More weekend fun!

We like to explore on Sundays each weekend. This Sunday we went to the botanical garden and park in northern Brussels. It is a large park with lakes and lots of beautiful plants and yes, a castle.




























Then we went by the Expo center where the World Expo took place. The Atomium is there, which is a strange molocule sort of structure built for the Expo. It is possible to climb into the individual atoms, if one is so motivated. The Expo center is contained in a large, beautiful park.

Having visitors

This past weekend we had our first guests. Our friends Patty and Gerry were on their way back from Africa and stopped by Belgium for a few days. They took the train from where they were staying in Bruges and we spent the day together on Saturday. They were graced with typical Belgian weather. It was raining as we picked them up at the train station, still more rain on our walk down to the Grand Place (so they bought umbrellas), more light rain at the Grand Place and on the walk back to the car, then "steamy sun" for the rest of the day. By steamy sun I mean warm and humid. So if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. It will change!

One sight we took them to was Maniken Pis, which is a small but popular tourist attraction. It is a statue of a young boy peeing. You have to understand the quirky Beligian sense of humor to fathom why that is funny. Apparently I don’t have my arms around that yet!

















Another sight we saw in August, after first arriving was the flower carpet. It is a carpet that is made of flowers that covers the entire Grand Place in Brussels. They create this every other year and it is quite beautiful. Here’s a picture of one from a previous year. The Grand Place is quite the tourist attraction but the buildings are beautiful so I always think that it is worth going there for at least a few minutes during a visit.








After a bit of Brussels, we brought our friends back to our neighborhood to shop (Patty and Kathy bought clothes and Howard and Gerry bought wine) and took a long (too long?) walk at the La Hulpe Chateau and then back to our house for champagne and dinner. It was wonderful to see some California friends in our new home. It was a short visit and we didn’t cover much of what there is to see but we really enjoyed it. We look forward to more of you visiting! Here are a few pictures of the inside of the house, now that we have furniture!














Our bedroom /Ginger's bedroom














One guest room (we have two!).














Dining room

More on forests

Speaking of weather! I went out to walk Ginger today in a forest near our house. It is called Bois du Halle (woods of Halle). Halle is a small town close by but interestingly, the forest is not in Halle. When we started our walk, the sun had not yet come over the horizon so we stayed on a trail close to the forest’s edge. They sky was full of clouds and it was lightly raining. We returned to the car within 45 minutes and by that time all the clouds had cleared, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the sun was flooding into the woods at a beautiful angle, filling it will beams of yellow/orange light that was full of steam. We drove down into town (5 minutes) so that I could stop by the hardware store for a few minutes and by the time I got out, it was pouring rain again. Good lord!

The Bois du Halle is very hard to get to but at the same time quite famous because in the spring, the forest floor is covered with Blue Belles. At that time, it is called the Blue Forest. Here is a picture of what is supposed to be like. We are looking forward to walking in the forest then!

Making Friends!

We do miss all of you terribly but the good news is that we are making friends. I joined the American Women’s Club, which is quite near our house. They are the largest American Women’s club in the world and they are the only ones who own their own building. Here’s a picture of the building.















There are classes and social events that take place regularly and you can just drop by and have tea or lunch there. I’ve also met people when I’m walking Ginger so I’m starting to have a busy social life! I have a Czech friend, a Dutch friend, a British friend, and a few American friends. I met two Belgian women the other day who have invited me to join them walking their dogs. Here is a picture of Bella, one of Ginger’s friends. She has some hip/knee problems so our walks together are short. She’s a sweet, big girl (140 lbs or so)!

More on driving

Driving is tricky for lots of reasons. First of all, we don't know where we are going yet, so we have to pay extra amounts of attention. Then, we don't understand the signs so we carefully read each one, wondering...does that one apply to me and if so, what does it mean? I took a drive out to a dog kennel the other day which was about 1.5 hours out into the Flemmish countryside. I didn't really know where I was going and it was absolutely exhausting trying to read all the signs and to find my way there. Where I would ignore 75% of the signs in the US because I understood they didn't apply to me, here I read (or try unsuccessfully) to read all of them. Silly stuff! Here is a shot of a set of signs! I actually can read this one but sometimes there for 20 items listed and they just go by too quickly!














Round abouts are everywhere and are interesting to navigate. Once you are in one, you have the right of way. Until that, you must yield to get into it. Then there are some that have lots of lanes. The inside lane stays on the round about and the outside lanes are for leaving the round about. The communities often decorate them with statues, fountains and lots of beautiful flowers. Here's one that is down the street from us.















And then, if all that isn't comfusing enough, the rules of the road are different. At a red light, you can not turn right, even if there is no one coming. As they say in Belgium, "Red is Red". Also, if you are on a main road and the traffic coming in from the right doesn't have a stop sign, stop light or yield sign, they have the right away. This causes LOTS of accidents because they just race in from side streets. The second day here I almost got creamed by someone doing that. Yikes!

Also, they have cameras on most main roads so if you run a yellow light or speed, they have a picture of you doing it. So they say-"Make sure you smile and are having a good hair day"!

Getting lost (a lot)!

Every Expat I meet tries to help us settle in and what a help that has been! The only problem is that no one seems to know the names of streets so when people try to give us directions to some wonderful place, they are often given like the following:

“From Brussels if you go down the Chaussée …ah…something … do you know what I mean? Then at the large turnabout, I think the fifth or sixth after the gas station on the right, take the exit just past the red brick building and then go straight for a while, then you’ll see a large green…or is it blue shack, then…let’s see, is it the second or third house on the right…oh, yeah, then turn sharply down the narrow cobblestone road, then there is a water tower…let’s see, do you turn before or…I can’t quite remember but you’ll do just fine!” When I ask them for the address, they stare blankly at me. I have not yet been able to find any place where I have gotten directions from people but I use Mapquest and the GPS and find things just fine.

Now in their defense, it is very hard to learn the names of the streets. Not yet knowing French, it is impossible to pronounce any of the streets and their names are very long. Then to make matters worse, if you are given the name in French and the location is in a Flemish area, Mapquest only finds the location if it is input in Flemish. If you input it in French, it can’t find it. Lovely! Also, Mapquest seems to randomly show streets in the opposite language that the signs are in and just so you know, French names and Flemish names are COMPLETELY different! Sigh…

Also, the streets are in absolutely no pattern, grid or otherwise. They meander around and often become more and more narrow, until only a thin horse can pass. The maps show them as proper roads that actually go places. We know better now.

So today I set off using a wonderful woman’s directions from the American Women’s Club to meet up with other students and our instructor for a ½ day class I was taking on learning to use public transportation. I spent 1 ½ hours hopelessly lost on the edge of Brussels trying to find the meeting place, driving up and down the same streets over and over again, I’m sure. I finally found the location 30 minutes after everyone left.

Yesterday I was feeling very adventurous and decided to try to find a short route to a forest from our house. I went down a very narrow road after getting assurances in French from two young men that the forest was indeed down that road. Well, a forest was down that road but it was private, fenced in and not the forest I was looking for. To make matters worse, the road became more and more narrow until my little VW Golf could barely make it through. I keep thinking, I know I’ll come to a place where I can turn around, but alas not. I was left with no other option than to back up for ½ mile to get myself and my car out of the fix! But I didn’t let that dampen my spirits so I tried another little road that actually had a proper sign on it pointing to the forest. Again, the road narrowed and became a sort of cobblestone horse path. I stayed with it and popped out into a beautiful recreation area with a restaurant on a lake and a wide beautiful road that everyone else was taking to get there. A less optimistic person might be discouraged but I went home and drank two glasses of wine with my next door neighbor and assuaged my wounds.

Ginger goes to Germany!

The Belgians seem to have it right- Have fun on the weekends! On Saturdays most Belgians (and now we too) get outside and enjoy themselves. It may be for a drive to someplace nice, a long bike ride through the forest, a picnic, or a stroll in the park. Whatever it is, it involves relaxation, good food and good company. Where July was extremely hot and dry, August was very rainy, and now September is just right. So far September has brought us many cloudless days and nights and the temperture is just right. Ahhh! So this past Saturday we drove to Germany for the day. It took about 2 hours for us to get to a little town right over the border that is nestled along the Meuse River. Part of the drive was through a wonderful, dense forest.



















It was interesting that when we left Belgium and entered Germany, not only were they no border crossings/check posts but there weren’t even any signs saying we were now in Germany. “Low borders” indeed! The way we could tell that we were in Germany was that the buildings were a different style! See the dark brown wood in the walls of the buildings? Apparently that style is very common in this area of Germany.


















The town we visited is called Monschau and was founded in 1217. The town winds its way along the river with small shops and restaurants. It is a sort tourist destination but what a great place to spend a sunny Saturday! We sat out on the patio having a lovely lunch, watching the river float by. Ginger loved it too!

The fun kind of shopping!

The largest community near us is Waterloo and it has an amazing shopping district. The area is about four blocks long and at first glance it looks somewhat interesting but when you get out of your car and start walking around, you get to really see what it is all about.














There are two “malls” which are entered through small, unobtrusive doorways along the street. They are interior alleyways that snake back and around and branch and have upstairs and basements and they are FULL of incredible clothing and shoe stores. There are hundreds of shops! Everything is extremely fashionable and interesting and sometimes very expensive and other stores are quite reasonable. If you are into shopping, this is the place to go. You can shop and never even go outside. This will be nice in the winter! Then, if you want to venture out to downtown Brussels, there is Avenue Louise, which is one of the shopping capitals of the world!

Then there are the Farmers' Markets!














On Sundays no stores are open so it is impossible to make that run for parts for that home improvement project. Sundays are for family, community and relaxing. Our favorite pastime so far is to take a long walk in one of the many forests near our house and then to head out to the local farmers’ market (8am-1pm). Everyone in the community seems to show up, especially if the weather is good, so it is a combination shopping and socializing event. We’re even running into people we know, which is amazing because we’re just celebrating our first month in Belgium. There are clothes, produce, cheese, meat, flower and every other sort of vendor there. We find that the best of the best of everything is sold there and for a good price.
So today we walked in a forest with Ginger and then shopped at the Farmers’ Market for cheese, produce and flowers. We came back and sat outside to sample of all five cheeses, some very ripe figs and grapes, a tossed green salad with very fresh tomatoes, and of course, a glass of French wine. Life is good!

More on the bureaucracy!

As part of our immigration process, we are required to get visited by the local police officer of our neighborhood every six months. This is to make sure that we really live here. We had our first visit the other night just before dinner. I glanced out the window and saw a uniformed man walking down the walkway. We had been warned that it might not go well, so tensions were high. Howard and I open the door together and simultaneously gasped as we see the most gorgeous man we've both ever laid eyes on in our lives, standing right on our front porch. Really, Howard gasped also...maybe more than I did. A Jean Claude Van Damme look alike dressed in a crisp, well fitting uniform! He asked if we spoke French and we said no. He looked sternly at us and said, "well, I guess I'll have to practice my English". "I need your passports and a table". Howard scurried upstairs to get the passports. The officer sat at the table and filled out the paperwork, then glanced up and said "what is your phone number?" We knew this was some sort of test so we nervously recited (carefully) it in unison. If we got it wrong, would he think we don't live here? When we finished, a feeling of relief flooded the room until, with a straight face he said, "now in French please!" Howard and I stared at each other in disbelief but did our best. He corrected our few mistakes and then his face lit up and with a little twinkle in his eye he said "see, you do speak French". Welcome to the commune!