Caldwells in Belgium and The Netherlands: Feeling at home and André Rieu

We are slowly getting settled in Belgium (and the Netherlands). There are a number of issues of dealing with daily life as a couple. These include:

Garbage. In Mechelen, you have to purchase garbage bags from the city (or we can also buy these special bags at Carrefour - a French supermarket chain.) They cost Euro 1.25 each for a small kitchen garbage bag or Euro 2.50 for a standard kitchen sized bag. They also have special bags (at a much lower price) for aluminum and plastic bottles, mixed plastics. They don't charge for cardboard and paper material. It took us a couple of weeks to figure out the system. The city hall had all of the information we needed, but we spent about $60 on garbage bags to get started. A big problem is styrofoam (piepschaum). We have to take it to a container park. They charge 10 euros per trip unless we have our residence card. We are accumulating a nice stack in the corner of our study until we get our residency cards.
Finances. Many places don't take US credit cards and US banks charge a 1% foreign transaction charge on every item. We also can't pay our internet bill online without a local bank account. To pay the bill, we had to go to the post office and pay cash, plus a transaction charge. We are also worried that the Euro will increase against the dollar with the pending settlement of the Greek financial crisis. Right now, the strength of the dollar has pushed gas prices up about 10% since we got here.
Mosquitoes. Our apartment does not have screens. Because of the hot weather we have to open the window, but the mosquitoes have been difficult to live with. We have tried several approaches to trying to eliminate them, but nothing seems to work well. They are smaller and harder to see than the mosquitoes that we see in Utah and Idaho. We have purchased a zapper that has helped. They plan to install screens, but we suspect we won't see them until next year since the apartment association has to install them to ensure that they all look the same on the building. Meanwhile we zap and scratch. Bonnie didn't mind them when they were feasting on me, but they turned to her one night and she got quite a few bites. I have zapped about four while typing this paragraph. As I finish the first page, the zap count is now up to nine. The final zap count for the evening was 46 and we still got a couple of bites. Pesky little things.
Road construction near our apartment. We live one block from the train station and they appear to be expanding the tracks near the station. Because of this, they have closed the traffic circle by the station. This makes us do about a two mile detour when we need to go north (our apartment is just south of the center of town). When we go to Church or Brussels, this is not a problem. When we go to Antwerpen (Antwerp) or the north part of town, the detour gets us. It also is through small streets with traffic. There is also a pile driver working nearby during the week. We hope things open up again by the fall. We do live in a great location otherwise.
HP Printer failure. We bought a brand new HP Officejet Pro printer when we arrived. It functioned flawlessly for about three weeks and then totally failed. The message said to take it in to HP for service. There is no HP service in Belgium, so we took it back to the store we bought it at. They registered it for service and about a week later, we got a brand new printer. I have never had a high-end HP printer fail like this before. It is obvious, that my former employer is now cutting too many corners for the sake of profit and cost. The previous generation of printers was much higher quality and more durable. It's pretty sad.
Car fan failure. Right now, the fan in our car only operates on the fastest speed. We are glad it works that well, because it has been hot and it does have air conditioning. It was nice when we could adjust things for comfort. We have the oldest car in the mission because they plan on trading it in for a new one in a couple of months. Meanwhile, it is hard to find an Opel dealer to get the thing fixed. GM has been losing money on Opel for years and you almost don't see the things on the European roads anymore. The mission is now buying Toyotas.
Finding the specialized shops. In Belgium (and the Netherlands), the super stores do not carry everything, so you have to find specialized shops. Today we looked for a sewing shop and found one. It was quite pricy. A few minutes later we were walking along the open air market that they hold on Saturday mornings and found similar products for about one-third the price. I think we will hit the Saturday market more often. They also had the carillon playing during the market. It was hard to find a bicycle parking place, however. We also found the local bakery about five blocks away. This was recommended by our landlord and we see why. Fortunately, bicycles make everything easily reachable.
Mechelen is definitely a bicycling town. It is mostly flat and the city has done a great job of putting in bicycle lanes and facilities. When President Robinson asked us where we wanted to be, we just told him that we wanted a place we could bicycle. This town has probably the best bicycling facilities in Belgium and certainly rivals the best cities in the Netherlands. We are feeling very blessed by this answer to prayer.
Day of the Flemish Community. July 11 is the day in 1302 that the King of France sent 2,500 knights and squires supported by 6,000 infantry to put down the rebellion of Brugge (Bruge). They were defeated by 8,000 infantry from the city in Kortrijk. For some reason, the French in Belgium do not celebrate this holiday so it is only in Flanders. We were greeted with a spectacular fireworks display by the city hall (which we could see from our apartment window).
Cooking for zone conference. Last month, we had a joint zone conference (combining two zones) for the last conference for our departing mission president (President and Sister Robinson). This next week, we will have a similar conference with our new mission president (President and Sister Bunnell). The senior couples generally prepare a lunch for the zone conference. Since we had just arrived, the Butlers prepared sloppy joes for the 75 or so in attendance at the one in June. We just brought water and helped with the on-site preparation. This month it is our turn. Since the weather is forecast to be hot, Sister C is planning on serving chicken salad sandwiches on croissants. Needless to say, the croissants in Belgium are amazing and this menu went over well when it was served at our district class a few weeks ago.

Visiting Maastricht and the André Rieu concert. Months ago, we booked tickets with Elder and Zuster (Brent and Suzanne) Romig to attend the André Rieu concert in Maastricht. They also suggested staying overnight at a lovely hotel in Margraten where the American World War II military cemetery is located. André Rieu is 65 years old this year and is originally from Maastricht, so this promised to be a special opportunity. He was a favorite of Dolf and Bep Mensink who both passed away this year, so we also attended in their honor.

Believe it or not, Maastricht is within the boundaries of the stake we serve in and almost within our district boundaries. For us, it was about an hour and 45 minute drive. Maastricht was the first city settled in the Netherlands and the first to be liberated during World War II. Sister C served there during her first mission and I was a zone leader over that area (not when she served there). We arrived in the afternoon and took a drive through the countryside and stopped to take photos of a lovely windmill. We also ate a lovely dinner at the hotel. It was wonderful food, that was served perfectly. We will certainly eat there again. After dinner, we took a walk through the countryside.

On our late afternoon drive through the countryside near Margraten

Elder en Zuster Romig - Great friends and amazing missionaries

In the courtyard of the beautiful Hotel Groot Welsden near Margraten

Zuster C enjoying the amazing salad at the Hotel Groot Welsden

After dinner stroll

The next morning (Thursday) we ate breakfast at the hotel and then drove to the American Military Cemetery at Margraten. This was used by the US military during World War II and built on land donated by the Dutch government in perpetuity. There are 8,301 American soldiers (and airmen) buried here. 1,722 are unknown (or known only to God as the markers say). It is an impactful to experience to visit this place hallowed by the sacrifice of those who made the ultimate offering to resist tyranny. There were gorgeous sycamore trees throughout the property. They reminded me of the three sycamore trees in our side yard when we live in Tooele. Interestingly enough, Elder and Sister Robison (the office couple) drove to Margraten the same day and signed the guest register right after us.

Walking through the markers at Margraten looking for graves of those from Utah and Idaho

After Margraten, we drove into Maastricht and found a parking garage on the edge of the old city. It was fun to walk through the old city. Sister C, found a street that one of her investigators lived on, but now converted to a busy shopping street. We found a lovely place to have lunch right on the Vrijthof where the André Rieu concerts are held. We wandered through the shopping area and the sisters found things to buy. We held court in the cafe of the H&M department store through the late afternoon before dining at the cafeteria there and going to the concert venue. To say that André Rieu is a favorite son of the city is a vast understatement. They love him because while he is an international celebrity, he is just an ordinary person in Maastricht. Of course he lives in a castle. In 1999, he was the top drawing male touring artist (according to Billboard Magazine).

We were surprised to find happiness being sold in Maastricht for up to 50% off

Two old men goofing off while their wives were shopping

Proof that the entire town of Maastricht is crazy about André Rieu.
This was a store display in a major department store. You got a 25% discount on
CDs and DVDs if you showed your concert ticket.

Elder en Zuster Romig enjoying the marching band while waiting for the concert to begin

We got to the Vrijthof at 8:00 PM and were each handed a 0.500 liter bottle of genuine André Rieu water. We all kept it as a souvenir, of course. At about 8:20 PM a marching band started marching and playing around the Vrijthof and entered the venue a couple of times. It certainly added a festive air to the waiting time. The restaurants on the side of the Vrijthof offered a dining and concert package (arranged through the André Rieu travel service of course). The diners had their own large screen TVs to watch the action on. André and the orchestra paraded past the diners and onto the stage promptly at 9:00 PM and the fun began. The program was well done and filled with lots of variety. He is certainly a great entertainer and his first clarinetist is a world class clown.

Elder en Zuster Romig with their program and water.

We got some too. This is at about 8:15 PM.

The concerts have been sold out for months. You can see how far back we were since we booked about three months ago.

The fun is in full swing

On Saturday, we went to the main square in Mechelen to find some sewing supplies for Zuster C. We had forgotten that Mechelen has an open air market on Saturday mornings. It was a great market, especially with the famous Mechelen carillon chiming in the background. Most folks came by bicycle and it was hard to find a place to park. The people in the low countries certainly have bicycling figured out.

The Mechelen Saturday market and specialized bicycles for everyone

We had to take this picture to prove that we are still missionaries. Zuster C looks pretty intent in this picture. She is actually trying to hear if anyone is talking to her through the tiny speaker and this was on a very busy, noisy street. We are continuing to try to track down inactive members. Our ward boundaries are extremely spread out and actually go south of Brussels.

Zuster C listening carefully for an answer

Monday is our preparation day, and on a whim, we decided to take the train to Brussels (still within our ward boundaries). It cost about 10 Euros for both of us on our senior citizen fares and in less than half an hour, we were in the heart of Brussels. We had to stop for lunch at our favorite restaurant 't Kelderke (the little cellar) right on the Grote Markt (or Grand Place for the French speakers). We wandered down the street toward the famous (or infamous) Manneken Pis statue/fountain and ran into two French speaking Elders patronizing a Brussels waffle shop. The whole outing took less than three hours, but was a lot of fun and brought back lots of memories.

On the Grote Markt in Brussels

Our favorite restaurant - Traditional Flemish food done well

French and Dutch speaking missionaries are still happy to see each other

Elder C by the Manneken Pis statue

Since tomorrow (Thursday, July 16) is another joint zone conference in Antwerpen with our new mission president, President Bunnell, we are cooking lunch for about 60. The salvation for senior couples is a store called Makro. It has been described as Costco on steroids and was founded in the late 1960s. There is one in the north part of Brussels about 15 minutes from our apartment. We drove there this morning to pick up the last minute fixins for the lunch tomorrow. The restaurant had a special on Zeeuwse mussels. I have been hankering after these beauties for the last couple of weeks since they are now at the peak. The Makro restaurant had 1.1 kilos worth for 14.95 Euros including frites and a drink. They have been about 25 Euros elsewhere, so we had to try them. They were even better than I remembered, and Zuster C even ate a few. She even removed one from the shell herself. As they say here, "lekker" (or delicious). They are steamed with celery, onions and herbs.