The Swim Club in 40 Degree Weather

Sunday, April 5th 1992

Awakened about 9am by numerous cars arriving close to our tent and lots of conversation. All of a sudden the talking was gone. We assumed the people had come to the restaurant in the park for breakfast. But we learned later that this was not the case. Had our own church service of reading and absorbing one of the many sermons we ordered from our favorite minister in San Antonio and readings from the Bible.

About 11am loads of people returned from a 2 hour hike, took off their sweat suits, down to their bathing suits, and plunged into the cold, cold water! Temperature is about 40 degrees F outside. They had to be mad! This was a Swim Club consisting of all age people, young to old, and all in very good shape. We watched and tried to concentrate on our sermon lesson as we sat bundled in our goose down jackets, several layers of clothes and warm hats.

Departed Brugge about noon traveling farther north along the coast to Damme, Belgium. Traveled home on a picturesque side roads, arriving St. Germain about 6pm.

Camping in Brugge, Belgium

Thursday, April 2nd 1992

David flies to Madrid for two days.

Saturday, April 4th 1991

Depart St. Germain 9am for camping trip to the wonderful city of Brugge, Belgium, camping on Lac Loppem (a beautiful lake) outside of Brugge. The town was a smaller version of Brussels with a smaller Grand Palace, many beautiful buildings, a cathedral in which we “walked” to the top of the Belfry for a beautiful view, beautiful canals, and the weather held out beautifully for us.

A Drive Thru Belgium and into the Netherlands

Saturday, January 11, 1992

Early up to finish our shampooing.  Bet our neighbors below are enjoying the noise.  We departed St. Germain at 11:30am, for Utrecht, Netherlands, leaving our wet floors behind, arriving there about 4:30pm.  Driving thru Belgium and into the Netherlands, the fog was so heavy we could barely see 100 feet away.  If there were any Dutch windmills, we couldn’t have seen them.  About 1 hour out of Utrecht, a temperature sign told us it was -1C, which was cold enough for us.

All of sudden we noticed frost had overtaken the sides of the road that we could see and then we were in the midst of snow.  Just beautiful!  We had to stop at a park area to admire it and, of course, take pictures.  There was just one little stretch of it and suddenly we were out of the snow.  Our arrival at the hotel was painless enough but we couldn’t really see the city for the fog.

One thing you quickly realize, though, people have bicycles instead of cars.  There are bicycles everywhere!  It’s easy to get run over by one.  They have regular lanes on the streets for bicycles and they even have their own stoplights at street crossings.  Amazing.

Taking a Drive to Brussels Belgium

Saturday, October 19, 1991

Off we go – driving to Brussels, Belgium.  We cross the border and exchange French Francs for Belgian Francs.  This time it’s 1,000 Belgian Francs equal to about $30USD.  The language is French but almost everyone speaks English also.

In wanting to satisfy our camping desire, we pack the car for a Saturday night stay at a campground at Mons, Belgium.  Yes, I said Fall was here -cold, rainy.  We drive thru several rain storms on the way.  We arrive at Mons.  The rain briefly stops and we set up our tent.

The campground is really nice, adjacent to a beautiful park with statues, ponds, ducks, and flowers.  We stroll thru the beautiful garden and out of all the walking paths, we are led down one to find 3 beautiful white duck feathers on the ground.  Someone is really watching out for us.  Now David’s Pirate hat will be complete.

The rain would come and go as we cooked in between the raindrops and are holding our umbrellas while adding on another layer of clothes for warmth.  We have found no camp fire facilities at any European campgrounds – this lending to only one positive note – your clothes don’t smell smokey.

Darkness came early and we retired to the warmth of our feather comforter.  The rain continued all night.  We were awakened by loud music from a building in the park about 1/2 mile away (student party).  It actually vibrated the ground we slept on but was somewhat enjoyable.

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