Day 16: First Day in Belgium

Sunday, April 30, 2017

          Today was our only day in Belgium, and I really liked it. Belgium is such a nice place, besides all the beer cans and broken glass in the morning. We got up pretty early to get an early start, not realizing that 1 It was Sunday and 2 it was 6am and nothing is open at 6am. I had avoided thinking about all of the scavenges because the book had so much stuff in it for a SHORTER amount of time than we spent in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka leg was extremely hard to win, and we were constantly on the move. For this, I’m sure it will be like that, just more. Today was a good way to start scavenging for the Europe leg.
          While we were at the train station getting some help from Sonia, the helpful but intimidating lady at the station, we saw teams Thundersnow and Travelling Bohemians. We all decided to go around Belgium together. First we went to Mass with the Travelling Bohemians, while team Thundersnow went to try a waffle. They never came back so we left and went to the station hoping to see them there but we did not.
          Thankfully, we saw them when we got off all together in Antwerp. One of the scavenges was to get ice cream in the nicest train station in the world, which Catherine and I had no problem with. The ice cream tasted like really think whip cream, but it was still ice cream so we ate it. We all decided on a time to meet back at the station and said, “If someone doesn’t show up it’s ok to just leave.” So we all split up.
          Antwerp was nice to see because it’s Belgium, but some of the stuff we did was not the most interesting. The most interesting thing we did was probably walking through an underground tunnel that led to the other side of the river, and then walk back. The escalators looked like wood which I thought was pretty neat. When we got back to the train station only Greg and Catherine were there. Even when we got on the train we couldn’t find team Thundersnow, so we headed out to our next city: Ghent.
          When we got to Ghent we all went to some courtyard to have ice cream AGAIN!!!!! This ice cream was actual ice cream, and it was very very good. I will always remember the time I was in Belgium and got ice cream twice in a day while travelling XC (cross country). Ghent was probably the coolest city in Belgium we went to. We walked through this alley with walls that were covered in graffiti, I tried fries and mayo (which is actually good), and we went on a water taxi.
So as I mentioned it’s Sunday so lots of things open late and close early, that’s also just Belgium. But when we got to Burge, our third and final city of the day, we were worried about everything being closed and missing the final train back to Brussels. We had about 1 ½ hours to scavenge, so the Travelling Bohemians went and got dinner while we rode bikes up to this windmill. It was very tiring, as I am a terrible biker, so I thought it would be a really big windmill. It was just a normal older windmill that was closed off to people. We rushed back to the train station and we learned that there was an earlier train than the time we had originally planned to meet. We also learned that that was actually the last train going back to Brussels so we were worried the Travelling Bohemians wouldn’t make it.
          We ended up seeing team Thundersnow at the station so we agreed to go back with them as well. We looked at the original platform for Greg and Catherine but we couldn’t find them so we just had to hope that they were going to find their way to the station. When we got to the correct platform, they were right behind us THANK GOD. They had seen us going up the escalator so they followed.

          At that point I was very happy we had somewhat started the day together and we were finishing it together!! It made me feel really good to be going with other teams, it makes us feel more connected to each other and enjoy the city more versus playing the game. So overall I really enjoyed today, Belgium is BEAUTIFUL, I am in love with the amazing architecture, AND I got ice cream twice today!! Today was a good day, and tomorrow we are off to another amazing country, so until next time!! ;)

Daddy's View:

sports analytics is the idea that almost everything in sports, including items not normally attached to measurements and numbers - can be quantified and valued. the correct valuation of behaviors can lead to strategic changes that lead to winning.  this was the whole underlying storyline of michael lewis' moneyball.  

the two big "par 6" legs of this year's GSH were amenable to a very rudimentary "analytics."  for example, go do a big bonus for XX points, or do a bunch of small scavenges for YY points?  it depended on time, cost, interest, etc.

anyway, b/c the sri lanka and europe legs were multi-day and very complex, it's natural to analyze the options in some quantitative way - ie related to points - otherwise you wouldn't have any idea what to do or where to go.  i've never been to most of the places on the scavenge list, so nothing's on the bucket list.  it's really quite an effective way for the GSH planners to guide behavior.  

the europe leg presented a stark contrast to the sri lanka leg:  europe's points were in the individual city scavenges rather than the big bonuses, and sri lanka was almost entirely big bonuses.

with that in mind, we set out to hit cities.  the first day was antwerp, ghent, and bruge.  it was like listening to a podcast on 2x speed - you can get everything, but you really need to focus and not get distracted.  we made a concerted effort to "kick back and soak it in" with all the experiences, but it wasn't the same as if we were just "vacationing."

the great thing about GSH' structure, even when you're task focused, is that it forces the situation for magic to be possible.  it doesn't guarantee that it will occur, but it's more possible than if you just vacationed on your own.

some notable interactions:

- 6-8am in brussels was absolutely stunning.  it was a holiday day, so everyone was asleep.  we walked and walked and walked and it was like a post-apocalyptic movie set, that hadn't had the apocalypse yet.  

- jocko the diamond broker in antwerp.  man he really wanted anita to have diamond pendants, stud earrings, a new 20th anniversary ring, sydney to have sweet 16 diamonds of the same, the dog to have diamonds implanted in its teeth - he was a great consummate diamond sales man.  i obviously didn't spend $30K on diamonds, but i wasn't misleading him either.  we just had a great time talking. this is the train station, which is the coolest train station in the world.  ice cream location #1 for sydney on this day.


-  there are lots of canals throughout belgium.  it just pervades the culture - the feel that you get knowing that water is throughout the cities are just.... different than anything in the states.  or anywhere else we've been, for that matter.  this was a bridge under an actual river, not a canal.  it was like almost a kilometer long walkway.  it was a scavenge.  "walk both ways."  the view was worth it.


-  biking around bruge is awesome.  it's always more charming and real to see a city - even houston - by bike.  sydney got to see why bike riding is one of the "essential life skills" we force on our kids before they are allowed to leave the house.  also on this trip she is seeing why "laundry" also fits in that category.  i can't remember where this was, but the story is that to solve the city's graffiti problem, they made it totally legal to do all the graffiti you want in one street alley (quite large) in the city.  it's now called graffiti alley.  it was super cool.  i think we should do that for most crimes.


we collapsed into bed at 10pm back in brussels.



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