I’ve actually been home a couple of days now and have pretty much gotten back onto the Pocatello time schedule. I’ve also had time to load up some of the pictures from the trip. Click on the "Pictures" link on the right and then select "Belgium — May 2004". The picture management program on this computer is pretty poor (Microsoft Photo Editor) and consequently, many of the pictures are too dark, skewed, and pixelated. Next week when I get a better program, I’ll redo many of these pictures and they’ll get better.

The trip was very interesting and far too short. There was a lot to do and not much time available to do it in. I had some opportunity to look around and take pictures on Sunday, early Monday morning, and then again on Monday everning. Otherwise, my time was completely occupied. I spent Sunday through Tuesday night in Gent at the Sofitel Hotel right in the middle of downtown Gent. Most travellers spend their last night in Belgium at an airport hotel at the Brussels Airport. This is because the traffic around Brussels in the mornings is very intense and the checkin times at the airport is quite early. So, I was scheduled to spend Wednesday night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Brussels Airport. The problem was, Thursday was a holiday (Ascension Day) in most of Europe and many people were taking Friday off as well to make a 4-day weekend. It seemed that literally all of Holland was going southeast to the mountains and everyone in the southeast was headed northwest to the seashore and most of them were travelling on Wednesday evening.

The folks at the office suggested that I take a round about route to the east side of Brussels so that I would only be in the heavy traffic for a couple of hours. The route took me through a part of French-speaking Belgium and was a very pleasant drive until I met up with the traffic. I then spent a couple of hours moving at about 3 to 5 miles an hour in massive traffic — and each direction looked exactly the same. It was quite reminiscent of some trips in Japan on holidays!

The move schedule has changed somewhat. The folks in the house we’re buying in Pocatello haven’t yet been to Plano, Texas, to do their own househunting. Consequently, they’ve asked for a closing date after they have found a place to move into, or August 21st, whichever comes first. As a result, our furnishings will go into storage and we’ll move into temporary housing here when we get back on June 18th.

We’ll go to Church at our new Ward on Sunday (they meet at 9 a.m.) and then we’ll drive to Soda Springs to spend a few hours with my folks. Nina will leave on Monday morning early to drive back to Colorado Springs. She’ll then be Home Again as well!