As my Fulbright stint in Poland was coming to an end, I blogged more and more frequently -- seemed like I had a lot of experiences I wanted to process, thoughts worth recording, ideas I wanted to share.
Then we left and went on a 6-day bike ride from Brussels to the North Sea. And I have to admit that 1) staying off the computer for that week, and most of the following week, was incredibly refreshing and 2) the green Belgian landscape, and the beer we quaffed not once but twice a day as we cycled through it, has erased much of what was on my mind as I left Warsaw.
Which I have to assume is a good thing.
Fulbright will take some time to process -- I was in mourning the night we left Europe, and I still wish I didn't have to drive around the U.S. in an automobile -- but the benefits of landscape on memory may last a lifetime as well.
Belgium at 17-22 kilometers an hour (these were bikes built for comfort, not for speed!) was just perfect. Medieval villages and cities, churchyards and old monasteries, the careful engineering of the lowland countryside with its fields, farms, and livestock, and only a few rainshowers.
We made occasional stops for a beer, an ice cream, or to ask directions of the always kind but not particularly chatty locals. We read the touring company's instructions and tried to follow them. We rode single file on country roads and bicycling lanes along the Landelijke Fietroutes (Belgian long distance biking routes) through Flanders.
In other words, for six days I didn't do much talking. And after four months of pacing back and forth in front of my Warsaw University students, lecturing and prodding but usually answering my own questions rather than getting a lot of participation from the hall, it was nice to have silence around me and in my head.
I have missed writing, and I will get back to it. But in the meantime I want to celebrate the Belgian countryside, the fresh strawberries and milk from roadside automats, the lovely beer (did I mention Belgian beer yet?), the sheep and deer and cows and chickens...
From the Ohio countryside, lush and damp this time of year, I will cherish my memories of the Belgian landscape.
As long as they stick with me, at any rate.
Then we left and went on a 6-day bike ride from Brussels to the North Sea. And I have to admit that 1) staying off the computer for that week, and most of the following week, was incredibly refreshing and 2) the green Belgian landscape, and the beer we quaffed not once but twice a day as we cycled through it, has erased much of what was on my mind as I left Warsaw.
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| Photo from behind, taken by my fabulous daughter. |
Fulbright will take some time to process -- I was in mourning the night we left Europe, and I still wish I didn't have to drive around the U.S. in an automobile -- but the benefits of landscape on memory may last a lifetime as well.
Belgium at 17-22 kilometers an hour (these were bikes built for comfort, not for speed!) was just perfect. Medieval villages and cities, churchyards and old monasteries, the careful engineering of the lowland countryside with its fields, farms, and livestock, and only a few rainshowers.
We made occasional stops for a beer, an ice cream, or to ask directions of the always kind but not particularly chatty locals. We read the touring company's instructions and tried to follow them. We rode single file on country roads and bicycling lanes along the Landelijke Fietroutes (Belgian long distance biking routes) through Flanders.
In other words, for six days I didn't do much talking. And after four months of pacing back and forth in front of my Warsaw University students, lecturing and prodding but usually answering my own questions rather than getting a lot of participation from the hall, it was nice to have silence around me and in my head.
 |
| Water, chips, or fresh strawberries? That's an easy one. |
From the Ohio countryside, lush and damp this time of year, I will cherish my memories of the Belgian landscape.
As long as they stick with me, at any rate.
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