Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar!

Bonne Annee!

Gluckliches Neues Jahr!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a healthy, happy, and hopeful 2011.

The Needle

UPDATE:

We just happen to be in Paris today and although I've passed this monument before, I didn't realize it is the "sister" to the one we also saw in London.

So, this is Cleopatra's Needle in Paris.

Cleopatra's Needle

While this is in fact an ancient Egyptian obelisk, it was already over 1000 years old in Cleopatra's lifetime. It's a popular name for three obelisks re-erected in Paris, London, and New York City. Originally erected in Heliopolis in 1450 B.C., it was moved to Alexandria by the Romans in 12 B.C. It was presented to the U.K. in 1819 from the ruler of Egypt, but not actually transported to London until 1877.

During WWI, a bomb landed near the needle. In commemoration of this event, the damage remains unrepaired and is clearly visible.

The Eye

London is home to almost 8 million people. Second only to Paris, it is the most visited city in the world. Followed by Bangkok, Singapore, and of course New York City.

The London Eye

A huge ferris wheel tourist attraction with capsules that give you a bird's eye view of this beautiful city. It costs 18 pounds and takes 30 minutes. It was worth it and we were definitely glad we did it.

Here are some of the photos I took while on our ride.

- The main building with all the glass in Charing Cross Station.

- The tall cylindrical building (center right) is Centre Point built by tycoon Harry Hyams for office space, it now houses the Confederation of British Industry.

- The tall skinny building (left) is the BT Tower - communications.

The River Thames

- The tall buildings in the distance (left) are the Barbican Towers - mostly residential.

- You can see the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral (right) and the tall skyscraper (farther right) is Tower 42 - offices.

- The white v-shaped building (front) is the London IMAX Theatre.

- The brownish building (center right) is the Tate Modern Gallery - museum.

- The building shaped like a missile (distant right) is the Swiss RE Headquarters - a reinsurance company.

Westminster Bridge

- Goes without saying - that is Big Ben (center).

- The huge building (left of Big Ben) are the Houses of Parliament.

- The white tower (distant right) with a flag on top is Westminster Abbey.

- The white building with the greenish roof is the Ministry of Defence (that's how they spell it).

- The white building to the left of the M of D is the Foreign Office.

- Those two huge buildings behind the M of D and the Foreign Office is the HM Treasury. That's HM as in "Her Majesty".

- It's a bit hard to tell, but Buckingham Palace is almost dead center of this picture.

These capsules hold up to 25 people, but there were only about 8 or 10 on ours.

You can see for 25 miles!

The Cathedral

In the distant right of this photo you can see the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral.

It is a majestic building high above the city.

St. Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican church. Anglicans are Christian too, but have an historical connection to the Church of England. The main difference I noted between the Church of England, the Anglicans, and the Catholics . . . is that all those Catholic Cathedrals are free to enter and the others are not. Apparently not looking for new members.

The present building dates to the 17th century, but this is the fifth St. Paul's Cathedral to sit on this same site since AD 604. The third cathedral on this site, begun in 962, was destroyed by fire in 1087. The Normans began a fourth cathedral and again much was lost in a fire in 1136, but finally completed in 1314. St. Paul's was again gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666. Finally, in 1697, the present church came into use. Fully equipped with smoke detectors and automatic sprinkler system, I hope.

No photography is allowed inside. These next photos are from the internet.

You may remember this famous wedding at St. Paul's not so long ago.

I believe these bells could be heard in all of London and they went on for about a half hour!

The Snowman

The book, The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs, published in 1978, is certainly a children's classic. It is still a part of our little children's library of books. This story, told only in pictures, will surely make you smile.

In 1982, the book was turned into a short movie with magnificent music composed by Howard Blake.

We were lucky enough to see the stage version at Peacock Theatre in London where it has been presented every year since 1997. Although photography and filming were discouraged, we did take a few shots and a couple of short videos. Of course they do not do the production justice, but it gives you an idea.

At the very end of this first video, you will see a glowing green wand-like thing that believe it or not is being waved by a mother, not a child. She was quite enthusiastic about the play. I'm not sure about her child or if he also got a wand :-|

This next video is the finale and you will hear how enthusiastic the audience was - in a good way :-)

If you'd like to see the short movie on YouTube, you will not be disappointed . . .

The Snowman Part 1

The Snowman Part 2

I heart London

You know those t-shirts that every city has with "I love . . . insert city"and "love" is represented by a heart? I think those should have been patented by New York, but apparently they weren't 'cause they're everywhere. Anyway, that's what my post title means. I just don't know how to put a little heart up there.

We really enjoyed London. Despite the slight travel delays and the bitter cold, it is a beautiful city. It's clean and we felt completely safe in all the "touristy" places and in the underground. We'd been told by native Londoners that the people are generally not friendly, but we found nothing of the kind. Everyone we encountered was more than friendly and helpful as well. It was a great Christmas vacation and I hope to be lucky enough to go back some time.

We booked the Eurostar high speed train from Brussels to London two months ago and if you keep up with news across the pond at all you will know the Eurostar was inundated with passengers whose flights were cancelled at the now infamous closure of Heathrow. Apparently if you showed up at the train station, bought a ticket early enough, you literally bumped someone like us who'd had their tickets months in advance. It was quite a fiasco as evidenced by the photo below.

This is a picture of "the mother of all queues" at the London train station the day before we were to leave and head that way. Thousands of people had been lined up since 3 a.m. and most were told after waiting for hours in sub-zero temperature to go "home" and come back the next day! I believe "home" is actually where they wanted to go all along.

And inside wasn't much better. But it was a whole lot warmer, I bet. So amidst this chaos, we decided to go anyway :) If there was no train to London, then we'd wait for the next one. Or the next one.

We left home before 6 a.m. for our 8:30 train departure. Brussels is only an hour away. Well, unfortunately, a traffic accident on the interstate just 10 km from Brussels kept us at a standstill for over an hour and way past our 8:30 departure :(

But as luck would have it, as we sat on the interstate, we checked the Eurostar website and our 8:30 train was cancelled anyway! Now we could attempt to get seats on the next one at 10 a.m. Of course, at the rate we were not moving, that looked unlikely :(

But as luck would have it, the road was finally cleared and we were on our way again. Got to the station and apparently all those 8:30 passengers had taken all the coach seats so we were forced to accept first class seats on the 10 a.m. train! Naturally, the train didn't actually leave the station until about Noon, but no matter, we were on it. And due to snow, speed restrictions were in place, so it wasn't quite as "high speed" as it normally is, but no matter,we got there! All in the same day :)

I can definitely say I would recommend taking the high speed train whenever possible. Round trip from Brussels to London is about €85 and normally takes 2 hours. You can reserve seats facing each other with a table in between, take as much luggage and jumbo shampoos as you can carry, walk around freely, and bring your own food and drinks with you.

And as you can see upon our arrival, the station was back to normal. Thank you, Heathrow for getting your act together.

There is a security checkpoint similar to the airlines, but I noticed these ski poles in the overhead after we boarded . . . and to think I was worried my Coke Light and cowboy cookies would be confiscated :~|

Gelukkig Kerstfeest!

Joyeux Noël!

Frohe Weihnachten!

Gelukkig Kerstfeest!

Merry Christmas!

I LOVE the holidays

I just LOVE the Christmas holidays and I get it honestly. My mother LOVED Christmas too. When I was growing up, we always put the Christmas tree up (and a million other decorations) the day after Thanksgiving every year. We never had a live tree and I guess I never thought about it back then. Always a flocked tree. Completely white and artificial. My mother also decorated with a theme of some sort. It was always beautiful, but not exactly traditional.

It looked something like this.

The irony is that my mother used to tell the story from her own childhood where they would go out and cut a tree on Christmas Eve. I decided I'd always have a live tree when it was my own and up until our kids were almost ready to leave home, I stuck to that promise. I still love a live tree. Jim's parents always have a live tree.

We use the same ornaments every year and add one or two to the collection. Back in Jefferson, we still have ornaments the kids made at school and they'll go back on our tree one of these days. Despite almost always having that live tree, we have had a few trees die before Christmas even arrived. Once our ornaments even slid off the limbs as they drooped.

I love to put all those twinkle lights (preferably white) on the live tree. Then after Christmas, disassemble the entire thing as the dead needles fall - lights and all. Then one year a long time ago, Jim decided to throw the lights away with the tree. Just another example of pure genius. Those strings of lights are like $2 and after Christmas, they're practically free. This should be a rule as far as I'm concerned. Never save Christmas lights.

We have a little tree here in Belgium. It has about 10 little ornaments on it. I put it up way before Thanksgiving because I wanted it to be up when Randi and Frazier were here. Under it are all the presents they brought for us.

I've always put up just the one tree, but I distinctly remember as a kid having a second tree in the den. A silver aluminum tree with one of those rotating lights that makes the tree look red, then blue, then green, then yellow. The picture below that I found on the internet may actually be our old den. Ha.

It looked something like this.

Incredibly popular, incredibly tacky and incredibly, everybody had one.

I grew up Catholic and we always went to midnight mass when it really was at midnight. There really shouldn't be a 7:00 p.m. "midnight mass". Anyway, before mass we'd get to open one Christmas gift. I remember one time choosing a gift from my Aunt Dora. She was extremely "thrifty". I think there were other things we called her too. The gift I chose turned out to be a plastic ink pen given out at the local bank or somewhere like that. :~\

When I was a kid, we always had outdoor lights. With huge colored bulbs, I think the wiring was actually homemade. My Daddy was an electrician and worked at the paper mill. I think the wiring may have been made at the paper mill. I bet one of my brothers can answer that one. I wish I had a picture of those lights. My Daddy loved putting up those lights and would line every peak of the roof with them. We once put lights all around our house on Wedgewood. It was not as much fun as my Daddy had always made it look :)

On the front porch of the house where I grew up, there was always a wreath on the front door and those plastic candles that light up. The picture below that I also found on the internet are similar, if not exactly like the candles we had.

And of course, there are the sweets! I don't even like to cook, but I love to make fudge and iced sugar cookies. You know, with all the chocolate in Belgium, there's no fudge.

And who doesn't like shopping?! I love thinking about a special gift for those on my list. And perhaps my favorite thing to do - gift-wrapping! I love to light my Aromatique "Smell of Christmas" candle and put on my Charlie Brown Christmas CD and wrap gifts.

And lastly, there's the Christmas music! My mother was a music teacher in the public school system and a piano teacher in the afternoons. We always had a lot of music in our house. I know the words to pretty much every Christmas song and I begin listening to Christmas songs sometimes even before Thanksgiving! I was so excited when Randi included 2 of my Christmas CD's in her "bag of goodies from the States" and Ross added to my collection with a couple of homemade CD's from his playlist. My list of favorites is way too long.

Although our Christmas isn't the same as it has been in the past, I try not to think about that too much and just look forward to when our family gets to come visit. And our weather is nicer :)

I hope you enjoy whatever Christmas traditions you have, wherever you are, and whomever you're with!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Cheers!

We're headin' out in this crazy weather to spend Christmas in London. We made these plans months ago so - we're going.

We've not been to London and despite the weather and travel problems - we're still going.

We're taking the chunnel for the first time on what is supposed to be a high speed train. The weather has slowed it down a bit. And there are fewer trains running so we may get to know the train station layout better while we wait, but no matter - we are going!

Fantasy Fudge

I think even the Belgians and Swiss would like this.

You will not be disappointed!

Fantasy Fudge

3 cups sugar

3/4 cup margarine

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1 - 12 oz. pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 - 7 oz. jar Kraft Marshmallow Creme

1 cup chopped nuts

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine sugar, margarine and milk in heavy 2-1/2 quart saucepan; bring to full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring. Remove from heat, stir in chocolate chips until melted. Add marshmallow creme, nuts and vanilla. Stir until well blended. Pour into greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Let cool and cut into 1-inch squares.

Oh, and there is no Kraft marshmallow creme in Belgium so Fantasy Fudge is just that.

I never thought it was such a bad little tree

If you have 4 minutes.

Even if you've seen it a hundred times.

It's worth it.

Winter Wonderland

Hasselt has once again turned into a winter wonderland and we just love it.

We got out and walked around while it was snowing.

This is the walkway that goes entirely around the downtown area.

This is the park near our house.

And this is Winslow!

Every 10 minutes or so we'd try to clear his legs of some of these little snowballs, but they were almost frozen solid. For once, I think he enjoyed that warm bath when we got home.

Not sure where global warming is taking place. Seems not to be in Belgium . . . or maybe it actually is. When it was a few degrees below zero my Daddy used to say "It's too cold to snow." It's true. It usually snows when the temperature is right at freezing. Perhaps Belgium used to be a lot colder.

As it was last year, the locals continue to tell us that snow is rare here. It snowed several times last year and has already snowed several times this year.

We figure if the skies are going to be grey (and they are) and it's going to be cold (and it is) it might as well snow!

Yesterday we went for a drive because it was sunny.

See the sun?!

Random, but I thought it was clever and quick thinking to put up these billboards all around town. There are also some with William on them. Despite not speaking Dutch, I bet you know what that says.

The Kringwinkel

I've mentioned this store before in a recent post, but it has become one of our favorite shopping experiences so I must share more about it.

First, kringwinkel basically means "thriftshop" and is the Belgian equivalent of a Goodwill - only better. There's at least one in every town and in larger cities, there are several. I've never shopped at a Goodwill, but Randi is forever finding great bargains for her craft projects.

BTW, no one has a garage sale in Belgium. It simply doesn't exist.

Second, kringwinkels are run by the government. Yeah, I know. Surprise, surprise. But it's more than that. Their own mission statement says the purpose is to reduce waste (abig deal in Belgium - I can't even find paper plates!), to employ people who have trouble finding a job, and to sell reliable goods at low prices. They even repair appliances to resell.

In order to become a kringwinkel, there are strict quality standardsto meet and I believe it since we have been very pleased with every purchase we've made. Everything is thoroughly cleaned and in many cases, looks new.

So whether it's Christmas or kitchen, this place has a little of everything.

I just wish I'd known about this fabulous find when we first arrived here. Especially since most of what we've purchased will - well, I guess go to the Kringwinkel at some point.

The Department Store

We ventured back to Cologne - aka Köln - aka Keulen to do a little Christmas shopping. They have a TJ Maxx store there. It's called TK Maxx. I've read the reason it was named TK in Europe was to avoid confusion with an already existing discount chain, TJ Hughes. I have no idea if that's true. Either way, it's basically the same type of store, but slightly more disorganized than the ones I've been to in the U.S.

In Belgium, so far as I can tell, there are no big department stores like Dillard's. None. Every store is separate.

Not so in Germany. They have huge department stores. Like this one - Peek & Cloppenburg . . .

and this one - Karstadt.

Plus the bonus of a Starbucks. Back when Starbucks stores weren't everywhere, it was a real treat to happen upon one. It's kind of that way here now. Up until this year, there was only one Starbucks in all of Belgium. It's at the Brussels airport. I understand in 2010 Starbucks opened a store at the train station in Antwerp. I've not been there. Yet.

Belgians basically don't support "take away" food or drink. Whether it's dinner or just a cup of coffee - it's an event. I can respect that.

Cologne, like many German cities, have elaborate Christmas markets.

The markets and shopping areas of the city were wall-to-wall people. I know it was a Saturday and only a couple of weeks before Christmas so I should have expected it, but I was on the verge of developing enochlophobia!

It wasn't completely uneventful

It was a VERY commendable day :)

with cake

and i-chatting . . .

cocktails, cards, and cadeaus . . .

choice cuisine and charming company :)