March & April 2008 - Namur, Keukenhof, and Delft

Since we didn’t write last month, we’ll try to summarize both March and April.

We didn’t do much in March except that Jay’s sister came to visit us. So we did a tour guide of Brussels, Bruges, and Antwerp. Antwerp is known for fabulous shopping, the diamond district, and Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish artist known for paintings of scantily-clad, chubby folks). Heather brought along Becky Bell, a friend from law school. For those that don’t know the history of Bim and Jay… it all started at Becky Bell’s place. When a small group of us went to visit Heather in Boston, Becky graciously let us stay at her apartment. It was at Becky Bell’s house that Jay declared his love for Bim and the rest is history.

In April, we took a trip with some friends to Namur, which is a major city in southern Belgium. It is a nice town with some strategic advantage because it has a fortified citadel. This means that it has been conquered and reconquered about 50 times during various military skirmishes over the centuries.

We also took a trip to Keukenhof Gardens in Holland. It’s the most photographed place in the world according to their website. It also claims to be the world’s largest flower garden with seven million bulbs planted annually. It really did live up to our expectations. We saw a ton of flowers. Some tulips were no bigger than Bim’s finger and some were the size of her head. The gardens were only partially-bloomed (some tulips weren’t up yet) but it really did enchant and amaze us. “Nowhere else in the world are the flowers and colors of spring as glorious as at Keukenhof.” (We should be Keukenhof spokespersons, huh!)

The same day we visited Delft, birthplace of the famous blue and white pottery. We learned that most of the blue and white stuff you see at the stores is fake because the name Delft isn’t trademarked. The real, hand-painted pottery is only produced at three factories in Delft. The famous Flemish painter Vermeer (Girl with a Pearl Earring) comes from Delft. Emily got very excited when we discovered that VanLeeuwenhoek also comes from Delft. The doctors of the family may recognize his name as the father of microbiology; he invented the microscope.

James has grown a bit (nearly 14 pounds now). He’s rolling over and squirming around. We’re trying to get him to sit up but he loves to slouch. He’s got more hair on his head but it’s so light you can barely see it. He loves to jump in his jumper chair and is squealing a lot now. Also, he likes to grab people’s faces.