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Maredsous

We recently visited the Abbeye de Maredsous in Denee',  Belgium.  It's a community of Benedictine monks founded in 1872.

They offer a lot of options for your visit.  You can

1) learn "how to become a monk"

2) stay in their guest house and pray with them

or like we did . . .

3) just have lunch and drink their beer.

You know if there's an abbey involved, there's going to be beer brewed too.

But they don't stop there.  They also make bread and cheese.  And with a few jalapenos and a little cayenne, Ross can transform that dubbelroom into white queso that rivals Old Mexico.

The abbey has gone pretty touristy, but it was a nice place to visit and the beer wasn't bad either :)

Hanging out in Hasselt

As I've mentioned, our house is full of staircases.  Not the kind where you might break your arm or ankle, but the kind where you could potentially break your neck if you fell. Especially given the plaster/concrete walls that would eventually break your fall.

I've worried every time Frazier came to visit that he'd fall.  I'd insist on keeping him downstairs as much as possible and insist on locking him inside the bedroom so he couldn't accidentally venture out, etc. Yes, I am a "what if" person and I like to cover all the possible as well as impossible bases.  It's just what I do.

Well, this time he went up and down and up and down, all by himself, without incident.  Even in the Spiderman slippers which I had forbidden, but we still managed to miss.  

Thank goodness!  He is an amazing climber so I wasn't surprised :)  But still grateful.

Nearly every time we were out and about, Frazier would say " I want to go back to Oma and Opa's house".  I mean even when we were in Venice or Paris or London!

Frazier has seen more of Europe than most adults.  Hopefully he will remember a thing or two from the photos.  Anyway, I don't know if our house will always have that same appeal :)

It wasn't quite like his own playroom, but he enjoyed the few things we had for him.  I think his favorite toy was that coffee can in the bottom right corner.

A visit from our neighbors - Pieter and Annemie.

A walk/bike ride in the park near our house.  

I have to say this . . . the weather was so nice in Belgium while they were here.  See that sun?  And no jacket?  No umbrella?

A visit to the kinderboerderij . . .

also known as a "petting zoo".

Schaap

Dinner with our neighbors - Bert (barely tolerating the photo shoot), Annemie, me, Jim, Pieter, Josh, Frazier and Randi.  

The time goes by too fast.  It always does.

God Save the Queen

This was my second visit to London and it was just as nice as before.  The city was super clean in anticipation of not only the upcoming 2012 Olympics, but on this very weekend was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  More on that later.

Trafalgar Square.  Much of it was cordoned off for the upcoming Queen's Jubilee.  More on that later.

By the way, the weather in London was quite nice.  Not sunny, of course, but not raining either.  Josh noted that in almost 3 days, we did not open our umbrellas.  

Ross also noted the positive spin they put on their weather forecast in the local newspaper since their weather is generally crappy.  

Like:  

Mostly dry with some bright and sunny spells, especially early, with blustery showers developing later.  

Sunny intervals and clear spells, but also a few heavy showers developing, perhaps with hail and thunder. 

Translation:

Mostly dry = a foggy mist

Some bright and sunny spells = there will be daylight

Blustery showers developing =  prepare for umbrella to be turned inside out

Sunny intervals and clear spells = the overcast and haze will become slightly thinner

Few heavy showers developing, perhaps with hail and thunder = a typical day in London

This event was something we missed on our first visit.  It's the Changing of the Guard at Royal Horse Guards.  We did not see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace because we got nowhere near Buckingham Palace due to the Queen's Jubilee.  More on that later.

I had no idea I'd captured this horse making such a face until I was reviewing my pictures.  I did nothing to prompt this.

The horses were beautiful, but overall the ceremony was pretty lame, in my opinion.  According to history (or legend), the Queen returned home one day to find no guards.  They were all drunk.  She ordered that there be guards present for the next 100 years - or something like that.  The deadline has long passed, but they keep it up for tradition.  And tourists.

This is the Houses of Parliament.  The other side can be seen in the photo below.

Big Ben, of course.  Ben is actually the bell, not the clock.  

And I'm not sure if that other American in my photo is named Ben.  How do I know he/possibly "Ben" is American?  You just know. 

Since Ross and I had already been to Piccadilly Circus (a mini version of Times Square), Randi and Josh went alone and we kept Frazier.  We decided we didn't want to just sit in the hotel so we headed out.  Ross said "You aren't going to take him out in that are you?" and I said "No, I'm going to put his jacket on too."  I know . . . he's in his pajamas with shoes, but he's only 2 and his jacket had all the same colors :-|

We decided to go out for fries and a coke.  Ross took pictures with his flash and over and over Frazier would ask him to do it again and he'd make this same face.

Then he would study each one.

Me capturing Uncle Ross capturing Frazier's impression of Spiderman.

This is St. Paul's Cathedral.  Not Catholic - Church of England.  So, naturally, not free to enter.  The Catholics sell beer and Mary icons and let you in for free. Here, they charge you an entrance fee to pray and see their icons and, well . . . Bob's your uncle.

It was really beautifully lit at night and our hotel was only about a block away.

This is a side view of Tower Bridge.  Not to be confused with London Bridge which is not so special.

See?  Here's London Bridge. Could it possibly be any more functional and less special?

photo courtesy of Ross Frazier

So back to the Tower Bridge.  See?  Now that's special.

This photo is taken as we approached the Tower of London.  In the upper right you can see the Shard.  It is now complete, will be open to the public in July and it is now the tallest building in Europe at over 1,000 feet.

It will still be dwarfed by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai standing at over 2,700 feet!

The grounds around the Tower of London are really beautiful.  This place has served a number of purposes from castle to mint to prison.  It now also holds the Crown Jewels (no photos allowed of course).

Here's a photo I found online.  There were several cases full of crowns, jewelry, scepters and a gilded punch bowl that, as Randi noted, was big enough to bathe in.

This is one thing I could take a photo of . . .

Although we were there on Saturday 2 June, we were not there on Monday 4 June, there was no doubt that the Queen's Diamond Jubilee was forthcoming.  More on that later.

I thought this book was interesting and was surprised to learn . . .

that it only covered 4 years?

Known as the White Tower, this entire building held thousands of suits of armor, swords, weapons, etc.

Like this.  Clothing for the whole family.

Tower Bridge (often mistaken for London Bridge :)

This is the British Museum.  It may be the only thing in London that's free to enter and it's worth the trip.

They have a vast collection of Parthenon sculptures and carvings.  The Elgin Marble sculptures were sold to the British Museum in 1816.  The Greek government would like to have them back, but so far the Brits have decided they'd like to keep them. 

Forgot what the Parthenon is?  Ancient Greece - temple in Athens - on the Acropolis (big hill/citadel) - the temple was built in 447 BC = long, long time ago - it actually replaced an earlier temple that was destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC = even longer ago.

Photo courtesy of Ross Frazier

Probably their most famous exhibit is the Rosetta Stone.

Now you know.

This is one of the statues from Easter Island.  We noted that it wasn't so huge and Jim said the big ones are probably still on Easter Island :)  And he would be right.  The tallest one is 33 ft. and it is still on Easter Island.

Where is Easter Island?  In the middle of the nowhere.  Actually it's in the South Pacific, over 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile (that's in S. America :)

Every room of this museum is beautiful . . .

immaculate and huge.

Moving on - this is one of the market places in Covent Garden.  It's a pedestrian-friendly area with shops, restaurants, etc.  

Uh spa o' tea

We had traditional "afternoon tea" before we headed for the train.  It included little finger sandwiches and scones and of course, uh spa o' tea. Cheers.

Just how much is a spot of tea?  Answer - one cup.

_________________________________________________

We really missed Jim on this trip, but Ross stepped in at the last minute and I truly appreciated him being there. Traveling with Ross means I don't have to think at all and I do not have a problem with that :)  Merci, Ross!

Oh, and I almost forgot . . . the Queen's Diamond Jubilee - celebrating 60 years on the throne.  If her reign lasts just 3 more years, she (Queen Elizabeth) will become the longest reigning monarch, a record currently held by Queen Victoria.  

The celebration, which started the day we left (and is now past) was to be a gala event full of pomp and circumstance, to be sure (and it was) - including a parade of over 1,000 boats on the Thames River and a concert on the grounds of Buckingham Palace including singers like Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder.  Dayum!  I didn't know Stevie Wonder was also British!

Jus' bloody kidding.

Anyway, that's why we couldn't get anywhere near Buckingham Palace.