Our first driving trip in Europe. Destination: Duffel.
“So you know how to get there right?†I asked.
“Just take the signs for E19, then I’ll know the way.â€
There was a national strike in Belgium on Friday and there were no trains, so we were worried about traffic, but it turned out there was more traffic leaving Dordrecht than in all of Belgium. It seems the Belgian workforce had pre-empted the strikers by simply taking the day off.
Without a radio we had to entertain ourselves by asking each other what we thought would be good trivia questions for the quiz that night. Between that and Ann feeding me crackers with pepper cheese, I have to say it was a pretty enjoyable hour and a half to Duffel.
Unfortunately, all our preparation didn’t help us much for the quiz. There were 26 teams, all packed into the same small smoky room as last year. But this time the questions were much harder. There were the same categories on every round, and there was one category (60s, 70s, or 80s) where we had to guess the correct decade that things happened. Things like John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s love-in. The year that driver’s licenses were introduced in Belgium. The year that alcohol testing for drivers was instituted. When did the Native Americans take over the Sioux reservation where Wounded Knee took place.
All of those we got wrong.
We were hovering at 7th place through most of the quiz, and somehow dropped to ninth place in the last two rounds. I have to say, having to ask all the time for my teammates to repeat the questions in English, and not being able to contribute to any of the word puzzles or Belgian-related questions made it not so fun.
The funniest theme of the evening was when Katja revealed that the reason she and Roeland were tearing up the score sheet with correct answers was that they were now both taking Omega-3 fish pills that increased their memory and concentration. The remainder of the evening was spent asking Katja if we could score some fish pills, or if the fish pills had kicked in yet, or whether she was seeing the pretty colors yet.
Saturday we drove to town called Wijnegem where they have an honest to God shopping mall. Rooftop parking lots, long corridors with few escalators, kids performing on small stages at the junctures, it was just like being back in America.
Well, not exactly. Instead of a food court, they had actual restaurants spaced out over the mall, and they all looked really nice. That, plus everyone was smoking and there wasn’t a single Electronics Boutique, JC Penny’s, Sears, Lord and Taylor, Wet Seal, or Foot Locker in sight, kind of broke the illusion.
Saturday night the Belgian team got their asses handed to them by the Spanish team, eliminating any chance of making it to the World Cup next year. But I missed most of the game because I went to see a movie with Geert. We saw the Brother’s Grimm (see review).
Overall, a successful road trip. We ate Belgian fries, reawakened our consumer urges, participated in a quiz, and saw movies.
