Les Grottes de Remouchamps

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

Well, look at me. Only a week behind! This has got to be some kind of new record... ;)

Well, I said Becky and I planned out some fun activity for Wednesday. And this activity (since most of you probably can't speak French), was the Remouchamps Caves. In the little map thing we looked at in the tourist booklet, Remouchamps looked not far away at all. And since I have indeed passed it in a car before, I knew the general area it was and that it wasn't that far away. But of course, with the walking a kilometer down my road, catching a bus into Verviers, waiting for 20 minutes and then catching another bus that seemed to go to completely random places and out of the way (at least it seemed that way, but it was the only bus I could catch..), and then getting off at a random stop andf catching my final bus to actually get to the caves, it took about an hour and a half. I had to ask the driver on the 2nd bus tell me where the random stop was, and he looked confused at first and grabbed my bus pass out of my hands, so I thought he didn't understand me. But then when I started to repeat myself and change up the pronunciation a bit (I am not very good at guessing French pronunciation, at all...), he just handed my back my pass and waved me back. So I had to hope he understood, and apparently he did because he stopped at my stop and I successfully met up with my final bus, which Becky was also on.

Neither of us knew exactly which stop would be best for the grottes, but I knew the general area and such. But of course, I realized our stop too late and we rode to the next one and had to walk back. But we got lucky, and it was probably only like 200 yards out of the way. We found the caves immeditately and bought our tickets. We were on the tour at 11:40, so that left us with about 40 minutes to kill. Becky was starving, but didn't have any money and couldn't get any because there wasn't a bank in sight, so I bought some fries for us to share, but honestly she ate most of them. Because I really wasn't that hungry, and they were the grossest fries that I have ever had. Really, they reallty let Belgium and its reputation as the creator of frites down! But much like anything gross, if it is covered in delicious sauce (Andalouse, Ketchup, Mayonnaise, in that order..), it doesn't taste half bad!

How frites come here... Look I'm an angel!

The Entrance

Just killing time...

Belgium, Europe, Wallonia

After killing same time, the tour finally started. We where actually suprised to find that probably over half of the tour group was Dutch speaking. But then we also figured that it was a weeklong vacation, and since the caves are also 4 km away from Monde Savage, a zoo that is apparently set up to be like a safari, we figured it was a good place to go for the day for fairly cheap. Well, at least I figured that. Don't know what got me thinking like a mother here....

The caves were pretty cool. I don't think I was quite as captivated by them as Becky, simply because I had seen caves like this before in Utah. But it was cool since they were natural caves, carved out by the river thousands of years ago, and such. And even though the tour guide only spoke in French and Dutch, I totally understood! Well, I understood enough to know what was going on. And if I didn't know something for sure, or just really didn't feel like trying, or was too busy taking pictures to direct my full attention to understanding, I also had Becky to translate for me.. :) The really unique thing about the caves was the little creek running through it, which we actually went down on boats. It was probably about 2 to 3 feet on average, but was sometimes artifically deep because the people who created the tour knew they wanted to include a little boat tour along with it too. It was actually pretty crazy, at some points the cave walls were super close to us. And all the our guide had to lead us along was a walking stick, which he used to push off of the walls and the bottom of the little creek/river/stream thing. The tour guide was sitting at the front of the boat, with his back to where he was going, and he was sitting higher up than everybody else. I mean, I know that he probably knows the whole tour and could do it blindfolded, and he also turned around once and a while, but I was just SURE he was going to hit his head, become tragically injured, and there would be a huge scene in the middle of a cave, on a stream, where we would be hard to get to. But we made it out of there ok, thank goodness.

Becky and I thought it looked a bit like ice cream...

My camera hates the dark, took like 60 pictures and only about 10 turned out...

Boats we rode in!

Not the best quality, but if you look closely it looks like a nativity scene!!! :)

Suprsie photo...;)

Becky liked the spiky things coming off of the ceiling... It looks a bit better when it's bigger.

So we finished up on the tour, it lasted about an hour and a half. Then we went back and checked the bus schedule, and of course, there isn't a bus until a little over an hour. And at this point, it was past lunch time and I was pretty hungry. But the only places to eat were the gross friterie and overly priced restuarants. And since we are exchange students, and cheap, well we just got to stand/sit around, talk, and wait a whole bunch. We remembered seeing a town right before we came to the caves, Aywaille, and it looked pretty cute with some nice shops and actual places to eat. We thought about walking there, but didn't want to get lost, so we just played it safe and waited.

Cool old building!

I love fall!

Look Maddie I found gnomes in Belgium!!! (Mom, show this to her...)

The bus finally came, 10 minutes late, but whatever. We got off in Aywaille, because we were both hungry and wanted to do a bit of window shopping. We got delicious pitas for lunch, mine with lettuce, andalouse, onions, and mystery meat (Seriously, I don't wanna know what this meat is. It comes in a big block thingy, and the workers use a device that basically shaves the meat off of the huge block... Even the pita shop just calls it "viande", which is French for meat...). We still hada bit of time to kill after that, so we went to the grocery shop so I could spend my 10 euro that Mum and Dad sent me along with a card so I could buy Halloween candy for myself. Well, I ended up just getting mostly chocolate (I am in Belgium, after all!), but nonetheless it was delicious, thanks so much!!! :) We walked out of the store, and Becky's bus literally just pulled off and away she went. About 5 minutes later, I saw my bus go up to the gare and complete it's stop there. I knew, since the gare was were we got off after the caves, that it was just a big circle up there and the bus would immediately come back down. But I wait, and wait, and wait, and still no bus. Although I was pretty sure it was a big circle, after 30 minutes I thought I was maybe mistaken. Since the next bus didn't come for another hour and a half, I decided to walk back up to the gare and see if I could find a train to get to Verviers, because at this point I was just not feeling like waiting anymore and didn't care how much I had to pay.

But, alas, sitting at the gare was my bus. With its doors open, two people on the bus, and a man whom I correctly guessed was the driver talking to some people behind the bus. I figured there was some sort of problem, but was just glad that I wouldn't have to wait anymore or pay and that I didn't miss my bus and was right after all. So I hopped onto the bus, and literally like3 minutes later the bus driver pulled away. Still don't know what was wrong with the bus and why it was delayed 30 minutes, but oh well. I got into Verviers about 40 minutes later, caught a bus that brought me to my host home, and didn't end up getting home until like 5:20. Long day, considering that I left at 9. Becky and I talked about it, and we honestly spent more time travelling/waiting for buses than we even did at the caves or having fun, but I still think it was a nice adventure. And I am glad that I got to spend my day having fun with a friend rather than just sitting at home, doing nothing.