Travel notes Europe - A family reunion

This year my parents are both turning 70 so my sister and I decided to plan a little family reunion. With her living in Toronto and myself being stationed in Buenos Aires at the moment, those occasions do not come along very often – the last time we four met was actually in 2007 for my youngest nephew’s first communion. So it was high time to get a move on it.

After contemplating meeting at some holiday location my sister and I finally decided to keep logistics easy and visit my parents at their place in a small town close to Aachen, Germany. This way they wouldn’t have to fly anywhere, and in the end they were really, really happy when we told them we where both coming over. “Hey, great, our girls are coming home,” they said beaming. Perfect – just the reaction we had hoped for.

Because of my sister’s schedule we had picked a week in August, and the idea was to take advantage of the hopefully nice summer temperatures in Germany and undertake daytrips in the closer vicinity of Aachen. The plan worked out, the weather was gorgeous most of the days with sunny skies and temperatures at around 28 degrees.

Kicking off the sightseeing agenda, the first daytrip took us to Monschau, a small picturesque town close to the Belgian border. After stopping at the historic mustard mill and stocking up on not-so-regular mixtures (I went for the flavours curry and fig), we strolled along the cobbled streets, checked out the glassworks and the little quaint shops, had a nice lunch and visited the sand sculpture exhibition with miniature copies of the Kreml, the Sagrada Familia, other landmark buildings, politicians, city skylines … very impressive.

The following two days took us to Belgium proper. First stop was Ghent where the weather gave out a bit, but we still managed to go on a boat trip along the Grachten and take a walk through the historic centre with a map while trying to figure out which medieval building is which – not an easy thing to do in Ghent. We also made use of the cloudy afternoon to look at the famous altarpiece by Hubert van Eyck, to stare up at the Belfried and decide not to climb up, eat the most delicious Poffertjes (well, most us anyway) and generally soak up the atmosphere.

After spending the night in Ghent we drove on to Bruges the next day. Bruges is another medieval gem and way more touristy than Ghent – the movie with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson might have given the number of visitors another push. Since we had already toured the Grachten by boat in Ghent we explored Bruges on foot, finally reaching the main square where the Belfried, the city hall and the typical town houses form a very pretty backdrop for the market stalls that sell vegetables and other fresh produce. For our educative learning experience of the day we chose the Diamond Museum where they give an interesting live demonstration of how a diamond is polished. A bit on the outskirt of the centre you find the Beguinage that we visited on our way back. It is a courtyard with the former dwellings of religious lay sisters – still a very peaceful place that you shouldn’t miss should you ever come to Bruges.

Another must-see on our agenda was of course Cologne with its impressive cathedral, the pedestrian shopping area and the historic old part of town that leads right to the river promenade where you can sit outside and have a nice beer looking at the Rhine – which we gladly did after trotting along in the heat for hours.

Did I call the Cologne Cathedral impressive? Well it is, but we all agreed that we like the Dome of Aachen - which we visited on the following day and which has just recently been restored - even better. Sure, the Cologne Cathedral is the third-highest church in the world, but in this case size really does not matter. The mosaics in the Aachen Cathedral are just amazing giving the whole place an Arabian Nights feel and making you want to sit there for hours on end. Aachen in general has a very nice feel to it being smaller and less hectic than, let’s say Cologne, and having a true students’ town atmosphere. And we keep this day trip extra well in memory because we ate a delicious plum tart with cream that afternoon; something that you get neither in Toronto nor in Buenos Aires.

Needless to say that the week passed by much to quickly and that we were all very sad when first my sister had to fly back and then it was my turn to say goodbye at the train station leaving for Frankfurt. But we had a great time and enjoyed the chance to catch up again – just the four of us. And perhaps this was just the beginning of a new tradition? I wouldn’t mind repeating it soon!