An English Christmas

What a lovely Christmas present I received this year. Miranda and Liam arrived on the 18th after not seeing them for three months. With them arrived our first snowfalls and we were all excited to watch the most enormous snowflakes fall to the ground and blanket our yard in white. Alas, it did not last long but that was ok- driving without snow is much better.
Soon we were preparing for our trip to London. We thought it might not eventuate as the Belgians went out on strike the day we were going to take the Eurostar to London. George had taken the train to Germany to see his doctor and ended up not being able to get back on the 21st. That afternoon Liam, Miranda, Aris and I jumped into the car and took the hour and a half drive to Germany to pick him up in Aachen, Germany
On the 22nd we decided the only way to get to London would be to drive down to Lille, France and catch the Eurostar from there. Everything went smoothly and we were soon on the train and crossing the channel through the tunnel. The only issue taking the tunnel is the pressure which builds and you continually get sore ears.
So in less than 15 hours we had had dinner in Germany, breakfast in Belgium, morning tea in France and lunch in England- pretty amazing.
So here are some pictures I have "snapshot" from my flip video- unfortunately I am still without a camera but it is sale time so I hope to get one soon. When I upload some pics from George's iPhone I will post more.

The Horse Guard

Big Ben

Liam and the London Eye

Dragons facing you tell you you are entering London town

On the Themes towards Big Ben and Parliament

Loving London

Part of London Tower

Up on top of the double decker bus

It is beginning to feel like Christmas

On Friday the second of December we had a very interesting Christmas experience. Our local neighborhood is made up of 75 houses and has its own community house. It was here that the first of our Flemish Christmas experiences occurred. The visit from Sinterklaas and Piet. The story behind Sinterklaas is that he comes from Spain by boat and is accompanied by black Peter. He then goes around on a white horse visiting good children and bringing them treats.
When these characters arrived at the community house we were subjected to alphabet cookies being thrown and dramatic singing. Slowly ever so slowly each of the children were called up to Sinterklaas who looked for them in his book and after decreeing they were good they were given a mandarin, a specklaas cookie and some more alphabet cookies. Aris had been very keen to visit with Sinterklaas but when Sinterklaas finally started speaking to him (in flemish) he became very quiet.

On Monday I decided to go into Leuven to check out the shops and do some Christmas shopping. When I walked into the market place they were busy putting up the Christmas tree.
By Wednesday night when we went into Leuven to see if the tree was decorated we found not just one tree but two.

Keep watching for further updates on Christmas in Belgium

What is a blog without pictures?

Just after I uploaded the last collection of photos, our camera died. I was no longer able to either take photos or upload any. Thank goodness everything had been transferred.
It thus left me in a state of being without a workable camera. The camera on my phone is so grainy even looking at the pictures on the small screen of the phone is painful.
Fortunately, on our recent trip to Cyprus it was so rainy it was hardly worth taking a scenic photo. My lovely BIL and SIL loaned us everything from their house and car to clothes and camera, alas we have not received copies of photos taken.
Aris had a wonderful time meeting cousins again, thank you Marios and Petros for playing with him! He was also spoiled by his aunt and uncle, his grandparents, as well as other relatives. A big thank you for all the gifts and time spend looking after us. We love you all.
As soon as we arrived home we found an intruder in our house....... no it was actually Loizos, Aris' uncle! He came to visit us for thanksgiving and brought Aris much desired Goldfish crackers.
Quite a busy week ensued. The first weekend we headed off to Efterling in the Netherlands about an hour and a half away. We had been provided tickets from George's work for a day at this lovely amusement park which is older than Disneyland but much more interesting.
Set in a beautiful park it is just pleasant to walk around. The rides are hidden away off the main walkways and many of them are similar to those at Disneyland.



As you can see in the photo it was foggy and it remained that way all day and I don't think the temperature rose above 32F, fortunately we were well prepared with warm clothes and did not mind the cold. They also had these very nice fire pits to stop by and get extra warm.

This is the princess of Efterling. The face was so beautiful, all you could do was stare at her.
Following the trip to Efterling I spent a day with Loizos walking around our local town and park. Winter is nearly upon us and the leaves are in their Fall/Autumn beauty.

The following weekend we took a trip into France (once again 1 1/2 hours from home) to Lille. Here we found a Christmas market in full swing. I addressed my fear of heights and went for a ride in the ferris wheel. Not only was it high but the carriages were open.

Naturally we had to buy a bag of fresh roasted chestnuts.

And bread.....

And Aris really needed this dolphin which had to be carried through crowds of people.

Thank you Loizos for sharing your photos with us because what would this blog be without all those lovely photos?

just stumbling...

When I traveled to Rome it was wonderful how you could walk around the city and stumble upon world known tourist attractions.
This weekend had been a rather social event starting off with Aris dressing in a pirate costume for a little presentation at school. I was amazed at how well he copied the actions from the teachers and really got into the part of being a pirate. Unfortunately the only pirate clothing he had were his pj's but that didn't seem to concern Aris.

After school we were invited to a party. George was able to also attend and was soon talking to the other

two dads; Scottish James, our host, who works in cancer DNA research and English Phillip works for the foreign office.

It is just wonderful the mix of people at every gathering. Later that evening we met up with George's boss from the US plus three other men with whom he works. The comment made at dinner echoed what I had already been thinking earlier that day. Here we were eating dinner outside (17C) with an American, a Hungarian, a Belgian, an Italian an Australian and a Cypriot. I am honored to be able to meet with so many people of different nationalities in such a short space of time.

Saturday night was similar. Across the road we met for dinner with an American/German couple, an American couple and a Dutch/Irish couple. Needless to say there is always interesting conversation.

Back to the theme of my blog. After being so social we though we would take it easy on Sunday and check out where the Charleoi Airport (45 minutes away) was because we are flying from there to go to Cyprus soon. On the way back we spied a huge loin sitting on the top of a hill. So we had to stop and check it out. We had stumbled upon the Butte du Loin- the monument to the Battle of Waterloo.

Aris was naturally all excited to climb up it. I, of course, was not wearing flat shoes even though I had already taken a fall on Friday night off a three inch step I didn't see in the plaza, was not as excited. However, up 227 steps we climbed. Aris naturally had no problem, to say I was left breathless by the view would be lying. Those steps go straignt up and there is constant traffic up and down, but what a sight when you get there.

Hopefully we keep on stumbling.

Au revoir from beautiful (french speaking)Wallonia.

Breakfast

Breakfast has become a bit of an institution in our house. In the US, with two cars, George and I were able to operate independently, but in Belgium we still have only one car so it is my job to drive George to work and then drop Aris off at school.
This works nicely for the ritual of breakfast. Our morning ritual is of me getting up first to shower and then George wakes up Aris and gets him ready to send down to have breakfast.
I have usually organized Aris' breakfast by the time he comes downstairs and it is waiting for him on the kitchen table. I really love that we have a table right in the kitchen with everything just a step away. A couple of times now Aris has come downstairs and found that his place is bare of any food, to which he asks " What no food?' Or if I have only set out a bowl of cereal he asks " What? Just cereal?'
Saturday morning and Aris was enjoying his now favorite breakfast of runny egg yolk and soldiers. As he was eating we were talking about the shape of the soldiers I had cut. First one was fat and another was skinny and just right to fit into the egg. Aris then picked up another soldier and said "this is a giraffe, it is long and tall like a giraffe" I thought it was so funny I couldn't stop laughing.

Beautiful one day perfect the next....

That is a saying they use in Queensland to describe the weather. Last weekend we endured rain but still found enough to occupy ourselves with. This weekend with the weather remarkably better we headed off to Brugge on Saturday. An easy one and a half hour drive later we found ourselves in the sunshine in the canal capital of Belgium.
Naturally we took a boat cruise and enjoyed looking at the architecture of this beautiful city.

The city is well known for its chocolate and for lace and shops abound filled with the most amazing examples of both.

As we wandered around just taking in the whole experience we came across an old fashioned organ grinder. After throwing in a coin, the old man invited Aris to come and spin the wheel. A little on the short side Aris managed to turn it but far too slowly and the music which came out was barely recognizable.

The last stop before finding our car in an absolutely huge underground carpark was a cafe where the beer costs as much as a coke or a water (yes, you pay for water here). This cafe overlooks a beautiful fountain with interesting sculptures. By the time we had made our way back to this spot all the outside tables were taken but we took the next best table just inside the glass atrium.

Just look at all those bikes

                                                                        

A Wonderful Weekend

So, we have moved from one extreme to another. In Arizona the heat is unbearable during the summer and renders it almost impossible to find somewhere to enjoy the weekend. Well, the rain started falling on Thursday here in Leefdaal and fell on and off all weekend. As I write now on Monday morning the sun is streaming in and the wind is blowing the pine trees in the back yard.
How wonderful can a weekend be I hear you ask? Let me describe a wonderful weekend. It may be simple, it may not even be very cultural but every little part made for a totally enjoyable time.
Let me start on Friday lunchtime, I know it isn't really the weekend but it marks the start of all good things to come.
Every Friday the little town of Tervuren has a market in its square. At this market you can buy clothes and fruit and meats and fish. I love the flower stall, I am still waiting on my vases so that I can go indulge. The people flock to the flower stall and the owners wrap the flowers up so lovely and the bunches are so big you often can't see the person behind them as they walk back to their cars.
My favorite stall is the chicken van. In the winter it will be even more of a favorite because it is so warm. Here you can buy roasted chicken, ribs and potatoes which are roasted underneath the meats and they mop up all the juices- yummy!

                                           Just look at that meat.
The past couple of weekends have been fairly tedious for Aris as we looked at cars and opened new bank accounts. This weekend we decided to do things for Aris. On Friday night we went to the swimming pool where he enjoyed a lazy river and jets which can knock you right over. Aris especially enjoyed the little kiddy pool with a mini slide and soon made the of acquaintance of a little Flemish girl, taking turns going down the slide.
Saturday we set out to go to Brugge but did not follow the instructions from Mapquest because we wanted to get fuel for the car. So we discovered Brussels has some amazing parks and eventually found our way out of the city (looking forward to a car with GPS) and in the direction of Brugge, not that we knew it at the time. As I have mentioned the signs in Belgium are a challenge.
Instead we found ourselves on the highway in the rain, unable to see, near the Planckendael zoo. Since we have a membership we decided to go (the plan had been to go on Sunday but hey we were here now.)
Now the zoos in Belgium are old, and it was muddy and raining but it was a blast. They have a treetop walk which is really a rope course. George and Aris had a go walking some of it:

                                               Aris was amazing!
On Sunday we spent a quiet morning at home, raking leaves and enjoying the house. Fortunately I have a beautiful view to the back yard from the kitchen window

                                                  and who did I spot in the yard?

                                               Yes our very own hedgehog.
What a nice surprise.
Next was an afternoon at the Fruitfest. Apples in all kinds of strange and wonderful shapes and sizes being made into juice and other goodies. Tried some varieties I have never seen before and all fresh and delicious.
So as you can tell our weekend was full of small but wonderful events.

Week Two

Hallo von Belgie,
How lucky I am to be living here in Belgium. We found a wonderful house very close to Aris' school and close to work for George. The weather has been wonderful, a late summer of brilliant sunshine often after a foggy morning. Hardly a drop of rain has fallen, although I have been warned that November is the start of the drizzle.
How are we settling? Aris first of all loves school. The morning routine at school is great. Aris takes his bag to his hook, gets out his take home bag and snack and places them in the right spot in the classroom and then goes to the whiteboard and moves his ladybug onto the leaf- this is how they take attendance. He then sits down to do an activity until it is time to start class.

The first day at school and it was cold.

Since then the weather has warmed up

                                                 Enjoying the morning activities.

George is enjoying work and finding his way around. As we have only one car I drive him to work and pick him up each day. We are working on finding another car but unlike the US a car is ordered and usually takes 8 weeks to get it.

I am thoroughly enjoying life. It gets a little tense when I loose my way trying to find a new shopping area but most of the time I find my way.
I started Dutch lessons last week and am amazed at how much English and German are a part of the language. Even after one lesson I can understand more of the subtitles on the TV- many programs are in English with Dutch subtitles. Spongebob Squarepants is great to learn from and I also found a program called Home and Away which I used to watch in Australia, again great to read the subtitles.
Shopping is interesting. I shop at two supermarkets. The local Carrefour is large enoguh and the cashiers speak mostly Dutch but will speak English if needed. If I go to the larger Carrefour about 15 minutes away they speak French and often not much English at all. Add to that, that all of the product labels are in French and Dutch or if I am lucky German or very occasionally English it can take me more than an hour to buy my groceries. So far so good I haven't bought anything strange!

                                              Sunday in Leuven.

                                              Coffee or a beer in the sun 

                                              - a favorite pastime

Tot ziens

            - goodbye from Michelle