Belgium

I'm way behind and posting out of order, but I feel so bad about being a bit behind, so here are a bunch of pictures.  I didn't particularly enjoy Brussels and Leuven was small, but I'd really like to go back to Antwerp sometime.  It excited me to be in a country that hasn't had a standing government for so long -- there were still police and everything functioned, including the trains, so this is maybe a lesson for us to learn??

Because it's Belgium, some mention of Tin Tin is required.

 Before everyone gets their bees in a bonnet, this are not my tasting glasses from the Delirium Brewery, I swear they belonged to the guy next to me.  However, please note the unnaturally-colored green beer (pear flavored, apparently very sweet and sour) on the right - I enjoyed my Delirium straight from the source, but it was horribly touristy in there and I couldn't wait to get out.

Tasting beers at Delirium Pub in Brussels.

 Antwerp was really lovely.  Unfortunately I didn't get to the riverside, but I had an incredible visit to the house of Peter Paul Reubens -- his luxurious, Baroque home and studio.  Some of it is original (leather walls) and other parts are furniture and stuff from the time.

The interior courtyard of the Rubenshuis.

A really wild reliquary in the Jesuit church in Antwerp.

I did get to have some Stella in Antwerp, and the surroundings of these main squares are like lace or something, very delicate beautiful buildings that are at the same time obviously solid. 

Lamb guľáš at Salaš Krajinka

Last week, outside of Ružomberok, I ate in a delightful guľáš a member of a previous generation or two of these cute sheepies:

As the sun was setting over Liptov, the spirits come out of the trees:

While my being here is of course very pleasant, this is not a vacation.

A Review of the Last 12 Days of My Life

At the moment I'm exhausted and beyond crabby, but I've been feeling horrible about not blogging more, but after this it will become apparent why:

11 June: Rode train from Prague to Prešov, serendipitously meeting a couple who are studying at the summer language institute Studium Carpatho-Ruthenorum.  Transferred to penzion and translated.

12 June: Finished a translation job and went to the SNM-Museum of Rusyn Culture to work on the exhibit text and clean up the Slovak version so it could be translated into Rusyn.  Went to the opening of the Studium Carpatho-Ruthenorum for a few minutes and arrived to the apartment I'm living in.

13 June: More work on the text and headaches about the design of the panels and translation of the text into Rusyn.

14 June: More of the same.  Studium came to the museum, so I met people there, and finally met with the printer.

15 June: Got proofs from the printer and sent everything there.  Rode to Bratislava via Stará Ľubovňa and a great koliba outside of Ružomberok.  Arrived to Bratislava and wound down from the long drive.

16 June: Went to the signing of the cooperation agreement between the SNM-Museum of Rusyn Culture and the Carpatho-Rusyn Society, and thence to lunch overlooking the Danube.  Rode from Bratislava to the village of Piliszentkereszt/Mlynky, 32km outside of Budapest - learning Hungarian phrases and lots of laughing on the way.  Socialized with Rusyn colleagues in a very Rusyn way upon arrival.

17 June: Opening session of the World Council of Rusyns in the morning, World Forum of Rusyn Youth in the afternoon. Highlight of the day was the cultural program in the evening, videos coming soon.  More Rusyn-style socialization after until about 3am.

18 June: Up at 7:30 for the last day of the World Congress of Rusyns, which was colorful to say the least.  Taxi from Piliszentkereszt/Mlynky to Budapest, then taxi from Budapest to Prešov - enjoying picking apart everything we all experienced the last few days.  Arrived to Prešov around 11PM and wound down.

19 June: Got groceries early so that there was some breakfast. Prepared audio for Rusyn radio program. Walked around town with a friend and had lunch, then hung out doing my Sunday NYTimes reading ritual and organized calling in to the Rusyn radio program.  Postmortem afterwards.

20 June: Kept hitting the snooze button, causing a bit of a rush to get everyone organized and then to the museum to drop something off and see the kids visiting from the Rusyn schools in Radvan nad Laborcom and Čabiny - hopeful for the future.  Went to the discussion period of a lecture, then to lunch and back to the center to meet with some friends, then to the museum to await the arrival of the printer, my latest hero.  Then a quick run to the train station to meet a friend, and immediately back to the museum.  Then a walk over to the new university dorms and to meet some more friends.  Finally, dinner and more meetings with new and old friends.  The running around ran me ragged, but it was fun.

21 June: Morning meetings in the center, home to nap, then to the museum for the opening, which was a resounding success.  Came home and agitated amongst young Rusyns from villages.

22 June: slept in, finally.  Lunch with two young Rusyn activists.  Tonight, Rusyn theatre.

Hadrian's Wall Path: Day 6, continued

It's been really hard to figure out distances along the way.  It was between 17 and 20 miles on bikes from Heddon-on-the-Wall to Tynemouth.  In full sun, unusual for England, of course, and 25°C/77°F hot -- had it been like that the whole time I don't think the trip would've been as pleasant as it was.  Mom's knees were bothering her, and to be honest I started to get really frustrated because I knew we weren't covering enough distance in enough time, so after grabbing a sandwich, she took a cab to Tynemouth.  Apparently it's a common occurrence -- and I just took the front wheel off the bike and we stuck it all in the cab.

This is pretty much the only photo I took on the east side of Newcastle while on the cycleway

We had agreed to meet at Segedunum, but once I got there, I called the B&B in Tynemouth to tell them to ask her not to come, because by that point I realized how far I still had to go, but the room was locked and she wasn't answering the door but they didn't think she'd left.  Turns out, she did get to Segedunum, Wallsend and I wasn't hearing my phone, because after refilling my water bottle and snarfing down some ice cream, I continued on to Tynemouth, which was another 5+ miles away.  Finally we straightened everything out and she got back to Tynemouth and we had some divine fish and chips.

As I was biking along near the former shipyards along the River Tyne, almost every signpost said Tynemouth, 5 miles.  So some of them were wrong, and it was getting nutty.  Once I got up the last hill in Tynemouth, I should've been overwhelmed with English Heritage and the Tynemouth Priory, but I just wanted to take a shower.  By that point, I was questioning the English ability to accurately measure distances, and I couldn't get the shower on -- turns out, I had to flip a switch outside the bathroom in order to get the water heater to even release the water in the shower.  Who knew.  If I didn't know better, I'd think they were slightly backward with all of the switches everywhere here.

So mom and I were happily reunited, had fish and chips, and walked around Tynemouth.

This was seriously great fish and chips

Hadrian's Wall Path: Day 5

While we were staying at Greencarts Farm, we shared the bunkhouse with a mother and her two daughters from Cornwall (originally from Birmingham) who were walking the Hadrian's Wall Path for charity, the Birmingham Children's Hospital, specifically. Because they had trouble finding accommodation along the way, they had to squeeze it in to 5 days, and they were doing it for charity so they felt really motivated to finish it.  These were seriously three of the sweetest people I've met in a long time, and while I would've probably been horribly whiny after doing 20 mile days, and getting in at 9PM or after dark, and eating toast for dinner, these girls were smiling and sweet and good and lovely.  I passed them on Quayside in Newcastle on Day 6, and had snacks in my pannier for them, and then mom saw them again at Segedunum.  Seriously excellent people.

Leaving Greencarts Farm

We left Greencarts farm, and walked down the hill to Chesters Fort - Cilurnum - apparently the best preserved calvary fort in Britain.  There's lots of superlatives involved in the Hadrian's Wall Path - the longest, largest UNESCO World Heritage site, best preserved this and that, etc...  While we originally went just to stamp our passports, it was well worth it for the baths preserved there.  Absolutely amazing that you can walk through the baths more or less as the Roman soldiers did, and see the heating structures and sophisticated drainage systems under the floors.  Then, they rebuilt it at Segedunum, so it's easy to overlay the excavation in your head with the actual building you can walk through at Wallsend.

Latrines in the baths with flowing water system from the nearby River North Tyne

While we were visiting Chesters Fort, parts of the excavations were actually closed off because there were nesting oystercatchers in the ruins, and they're a protected species:

Oystercatcher in the ruins at Chesters Fort

From there, we took the AD122 bus to Hexham, poked around there a bit, and then took the train to Wylam, where we would walk to our B&B, Houghton North Farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall.  Near Wylam, we passed George Stephenson's Cottage on the footpath, which is critically important and notable to English history and Industrial Revolution history because George Stephenson invented the steam engine.  The path from Wylam to Heddon, and the shortcut we took, was a bit disorienting.

That night, we ordered in delivery carryout, and had so many french fries left over I traded them with some Aussies for a beer - and it was really cool to talk to them.  They'd been camping along the way as we'd been B&Bing.

Hadrian's Wall Path: Day 6

Today totally kicked my ass. More later.


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Hadrian's Wall Path: Day 4

Vindolanda is a short walk from the Once Brewed Youth Hostel, so right after breakfast we walked there.  WOW.  First off, they have 150-200 years of excavating left to do, and for example they've already found over 5000 pieces of ancient Roman footwear.  There is over 24 feet of layers (the area was occupied for well over 200 years) and 9 historical periods to excavate.

Slipper/Sandal that belonged to Sulpicia Lepidina, who also wrote the birthday invitation also found at Vindolanda -- this is the oldest piece of female handwriting found in Europe

One thing they recently found was the body of a murdered girl buried in a shallow grave in the barracks, with her hands bound.  The archeologist said it was really tough to work on.

The top thing about it is that they do a fantastic job of contextualizing everything and telling as much as possible about everyday ancient Roman life.  For this area of northern England, they didn't enjoy the same standard of living as the ancient Roman period until the 18th-19th century, and some people didn't have running water until after the second World War.  So to see the complexity and efficiency of the ancient Roman settlements is really impressive.

While some products were made locally, like beer, they have found evidence at Vindolanda of olive oil from the region around Seville, Spain and northern Africa, glass from around Cologne, Germany, and amber from the Baltic region, and many products from Gaul.  Many objects are exceptionally well-preserved because the wet conditions and soil conditions made the conditions anaerobic, which of course slows decay.  They've also found paper fragments there, giving an incredible insight into everyday communication among the inhabitants, including an invitation from the CO's wife to the CO's wife at the next fort, inviting her to her birthday party.

The excavations are taking place in full view of the visitors, and they invite volunteers to help, so I was able to speak to a lady who has been coming up every summer for the last five years, and she had recently found a dagger and part of a bow.

The nice volunteer archaeologist lady pointed out to me the round wall that is the foundation of a round building built by North African (Severan) soldiers stationed there

After Vindolanda, we took the AD122 bus to Housesteads Fort, to stamp our passport and walk the only section of the Wall where you are actually walking on the wall itself.  Because you're nearly hanging over a cliff, it's the only place where I got a bit nervous and unsteady.  I might add here that the AD122 bus was great because we had reservations and therefore places we had to arrive at every evening, and Vindolanda merits a whole morning (or afternoon), so you kind of need to use it to make up distance in places.  The distances we needed to cover were doable if all we were doing was walking, but we also wanted to see things along the way.

From Housesteads, we took the bus just a few more miles to the Mithraeum at Brocolitia, which is right on the Hadrian's Wall Path.  Mithraeum are often hard to find, because they were buried into the hills as it was, and then now they're even less visible.  But this is the best-preserved Mithraeum in Britain, and it was really cool.

Mithraeum at Brocolitia

From Brocolitia, we walked to Greencarts Farm, along the way passing Limestone Corner, which would've been the northernmost-point of occupied Roman Britain, and therefore of the Roman empire, which was totally amazing to consider -- I still can't really believe it.

Hadrian's Wall Path: Day 3

We were really lucky enough to have an exceptionally knowledgeable and very sweet local show us around the Lanercost Priory -- which is worth visiting because for such a small hamlet, it has 3 William Morris & Co. stained glass windows.  It really is a quite exceptional place.  We had to leave before the English Heritage part of the site opened, which was unfortunate since we couldn't contemplate the ruins -- we had to get on our way.  But we did get to go to a local craft fair in Dacre Hall, which was something out of Keeping Up With Appearances or something.

Here are the windows:

 

The proprietress of the B&B was kind enough to drive us about a mile up to Banks, where we began walking at the first turret that is visible of Hadrian's Wall.  Shortly thereafter, we walked through a wooded area that was so lushly verdant:

Woods near Wall Bowers

But that was nothing, because we got to Birdoswald and decided to take the AD122 bus to the Roman Army Museum at Greenhead.  We didn't visit the museum, but we did start the walk over the crags, which was overall spectacular.

on the crags at Walltown Quarry - that's Hadrian's Wall in the background, with those well-cut stones

The rest of the day got pretty tough, as we were going up and down over the crags to Once Brewed.  We passed the highest point on the trail, only 345 meters (1131 feet - for comparison, Mt. Davis in Pennsylvania is 979 meters/3213 feet), where we spoke with a nice Belgian guy from Ghent who was doing the Pennine Way trail.

Right down the hill from the plinth marking the 345 m point is Once Brewed Youth Hostel, where we stayed and ate.

Hadrian's Wall Path: Day 2, continued

One of the top things about the Hadrian's Wall Path is that the people along the way are certainly friendly and because ostensibly we all speak English, it's really easy to communicate.

Mum and this miniature horse near Crosby-on-Eden

The walk from Carlisle was generally uneventful.  We passed some of the vallum on the west end of the fortifications where there was no wall, but only earthen fortifications.  Mostly we just tromped through a lot of sheep and cow poo.  At one point, we really could've gotten ourselves into trouble because we walked too close to a nursing cow with calf.  But as far as the Wall is concerned, you really don't see the it until the third day, no matter if you're walking west to east or east to west.

When we arrived to our B&B in Lanercost, Mum got a bit lost, because I dropped out of view for about a minute, and she'd made it halfway up the hill to Naworth Castle.  It really freaked me out, because it was really very windy and I knew she wouldn't be able to hear when/if I called out to her.  Anyway, I went up every other nearby road except the one she took, of course.  Finally she came back down and the B&B owner Gillian found her.  Once we settled in, I accepted Gillian's offer of tea, and her husband David came in to say that he'd just invited two other friends in for tea, who were walking across the bridge over the River Irthing.

By talking with these four locals, I learned a lot about the local issues -- for example, Hadrian's Wall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but to what extent?  Is it just the wall, how far around the wall, etc?  The farming subsidies are also a huge local issue, because of course everyone wants the pretty landscape and local, organic food, but also to have it cheap.  So the way they described it was that farmers whose fields we were walking through were being paid to manage the landscape.  Whether that's true or not, I certainly don't know, but it's an interesting way to describe farm subsidies.  It was during this conversation that I learned about Sarah Outen, who is going around the world by her own power -- she was the friend of one of the gentlemen's sister from Oxford.  Because it also became clear that the local Lanercost Priory was quite important, we arranged to visit it the next morning.

That night, we had dinner at The Belted Will Inn -- half rack of ribs for both of us, with some cider for me.  They were out of their local Cumbria sausage Scotch Eggs, and I was really disappointed because I love Scotch Eggs.  The B&B took us there, and the owner of the Inn drove us back to the B&B.  We passed Naworth Castle, which is a quite valuable estate, still making money from the land and tenant farmers.  Philip Howard is a cousin of the Howards who have Castle Howard in Yorkshire, which is where the Brideshead Revisited movies were filmed.  Apparently Naworth Castle is partly modernized but mostly it's a right proper castle, with suits of armor and everything.