TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Travel Belgium

Monday, May 1, 2023

River Cruise of the Netherlands and Belgium - Bruges

IN 2013, WE HAD PLANNED to visit Bruge as part of a driving tour through Normandy and Belgium. As things turned out, Lauren had an accident in Paris, broke his hip, ended up in the Clinique Blomet where he as he puts it "got screwed by the French." His French doctor, Dr. Atassi, put two stainless steel pins to hold the bones together.
When we explained to the doctor that this accident had messed up our plans to visit Bruge and other places, he scrunched his face, and poo-pooed and said, "Oh, it always rains in Bruge anyway." It was at that moment, raining in Paris.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.

Friday, April 28, 2023

River Cruise of the Netherlands and Belgium - Ghent & Ypres

BY THE TIME we visited Ghent Belgium, I understood that Belgium is a wealthy country. I see it as more lowkey than countries like Spain, France or Switzerland or Germany. It is probably because of my own ignorance but I had a better sense of the history and personalities of other countries.