Well that didn't go as expected

Not the scene at our house this morning

This morning did not go as I had planned. Normally on Tuesday mornings, I get up a bit later than I do on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (when I go to the gym to be tortured by my trainer), and I walk the dog. Sometimes I also do something else, like tai chi or gardening.  This morning, I did a little of all three, but not how I expected to do them.  

First off, the bird feed can (a medium-sized galvanized bucket with a tight fitting lid) was lying on its side, open, with bird seed spilling out. A sure sign that raccoons have been around in the night. Miikka was incredibly barky and fixated on the deck and the gate.  He gets that way sometimes when the raccoons have been around, so I just chalked it up to him being a pill/defending the homestead after the marauders have left, managed to get the leash on him, and headed out the opposite gate.  I went out that way because I wanted to turn on the sprinkler in the front yard, to keep my Rose of Sharon, day lilies, hostas and azaleas from dying in the heat we are having. That done, we set out on our normal walk. I had a moment of attempting to get him to go up the hill - so as to do the walk in the opposite direction for once - but that didn't last long. Down the hill it would be. Except that half way down the hill Miikka decided that he didn't want to walk. At all. With some coaxing and coercing I managed to get him to the bottom, in the hopes that he would get excited about the walk again once he was in the interesting areas. No dice. Still no go. So, back up the hill, which he did at a nice trot. Argh!

Once back at the house we headed for the gate, and who should meet us there but Creamsicle.  Now, of the three cats, she is the one who is allowed outside unchaperoned, and is the only one who will tolerate Miikka. That being said, however, I would prefer she not leave the backyard. And until today, I didn't think that she did. I don't know if I left the gate open enough for her to slip out (it didn't appear to be open when we got there, but I wasn't paying close attention, since I was trying to keep Miikka from chasing her off), or if she climbed over the gate (she used to do that with the chain link fence at the house in Brockport, but I haven't seen her do anything that athletic in a while.) Anyway, I had to herd a cat for a little while, until I could get close enough to grab her and get her back in the yard.

Was my wacky morning over yet? Oh no.  After the aborted walk, I still wanted to get some exercise, so I decided to do tai chi. My attempts at this were constantly disturbed by Miikka's incessant barking on the deck. I brought him back in, but then he just barked out the window.  After a bit he finally quieted down, but was under my feet. Sigh.  Anyway, I am in the middle of a single whip or something, when I see a raccoon. Descending the crape myrtle bush next to the deck. No wonder Miikka was having fits. Sorry for yelling. I took a couple of pictures (still on camera, sorry, maybe later) of the poor thing, which appeared to be rather young (probably why it was stuck in the tree instead of fighting back), but as soon as Miikka spotted it and started barking, it climbed back up to its rather tenuous perch (I mean, crape myrtles have a lot of branches, but they aren't particularly sturdy or anything). 

The only thing to do was to keep Miikka in the house and give the raccoon time to escape, when it felt up to it.  I guess that worked, because the raccoon was gone by the time I left for work. 

So, morning recap: 1 aborted walk, 1 almost escaped cat, 1 crazy dog, 2 watered flower/vegetable gardens. 1 treed raccoon. All before 7 AM.

Brussels

Covered shopping street...expensive!

After several days in Brugge, it was time to return to Amsterdam for the remainder of our trip. But first, a stop in Brussels. Right off the bat, I have to confess that I didn't really take to Brussels all that much. It seemed a bit too big and gritty, and touristy, especially after Brugge and Delft. Now, I will say that this is probably mostly a symptom of the fact that we only spent a few hours there, between trains. And it was rather warm, almost hot, and we got lost (not badly, just enough to make us miss our planned train).  But we did get some really good chocolate there, and saw some notable sights. So, while it wasn't my favorite stop on the trip, it wasn't that bad.

We followed two Rick Steves suggested walking paths, to quickly hit all the main sights in the center of town (which is probably why it felt too touristy!), including the Grand Place.  It is a large square, surrounded by very ornate buildings, and filled with tourists, gawking (like we did) and eating lunch, and wandering around looking up.

Very ornate, after the medieval austerity of Delft and Brugge. And no canals.

We did stop to see the Manneken Pis, a strange little statue that people all over the world come to see. Some days he is dressed up in costumes which are kept in the Brussels city museum. You can buy tacky tchochkes of all kinds with him on it, or mini-replicas. Heck, in the Sky Mall on the plane you could buy your very own life-sized working replica. Huh. It is supposed to be representative of the great Brussels sense of humor. I don't really get it.

After the peeing boy, we headed up-hill to the more governmental part of town. This is the Royal Palace, although no-one actually lives there. The royal home is in another part of town; the king does have his office here, however.

We stopped in at the Church of Notre Dame, where there were many neat statues of women saints (for once), and a statue that was stolen from Antwerp in the middle ages and supposedly protected Brussels from plague.

At the end of the Upper Town walk is the Hall of Justice (scaffolded, like many buildings we saw on the trip), and a great view over the lower part of the city. Lots of apartment blocks in the distance.  By that point, we were too pooped to do any more sight-seeing, apart from chocolate shops... When we finally made our way back to the train station, it was time to head back to Amsterdam.

Brugge Boat Tour

With all the canals we encountered on our trip, we were bound to take at least one boat trip.  On past trips, we have had limited success with boat trips - in Bath, the water cooled motor on our boat stalled out after sucking in a plastic bag; on an attempted trip to Victoria B.C., the weather was too rough for the Victoria Clipper to sail. Anyway, this time, we had no such problems. The entire tour was very well-run, and we had a good tour guide.

He was very British, sort of Prince Charles in a boating cap, but he easily spoke German and French on the tour as well, and I am sure he could have done at least Dutch/Flemish, and probably Italian and Spanish, if required to do so. Every anecdote was given first in German, then French, then English.  It was sort of funny, because he would tell a story or joke, and one group of passengers would laugh, then he would repeat it in German, and the German passengers would laugh, then finally in English, and the rest of us would laugh. So you could prepare yourself for something humorous.

The canals and the now silted-up harbor are what helped to make Brugge a big trading center back in the Middle Ages.  They circle the old part of town, and give you a great view of the various architectural styles, as well as the ducks, swans, and trees that live on and around the canals.

In some areas, the doors that traders and merchants would have used to bring in cargo and move goods are still doors, and not bricked over.  Here, a duck uses the ledge as a napping spot.

This is my favorite image from our boat ride.  The dog in the window clearly had it made - an open window, sun, and a soft cushion on the window sill from which to watch the passing boat traffic. And a glorious cascade of flowers on the vine next to him, if he cared about such things. Now I want a house on a canal...