One the main ambitions of this trip was to see as many waterfalls as time would allow. We only hit one falls, Bwa Nef, in our first two days, but on the trip to our middle hotel, we drove right by the Emerald Pool thanks to a road closure. This detour took us about 1.5 hours longer than we were planning for, so it was a lovely surprise to have the heavily-touristed Emerald Pool to ourselves. We bought our week-long sites pass ($12 each) here and it was also the only time we ever had to show it even though it was required for at least three other sites we visited. No matter, it goes toward a good cause… like all the road work.

true to it’s name

See that pale hat-wearing person in the middle of the photo? That’s me(!) climbing up roots and stone with the help of a rope to get to the second Spanny Falls. Worth it, no? To give you some perspective, in the upper right is the pool for the first Spanny Falls. There was a fair amount of climbing involved for many of the hikes we did, which made it a little more adventuresome than the walks in the woods I am used to in the States. Thankfully, someone is usually selling cold drinks by the trail heads to most of the waterfalls we visited. These are quite welcome considering the heat, humidity and change in elevation of the typical Dominica trail.

We saw a ton of these orange characters at many of the waterfall sites. They usually scurry off and hide when you walk by but sometimes they act all big and tough. And then we take pictures of them.

Definitely the easiest and possibly our favorite falls of the trip, Jacko Falls. According to ‘the book‘ you are supposed to donate to the site owner but there was no one around and we didn’t want to start knocking on doors.

posing on the trail to Middleham Falls

a place to rest our weary toes on the way back from Sari Sari Falls

We tried to visit waterfalls either first thing in the morning or right before sunset to avoid the intense sun and cruise crowds. Luckily, the only time we got stuck in a crowd was at the Titou Gorge when we were surrounded by floatie-wearing adults waiting in line to jump off a small cliff next to the waterfall we were trying to photograph.

It was a toss up between well-signed waterfall sites with parking lots and nearly impossible to find trail heads. Unfortunately, we did have one disappointing experience in trying to find Victoria Falls. According the book we referenced heavily in planning our trip, Victoria Falls was well marked and while a guide was recommended for the hike, one was not required.  Upon driving into the town, we found no official signs so we asked a kid on a bike where the falls was located. We had asked for directions numerous times in Dominica, and this was a first: he refused to tell us unless we paid him to be our guide. He was one of a fairly large group of people standing around for this very purpose, and since we didn’t feel comfortable trying to get past them to figure it out (and didn’t want to pay someone we didn’t know), we just skipped it. Later we found out that signs were up but the locals had tampered with them in an effort to create guide business. Honestly, this was an isolated incident for us, and I hope the tourism office can replace the signs and prevent this behavior in the future.

You can see all the waterfall photos from Dominica here.

Even though the spare battery I brought for the little camera was unexpectedly dead (oops!), we still managed to get lots of good underwater photos on our one day of snorkeling in Dominica. Both beaches are located on the southwestern side of Dominica.

Our first stop was Champagne Beach where underwater fumaroles create lots of tiny bubbles, hence the name.

snorkeling with tiny bubbles

flounder!

another shot of the bubbles

The amount of fish and clarity of the water made this an absolutely unforgettable experience. Plus, the water was a lovely temperature and we hit the beach around 10am so it wasn’t too sunny or crowded. A huge bus-load of cruise folk showed up as we were leaving, so our timing was perfect. It’s a $2 fee per person to visit here.

lots and lots of tangs

Our second stop was Scott’s Head, known for the steep drop just off shore that is great for both snorkeling and diving. There were a ton of fish here and the sun had come out which really made the reef colors pop.

thousands of schooling fish below us

Soufriere Bay taken from Scott’s Head

We probably spent a total of two hours in the water and would highly recommend both these snorkeling spots.

Morne Trois Piton park is a World Heritage Site set outside of Roseau, the main town. From my research I was expecting a spectacular tropical setting with great hikes, boiling lakes, waterfalls galore and spectacular views.

And the views were great:

Wotten Waven valley

Trafalgar Falls (mother)

Middleham Falls

enjoying the cool water on my feet after our two+ mile hike to Middleham Falls

treading water in Titou Gorge

Unfortunately, the park is undergoing significant road construction, leaving the roads very dusty and extra bumpy (and that is saying something in Dominica!), and more importantly, the road signs were down. It’s amazing how lost you can get on a road with so few intersections… Having written that, the constructions crews are amazing. They were working on incredibly steep slopes with construction equipment just slightly smaller than the road, and still managed to allow traffic to pass by with fairly minimal interruption.

a common sight on the main road to Laudat – a cement truck parallel parking!

The small sections of completed road were quite nice, and I’m sure the new road will be great. Until then there will be a lot of confused tourists wandering about the park.

Eric purposely booked us into a place near the airport for our first two nights, so when we arrived in the late afternoon all we had to do was get into a hammock and enjoy our delicious welcome chocolate rum punch or the local beer.

The next morning, we drove west along the coast to Bwa Nef Falls. We didn’t know it at the time, but the clearly marked trailhead was the only one we were going to get on the entire trip. After about 15 minutes and several stream crossings later, we reached a sign letting us know that a fee of ten dollars (or more!) was required per visitor. Yeah, right. I’m all for entrepreneurship, but there was no trail or guidance provided, so we put in $2 US.

Bwa Nef Falls

Bwa Nef Falls was beautiful, a tall waterfall in a small canyon, tucked away from view until you are right below it. Well worth the hike!

The north side of Dominca features a lot of banana fields, palm groves and a volcano you can drive through with a cold sulphur springs in the middle.

a palm grove next to the road

Also in abundance, stunning ocean views and sandy beaches!

the red rocks of Pointe Baptiste

Pointe Baptiste Beach near Escape Beach Bar

Rough Bay just north of the airport

Before our flight out, we made one last trip to the north coast to have a delicious rum punch (highly recommended) amidst the palm trees at Escape Beach Bar.

I spent so much time sorting and posting the photos from our trip that the blog posts have been delayed. Sorry! I plan to write about the waterfalls we hiked to as well as where we stayed. Coming soon!

Oud Huis de Peellaert Hotel – 90E/night, included buffet breakfast and wifi

There are a lot of small nice-looking hotels in Bruges, but we choose de Peellaert because it was just a few blocks from Markt Square and the best price for our one night stay. Immediately upon entering the hotel you had a sense of comfort and style. The staff was very friendly and helpful with recommendations and directions every time we asked. Our room was small, but had enough room for ourselves and two small bags. The bathroom was roomy with lovely tea tree oil soaps and shampoo.

Probably the nicest thing about the room was the discovery of triple-paned windows- there was a jackhammer going off just down the street, but once the windows were closed, you couldn’t hear it. How nice for a hotel in a busy location!

our view from the third floor

The buffet breakfast was great: standard meats, cheeses and breads (no waffles, Eric lamented) and your coffee was provided in an individual decorative silver pot. Any place that includes smoked salmon on the breakfast buffet is fine with me. Once we checked out, we were able to easily store our luggage while we walked around the city for a few more hours. Highly recommended!

To be honest, we overpaid for this room because of the travel snafu last year and needing to use (or lose) our pre-paid credit. Originally the price would have covered us for two nights, but as it went, the room and terrible buffet breakfast were not worth it. First of all, the hotel entrance is under construction (which we knew about), so we had to enter the hotel from a side entrance and were greeted by employees standing at a tablecloth-covered metal table with computer wires everywhere. Then, to get to your room, you had to go up and down at least three sets of stairs (fun with your luggage!) to a small bank of elevators.

Secondly, take a look at the photo of our view below. Seriously?  So much for a panoramic view of the city.

our ‘panoramic city view’ left a little to be desired

Finding ice was even more of a hassle; in fact, I never found the ice machine. A nice employee found me wandering around and offered to get the ice for me, which, apparently, was on a completely different floor from where the front desk told me. The room itself was acceptable with a comfy bed and nice toiletries in the bathroom but nothing special. One nice bonus due to the construction were the complimentary tickets to the BOZAR museum, although when we got there, three different people claimed to have never seen a voucher like ours before. Thankfully, they accepted them anyway. And, of course, no free internet access at a business hotel.

The biggest disappointment was the buffet breakfast. At 30 Euros a person, it can best be described as a rip-off. The hotel advertises Illy Coffee all over the place but when I asked the morning wait-staff for a latte they just pointed me to the pod espresso machine. Hmmm. The breads were just okay, the fruit was clearly canned, and most of the cold meats looked unappetizing. The wait staff’s behavior was bizarre, they never asked if they could get us anything, yet hovered around the tables all the while. Upon leaving we found two sad looking sparkling wines in a bucket of cold water, untouched.

Unlike other Starwood properties, this hotel never sent out a questionnaire on our experience. We have been to two other Le Meridien properties in Paris and Vienna and both outshone this one many times over. The construction does not excuse the poor management evident at this particular hotel and I can’t see a good reason to go back. Not recommended.

Eric stumbled upon this B&B when we got tired of researching Brussels hotels and decided to explore the small inn options.

After a rather hectic morning, Matthieu politely greeted us at the door and showed us promptly to our well-appointed room on the third floor. Interestingly, the keys were radio controlled so no giant wood blocks in my purse!

The room was beautiful with several windows along one wall affording us lots of natural light. The huge bathroom had double sinks, a large rainwater shower head, deep soaking tub and the same lovely L’occitane shampoos and soaps we had in Bruges. Matthieu was helpful about suggesting places to eat or get a drink and both recommendations he gave us, Royal Brasserie and Mort Subite, were great experiences. The B&B location is very quiet and only a few blocks from lots of restaurants in St. Katherine’s Square.

Breakfast is handled a bit differently here (in a good way) as it’s a made-to-order setup. Our table was stocked with fresh-squeezed orange juice, croissants, jam and hot milk as needed for my coffee; we just had to tell Brandon how we liked our eggs. Yum. All while viewing this beautiful stained glass window. I would highly recommend this place for anyone staying in Brussels.

our very comfy bed in our absolutely gigantic room

Our first morning in Brussels was under a cold drizzle and we had one heck of a time finding a specific museum that was only supposed to be a few blocks from our hotel. The streets here made us remember (not fondly) how difficult it was to get around in Paris two years ago. However, after much map reading, we finally got our bearings and enjoyed a few hours at the Mexican celebration at BOZAR.

Our next stop was the highly anticipated Magritte Museum! We walked in only to be told they didn’t sell tickets on property, so we went on another search to find the main ticket office a block away. We stood in line for several minutes, got cut in on by two well-dressed middle-aged women (who pretended to not understand why I was upset that they blatantly cut in front of us) and then were told by the sales lady that the tickets were timed and we couldn’t enter until 4pm – it was 1pm – and the museum was only open until 5pm. But, she said, our tickets would be half price. We quickly decided that half-priced tickets were fine for an hour and then she rang us up at full price, 16 Euros.

The next bit of conversation went like this:

Me: Wait a second. Didn’t you just say tickets that late were half-price?
Crazy Ticket Lady: No.
Me: (looking at Eric who heard exactly the same thing I did)
CTL: I would not have said that.
Me: (giving her an incredulous look) So, you are going to charge us full price for just an hour.
CTL: Yes.
Eric: We’re outta here.

At least there was a Belgian waffle truck nearby to cheer me up.

At this point, we had pretty much had it with this side of town, so we grabbed our stuff and headed over to St Kathrine’s Square and our bed for the next two nights, Maison Noble.

St Kathrine’s Square – much quieter here

Once we settled in and checked our email, we walked around exploring the northwest section of Brussels down Grand Place and Mannekin Pis (who was not dressed up, boo).

Brussels Town Hall – does it bother anyone else that it’s not symmetrical? It drove Eric crazy.

Grand Place

On day two, we got a 24-hour subway pass and headed back west to see some of the parks, churches and landmarks outside of the old city.

Les Arcades du Cinquantenaire

Although we found Brussels difficult to navigate, Eric managed to memorize a route from our hotel to many of the main landmarks, so it made getting around on our side of town much easier. The beer helped, I’m sure.

This past weekend, Eric put me to work helping him weed and do general clean-up duty around the yard. He only has a small window of work time with me because once the mosquitos get bad, I am inside for the rest of the season!

On Sunday, we tackled the brick patio that had slowly been shifting due to a tree root growing where it wasn’t supposed to.

I will cause you and your guests to trip and fall. Ha! Ha!

a super-highway system of roots under the patio

Of course, the root coverage was a lot more expansive than we had originally thought so a lot of bricks had to come out. But, the bonus was finding a ton of earthworms and transferring them to my raised bed. Another bonus was that we could do all the work in the shade during this time of year.

hooray for hatchets and other sharp garden tools

Eric put his focus on the difficult task of fixing a sunken part of the patio near the house and one section in front of the grill while I put the main part of the patio back together. It’s not perfectly even, but it looks way better than it did and we are no longer tripping on the bricks.

smooth and (mostly) flat

A very satisfying weekend despite my snarky post title. :)

We landed in Brussels at 7:30am and by 10am we were unpacking in our hotel room in Bruges. Not too shabby!

It was very easy to take the train from the airport to Brussels Nord, then switch trains for the hour-or-so train ride to Bruges. Upon arriving, we decided to take the bus to Markt Square in the center of old town, but found that for the price, it wasn’t worth the time it saved. We found the hotel with no trouble (not bad after less than 4 hours sleep between the two of us) and after freshening up we hit the pavement.

The main thing we did in Bruges was wander around enjoying all the canals and narrow streets. When our legs got tired, we found a place to stop and have a beer, croque monsieur and/or a waffle.

Before we left, I had read about the city trying to reduce the number of cars inside the walls, thereby explaining the sheer number of buses that loop into Markt Square, but there were cars everywhere! Even down streets that you would think couldn’t possibly be passable. So, between the lories, cars and folks on bikes, you really had to watch where you were going as a pedestrian lest you be run over by something.

one of the wider streets in Bruges

loved these canal views; the tourist boats were going non-stop

Markt Square highlighted by a brief few hours of sunshine

residences on the canal

So, I think it’s obvious from the photos that we drank quite a lot of beer on this trip and very rarely did we come across something that we didn’t like. Here’s the entire list and where we tried each beer.

L’Estiminet (Bruges)
Leffe bruin

De Garre (Bruges)
De Garre Tripel (house beer),  Gulden Draak

Cambrinus (Bruges)
Duchesse de Bourgogne, Gauloise, Tongerlo Bruin, Petrus Dubbel Bruin

Oud Brugge (Bruges)
Brugse Zot (blonde and bruin – only beer brewed in Bruges)

Smatch Grocery Store (Bruges)
Lindeman’s Framboise, Timmerman’s Peach Lambic

O’Reilly’s Irish Pub (Brussels)
Guinness, Strongbow (what? it counts!)

Delirium Cafe (Brussels)
OMER., Trapistes Rochefort 10, Delirium Tremens (house beer), Floris Kriek Lambic, Buffalo Belgian Stout

Poechenellekelder (Brussels)
Nostradamus, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Forestinne Primoria

Royal Brasserie (Brussels)
Bourgogne de Flanders, Maredsous Bruin

A La Mort Subite (Brussels)
Grimbergen Bruin, Westmalle Dubbel, Ciney Blonde, Mort Subite Framboise (house lambic)

That makes a grand total of 27 different beers!  We paced ourselves well and I’d like to think that all the walking we did counteracted some of the alcohol. :) My second favorite part (drinking beer is the best part, of course) was getting a special glass for each beer.

Cheers!