Today Adeline and Greg left for the night to celebrate their anniversary. They left this afternoon and are coming back tomorrow around 4. When Bastien got up from his nap I took him and Sylvain to Sybille’s for a visit and supper. We stopped by Charles-Antoine and Anne-Catherine’s house and they got some pictures with Capucine (their daughter) and the boys. Sylvain is starting that stage where he wants to grab everything (including my nose…a lot) and he kept trying to grab Capucine’s head – which basically meant he was lightly scratching her. It was cute, but his nails need to be cut again, so we had to be careful. Bastien was really shy when we were there. He didn’t do or say much. After that we went to this big sandbox! There was another boy there so Bastien had someone to play with, but again, he didn’t play much.

Before supper we watched Peter and the Wolf. It was an animation with orchestra and a little bit of narration. It was funny watching Bastien’s reactions. He was reacting very well to the music. Once the cat came on and started hunting the bird up until the wolf caught the duck he had his hands on either side of his face and a sort of ‘oh no, what’s going to happen next’ expression on his face.

Greg’s almost finished the play house (I keep changing what I call it, sorry). All that’s left now is…actually, I think it’s just filling in the holes for the stairs (and maybe another railing, I don’t know) and I believe it’s finished. This morning he realized he needed two more holes for the stairs. He had to dig them out with a shovel because Adeline had already returned the monster drill we used for the other 10 holes. Bastien was playing on/in it and seemed really excited. He didn’t want to go down for his nap, he wanted to stay outside. I think he likes the slide too. He’s definitely going to want to play outside tomorrow. It turned out to be a really nice day today although they were calling for rain. We did have a little on our way home from Louvain-la-Nueve, and maybe we’ll have more tonight, but today was beautiful.

Despite some bumpy spots (Bastien didn’t want to take a bath, but he had to because he had played in sand), Bastien was good tonight. After his nap he wanted to play outside (and to be fair, he was told he could), and it was a little tough getting him to come inside so we could leave, but eventually he did. And when we got home I asked him if he wanted to help me put the chickens in their house he said yes, but he played in his play house instead. I told him he could play for as long as it took me to get them all inside. There were already two in there so it didn’t take that long. I said ok let’s go inside, and he responded with an ok and proceeded to climb the stairs again. He said that since it was still light out, it wasn’t night and he could still play. By this time is was almost 9pm, a late night. I actually didn’t have that much trouble getting him inside, he didn’t put up a fuss this time. He also didn’t put up too much of a fuss after his story (although, of course, he asked for another one), and once he was in bed I think he fell asleep pretty quick. After giving Sylvain a bath, feeding him, and putting him to bed, Bastien was out. Definitely tired tonight!

I’m following the rule of not feeding Sylvain after midnight. I guess if he eats around 10 or so he’s usually good, but if he ends up eating after midnight I think he wakes up a lot and is not very pleasant. So we’ll see how tonight goes. Hopefully it’ll be like in Switzerland and he’ll sleep all the way through for me. I’m sure to be up by 7am tomorrow, so I should probably go to bed! It’s almost 11 here. Night.

Before I left this morning, Adeline came to my room to tell me I had the rest of the day off, that I could stay out as long as I wanted, she would pick up Bastien. That was really cool! It also meant a I had a really exciting day. Not that my day wouldn’t have been exciting, but I got to do some really cool stuff.

When I got to Jean’s he hadn’t really had anything planned for the day, which was cool. I told him that I didn’t have to be back for a certain time if that might change anything. It did. We started looking for some stuff to go see and we chose the city of Dinant. It’s around an hour or so from Namur. We went for to see the Citadel and other things just sort of fell into place when we got there. Sometimes improvised days are the best.

It also wasn’t until we got there and saw the bridge covered in saxophones that Jean remembered this was also where Adolph Sax, the inventor of the saxophone, lived. I knew he lived in Belgium somewhere, but I had forgotten which city. We did three main things today. We went up to the Citadel and had a guided tour. We went to Adolph Sax’s house/museum (you don’t actually go in his house…it’s beside the museum). And finally, we went on a tour of a cave. We walked everywhere (except to where the cave was) and I walked up a LOT  of steps today. When I got home I went upstairs twice and my legs weren’t happy with me.

I think the best way to describe this day is to show you the pictures then add comments. That’s how I’m going to do it anyway, whether it’s the best or not! I’ll try to throw in a little history from what I remember and from the couple of pamphlets I have.

This is right around where we parked. When we first realized/remembered Adolph Sax! I realize they’re hard to see, but those are giants saxophones all along the bridge.

Giant saxophone!!!

The Gothic Our-Lady church and the Citadel. Remember Mini-Europe? Well, this is one of the models. On our way back from the cave I saw this from a distance and realized I recognized it. I asked Jean if it had a model in Mini-Europe, but he didn’t think it did. Turned out I was right. Boo yeah! Of course, all those other buildings aren’t in front of it in the model.

Remember when I said I walked up a lot of stairs? Well, to the top of the Citadel it’s 408. Fortunately there are many landings where you can rest and we were the only ones climbing up at the time. There was a group of school kids and a couple of families that took the tour at the same time as us, but I think they all took the cable car up or were up there a while before us. The staircase was actually built in 1577 and has survived until the present day.

This isn’t quite half way. I think. I don’t know. Pretty though, isn’t it?

Not there yet! I think at this point we’re almost there. Jean wanted to take a video of my climbing up the last few steps, so that’s what he did. He said I had a story to tell now, which is true. That pretty much the only reason I voted to climb up…to be able to say I did. I forgot to time it, but based on the time stamp on our receipt and the time it was when we got up, it was about 20min. Maybe only 17, because we didn’t exactly start the second the receipt was printed and I didn’t check the time until we had already been up there and checked when the next tour was. I’m going to say not even 20. No less than 15 would be my guess, but I don’t think 20. Taking breaks sure helped. All the walking I’ve been doing is mostly flat, so that didn’t help me here!

Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. In 1466 he strapped 800 copper beaters together in two’s and through them into the river Meuse. Dinant’s main activity was manufacturing copper. Charles the Bold also at this time destroyed the castle and town. The castle was rebuilt in 1523.

I’ve skipped a lot here, and I already cut out 9 pictures from my original list! Ok. This isn’t mentioned in the pamphlet I got and I’m a little fuzzy on all the details so it’s going to be a very minimized version of events. The little cemetery on the right olds the ashes of around 58 or so soldiers. 12 German and the rest French. Not Belgian, French. The French soldiers had come to the Citadel to hide (I think) and they tried to find a ‘back door’, but quickly realized there wasn’t one. When the Germans came they easily slaughtered all the French soldiers there. The bodies weren’t found until 5 days later. Since they couldn’t bury them, they burned them and there rest their ashes. This is kind of like the main courtyard type area…the main entrance is off of it, as well as the dungeon.

That’s Freddy. We’ve just been locked into the dungeon. Haha, it’s only locked because there are areas you can only go into on a guided tour, so the guide has to unlock them for the tour and lock them back up as we go. I have a few more pictures of the dungeon area – check for them on Facebook!

The Dutch forge. I believe it was originally a dutch fortress. There was a castle here before it was a Citadel. It was from 1818 – 1821 that the castle was destroyed and the Citadel built by the Dutch. It was taken over by Belgian partisans in 1830 during the struggle for Belgium’s independence.

The bakery! Now, because this was a citadel and not a castle, everyone who lived/worked here was a soldier. The cooks, bakers, blacksmiths, everybody.

Self explanatory. It’s also the explanation of the next picture.

This is what I feel like sometimes trying to come up with a title for some of my posts. We starting to get into soldiers quarters here. I haven’t included any pictures of weapons or anything, but there was something interesting I want to mention. There were these guns – blunderbusses? – that flared out like a bell at the end. This allowed them to load any kind of ammo – rocks, nails, you name it. These and the extra longs guns that were also used at one point didn’t have much aim, but were effective because of all the crossfire. The church in front of the Citadel was destroyed and rebuilt many times – from both rock falls and war.

This is an explanation for the next picture. It was very strange walking through this room.

You couldn’t really tell from looking at it that it was going to be all wonky, but when you walked through it you noticed. You had to hold on to the railings because it really felt like you were going to fall over! The tour guide later said it was a gag for the tourists. It’s a great gag.

Our tour guide! He gave the tour in French and Dutch. He knew at least a bit of English because he said some to me, but he said it would be much too long to give the tour in all 3 languages. It was already an hour and I wouldn’t have wanted a longer tour with noisy kids :P. They actually weren’t bad. He was really funny. He made the tour very entertaining and engaging for the kids. He was very nice and gladly took the picture with me. Since Jean was translating for me our guide gave him another pamphlet that had more information. I was actually able to understand a bit of what he was saying! I wouldn’t have gotten everything, so it was nice Jean could translate for me, but it’s getting easier. ^_^

The Baritone Saxophone. First saxophone made!

Freddy and I chilling with Adolph. Sax of course :P.

The museum isn’t very big, but it’s neat because there’s a sax on the floor that starts out the door and covers almost the entire room. Thought thought it was cool.

The entrance to the cave…ooooo….The Grotte de Dinant ‘La Merveilleuse’. You know that school group I mentioned from the Citadel? Well, there were here for this as well! They give tours in French, Dutch, and English thankfully, but our guide only had to do it in English and French. There was that group, Jean and I, and another couple. Our guide had us go first, and every time one of the kids tried to get in front he wouldn’t let them. They all got to see the same things just as well, and you could hear well because the cave had great acoustics, so it wasn’t a big deal. I was the only one who wasn’t fluent in French, so with me upfront he didn’t have to project twice as much.

I got quite a few pictures inside. Unfortunately my battery was dying so I had to be careful. There would have been a couple more I would have taken. This was a waterfall. Of course, like most caves, this one was at one point filled with water. The cave was discovered in 1904 when they were building a tram (?) next to it which required leveling the ground. They found it while they were digging rock I guess. By 1905 it was open for business I believe.

I know this is super hard to see, but that’s the river down there. In January when they have snow (I don’t now if he was generalizing or if he meant this January) and then rain and the snow melts and the river rises, so does this one. 30 meters I think he said. The long gallery we had just walked through would have been filled with water. Actually, the streets of Dinant are almost level with the river, so flooding is very common.

Oh yeah, the end of the cave tour. Another 121 steps. Now, that doesn’t count all the steps we took down, or the one’s where we walked up to see something and then back down again. So I walked up over 529 steps today. Steep ones too. And in the cave we were at the front so I didn’t have the luxury of taking my time. Those last 5 were super hard. But I made it. When we left the Citadel we rode down, we cheated. But it was a lot easier.

What else to add? Hmmmm. The city itself was nice. We had lunch at a pizzeria. Gah, it’s so late I can’t concentrate!!! Well, you got the most important bits, that’s what counts. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Ok. A while ago I tried to reload my Pay&Go chip on my cell phone, before I ran out of money. I tried to do it online and apparently I did something wrong because it didn’t work. So I just left it. Then when I called my Mom on the 22nd to wish her a happy birthday, the call was dropped because I ran out of money! Today I finally went online to try again and it actually worked this time. I’m not sure what I did different, but I know now what to do. So now I’m good to go with the phone.

That was the second most exciting thing to happen today. The first was when I picked Bastien up from school. He saw me from where he was (near the one set of doors) and he waved. Usually they bring the kids out by class, they all line up in pairs and come to the gate where they meet their parents. Bastien’s group wasn’t up to the gate yet, but when they saw that someone was there for him they let him go. So he comes running up to the gate and right into my arms. It was a nice welcome.

That’s one of the differences I’ve noticed and I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it or not. All the kids get picked up. I haven’t noticed any school buses. They have buses they use to take them to the pool or off school grounds, but not to and from school like in North America. All the kids get dropped off and picked up. Although I don’t miss riding in one, it’s little strange not to see a yellow school bus every day. Maybe that’s just because my Mom drives one and it sits in our drive-way!

Tomorrow I’m going to Namur to hang out with Jean-Go. I don’t know what we’re going to do, but it’s good for me to get out. I need to branch out on my own, stop being such a wuss. Heck, my cousin Katie traveled all over the place by herself! And she’s younger than me. For those who don’t know, she went to France last year on a school exchange. That way I’ll actually have something interesting to write about :D. It’s kind of like this one episode of Cougar Town I watched; the one character had a baby, but she never talks about him, never tells Stan stories. I guess she was a successful career woman and she doesn’t want to turn into one of those people who talk about their baby all the time. She says to her husband ‘if I tell one Stan story, I’ll have to tell them all’. At the end of the episode who see her telling her friends story after story and they’re all really bored. That’s kind of like my blogs sometimes 😛 I don’t care though. Baby stories are great!

That’s me trying to think of a title. I am literally hearing that song in my head. Now you are too. 😛

I went for another walk today. This time I walked towards the post office and out of town. The next town I hit is called Merdorp. I walked into it and down a ways, then I can to a split in the road; I went right. Eventually I came to another split…continue on the road I was on, or circle around and come back to the first split. I went back and finished the circle. Once I was just coming up to the edge of town again, I turned left instead of going straight towards Wasseiges. The sign said Ambresin. Eventually I can to another intersection and was trying to decide which way I wanted to go when I realized I had been there before! Just never from that direction. I had come upon the road I took when I went with Adeline and the boys on my first walk out of town that took us through that muddy field road.

I really enjoy the fact that I’m able to make a mental map now of where I’ve been and can start to figure out where I might end up without actually seeing a map. I mean, I don’t really know yet, but I know which general direction certain towns are in so that helps. It’s easier having walked I think than driving. I mean, I am starting to recognize more and more from when I’m in a car, but I get to see more when I walk.

We didn’t play outside today because it was raining off and on and was quite cool. It was windy too. I guess that’s expected in the spring. ^_^ I think it’s good we got rain though, we needed it. Oh, and I definitely have the beginnings of a nice tan…on my arms anyway. I guess my face too. It’s so weird…for the last, oh I don’t know, a lot of years, I’ve spent more time inside than out in the summer. With working and then just being comfortable in a cool house I didn’t go outside much. My loss. At least I didn’t go out enough to get a nice tan. So to have at least a little bit of a tan this early is new for me. I like it. The pasty white begins to glare after a while!

I believe I took a picture of this back in January. The trees look a lot nicer now!

Because Sylvain LOVES his swing! When Adeline put him in it he didn’t do much, just his usual self. But then she pushed it and WHAM! a big, ecstatic smile. Every time. I got an awesome picture of him smiling. A really big smile. I put up my pictures from this Sunday and Monday on Facebook. There are a lot of great pictures of the boys, especially from yesterday.

On the way home from school today, Bastien rode his little bike by himself for a bit. It was down a slight hill, but he did it! It’s a little 3 wheeler that has a long handle out the back for someone to push. Also, we had a great time playing outside today. He went in Sylvain’s swing for a bit and seemed to really enjoy it, but then he wanted to do other stuff. He ended up playing on his slide for a while. I sat at the bottom and when he would come down he’d give me a big hug. Sometimes he tried to push me over or jump when he had his arms around me, so it was a little rough (and I had my glasses on :S), but it was fun. We even made a little ‘fire’. There was no actual fire of course, but we pretended. Best of all, Bastien wanted me to play with him. That’s happening more and more now.

Other than that I spent part of the day organizing some of my photos and of course adding some to Facebook. I still have to go through and add the rest of the Switzerland pictures and the photos from the Mini-Europe trip.

And it’s only April. Woot!

This morning I was woken up by Bastien. He gave me a hug and everything. It was around 8:30, even though I could’ve slept in later. I was planning on getting up by 9 anyway. Today’s agenda was building the playground for the kids. Friends of Greg and Adeline came to help, as well as Sybille. I think Greg started around 9 this morning. He pretty much only stopped for lunch and supper and it’s 9:30! Of course I have pictures, but I have to stress it’s not finished yet. It still needs the roof, ladder, and slide. It looks great! I think they’re either going to trim one side of the tree or cut off one of the big branches completely, because it gets in the way of where the slide will be. I think Bastien is going to have a lot of fun on it.

Today it got a little windy for a while, but the sun was out all day and it got hot. Especially for the guys working. I have to say, I only helped a very little bit; I helped lift it into the holes. Honestly, I would’ve just gotten in the way if I tried to do anything else, the guys had it well in hand. I played with Bastien and Sylvain, so I was doing something…most of the time.

Jean-Go and Valerie came for supper and to visit for a bit. And we forgot to talk about Friday, so I’m going to have to call him. Honestly, I know it’s a cheesy phrase, but I really think I would tend to forget my head if it wasn’t attached.

I think Bastien is excited. He kept wanting to play on it, but of course he couldn’t yet. The little stinker didn’t have his nap this afternoon. Adeline put him down for it, but he didn’t sleep! And then, he was still away at almost 9, just singing and making noises. He has school tomorrow…hopefully he’s not too tired.

Here is the story of today in picture form:

The guys got here just in time. We tried to get that up with just the three of us, but it didn’t work the first time.

 That machine made really quick work of the holes.

I think they’re going to have a lot of fun with this. Especially the swings. I remember when I was little we had a swing set. One of those big metal monstrosities that you’re supposed to put in the ground (like this) with concrete so it doesn’t tip back and forth when you swing too high. Yeah. Ours wasn’t stable like that, it definitely moved. That made it more fun I think. We were old enough to be careful ^_^. I will say this though; the slide from our tree house trumps all tree house slides. It was so fast and awesome! I really like our tree house, thanks Dad for building it!

No Easter Bunny here. But they have something just as good, if not better: bells! Church bells. They fly from Rome and drop chocolate eggs into people’s backyards. So this morning Adeline had placed a bunch of candy and presents out in the backyard. I actually wasn’t aware she had done this until after. All of a sudden we here bells ringing and Adeline is telling Bastien to go outside to see what the bells had left. Of course by the time children get outside, the bells have flown away ;). It was quite exciting, I have it all on video.

Before we left we fed Sylvain…this was no easy task because now he’s eating baby food once a day. Today it was pea mush. Greg started feeding him (and had the amazing idea of wearing an apron to protect his clothes) and I finished. Now, this was my first time feeding a baby like this and Sylvain loves to chew on his hands and fingers. At one point I was holding both his hands in one of mine and he tried to suck on my hand! Actually, this happened a couple of times. Of course there was green goop everywhere and even with a full body bib (no arms though, unfortunately) we still had to get him a new shirt. And we needed to leave so I couldn’t take that much time. I never really got why babies always got SO dirty when eating. I guess I just never really thought about it. I mean, I know that when they’re just learning it’s a mess, but when you’re not feeding them or there for it, you just wonder why. Well, now I know. Many oh man. And Friday he had carrot goop in his eyelashes! He always rubs his face with his hands/arms (usually before he goes to sleep) and he had carrot on them…then all over his face! Just thought I should mention this momentous step for me.

After that and breakfast we got ready to go to Adeline’s Grandma’s house for lunch. Granny Duchâteau. She lives (during the summer) in this big manor house with a farm attached. Don’t worry, I have lots of pictures. Mostly of outside because I didn’t have a tour of the house, but maybe I’ll get to see it all eventually. While driving there (it’s an hour away), the clouds started taking over the sun went into hiding. I was worried because I wanted to be outside this afternoon, but Adeline made an excellent point: if the sun is gone it can’t melt the chocolate! It started raining before we got there and it rained for a bit. It did stop, but was still overcast. I helped ‘hide’ the chocolate and gifts for the kids. Bastien at 2 1/2 was the oldest today. Then there were the bells again and the kids came out all excited. While I was filming the hunt, I was walking backwards and I stepped on a small chocolate egg! There were plenty, it wasn’t that big of a deal. After lunch it ended up clearing up and became really sunny. Actually, hot. Very nice for taking pictures.

Before the hunt and before lunch I met the husband of one of Adeline’s cousins. His name is David and he’s from Manchester, England. He’s still learning French as well so it was neat that the two of us had someone we could talk to really easily. Not that no one else there spoke English, but you know. We were discussing how English-speaking people have it easy and find it hard to get motivated to really learn a new language sometimes because English is everywhere. Although he did say that it’s a lot easier to find someone who speaks English in Belgium than it is in France. I would say we can just be lazy too. Not everyone, but you have to admit that it’s easier for us than it is for people who come from a country with no common language.

I just talked with my Mom’s family on Skype. I just love Skype, it makes things so easy (sometimes…when it works). They let me know they were reading this (a special shout out to Aunt Anne and Amy! I love you all!) even if they didn’t comment all the time. If everyone commented when they read each post that would be SO MANY comments! Luca was so adorable (is that how he spells his name?), he said Happy Easter many times. He even sang it to me. This was after my Uncle Cliff asked me to sing a French song. So I sang Henri Des’ Le Beau Tambour (about a drum) and Luca yelled out after ‘I liked your song!’ It was great. Very enthusiastic. My Uncle Cliff also HAD to ask me if I had a boyfriend over here; trust me, Uncle Cliff, you will be one of the first to know when that happens….then you won’t have to ask me anymore! I know you mean well ;).

Oh I forgot! David also made a comment about the family being like the paparazzi with all their cameras with big lenses and such. He said that at weddings he feels bad for the photographer because they have to compete with the family. I said I’m kind of used to it because my Grandma Jean alway takes lots of pictures. As well as Aunt Deanna and Aunt Cindy. You just never know when they’re taking your picture…..

Tomorrow’s another full day with lots of company, so I should probably actually go to bed tonight. I will leave you with pictures of Grandglise and the feeling that I’m forgetting something (which happens more than I would like).

This is the back of the house.

This was when it was raining. Can you believe the complete turn around in the weather!

Such a lovely view from the back porch.

From another angle this looks like an old wall. From what I have no idea, but I thought it was cool.

That’s a lot of grass to cut! *Thank you Captain Obvious*

This path leads through that door into a garden.

And here’s the garden.

This is where we ate lunch.

The guys playing some golf.

This is the side from the driveway.

Some of the other buildings on the property.

Don’t ask me why I have that song it my head…because I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’ve recently watched So I Married an Axe Murderer. Check it out. ^_^

Today was another beautiful day although I was sure it was going to rain at one point. You know that time before it rains after a hot day (or week) where the clouds start getting darker, the breeze picks up, it starts to cool off, and everything looks kind of eerie? Well, it was like that this evening. I love it. So far it hasn’t rained, I just hope it holds off until tomorrow night. Easter Egg Hunt tomorrow!

Tonight Adeline and Greg went to a friend’s birthday party. Originally they were going to take Sylvain with them (it was his Godfather’s party), but he was eating and they had to leave. He was no problem though. I helped him finish because he kept dropping his bottle – and he needed to burp, it’s always funny when he lets a big one loose – and then after a bit he fell asleep. Out for the night.

Despite a little trouble getting Bastien to finish his supper, he was really great all night. I think this is the first time he didn’t ask me for another story. Maybe it’s because I stressed before I started that he was only getting one – not two, not three – one. I said that a few times. I read him The Princess and the Frog. I told him that if he was good and ate all of his dinner he could have a pudding. He loves those and he didn’t have a snack after his nap today because he got up so late. He liked that, and he said ‘one for me, one for you’. It was very nice of him. He wanted to get them out of the fridge too, and when he got back to the table he put one at his spot and one at mine. He really is a great kid.

Remember the chickens? Well, we have to make sure they’re locked in their house at night because of foxes. I think cats might be a bigger issue…when I went out to put lock them in for the night I saw two cats sitting on the ledge. I had forgot about them so when I went out it was around 10 and quite dark. I didn’t know where the flashlight was (I only thought of it after I was already outside and I didn’t want to go back to look for it), so I set the brightness on my iPod to full and tried to use that. It worked to a point, it was just difficult to try and hold it while using both hands to grab a chicken. When I got out there, only one was sleeping inside. I looked being the tree/bush in the enclosure and saw another one. I was freaking out because I couldn’t find the other two! Eventually I saw that there were actually two behind the tree and one had squished itself behind the chicken house. I managed to get them all to move to a spot where I could pick them up. It took a little while though, they had been sleeping and didn’t want to move. But I won!

Earlier today I was sitting at the dining room table and Sylvian was in his play pen and I said ‘boo!’ and he just looked at me…and then smiled. It was so funny I started laughing. Adeline, who was in the kitchen, asked Bastien who had made the joke (Bastien said he did). She came over and I told her. Then she did it, he smiled, and she laughed. It’s contagious when he smiles. Bastien too, his most enthusiastic smiles involve the extreme squinting of both eyes, mouth open wide, and head tilted up. Awesomeness.

I better hit the hay. I’ve been watching a bunch of episodes of Cougar Town with Courtney Cox. It’s actually quite funny, I really like it. And despite the title, it’s not about cougars…there’s really only one woman like that and she’s not a main character. Big day tomorrow. I’m also going to be talking with the family tomorrow evening. I’m excited about that.

Wow, what a day! First travelling through all the really great parts of Europe, then getting stuck in Brussels traffic, and finally ending with dinner guests. Let me start from the beginning.

This morning, when Adeline’s cousin Greg got here, we left for Brussels. Well, not quite in Brussels, but near. We visited – as I mentioned yesterday – Mini-Europe. We were originally also going to go in the Atomium, but because of the time, we decided not to. It’s a good thing too. More on that later. I took so many pictures, but I’m just going to pick some of my favourites to put up or you’ll all be here forever! I put Freddy on all the big signs to take pictures and at one point near the beginning this guy asked if he could take a picture of him as well. I told him sure and mentioned that he was my ‘travelling Garden Gnome’. He thought it was funny. You also get ‘attacked’ by the Mini-Europe mascot as soon as you walk through after buying your tickets. It’s an orange turtle. I don’t know if it has a name, but Bastien thought that ‘Mini-Europe’ was his name. Except that Bastien kept saying ‘Mini-Neurope’. Adeline bought him a stuffed orange turtle and that’s its name. They take your picture with the turtle and you can buy it later. I bought one and a key chain.

So this next bit will be all pictures. I have a brochure with info in it for all the models, so I should be able to label all the pictures. Unfortunately they are not necessarily in order…I thought it would be easier to just get them on here and organize them after, but it’s not. When you upload photos they keep them in a gallery so you can upload more than one at a time; the problem is they’re so small that it’s hard to see them. Therefore I inserted them first, but it turned out that backfired on me. I will be getting these – along with many others – up on Facebook. Those will be in order!

The Atomium. Built for the 1958 Brussels World Fair (or International Expo)

This is Trelleborg, a reconstructed Viking camp in Denmark.

I’m having issues figuring this one out. I’ll have to get back to it when I’m not so tired and I have a chance to look at all my pictures when they’re in order.

The Grand Place in Brussels.

I think this is the early Gothic Our-Lady church in Dinant, Belgium. The picture in the brochure is really close up, but from what it shows it looks the same and it mentions the church being up against a solid rock wall!

 Hoensbroek Castle, The Netherlands.

 Tallinn city in Estonia.

This was near the beginning of the tour. How to Train Your Dragon anyone? ^_^

 Freddy and Mini-Neurope at lunch.

 Yay for grapes!

 Eltz castle, Germany.

 Santiago de Compostela (cathedral), Spain.

 The Plaza de Toros in Seville Spain, famous for bull fights. This model is currently under construction.

 The Torre de Belem, Lisbon Portugal. It was built to protect the harbour.

 The Castle of Chenonceaux, Chenonceaux France.

 The Arc de Triomphe in Paris France.

Me and Freddy with Big Ben (London, England) and the Eiffel Tower (Paris).

 St. Kevin’s Church in Glendalough, Ireland.

Boo. My shirt had to get in the way.

By the time we finished the self-guided tour it was so hot! By the way…I heard that New Dundee, at least, woke up to snow this morning. I’m sorry, I really am. We stopped to eat lunch and we got a picture of Bastien and Sylvain after eating – both were covered in orange. Sylvain from carrot baby food and Bastien from spaghetti sauce. Bastien played at the playground for a while (he had so much energy!) and then we headed out. On a totally unrelated, but funny note; I saw a restaurant that was called ‘Mexican Fiesta’ (or something like that) and thought it was odd considering it was Mini-EUROPE and all. I guess technically it’s ok because the restaurants themselves are not in Mini-Europe.

We were on the road by 2pm. I guess 2pm on the Friday before Easter means traffic jam because we were stuck in the Brussels Ring for 1.5 hours. 1.5 hours, when the total trip should only take 1 hour. It was probably about 4:30 or so when we got home. We did make 3 stops – one for gas, one for veggies, and one for meat – but still. It might have actually been 4pm, I don’t know for sure.

When we got home the chicken coop was finished! I don’t have a picture yet because my camera battery died on the way home. Today Adeline’s Dad Dominique and his friend Stella came for dinner. They brought with them 4 chickens! I guess they were only supposed to bring 2. We’re getting 2 more chicks on Sunday. So I played outside with Bastien for a while before they got there – I still don’t know where all his energy came from – and it was quite fun. Dominique asked me when Mom’s birthday was and I replied ‘April 22’. He said, ‘oh, so tomorrow, because it’s the 21st today.’ And I was all, ‘wait, yesterday was the 21st!’. I was shocked to realize that I had almost forgotten my Mom’s birthday! To reconcile this I called her and we talked for a bit before I ran out of credit on my cell phone. I called her back from the house phone and got to talk to my Dad too. Props to my Dad, he’s made my blog his home page! I feel like a celebrity ^_^. Oh and Mom, I know Bastien wouldn’t say hello or Happy Birthday while I had you on the phone, but afterwards I said that I had talked to you and he said Bon Anniversaire.

Things are getting better with him. When I was changing him into his pj’s (which actually took a while) he gave me a hug and I was holding him, not letting him get away. He was laughing and he said I was a baby and he was my Dad. It was cute…in an odd way, but cute. He was laughing hysterically and that is always better than screaming or crying.

Hmmm…anything else? Probably!

Freddy and I need to prepare. Tomorrow we take all of Europe by storm. It’s a big job, but somebody has to do it. Ok. It’s really not that big. In fact, it’s mini. 😀 We’re going to Brussels to Mini-Europe. We being Adeline, Bastien, Sylvain, Freddy, and me. Tomorrow’s post will include some awesome pictures I’m sure.

Today was another beautiful day with plenty of sunshine. For my walk I started off the same as Tuesday; but at the ‘T’ I turned right instead of left. I ended up only being gone for 2h20m or so, but I only walked a max of 2h. The path through the fields took me back around to the main road connecting Wasseiges and Meeffe. When I hit it I went left into Meeffe. I walked all the way down to the grocery store we went to yesterday and continued on that road. I saw a side road that I want to check out, but I kept going. Then I got to a split; this was after I rolled my ankle and scraped up my knee. At this point I stopped to put a kleenex on it to get rid of some blood (I hope no one is eating while reading this ;)). I knew that if I went right it would take me out of town, and that left would take me back into town, I just wasn’t sure exactly where. I knew I wanted to go back to the store because I wanted ice cream (:D), but when I first passed it, it was only about 9:45am or so (a little too early for ice cream, even for me). I wanted to be back by noon, so I knew a little extra walking if needed wasn’t going to hurt me. As I walked down the road I came upon this graveyard and the road split again. I’m literally going to have to go walking every day just to explore all the roads! I mean, of course there’s a lot of roads, it just doesn’t make it easy to decide which way I’m going to go.

Somebody’s missing their turtle :(.

Alright. So I continued left and came back out on the main road. To complete the circle I turned left again back to the store. Got an ice cream and a water and was soon on my way. I stopped at this site that has few benches as well as a bus stop. I stopped there for a good 15m or more to eat my treat. And on I went. I decided on my way back to stick to the main road instead of retracing my steps of this morning and I ended up arriving back at the house by 11. Now, I was surprised by how fast I did all that. Maybe it’s because I have a bad sense of distance; maybe because I’m walking faster; or maybe it’s because I actually don’t know exactly how much distance I covered and how long it should have taken me to cover it. Either way, in my head it seems like I did a lot, at least as much as that day I walked for 3 hours, but obviously not *shrug*. Who knows. I just know there’s a lot more of the surrounding area that I want to see. Why is this end of Wasseiges and Meeffe more interesting than the rest of Wasseiges and Ambresin? Maybe because I don’t drive it every day. There are still other directions I need to take from the house as well. It’s a good thing I have all year, this will keep me occupied. It is much better than sitting inside all day…I an be a lazy bum a lot of the time, especially when I’m on my own with no one pushing me to do something.

Upon returning, I cleaned up, watched some tv, had some lunch, and played some guitar. I relearned 5 chords, but mainly focused on 3: D, G, and A. Those are the chords in the very first song I learned how to play on the guitar; Bad Moon Rising. You gotta love Creedence Clearwater Revival. I was surprised by how fast I was actually able to play them again, it’s not easy. And my fingertips hurt when I type :(. I also went to buy more stamps this afternoon.

Adeline’s cousin Greg was here today building the chicken coop. Sometimes it gets a little confusing with two Greg’s and all :). The house is up and the posts are in. He’s coming back tomorrow to finish. We’re getting two chicks on Sunday. They’re also getting an outdoor play set (with swings!) on Saturday, I believe. Then there’s the big Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday. It’s a busy weekend. You know what that means; lots of pictures!

I have to make sure I get my stuff ready tonight, because if I forget Freddy tomorrow that would be horrible!