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!