Marvelous Thai noodle soup: two NOIs in the Brussels area

A bowl of noodle soup at a Thai restaurant must be a great lunch menu for every one.  I like a Thai noodle soup more than an Italian spaghetti.  Of course, what I most like in terms of a noodle dish is a Japanese Ramen.  Today, what I would like to say is the most delicious Thai noodle soup that I have ever experienced the Brussels area.

I have recently tasted two same kind of Thai noodle soups.  Several months ago, I went to a Thai restaurant named "Noi" at Wavre with my colleagues.  When I heard from one of them that we can have Thai noodle soups as long as we can at a noodle soup price, I guessed that the noodle soup would be a unsavory dish for hungry people who do not care about taste.  We drove from Brussels to Wavre about 30 minutes.  When we entered the restaurant, we were surprised at the scene that people were lined up at a noodle cart to get noodle soups.  It looked like that homeless people were in line to get free food from a relief organization.  Despite the bizarre scene, we joined the line to taste the noodle soups.  For each person, the dispensing chef put a small chunk of noodles, toppings, and soup in a bowl.  Each person could add seasons on the noodle soup.  We returned to our table and tasted.  It was marvelous.  We gulped the noodle soups without a word.  We went back to the noodle soup cart to get another bowl.  We again gulped them.  We went back to the cart to get another bowl.  It was an unbelievable experience.  

http://www.noicomptoirdury.be/

I told my wife and kids about the noodle.  They asked me to take them to the restaurant too.  But, the magic noodles were served only during lunch hours.  I could not take my family to the restaurant.  While I pondered over how I let my family taste the magic noodle, I heard from one of my colleagues that there is another Noi at Linkebeek to which my house is close.  This Friday, one of the Easter holidays, I went to Noi at Linkebeek with my family.  Noi at Linkebeek was equipped with the exactly same concept with Noi at Wavre.  However, Noi at Linkebeek was run by Thais, whereas Noi at Wavre was operated by Belgians.  In addition, Noi at Linkebeek provided more noodles and toppings for bowl than did Noi at Wavre.  Thus, we did not need to go back to the noodle soup cart three times.  This time two rounds of noodle soups were enough.  And, Thais at Linkebeek were more friendly and nicer than Belgians at Wavre.  My family and I were satisfied with the magic noodles at Linkebeek.  While coming back to my house, my kids urged me to take them to Noi at Linkebeek next week again.

http://www.noi.be/

Routeyou

I have enjoyed riding a bike especially with my kids.  It is known that Belgium has a number of good place for riding bikes.  Actually, a lot of Belgians seem to enjoy biking.  However, as an expat, I have difficulty in locating good places for biking with my kids.  Today, I have found a great website containing many great biking routes.

www.routeyou.com

However, this website seems to only have biking and hiking routes.  Actually, I have looked for kayaking routes around Brussels.  If someone knows a great route for kayaking, please let me know.  Thanks in advance.

Skiing in Alpbach

This is the third year of visiting Alpbach to ski.  I guess that now I am a little bit familiar with Alpbach and can say something about Alpbach (www.alpbach.at).

Alpbach is a small village of Tyrol, Austria.  From Brussels to Alpbach, it took more than 11 hours, although Google Map says that it takes 8.5 hours.  There were several road construction areas in Southern Germany through which we had to pass and there were heavy traffic jams around the border between Germany and Austria.

It seems that Alpbach ski resort named after the name of village Alpbach.  However, there is no decent ski slope except a nursery / practice slope in Alpbach village.  Two Gondola lanes that take skiers to ski slopes start from Wiederbergerhorn, a bus stop on the road to Alpbach village and from Inneralpbach.  Of course, there are several lifts in the middle of the mountain.

Alpbach ski resort seems to include not only Alpbach village and Inneralpbach but also Reith im Alpachital and Kramsach.  However, main ski slopes can be accessed from Wiederbergenhorn and Inneralpbach.  By car, it takes 20 minutes from Reith im Alpachital and 30 minutes from Kramsach to Inneralpbach.

In Kramsach, there is no decent ski slope.  Although Alpbach ski slopes map says that there are ski slopes in Kramsach, the slopes are barely operative.  In Reith im Alpachital, there is a gondola lane and a good nursery slope.

Last two years, my family stayed in Kramsach.  This time we rent a holiday apartment in Reith im Alpachital.  Kramsach is smaller and less developed than Reith im Alpachital.  Reith im Alpachital looked smaller than Alpbach but cozier and more beautiful than the other nearby villages.  However, it is not easy to get an accommodation in Reith im Alpachital.

Many Austrian people in Alpbach, Inneralpbach, and Reith im Alpachital can speak English. Although most visitors are German skiers, Dutch and English skiers were also noticed.  

I put my kids into a ski school named "Ski school Alpbach-Inneralpbach (http://en.skischule-alpbach.at)," whenever I came to Alpbach ski resort.  The ski school provides several programs according to skiers' skills.  The programs usually begin on Sunday.  Joining on Monday seems to be acceptable.  On Friday, the ski school has its students attend races.  Regardless of their records, they can get certificates and medals.  These certificates and medals are a good gift for kids.

How to get Swiss Family Card

This summer my family went to Jungfraujoch and Schilthorn with my brother's family.  The two families consisted of four adults and three kids.  We had to buy some type of Swiss Passes in order to get discounts in using transports for going up to the two mountains.  It was very expensive to buy each ticket for cable cars or trains without help of Swiss Passes.  There are several types of Swiss Passes.  Because we took cars to Switzerland, we did not need regular Swiss Passes.  I narrowed the several options of Swiss Passes to two: Jungfrau VIP Pass and Half-Fare Card.  After pondering over the pros and cons of the two discount passes during several weeks, I decided Half-Fare Card for the trip.  I will explain why I chose Half-Fare Card instead of Jungfrau VIP Pass.

According to the official Switzerland Tourist Office's website (www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html), if Half-Fare Card is combined with Swiss Family Card, kids do not need to pay transport fares.  So, I ordered four Half-Fare Card and three Swiss Family Card online.  A few days later, I received a DHL envelope containing the tickets.  When I received the tickets, I did not count the number of the tickets, assuming that all tickets that I had ordered were included,  A day before leaving for Switzerland, I checked the tickets.  Oh my god, only four Half-Fare Cards were included in the package.  They did not send Swiss Family Cards to me.  I did not have time to get the Family Card from Switzerland Tourist Office by mail.  Believing its website's message that I can get the Family Card at any transportation station in Switzerland, next day, we left for Luzern.  After seeing around Luzern, I visited a Luzern train station.  I looked for an  information center at the station.  However, around 4:00 p.m., the information center was already closed.  I was frustrated at the moment.  And, I visited a SBB booth just to know where I could get Swiss Family Cards.  SBB staff had them.  For the Family Cards, a SBB lady asked me for my kids' identifications.  After checking my kids' names and dates of birth, she simply put down the names and dates of birth on blank Swiss Family Cards.

Actually, unlike their names, Half-Fare Card and Swiss Family Card do not look like cards.  I had thought that the two cards' shape would have resembled that of a credit card.  The two cards looked like goofy airplane tickets.

Despite the goofy appearance of the Family Card, it was quite useful.  Whenever I took trains or cable cars, I did not worry about my kids' fares.

Don't need to buy a ticket to walk around windmills of Kinderdijk

I have visited Kinderdijk three times so far to see dutch windmills.  Whenever I have visited there, I have purchased tickets to enter the area where windmills are located.  There are 18 windmills and only one windmill is still operative. 

When I visited there for the first time in 2012, I purchased tickets at the ticket office.  I did not experience anything strange there.  For second time, when I visited there with my brother-in-law two weeks ago, I purchased tickets online in advance in order to get discounts.  After arriving at the site, I showed the print-out tickets at the ticket office.  An old man at the ticket office asked me to go to a tourist center which was over a canal in order to get the tickets scanned.  It sounded really silly.  The ticket office did not have a scanner to read tickets that were purchased online.  I asked my brother-in-law's family and my family to stay in front of the ticket office and went to the tourist center to get the tickets scanned.  At the tourist center, an old lady asked to watch a video at the center.  In order to watch the video regarding the dutch windmills, I had to go to the ticket office to bring my families to the tourist center.  It was really troublesome.  I gave up watching the video and returned to the ticket office.  I told the old man that I had my tickets scanned and he just let us in the area where the dutch windmills were without ensuring the tickets were scanned.  It looked strange.  Anyway, we took some pictures and my kids rode bikes there. 

A week later, I went there again with my brother's family.  This time I did not purchase tickets online in advance in order not to commute between the ticket office and the tourist center.  In addition, my brother and his kid did not like to watch a documentary film.  Thus, I purchased tickets at the ticket office and entered the windmills area.  Again we took some pictures there.  This time, we got into a windmill that was operating with the tickets and had an opportunity to see inside of the windmill.  After seeing inside of the windmill, I thought that the ticket might be to get into the windmill, not enter the area of windmills.  When we returned to the ticket office to move to somewhere, I heard from other tourists that they did not need buy tickets to walk around in the area of windmills and the tickets were to get into the windmill that is still operative.  I felt like being betrayed.  The website for the windmills of Kinderdijk (www.kinderdijk.com) says that tourists should buy tickets in order to enter the area where 18 windmills are.

Paris Museum Pass vs Individual tickets purchased online

Unlike my brother-in-law's family, my brother's family did not want to buy Paris Museum Passes, claiming that they wanted to visit only Musée d'Orsay, Musée de l'Orangerie, and Palace of Versailles.  When comparing the price of a two-day Paris Museum Pass (39 euro) and those of individual tickets for the three attractions (34 euro = 18 euro + 16 euro), they were right.  Thus, when I tried to purchase two tickets of combination of Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie online on behalf of them, it was a little bit different from it was known.  Each combination ticket was supposed to cost 16 euro.  However, if we purchased it online, we had to pay a processing fee of 1.6 euro as an extra cost.  Well, it could be understandable because this was French way.  Another surprising thing is that even if I purchased the tickets online, the website did not give me the tickets that can be used in museums.  In other words, I had to visit a third place, not museums, to get real tickets.  My brother and I had to visit Auchan, a French supermarket, to get the purchased tickets in the morning.  The supermarket was supposed to open at 08:30 a.m.  However, it opened at 09:00 a.m.  An employee in charge of tickets for museums and other events did not know how to operate the computerized system to print out my tickets.  She made a call to somewhere to operate the system. When I got the tickets, it was almost 10:00 a.m.  Why do we buy tickets online?  It is to avoid a long queue to buy tickets in front of a museum.  I wasted 1.5 hours to get my tickets that I purchased online even though I paid 1.6 euro processing fee.  If I had purchased the tickets in front of museum, I could have saved time and money.  I guess that this system is to make tourists buy Paris Museum Passes.

Hike the Alps

Two weeks later, I will take my family and my brother's family to Luzern, Switzerland.  We plan to go up to both Schilthorn and Jungfraujoch and hike some trails too.  My wife does not like hiking.  But, my brother and I love it.  I have consulted Rick Steves's book in priming for this trip.  We have decided to take easy trails that Rick Steves recommended.  His book does not show detailed trail maps.  I know that I should buy hiking trail maps in Lauterbrunnen.  However, before leaving for Luzern, I need to have some general image about hiking.  So, I have googled to search for good trail maps.  I found out good trail maps for Schilthorn hiking and for Jungfrau hiking.

Schilthorn trail map: www.schilthorn.ch/en/hiking
Jungfrau trail map: www.swissholidayco.com/page/KLEINE_SCHEIDEGG

In addition, I have found a website providing general information about hiking in the Alps (www.hikethealps.com).

Fishing in the North Sea

My family went fishing in the North Sea in July 13.  This sea fishing is for the first time in my life, my wife's life, and my kids' lives.  Actually, this fishing was organized by my colleagues several months ago.  The initial plan was that my colleagues and their families of 50 people would participate in the event and charter a boat.  However, we postponed this plan because of bad weather.

When my colleagues re-organized this fishing event in July, the number of participants decreased to 13.  Some already left for their summer vacations.  Some seemed to feel uncomfortable when they were asked to prepare snacks for their families (They were not supposed to prepare anything when a bigger group was organized).

My colleagues contacted Franlis, a sea fishing company in Ostend of Belgium and reserved 13 seats.  We rent fishing rods and reels from the company.  Even they gave us baits.  What I took for fishing were a small knife to slice baits, an ice box, beers, and some snacks. 

www.franlis.be/seafishing/concept

We were asked to arrive at Port Ostend around 6:30 a.m. because a fishing boat was scheduled to leave the port at 7:00 a.m.  It took two hours the boat to go out to the middle of the sea.   Even though the weather was excellent for fishing, it was a little bit chilly.  We made several cups of coffee because we could use electricity in the boat.  The boat traced schools of fish with its radar.  When the boat reached a school of fish, its captain honked and we threw the lines in the water.












One of my colleagues caught more than 20 fish.  My family caught only 7.  However, my kids looked really excited.  My wife did not know how to clean the fish.  So, she wanted to keep only two cods and gave the rest of them to others.  When we returned to the port, it was around 5:00 p.m.

Travelers' web guides

I think that we all know of "tripadvisor".  Sometimes, we need complement information to convince ourselves of our preliminary itineraries.  If such complement information is provided by professional travellers in an organized manner, the information would make us feel comfortable before leaving for unfamiliar places.  Fodor seems to play such role.

www.fodors.com

Searching for cheap airplane tickets

A couple of weeks ago, my colleague in the UK visited Brussels.  We had a good time of discussing our work and drinking.  I let hime know my knowhow of camping in Europe and in return, he let me know how to search for cheap airplane tickets.  This website looks bettern than Expedia or Kayak.

http://www.skyscanner.net/

Kayaking in Ghent

My dream in the near future is to sail a canal or river in Belgium with my family without making any trouble with transporting and sailing kayaks and returning an starting point.  Considering the concerns, I have searched out a number of web pages and I found out an interesting website.  And, I made a tentative conclusion that Flanders is better than Wallonia in paddling with my own kayaks.  This summer, I will try paddling in Ghent. 

http://www.kajaktourtochten.be/

Hallerbos

Brussels has few attractions compared to other metropolitan cities of Europe.  Manneken Pis and Grand Place are quite disappointing.  I heard from my colleagues, however, that there is a hidden gem nearby Brussels.  This is bluebell flowers in Halle's forest.  Every April the forest is covered with bluebell flowers.  Today, I went there with my wife and kids.  The beds of bluebell flowers looked amazing.  My kids enjoyed riding of bicycles between the bluebell flowers beds.  However, it is not easy to reach there because GPS navigation systems cannot pin point the forest.  After I selected anywhere of hallerbosstraat in Halle (1500) in my TomTom because I could not have a specific house number, I drove to hallerbosstraat.  I saw a sign leading tourists to Hallerbos.

http://www.hallerbos.be/bloeigegevens_2013.html

Campsites I have ever visited in Europe

Since 2011 when I came to Belgium, I have visited four campsites: Campofeliche in Switzerland, Alpencamping in Austria, Strandcamp​ing Groede in the Netherlands, and de l'Anse du Brick in France.  Of course, these are not representative campsites for each country.  I selected these campsites with my own criteria: at least three stars and higher than 8.0 points in the customer reviews of ACSI campings.  So, generally, my choices are not bad according to my kids' evaluation on the campsites. 


Campofeliche in Switzerland

This campsite is located at the southern end of Switzerland, very close to Italy.  The campsite is so confident in its scale that it does not take reservation.  According to its staff, campers do not need to make a reservation even during the hot season.  Its pitches are well-organized.  Its sanitation facilities are super clean.  Its staff works in professional manner.  But, it does not have outdoor swimming pool.  Lake Maggiore is its own natural swimming pool.  There is a small playground for kids.

http://www.campofelice.ch/


Alpencamping in Austria

This campsite is located at the west end of Austria, very close to Liechtenstein.  This campsite is overall small.  Each pitch is also small.  I could not park my car on my pitch.  I needed to take back my car on a parking lot after unloading my luggage.  How inconvenient!  This campsite has its own small indoor and outdoor swimming pools.  Actually, two swimming pools are interconnected.  Toilets, shower rooms, and sinks are clean.  Its staff were not as nice and kind as the other campsites I have visited.  There are two playgrounds for kids, but all of them looked a little bit crude.  Most campers are German and Austrian.

http://www.alpencamping.at/


Strandcamp​ing Groede in the Netherlands

This dutch campsite is close to Brugge of Belgium.  This campsite is established on a huge plain and has a number of pitches.  There are few trees to make shade.  Each pitch is well managed.  Its staff is quite professional.  Several playgrounds are for kids.  Especially, my kids enjoyed trampolines.  A beach is within walking distance.  But, wind around this area seems to be almost always quite strong.  I had difficulty in setting up a tarp to make shade.  Most campers are Dutch and German. 

http://www.strandcampinggroede.nl


de l'Anse du Brick in France

This campsite is in lower Normandy.  It took about two hours to get Mont-Saint-Michel from the campsite.  Overall, the campsite is not big.  But, each pitch is quite big enough to encompass a tent, a tarp, and a car.  There are three swimming pools.  One is indoor pool.  My kids really enjoyed a slide in a pool.  Some adults looked crazy in sliding in the pool too.  :)  A beach is within walking distance and I could hear the sound of waves from the beach.  All staff is nice and kind.  Campers' ethnicity looks diverse: English, German, French, Dutch, and Belgian.

http://www.anse-du-brick.com

Duinrell in the Netherlands

This is the best campsite that I have ever visited, even though it a little bit expensive.  Duinrell has not only an indoor swimming pool but also amusement park with several kinds of roller coaster.

www.duinrell.com/

360 degree panoramic views

Trips need many things: money, time, energy, and patience.  So, when we plan to visit attractions in which we have never been, we are inclined to rely on websites introducing the attractions and ask others who are familiar with the attractions in order to avoid wasting money, time, and energy and losing temper.  But, in many cases, tourism websites attract tourists with well-taken pictures of scenic spots; which have quite often misled tourists.  Many people may have some experiences of being disappointed at big discrepancies between the pictures and the actual scenes.

However, here is a good solution to such problem.  We can see 360 degree of scenic spots without being deceived by glossing pictures capturing only one dimension of a scene.  While making a trip plan to Normandy of France, I discovered an excellent website providing panoramic views.

http://www.360cities.net/

Kayaking in Belgium

I bought two kayaks in the U.S. two years ago for my family.  Here in Belgium I have not discovered good places for kayaking until yesterday.  There are good rivers for kayaking in Belgium, such as  River Ourthe and River Lesse.  But, these are "rivers" where water runs one way.  How can I bring back my kayaks to my car parked at a starting point after enjoying kayaking?  Some experts say that kayaking on river requires two vehicles to transport kayaks. Let's suppose that there two persons who want to enjoying kayaking on river.  They drive their cars separately to a certain point around a river and put down their kayaks there.  They drive their cars to a destination point and park a car there.  They return to the starting point with the other car.  They enjoy paddling downstream.  Then they load their kayaks on the car parked at the destination point, return to the starting point, and leave together with their cars.   It is a quite complicated process.  What if there is no second car available?  Then, we can use a bike.  When you leave for kayaking, you need to load not only kayaks but also a bike on a car.  Arriving at a starting point, you need to unload kayaks and your co-kayakers.  You drive your car with the bike to a destination point, park the car there, and return to the startingpoint, riding the bike.  And, you can enjoy padding to the destination point and load the kayaks on the car.  You drive back to the starting point and bring back the bike.  This is also quite complicated.  And, if the distance between the starting point and the destination point is quite long, then riding a bike between the two points makes a kayaker exhausted before paddling.  That is why kayak rental services are provided around rivers.  Kayakers who rent kayaks don't need to come back to a starting point to take a car or a bike.  All that they should do is just enjoying paddling downstream.  But, it is expensive to rent a kayak (e.g., 10 to 20 euros for an hour).

http://www.belgiumtheplaceto.be/outdoor_activities_kayaking.php

Then, is there no place for kayakers who own kayaks in Belgium?  Of course, coast wise paddling is a good option.  There are nice beaches and shores in Belgium, such as De Panne and Ostend.  But, kids are afraid of paddling on shores because of big waves.  Another option is paddling on a lake.  Is there a lake in Belgium?  You may say that "I have never heard about a lake in Belgium and Belgium is not Switzerland".  But there are a few lake in Belgium and you can enjoy kayaking there.  I discovered a website that we can enjoy paddling on Les Lacs de l’Eau d’Heure.  According to the website, we can rent kayaks and use our own kayaks there.  So, gladly I visited "Espace fun - Laurent Hubeaux" with my family.  The lake - Les Lacs de l’Eau d’Heure - looked excellent.  The facility - Espcae fun - provided kayak-rental service but does not allow me to access their own shore with my own kayak.  What a disappointing.  That was different from their advertisement!

http://www.lacsdeleaudheure.be/leh-fr/de-25-activites/eau/kayak/index.html

I did not want to frustrate my wife and kids and drove back a little bit downward.  I found out a decent shore where many people were doing picnic and swimming and some of them were riding inflatable kayaks.  There are many small-size wind yachts too.  It was wonderful.  We enjoyed kayaking on the peaceful lake more than 2 hours.

Three Different Kinds of Public Transportation Lines in Brussels

There are three different kinds of public transportation lines in Brussels.  Some people may think that those lines are subways, tramps, and buses.  Of course, there are subways, tramps, and buses in Brussels as in any other European cities.  What I am going to talk about is a little bit different dimention in public transporation in Brussels.  This unique characteristic of public transportation systems of Brussels originates from two different language areas.

All subways, tramps, and buses running within Brussels-Capital Region are run by STIB-MIVB.  Buses connecting Wallonia to Brussels are operated by TEC whereas those linking between Flanders and Brussels-Capital Region are run by De Lijn.

Why is it important for us?  That is because we cannot use STIB-MIVB tickets in either TEC buses or De Lijn buses.  Tickets for either TEC buses or De Lijn cannot be used for STIB-MIVB buses.  However, don't worry.  There is an omnipotent ticket.  This is cash.  If you did not buy a ticket before getting in a bus or a tram, you can buy a ticket from a driver.  In a subway, you cannot buy a ticket because you cannot approach a driver.  Ticket inspection in a subway is very low likelihood.  Ticket inspection is done in a subway station, not within a subway car.