Andrew's artist friend Ina Mar. we spent a few hours with Ina chatting about her art and Andrew's ideas for his next concert in which he plans to feature many of her pieces. 

Caught the train back to Marienplatz, had dinner in the Markt beer garden and headed back to the Hotel where I planned on writing this first post but fell asleep. 

Today we are going on a trip to Dachau. Tomorrow Vienna. 

All done!

This week has been filled with classes, study time and our exam!  Three hours to complete and great relief when it was done. We found at yesterday's class that we had all passed! and received our certificates from the Dean at the Proclamation Dinner last night. Happy with a magna cum laude and a pin to show that I am now a member of the KU Leuven Alumni!!!

Once our exam was done and the pressure was off it was nice to wander through the shops of Leuven, enjoying a leisurely coffee and finally having a Belgian waffle or two!

So now the bags are packed and after one last trip to the Capital (they have a whisky beer) one last meal of Flemish stew and an early night the taxi will collect Ben and I to head to the airport at 6.30 tomorrow morning. Arrive back in Melbourne at 6.35pm Sunday.

In Bruges (it's in Belgium)!

We had a free weekend last week and decided to travel on the train to Bruges, about an hour and a half trip. Bruges is well known for its chocolate, waffles and lace as well as it's series of canals - some call it the Venice of Northern Europe. We were lucky to get a beautiful sunny day and wandered the pretty streets checking out the scenery.

We spent our time on a canal boat tour, chocolate shopping (lots of samples), visiting a couple of churches (we saw Michelangelo's Madonna and Child and a first class relic of Jesus' blood?) and smelling the waffles.

Sunday was spent going to mass (this time in Dutch) and tasting the beers on tap at the Capital (they have 20 on tap and 2000 in their cellar!). Ended the night at the Irish pub (Stapleton's) watching Man U vs Chelsea with the locals - surprisingly it was a 1-1 draw!!

In Flanders Fields

Last Friday we visited Ypres in Flanders, Belgium. Our first visit was to the 'In Flanders Fields' Museum which was a history of WWI and the involvement of Belgium. Along with most towns in Belgium, Ypres was almost totally destroyed and the countryside became the battleground. The Belgian forces were very under developed and their initial encounters were on their bicycles!!

The museum is in the old Cloth Hall which was rebuilt to the original after the war.

The afternoon was spent visiting memorials and cemeteries around Ypres which is dotted with Commonwealth cemeteries - even in the middle of fields. 

A German cemetery where 44,000 are buried including mass graves of unidentified soldiers. 

Tyne Cot Cemetery - the largest Commonwealth War Cemetery. We found the graves of two Australians who received the Victoria Cross. 

Polygon Wood Cemetery which also has a memorial to the Australian 5th Battalion. 

We then headed back to Ypres for the 8.00pm ceremony at the Menin Gate. The Gate has the names of thousands of soldiers who have no known resting place. Each evening the Last Post is played by the bugler and wreaths laid. 

Brussels again!

In the past few weeks we have found ourselves in Brussels but haven't actually had a chance to look around. Our visits have been for meetings and to go to particular places of interest in our course.

Last Thursday we spent most of the day with the staff from the Catholic Education Service - Primary section. With the Catholic sector being the largest in Belgium they have over 1500 schools to service and as the money is funded directly to the schools from the state the schools can then choose to fund the CEO 1% of their budget for their services. Or they can choose not to!

The staff were very welcoming, had spent a considerable amount of time preparing for our visit and were very eager to learn about the Australian education story. A very productive and hopeful day after our other visit which see Catholic schools as very secular and almost no different to government schools at home.

The afternoon was spent visiting the Chapel of Disclosure located at the De la Salle headquarters in Brussels. The Chapel is a bare place with a floor of sand that allows the sacred to be brought by those who enter. A very moving place.

Cologne

We arrived in Cologne late in the afternoon and headed to the Market Square to sample the local ale followed by dinner at the Sion Brauhuis (brewery). The local police came out in force - they were everywhere - to deal with the visiting English hooligans. We think they were fighting each other which isn't as big a problem.

We visited the Dom (Cathedral) for mass on the Sunday with the local Cardinal/Archbishop Woelki and then again on the Monday for a walk around. A beautiful building which has the remains of the Three Wise Men. 

We also enjoyed a cruise on the Rhine and a visit to the Chocolate Museum/Factory and dinner at another brewery. 

Streudel!!!

Road Trip!

Sorry I haven't been filling you in on what is happening over here. I'll try to fill in a few gaps!

Last weekend we had four free days so a group of us decided to hire a car and travel to Amsterdam in The Netherlands and Cologne in Germany.

I have never seen so many bikes as we saw in Amsterdam!  When crossing the road you have to look out for bikes, cars, trams and once you get safely to halfway you have to look out for the reverse - trams, cars, bikes!!!  There were even bike jams at traffic lights!

We visited the Anne Frank Museum which was in the actual house where Anne, her family and another family hid in the upper two storeys during the war. Once they were captured they were sent to Auschwitz  and Birkenau (Col and I visited there last year) where Anne died of typhus one month before the camp was liberated.

We also went on a canal trip through the maze of canals throughout the city, visited the Beginhof and the Rijks Museum.

After two nights in Amsterdam we travelled on the autobahn to Cologne - no speed limit in some stretches!  They go very fast!