[YEAR 7!] Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding...
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lightcycle
Nomad
Thanks for all the comments, guys! Really appreciate it!
lightcycle
Nomad
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/226.html
We're going to Belgium!
We've been looking forward to this for months. Not to see the country, but to spend time with our very good friends, Eva and Thomas. We first met them two years ago while we were visiting Toronto. We really bonded with them during that time and we've been counting down the days till we could see them again, this time in their hometown of Leuven.
Hallo! We are in Belgium!
From Paris, it was an easy three-hour ride to get to their place. As we got closer, I got really excited when I saw the signs for "Leuven". This is because every time we meet anyone from Belgium, I always tell them "We have friends from Belgium, they live in Leuven", saying it as if I had actually been there. Well, now I can!
We arrived to their place like excited little kids, it was soooo nice seeing them again! We really missed them! And we brought them gifts - chocolates from France (which were actually Belgian chocolates) as well as the rain which has been following us since Guatemala in September 2013. You're welcome!
First things, first. Need to get rid of some the weight up top.
Ta dah! Now I am presentable to the Belgians!
I don't really know much about Belgium. I know Belgian chocolates, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgian beer and Belgian waffles... and that's it.
I asked our friends what else there is to know about Belgium and they mentioned some obscure musicians. Also something about the French stealing the recipe for Belgian Fries and calling them French Fries. So... just food, basically!
The Belgians baked a lactose-free cake and threw Neda a surprise birthday party! How nice!
And presents!!!
We used Eva and Thomas' address to ship all the gear that we've bought online to replace all the stuff that's been falling apart and breaking the last 6 months. They wrapped up all of our shipments like presents! haha!
Third birthday on the road. I can't believe we've been wandering around for so long...!
We're going to Belgium!
We've been looking forward to this for months. Not to see the country, but to spend time with our very good friends, Eva and Thomas. We first met them two years ago while we were visiting Toronto. We really bonded with them during that time and we've been counting down the days till we could see them again, this time in their hometown of Leuven.
Hallo! We are in Belgium!
From Paris, it was an easy three-hour ride to get to their place. As we got closer, I got really excited when I saw the signs for "Leuven". This is because every time we meet anyone from Belgium, I always tell them "We have friends from Belgium, they live in Leuven", saying it as if I had actually been there. Well, now I can!
We arrived to their place like excited little kids, it was soooo nice seeing them again! We really missed them! And we brought them gifts - chocolates from France (which were actually Belgian chocolates) as well as the rain which has been following us since Guatemala in September 2013. You're welcome!
First things, first. Need to get rid of some the weight up top.
Ta dah! Now I am presentable to the Belgians!
I don't really know much about Belgium. I know Belgian chocolates, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgian beer and Belgian waffles... and that's it.
I asked our friends what else there is to know about Belgium and they mentioned some obscure musicians. Also something about the French stealing the recipe for Belgian Fries and calling them French Fries. So... just food, basically!
The Belgians baked a lactose-free cake and threw Neda a surprise birthday party! How nice!
And presents!!!
We used Eva and Thomas' address to ship all the gear that we've bought online to replace all the stuff that's been falling apart and breaking the last 6 months. They wrapped up all of our shipments like presents! haha!
Third birthday on the road. I can't believe we've been wandering around for so long...!
lightcycle
Nomad
Communicator installation party! Whohoo!
One of the packages we got was from Sena. Someone from the company contacted us through our blog and asked how our Sena SMH10 comms were doing. I mentioned that we loved them, but they are suffering from wear-and-tear from almost three years of daily use. So they mentioned they would ship us replacements as well as their new action camera. WOW! and COOL! Can't wait to try them out!
Leuven is most-well known for being the home of Stella Artois, so we took a tour!
Artois was merged with a few companies over the years, including Anheuser-Busch in the US, and they bought Labatts in Canada, making the parent company, AmBev, the largest beer company in the world. And they are headquartered right here in Leuven!
Stella is not really our speed, we tend to like darker beers, but that didn't stop us from trying the free samples!
Eva and Thomas mentioned that it is unseasonably cold and wet this spring in Leuven. My eyes shifted side to side guiltily... But the weather did clear up and we spent the day walking around their city.
Tour of downtown Leuven
Leuven Town Hall, looks like it was made of Lego!
Rows upon rows of statues on the Leuven Town Hall
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lightcycle
Nomad
We decide to take another stab at Belgian Beers, this time at a pub downtown
Knowing that we like darker beers, Thomas ordered us some Westvleteren Trappist Ale. Holy smokes, it was good! Had a dark, fruity taste, with a champagne-like carbonation to it.
Westvleteren is now my favorite trappist ale!
There are only eleven monasteries in the world that brew Trappist beer. Six of them are in Belgium. What makes a beer Trappist is that it must be brewed entirely within the monastery walls, not be made for profit and have strict quality control. This makes the output sparse and the resulting bottles very difficult to obtain and thus expensive. Customers who drive to the monastery in Vleteren are limited to how many cases they are able to buy and their license plates are recorded so they are only able to buy once every 60 days.
The beer is *that* good!
Here's to Abbey Beers!
St. Peter's Church
Clock on St. Peter's Church
lightcycle
Nomad
Eva and Thomas took us to the best Belgain Waffle place in Leuven. A food stand in town!
A real Belgian Waffle has to be eaten plain. That means no whipped cream, no strawberries, just by itself. Also, it's preferable that you eat it on the street and not in a sit-down restaurant with cutlery and waiters. We are eager to eat waffles like authentic Belgians!
********** Lick!
Leuven is in the Flemish-speaking region of Belgium called Flanders. So we have been learning some Flemish words while we are here in Belgium, specifically all the food words. Our favorite word is the expression for "Bon Appetit", in Flemish, it's "Smakelijk", but it's pronounced (roughly) **********-Lick!
Such a funny sounding word: **********-Lick!
Eva and Thomas don't realize it, but we have been using **********-Lick randomly in our conversations now. Just out of the blue, I'll tap on the communicator and exclaim, "**********-Lick" then turn it off. **********-Lick.
These boys are kicking the **********-Lick out of that ball
This strange statue of a giant bug impaled on a giant needle is one of the most famous symbols of Leuven
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lightcycle
Nomad
Relax-time: Crocheting and Needlepoint
Staying with Eva and Thomas was so easy. Having done their own multi-month trip abroad, they intuitively knew that we were burnt out from traveling, so they knew exactly what we needed - namely Internet for me, and a kitchen for Neda and lots of relax time in their house.
Thomas enjoys cooking almost as much as Neda!
Eva and Thomas finished their trip just over a year ago and I had so many questions about how they were settling into their new life, as they are one of the few couples we know who have lived like nomads and then re-entered their old life again. It was apparent that their wanderlust had not dissipated at all. In fact, they were continuing their minimalist existence, trying not to accumulate too many possessions so they could be light and free for future travels.
I saw them as an ideal template for the way we would like to be when our trip is over as well.
Eva and Thomas take us to an amusement park! FUN!!!
Like I said, our friends knew exactly what we needed.
A nervous smile beside me, and how I know our friends really like us!
Thomas is deathly afraid of heights, but he bravely volunteered to accompany me on the Dalton Terror ride, which lifts us several stories above the park and then drops us, letting us hurtling to ground at the speed of gravity.
You can probably tell by this picture, I am not afraid of heights.
**********-Lick!
That Wesvleteren Dubbel is a great beer and very hard to find these days (especially in the US). If you get a chance to try the 12 (yellow cap) do it!
There are plenty of great bars in Belgium to try ... though Brugge is probably full of tourists by now, 't Brugs Beertje is one of my favorite places in the world.
There was a local guy (from Minnesota) who rode his motorcycle to every Trappist brewery, but I can't seem to find the article.
There are plenty of great bars in Belgium to try ... though Brugge is probably full of tourists by now, 't Brugs Beertje is one of my favorite places in the world.
There was a local guy (from Minnesota) who rode his motorcycle to every Trappist brewery, but I can't seem to find the article.
lightcycle
Nomad
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/227.html
We've been at Eva and Thomas' place for over a week now and we're loving it!
We really miss the company of other people, and hanging out with our friends is really filling that need to be social. Meeting new people on the road has been amazing, but being on a trip this long we are struggling to find balance and it's comforting to spend time with friends who we don't need to explain who we are, where we've gone, what our personalities are like (one of us is lazy and other one has more energy that she knows what to do with). Sometimes it's just nice to curl up on the couch and pick some crappy movies by random on Netflix... and then razz each other endlessly about it...
P.S. Don't pick the movie "Parallels" and watch it with your friends. You'll *NEVER* hear the end of it. Ever.
Eva wheels her motorcycle out of the BatCave. Our bikes have remained parked for the whole week!
Watching Eva do some pre-riding-season maintenance
While we take our computers... er, motorcycles in for service
The service guys at the local BMW dealership knew us already even before we walked in. They follow us on our blog! We talked to them a little about our trip. Then they shook our hands and wished us a nice trip and handed us our bill. No discount for storytelling...
On the way, we tried out the new communicators that Sena shipped to us. The 20S is an upgrade to what we had before and although we didn't have enough time to give them a full run-through, we're blown away by how crystal clear the sound quality is. They've really improved the noise reduction from the SMH10, which wasn't bad to begin with! Thank you, Sena!
We're also really happy that we got most of our gear refreshed, getting it all shipped to the RideDOT.com European Headquarters in Belgium (and you thought only NATO had their headquarters here!) We just need to get Neda's seat fixed still. Finding an upholsterer in Leuven willing to work on it is proving difficult.
We've been at Eva and Thomas' place for over a week now and we're loving it!
We really miss the company of other people, and hanging out with our friends is really filling that need to be social. Meeting new people on the road has been amazing, but being on a trip this long we are struggling to find balance and it's comforting to spend time with friends who we don't need to explain who we are, where we've gone, what our personalities are like (one of us is lazy and other one has more energy that she knows what to do with). Sometimes it's just nice to curl up on the couch and pick some crappy movies by random on Netflix... and then razz each other endlessly about it...
P.S. Don't pick the movie "Parallels" and watch it with your friends. You'll *NEVER* hear the end of it. Ever.
Eva wheels her motorcycle out of the BatCave. Our bikes have remained parked for the whole week!
Watching Eva do some pre-riding-season maintenance
While we take our computers... er, motorcycles in for service
The service guys at the local BMW dealership knew us already even before we walked in. They follow us on our blog! We talked to them a little about our trip. Then they shook our hands and wished us a nice trip and handed us our bill. No discount for storytelling...
On the way, we tried out the new communicators that Sena shipped to us. The 20S is an upgrade to what we had before and although we didn't have enough time to give them a full run-through, we're blown away by how crystal clear the sound quality is. They've really improved the noise reduction from the SMH10, which wasn't bad to begin with! Thank you, Sena!
We're also really happy that we got most of our gear refreshed, getting it all shipped to the RideDOT.com European Headquarters in Belgium (and you thought only NATO had their headquarters here!) We just need to get Neda's seat fixed still. Finding an upholsterer in Leuven willing to work on it is proving difficult.
lightcycle
Nomad
I finally get to see Speculoos in person!
A couple of years ago when Thomas and Eva were staying with us in Toronto, I asked them what foods they had which were particular to Belgium. He described these spiced biscuits that you soaked in tea or coffee, then spread them over bread. It's called speculoos and now every morning, I got to see Thomas do his ritual dunk and spread.
And then in the grocery store I see pre-dunked and spreadable Speculoos!
When you stay with friends this long, we're not really guests anymore. So we did the room-mate thing and did some grocery shopping for them. Settling into Belgian domestic life, the most exciting thing for us is that there is a new grocery store called "Albert Heijn" that opened up around the corner. They're the biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands and they are expanding into Belgium. Eva and Thomas pointed out all the new Dutch products on the shelves that they wanted to try. The shelves were a little empty, probably because they were a brand new store.
We kind of miss all these little neighbourhood details that fly under the wheels of our nomadic existence.
Because our roomies are vegetarian, Thomas attempts to make vegetable jerky.
I like to call it Vagirky. Because it sounds a little dirty...
The vagirky was put in the oven and baked until it should have been chewy, but instead it turned out crispy and dry. No **********-Licking the dry Vagirky.
I thought about why we get along with Eva and Thomas so well. A lot of it is that we have so much in common: addicted to travel, motorcycles, relaxed attitude to life. But also, there's a sense of modesty to them that we've found is common to a lot of Belgians.
Belgium is a funny little country. It shares borders with France, Germany and the Netherlands and each of the Belgian regions are split along the language lines: Dutch Flanders and French Wallonia, similar to English/French Canada. But I don't think they lack a cohesive national identity here as much as that they an understated nationalism, similar to the modest Canadian culture that we grew up in.
And Eva and Thomas are just cool people to be around. I don't know if they truly realize how special they are to us.
What's going on here?
Eva works as a content writer for a PR company and one of her clients is a recreational equipment retailer. Each quarter the company puts out a glossy magazine/catalog and Eva had an idea of including our travels in the next issue as a lifestyle/human interest piece. We initially thought it would just be a print interview and some accompanying pictures from our blog, but to our surprise a camera crew showed up to do a live interview for a video supplement on the company website!
Cool! We felt like celebrities!
Fireside chat with RideDOTNeda.
lightcycle
Nomad
In addition to the interview, the crew got some background shots of our gear. This was getting fancier by the minute!
And then the video shoot went outdoors to include shots of our motorcycles! Thomas led us out to some scenic spots in Leuven
While we wait for the camera crew to set up, Neda tries to sell Eva her motorcycle: "Only 80,000 kms! Never dropped. Much..."
Making movies is boring for the actors. Gotta wait for all the cameras to be set up. So I went around and took lots of pictures
Setting up the shot
Because of my amateur video-editing attempts, I already knew how much footage needs to be shot to make a short video, but it was eye-opening to watch the professionals and see how much set-up time is required to get the best lighting, framing, etc. Compared to my seat-of-my-pants-pull-the-camera-out-of-the-tankbag-and-hit-record way of shooting video...
lightcycle
Nomad
And then the video shoot goes mobile for some action footage!
Thomas and Eva led us and the crew on their bikes to some country roads where footage could be taken of us riding our motorcycles. Wow! All this for such a short video! I was so curious what the end product would look like now!
Tim, the director mounts a miniature Action Camera on Thomas' bike to get shots of us from the front
I felt like a member of the Royal Family, riding around with a motorcycle escort in front and a chase vehicle behind us!
The stakes get higher when a drone was brought out. OMG!
At the end of the day, the cameraman shows us some of the raw footage that they've shot. It looks SOOOO good! I can't wait to see how they put it all together. Eva said that it will be a few months before it'll be finished and launched concurrently with the magazine article.
So it turns out it's not actually a short web video. There was so much time put into this and so many different cameras involved that we are turning this into a 12-part mini-series that will air on Netflix. We will be calling KTM and asking them for free motorcycles for our journey just so that we can capture them turning us down on camera...
This will be the cover of our Blu-ray Disc.
After a long day of shooting, we ride back to Leuven with the rest of the RideDOT.com European film crew
Interesting day (understatement!) and interesting how it all works out huh? You meet couple with similar interests, get on well, some time goes into the relationship with no strings attached, and the rewards in the years ahead are above and beyond anything you expected. We had a young family from Switzerland travelling the world stay here as they headed South, then North through the country. All I did was offer them somewhere to park up and do the laundry! Got on really well. A short time after they made it back home my oldest daughter decided she wanted to go to university in Switzerland. She was on there doorstep shortly afterwards, and is now a (semi) regular visitor. So Eva works as a content writer.... you turn up.... now you a film stars
Arlo
Adventurer
[QUOTE"Gene"] ...and handed us our bill. No discount for storytelling... [/QUOTE]
That's the dark side of Europe.
Only money counts. :Wow1:
When heading North, don't miss Bremen! Bed'n Breakfast for you both are free and I'll give you a hand to the bikes for sure.
But we've got hot temperatures (up to 35°C) and high humidities theese days. This causes some thunderstorms too.
That's the dark side of Europe.
Only money counts. :Wow1:
When heading North, don't miss Bremen! Bed'n Breakfast for you both are free and I'll give you a hand to the bikes for sure.
But we've got hot temperatures (up to 35°C) and high humidities theese days. This causes some thunderstorms too.