Skip to main content

GALA TAUCK ESPRIT SUPPER AND ON TO BELGIUM

 Last night we had a gala dinner and I wore my blue ascot ensemble.  The attitude on this ship, though, is that t-shirt/shorts/slippers will still be allowed, but nobody did.

Started with Glenfiddich on rocks in the bar,].
Note my Blue-bar Pigeon bidding us goodbye.
The Tauck All Rivers Tasting.
The first wine was a Mosel Riesling.  The second, an unusual La biole du pape Chateauneuf du Pape
I am allergic to shrimp, so I had a salmon caviar dish instead.
An Austrian Cream of Pumpkin Soup with coconut foam
We had swordfish and beef tenderloin
At around 8PM the ship departed.  Still mostly daylight.
With a white port and Vinha Maria, dessert and petit four.

 Six wines and water.  The supper was fabulous.  The departure was wonderful.

We head for Belgium.  Remember the fim, If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, a 1969 rom com with Suzanne Pleshette and others, including cameos by John Cassavetes, Joan Collins, Vittorio De Sica, Donovan, Anita Ekberg, Ben Gazzara and Robert Vaughn?  Well, click on this, and you can see the whole film. Has to do with covering 9 countries in 18 days. Film includes Amsterdam and Brussels, our beginning and end point.

Well, in any case, we next go to Antwerp (largest population at 536,000), Belgium, then tour Ghent and Bruges.  What do you know about this country?
  • Officially known as the Kingdom of Belgium, gaining independence from the Netherlands in 1830.
  • Is a constitutional monarchy.
  • King Philippe is head of state, with limited powers.  Alexander De Croo is Prime Minister.
  • There is no Belgian language, so speaks Dutch and French, with 1% German.
  • Uses the Euro.
  • Has a population of 11.7 million, with an area between that of Nevada and Arizona.
  • During the colonial era controlled Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, part of Sudan, with concessions in Guatemala, Tianjin China and Tangier.  Just one, the Belgian Congo was 76 times the size of Belgium.
  • Suffered greatly in World Wars I and II.
  • Brussels, with a population of 193,000, is the capital of the country and de facto capital of the European Union.  There are 3000 castles in this city.
  • Might have invented French fries, and known for beer (1100 varieties), chocolate (11% of world production) and waffles.
  • The national symbol is a statue of a small urinating boy, called the Manneken Pis.
  • Has one of the larger Christmas markets.
  • Famous Belgians?  Peter Paul Rubens, Jacques Brel...and I bet you didn't know this...Audrey Hepburn.
Possibly the most popular Belgian song of all time is the 1986 version of then 13-year old Sandra Kim's winning Eurovision tune, J'aime la vie.  Belgium was dead last in 1985, but Kim's win was the only time the country was victorious.

-
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota.  Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north.  Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge.  If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic.  Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing.  The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University.  Caught a bus. Was called the  Century 21 Exposition .  Also the Seattle World's Fair.  10 million joined me on a six-month run.  My first. These a...
Post a Comment
Read more

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo.  We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings  We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo.  So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines.  We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station.  This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site.   It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance.  This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of  ten of those already waiting to enter.  However...
Post a Comment
Read more

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that   Oktoberfest   in Germany is mostly in September?  The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3.  Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September?  The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich?  These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11.  Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town.  It was drizzling a bit.  We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served.  We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall.  So no one came to serve us beer.  After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine.  Thus, we might have been the ...
Post a Comment
Read more