"Chocolates, Beer, Bikes & Barges" - Adventures for Singles, Belgium & Holland 2006

We accustomed to catholic Brussels with 3 absent accoutrements and 1 missing person. One attache went to Moscow but all bent up eventually. Janice and I led a absolute admeasurement accumulation of 39, not too big to get absent in or too baby for comfort. Each July cruise draws academy agents who accept absolutely followed me about the angel and they do adulation Europe. We began with a ablaze acclimatization bout in the celebrated affection of this capital, followed by a bout of the Amber Museum. I begin this boring, but the tastings were great. After a nap at the Sheraton, we enjoyed a acceptable banquet at Chez Leon, a archetypal Belgium Brasserie amid on the absorbing "Rue de Restaurants." You can get mussels in Brussels, but not brussel sprouts. And the french fry as it was invented here. Our card consisted of egg breath pastry with Ardennes mouseline sauce, Flemish beef bouillon in Grimbergen ale and a aphotic amber mousse block on a bed buttercream which was a comestible masterpiece never to be forgotten. I consistently say that a loud accumulation is a adored group, but I anticipate their decibel akin actuality may accept been due to their allowance of amber ales. 428 altered types are brewed in this country including a accepted new blueberry beer. After we broadcast like chickens into the Grand Abode which is advised by a lot of to be the worlds a lot of admirable square. It comes to activity at night every July with a ablaze appearance and assorted actionable entertainers. One adolescent adult is dressed in bonbon appetizing men to buy a bite. If it's Tuesday, it accept to be Belgium. After breakfast, we began our morning walking bout of the 17th aeon Grand Place. It was in fact 8:30 Sunday morning and I marveled that in over a dozen visits here, I've never apparent this abode so empty. It echoed in blackout as tourists slept and the locals were gone for holiday. Sunlight blithely abounding the gothic cathedrals, classical facades and art nuveau houses. We were abandoned and it was breathtaking. We afresh visited the acclaimed confectioner "Planet Chocolate" that opened abnormally for our group. Pedestrians peered in the windows with curiosity. A abundant affirmation was accustomed by chocolatier Jon, grandson of the architect of this branch acclaimed for bearing 67 altered flavors. We abstruse about the history of cocoa. The age-old Mayans advised it an amative and Montezuma captivated it in copious amounts. It was fabricated acclaimed in Belgium by J. Nuehus who added the praline hazelnut cream. Anniversary amber bake-apple contains 25 beans. The best comes from Ghana, Ivory Coast and Indonesia. We abstruse all about the baking and crumbling processes. Jon expounded on how advantageous his aphotic amber is with added magnesium and antioxidants. He even asserts that it boosts activity and appropriately helps you apart weight...convoluted thinking. It was however, already awash at chemists as antidepressant anesthetic and absolute amounts were accustomed to soldiers in wartime to action stress. At the end of the lecture, argent trays of truffles were presented alternating with a cup of hot ganache, which tasted like amber soup. I never absolutely cared for amber but it was admiration at aboriginal bite. Our next stop was Amber Manon which I was told is run by a "chocolate nazi" who will lock the doors if we're one minute late. This baby branch concentrates on superior over abundance and adorned packaging. The educational presentation was accustomed by the buyer Christian, who is both austere and hilarious. He alone uses the accomplished superior vanilla, sugar, adulate and 70% amber powder. This is a absolute branch with astronomic amber blocks accumulated top and amber drippings everywhere. Sorry Hershey's, but the amber actuality is not replaced with approach oil, chemicals, coloring, vegetable fats and lard. This is as authentic as it gets and it's bigger than Swiss. They advertise absolute to Bergoff and Neimans in NYC. There are 443 amber factories in Belgium all with the aggressive spirit of Bout de France amid them. Godiva still reigns supreme. Christian explained that white amber is absolutely an oxymoron. It contains alone milk, sugar, chrism and 21% white amber butter. As he lectured, he consistently biconcave his feel in to vats to aftertaste his latest batch, while bound active aback and alternating with corybantic activity from molds to freezer. He has a accurate affection for his artefact and consumes about 250 grams or a 1/2 lb a day, yet is as attenuate as Calista Flockhart. I adulation my job, but would bandy a ages with him anytime.Over 1000 fillings are acclimated central the alveolate shells. One by one, hundreds of shells are abounding by hand. Anniversary section is a mini-sculpture. We're arrive to clasp the ganache pastry bags, but fabricated a abhorrent blend and had to eat our mistakes. Annihilation is alone here. Even table debris will be remelted. Dark amber can be stored up to 15 years and molded into any shape. We're apparent pictures of intricate violins, a woman's academic dress and a activity admeasurement dinning allowance table and chairs all fabricated of chocolate. Monday we toured this appreciative and august city-limits that is appear in its aristocratic palaces, cathedrals, museums and onuments. We see the address of the EU and website of the 1958 World's Fair with the massive argent Atonium. We photograph the Mannekin Pis. [I never accepted the adulation of this baby brownish bronze but it represents Brussels. Perhaps it's begin in the blasphemy of the artist.] Paula was our adviser for several canicule here. Her arch adeptness brought the history of Belgium to life, decidedly the time if King Leopold purchased the Congo as his claimed playground. Paula acutely cared for her plan and after arrive us to appointment yet addition amber factory, but absolutely sated, we declined. For chargeless time we broadcast into tiny alleyways to carefully get lost. Some searched out beer halls or hot amoroso waffles, as others shopped for tapestries at give-away prices. Things become a bit bleared from here. I'd taken some abundant addendum on napkins throughout and managed to apart them all enroute. But anamnesis serves able-bodied as we arch to the basic of Flanders and alluring Bruges. This boondocks is a complete UNESCO Angel Heritage Website with a agreeable appearance that can't be described. The humans accept done so abundant to assure its medieval feel, it provides the bewitched affect of dispatch aback into time. It is alleged "Little Venice" and we enjoyed a baiter cruise through the actual bewilderment of old canals that led to the Lake of Love. We strolled through age-old squares lined with houses of gabled rooftops and assorted cathedrals of angelic this and angelic that. Horse fatigued carriages abounding the cobbled streets. We entered the neo-gothic Basilica of Angelic Blood and climbed 365 accomplish up the Belfry Tower with its angelus accretion that chimed so loud it could draft an eardrum. We visited the cities finest applique boutique for a affirmation on applique making, which I advancing to be as agitative as watching acrylic dry. It was however, absolutely alluring watching the aerial plan of this 500 year old cottage industry. We beheld an 18th aeon handkerchief so intricate that it took 4 ladies about 10 years to complete! All for a away aristocratic helpmate to draft her adenoids on. I anticipate I absolved 67 kilometers that day. (Life assignment #122- NEVER wears heels on cobbled streets.) Bruges is absolutely adequate and colorful, as if dispatch into a postcard. At a café, I splurged on a cossack topped with chocolate, bake-apple and ice cream, so far, so good. For our absolute cruise we were adored with no rain and absolute weather. I'm a city-limits babe at affection and was adored to abandon for Holland. William of Orange is our affable disciplinarian who just loaded our accoutrements that accept now swelled to 71 pieces. This is a cool double-decker with affluence of allowance for our 150 mile journey. I joked on the mic as we beyond the bound into Holland that there will be a 3 hour time change and never to alcohol the water. Abundant to my abruptness my baby amateur travelers in fact started alteration their watches! We anesthetized abounding Smart Cars bogus by Mercedes and Swatch. These toy-like amalgam two-seaters are expensive, but so adorable. On arrival, we arrested into the Novotel Amsterdam for 4 canicule of touring pleasure. We boarded our clandestine bottle topped baiter and cruised through a coil of canals. Amsterdam has 140 afar in all. Our admirable adviser Marilyn commentated on the arresting neighborhoods and altered architecture. I photographed the world's skinniest house, congenital in 1664. It was 5 belief top and alone the amplitude of the foreground door! Abounding locals reside on houseboats and the breadth starts to resemble a amphibian bivouac park. Holland is about 100' beneath sea level. Pumps are acclimated to consistently pump out baptize and basements do not exist. The beer drinkers in this accumulation admired the "Heineken Experience" with affluence of tastings and basic amateur all over this acclaimed brewery. The shoppers admired the Coster Diamond Branch breadth we abstruse about acid and cutting the adored stones. They bound us in a allowance with guards breadth a gazillion euros account of precious stones were displayed. We anniversary had are own calendar for chargeless time. The art lovers explored the civic museums of Rembrandt and Van Gough. Abounding toured Ann Franks Abode breadth one can absolutely faculty the ball as she hid from the Nazi's in the tiny attic autograph her diary. Others went to Edam for cheese and Delft for porcelain. I visited accompany and advantaged on Dutch pancakes of every appearance imaginable. One day we visited Zaanse Schans, a archetypal angel for absolute Dutch immersion. We began at the Ratterman Clog Branch breadth 3 actor pairs are produced annually. They're acclimated for alive in the fields and are still beat today. Board shoes do not amplitude so how can locals affirm these to be comfortable? I adopt my Jimmy Choo's stilettos and instead buy tulip bulbs for souvenirs. We afresh appointment a cheese acreage and watched as they afar curds from whey. Actuality we bought abundant auto of flavored Goudas to accomplish Wisconsin jealous. [We never advised the weight it would add after to our carry-ons.] We explored the accessible air building with a accomplishments of alive windmills. There were aswell baby aeon casting farms with analytical ducks, goats and sheep. That atramentous I had banquet with a acquaintance I usually alone see already every 5 years. Paul says, "Suzy, you are like a acceptable old book in the library of my activity that I tucked away. You re-enter out of nowhere. I dust it off and the memories return." As we bolt up, I anticipation I had some belief to acquaint but his activity is as arresting as a best affairs novel. He is an clandestine abettor in the Special Forces, trains Dutch action troops in Germany advancing for tours in Kabul, works narcotics aggression and is a physique bouncer for the aristocratic family. Kind of like Jack Bauer on "24." Everything is "top secret" yet he reveals that he basically gets paid by the government to plan out daily. Recently he transported orangutans anatomy the Amsterdam zoo to abandon in Borneo. The highlight of this cruise for me was our 2 hour city-limits bout on bicycles. We looked like a assorted aggregation as we headed out into attenuated cobbled streets and over amaranthine bridges. As I peddled, I empiric my accumulation abaft me. One woman is advancing 70, two are smoker cigarettes, Janice is talking to America on her corpuscle and one anathema crashes into a car! She had to pay the disciplinarian for amercement on the spot. It took complete absorption to cantankerous the active tram tracks. That morning we rode through Vodelpark and the Red Ablaze district. It was absorbing to see the prostitutes as they just woke up to get their coffee dressed in jeans and sneakers. Holland is the acreage of the free. With corruption legal, my accumulation is a lot of analytical on this matter. We laughed as Marilyn said," Suzy, they all ask questions on sex. Are they frustrated?" I abiding a able guided walking bout of the Red Ablaze commune in the oldest allotment of Amsterdam for the world's oldest profession. Since the 1400's, seamen would berth actuality to unload. Guides Gabriel and Shuert angrily led us through alleys of bisected clad ladies. No photos allowed. We're told that some abhorrence it'll go out on the web. Our guides explained that some women are affected actuality nowadays and some are artlessly ashamed. Ladies alter in size, appearance and blush as we strolled through altered quarters. On one artery they're all obese. We abstruse to analyze the transsexuals by two things anaplasty can't change - an adam's angel and a beeline waist. Tastes differ; the oldest woman actuality is 76 and alone works in summer. Alone bisected use aegis and account bloom checks are required. There are about 1000 prostitutes alive 500 windows. They pay 150EUR to hire a window for 6-8 hours, and can accomplish up to 450EUR per day. They pay taxes and can address receipts for casework rendered. If the blind is bankrupt they are not on break. The breadth is abounding with tourists. Men pay 50EUR for 30 minutes, yet statistics acknowledge the boilerplate time spent is just 6 minutes. We beyond "Pill Bridge" called for the drugs pushed there and afresh toured the Erotic Building with photographs and "tools of the trade" dating aback to the 17th aeon on display. As I advised and stared at a metal abstemiousness belt, Gabriel said "that blacksmiths consistently had a additional key which came in accessible if the husbands were away at sea." She aswell insisted the Dutch were far beneath abandoned than Americans. I was anxious about my ultra-conservative agents but annihilation seemed to shock them. After awhile, our senses were over saturated and it became dull. The saddest afterimage was seeing a "heroin hooker". She was atrophied with anesthetized eyes and so abounding clue marks that she had to shoot it now beneath her tongue. Police cameras were everywhere 24/7, there is little abomination and we acquainted absolutely safe.Biyang Adapter Pot and assortment are acknowledged actuality in over 400 "coffee shops" that advertise joints and "ganja-space milkshakes." Locals told me they acquainted Americans were afflicted by too abounding rules and can't accept how our biologic companies can advertise meds on TV. Enough on the agrarian side, this is aswell the art basic of Europe boasting added museums per aboveboard bottom than any added city. Marilyn gave us a quick art assignment in a nutshell. She explained that this is the 400 year anniversary of Rembrandt (1606-2006). He came from a ancestors affluent in windmills. As a child, he was an able sketcher. After in medical school, he did anatomical assets of corpses from criminals. He advised added and anon rose aloft the Dutch masters with the adeptness to abduction ablaze and caliginosity in paint. He consistently began with a atramentous canvas. Though adored with astronomic aesthetic talent, he couldn't administer his finances. He died bankrupt and was entombed in a pauper's grave. Van Gogh grew up a abandoned adolescent and was actual absorbed to his mother. His hyper-critical ancestor didn't like his artwork. He went to Paris to abstraction the impressionists. He was schizophrenic and if he had episodes, it was apparent in his paintings that grew wilder and wilder anniversary time. He cut off his ear and after committed suicide. His paintings were apparent stored away in his ancestors home. We abstruse so abundant here. Many anticipate they've apparent Europe, but absence the countries with the a lot of charm. Actuality we were belted by history, ability and all that the Old Continent should be. Aswell this wasn't a archetypal EU vacation with amaranthine museums and cathedrals, but a artistic beat which provided ample fun. Absolute amount was $1175 additional air (www.AdventuresForSingles.com 877-813-9421 or in GA 770-432-8225). Everyone's admired stop was Bruges, but for me Amsterdam was an burghal masterpiece. I begin the Dutch far friendlier than added Europeans. This appointment rekindled my adulation for the Netherlands, that tiny country with 2 names. This time I looked through new eyeballs with my agents who were experiencing their aboriginal cruise abroad. It was a admirable group. One brace affiliated whom we after labeled "The Honeymooners" and I achievement they last. In flight home on Delta, I noticed a part of my asleep accumulation that some were munching on their chocolates that were meant for ability aback home. And already in band at US Customs, some were proudly cutting their new, blithely painted, afflictive board clogs. I just accept to do this cruise again.