Christmas in Belgium

This is our sixth Christmas since moving to Belgium.  So far we've spent two at home in the States, one in Paris, one in London, and two at home in Belgium.  This year is one of "two at home in Belgium".

However, we contemplated taking a little "road trip" the day after Christmas and had decided to go south into France.  The weather was a bit rainy so we just decided to stay at home  . . . and boy, am I glad we did.

This could have been us:

Freak snowfalls and ice stranded more than 15,000 vehicles on Sunday in the French Alps.  Some families spent the night in their cars, blocked in huge traffic jams on the main routes to and from the Alpine ski resorts. One couple said it took them 12 hours to drive 20 miles.  Authorities seem to have been unprepared for the heavy snowfall – resorts had closed many slopes last week due to a lack of snow.

Of course this really came as no surprise to us since last October we spent five hours at a standstill (at least it wasn't overnight) due to a "freak snowfall", "huge traffic jams", and "unprepared authorities".  We were not too far from the French Alps in Switzerland.  It does snow there every year, right?  It IS the Alps.

So we spent this Christmas, and the days after, all cozy at home in Hasselt.

Our Christmas tree with stockings from Randi :)

A little last minute gift wrapping.

Christmas morning . . . Winslow enjoyed this as much as we did!

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We were invited to Ross's friend, Valentine's home for lunch on the day after Christmas.  They live in a small town near the city of Ghent in a very old house which they have renovated into a lovely, beautiful home.

We decided to take family photographs in front of their pretty tree.

Four girls!  Abalone, Aurelie, Valentine, Eugenie, Katrin and Andre' 

We enjoyed an enjoyable, delicious lunch with typical Belgian foods - rucola soup, turkey breasts stuffed with raisins or clementine, witloof, appelmoes, and . . .

kerststronk - a traditional cake served at Christmastime.

We hope you had a joyous and memorable holiday and we wish you a happy, healthy and successful new year!

Scottish Bagpipe

We recently took a trip to Scotland and although our final destination was Edinburgh, we decided to fly into Glasgow, Scotland and then take the train to Edinburgh.  

We had one mission in Glasgow . . . to purchase a bagpipe chanter for Josh.

What's a bagpipe chanter?  

If you want to learn to play the bagpipes one day, it's recommended to first learn on a chanter.

When we heard (thanks, Randi :) that Josh was interested in this, Jim set about learning about chanters, how they're made and which ones are considered the best.

With this information, we decided on the R. G. Hardie and Co. Ltd. in Glasgow.  

Here we are outside the shop where they make each chanter and set of bagpipes by hand.

This is Robert Hardie showing Jim the chanter we chose for Josh.  

The R. G. Hardie Company has been making bagpipes for over 100 years.

He was also nice enough to take us on a tour of their shop.

This is the office!

Turning the bagpipe parts on a lathe.  The older man has been working for this company since 1962!

Mr. Hardie said the shop can make one Great Highland bagpipe per day.

These are the parts that have been hollowed out to eventually become parts of a bagpipe or bagpipe chanter.

It's called African Blackwood and it looks like this before it goes to the lathe.

Before and after.

Everything is handmade, including the silver engraving on each piece. 

This is the chanter we chose for Josh.

It's engraved with a thistle design, which is the official emblem of Scotland.  

The legend of the thistle is that a sleeping party of Scots warriors were saved from an invading Norse army when the Norsemen trod on a thistle with bare feet. Their cries roused the Scots and they defeated the invaders.  True or not, t's a good story.

Soooo . . . despite this being a Christmas present, and despite our best efforts to have it arrive before Christmas, the chanter is still en route.  It's only coming from Scotland, but I think it's made a couple of trips there and back!

Assuming it actually makes it to its final destination . . . Merry Christmas, Josh!  We're expecting great things and perhaps this calls for another trip to Scotland in the summer.

Decorations and Dinner

The weather is getting colder, but we've enjoyed working on a few projects, decorating for the holidays, and having turkey and dressing!

I've been wanting to replicate a wreath I saw online a few years ago. I bought this plastic ornament wreath last year in the States as a starting point, so this was the year to make my wreath.

There were more than a few of these, but, in the end, I decided to go with all glass ornaments anyway.

I got it all put together with hot melt glue over the plastic ornaments and the original wreath form, but something just wasn't right.

I collected most of these ornaments at the local thrift store (kringwinkel) when they had their Christmas sale. Ross and I got there when the doors opened and couldn't believe we were 40th in line to go in!  It's a Goodwill equivalent!  

Anyway, I decided to take the whole thing apart (using alcohol to loosen the glue) and decided to wire each one on separately!

Done!  

I'm so proud of how it turned out.  It may not make it through a year or two of storage, but I'm enjoying it this year for sure.

Next, we planned a little cozy Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings!  That's a pork roast, turkey breast, Jim's delicious gravy, Mae Mae's recipe for cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, and Ross's favorite - green bean casserole.

We even had pumpkin and pecan pies.  Okay, it wasn't quite like being at Mae Mae and Pop's, but it was pretty darn good!

Ross invited a few of his friends to join us and it was nice to share our tradition with some of the locals :)  

We always find it interesting that when we invite people to share traditional Southern foods with us, they nearly always go back for seconds.  It seems so different from Belgian food, but I guess it's just as delicious to them as it is to us.

That's me, Valentine (val-un-teen), Ross, Danielle (dan-yella), Laurel and Jim (thanks for taking the photo!).

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving too!

Duplicate David

When asked how Michelangelo carved his statue of David, he is reported to have said, "It is easy.  You just chip away the stone that doesn't look like David."

Whether he said that or not, 

this work of art is amazing.  This is the photo I took when we visited this museum in Florence, Accademia Gallery.

This, however, is not that museum and this is not Michelangelo's David.

This is a replica of the original.

This gives you some idea of just how huge this thing is . . . and what a feat it must have been to chip away what didn't look like David.

In the event you are in London, not able to get to Florence, and can't see the real thing, beginning November 29, this duplicate of David will be on display at the V&A (Victoria and Albert) Museum.

No, it's not the de facto David, but it is a plaster cast of the original and no doubt also a work of art.

Fiddling Around

You may remember a post back in September when I told you about Jim's latest project - a violin.  Here's a link if you didn't see that post . . .

Luthier post

He's progressing nicely despite, according to him, being challenged by the scrollwork on the neck.

The violin is the highest-pitched instrument of the violin family in an orchestra.  The other two are viola and cello.  I'm not sure if he's going to make a viola or cello next :)

The violin was first known in Italy in the 16th century, but similar instruments date even earlier.  You've certainly heard of a Stradivari, but both Amati and Guarneri violins are also prized.  

It's not known who made the first violin, but it likely originated in northern Italy, the area near Milan.  A painting called "Madonna of the Orange Trees" by Guadenzio Ferrari is the first record of a violin.

This is it.

We got to see a real Stradivari violin when we visited Florence almost exactly 3 years ago.

Here's the photo I took that day.  We were in the Accademia Gallery museum which is also home to Michelangelo's David.

I think these "f" holes (or sound holes) have also been a challenge.

They look perfect!  

On our first visit to Venice, we went to a fantastic concert of stringed instruments.  

Here is a video of the same musicians we saw - Interpreti Veneziani - playing part of Vivaldi's Four Seasons.  

Until next time . . .

Door Open

For five years and counting, we've had the good fortune to call Belgium "home".  We've also traveled to places we'd only heard of or read about, learned to understand and speak a little of a foreign language, and grasped the diversity and culture of another continent.

Unless you're a seasoned world traveler, you'll likely never come to Belgium.  Like most, who are lucky enough to travel, you'll go to Paris or Venice or London or Rome . . . 

We have too.

It's a bit unfortunate.  It's a hidden gem.  Belgium.

Often called The Battlefield of Europe because of its central location, it's not an instigator of war, but has often been right in the middle of one.  It may be one of the grayest of places, but it's also one of the greenest. Despite it being sate with castles and cathedrals, breweries and museums, it's never been a tourist destination.  In fact, most who live here might call it boring.

The whole little country is just 1/3 the size of Louisiana, but with a LOT more people.  Belgium has 950 people per square mile to Louisiana's 100 people per square mile.  Dense.  Very dense.

Sooo . . . our door is always open, but if you never get to Belgium . . . you won't see the roads we take, the countryside we drive through, the castles, the rivers, the cities, or the sea in this tiny country.

I discovered a really good video online and if you have about a half hour of free time, I hope you'll watch.

Remember to make the screen big by clicking in the bottom right corner and turn the volume up so you can hear the narration in English (subtitles are in Dutch).

Bigger than Texas

Ross and I played a game the other day to guess the 39 countries bigger than Texas.  I thought we did fairly well in the time allotment of 6 minutes naming about half the countries.

I attribute having any success at all in this game solely to living in Europe.  That's because prior to moving to Belgium, I didn't know where Belgium was.  Sad, but true.

You don't have to be a beauty pageant contestant or be from South Carolina or South Africa to be geographically challenged.  Thank you, American school system.

As I've probably mentioned before - because I mention it from time to time - I think every school gym and/or playground should have a map of the world painted on it.  How easy and fun would it be to learn geography while kicking a ball around, jumping rope or skipping?

Anyway, the world map as you know it is thanks to Gerardus Mercator.  He was born in 1512 in a little town in Belgium about an hour from us.  He was a cartographer and is most famous for the world map he produced in 1538.

The Mercator map was based on sailing routes way back then, but it's still in use today.  The problem is . . . it's a bit distorted from the actual world.  

Here's what I mean . . .

This is the Peters map produced by Dr. Arno Peters in 1973 and it's a much more accurate depiction of the world's land masses.  Dr. Peters was born in 1916 in a suburb of Berlin in Germany.

So you can see by comparison between the Mercator and the Peters maps that we only thought half the world would fit in Russia.

If you'd like to play the "name the countries bigger than Texas" game . . . there's a link at the bottom of this post.

But first, if you have never seen this video, you really should see it now.  It's 48 seconds that will truly amaze you.

Bless her heart.


Click on GAME to play.

Polska

Leaving Berlin, we drove into the rural area of western Poland.  This may actually be the highlight of this road trip.  

Just so you remember where Poland is . . . it's a big country - not much smaller than Germany and pretty much surrounded by countries that used to be part of the USSR.  

It is also very homogeneous - meaning nearly 97% of the population are native Poles.

We stayed in the little town of Lubniewice, Poland (population 1,924).  This whole area is very rural and incomes are fairly low here.  

Ross looked up the minimum wage in Poland and it's $515 per month.  That's $2.97 per hour.

Here are some pictures of houses taken as we drove into town.

Before heading to the hotel we stopped at this grocery store to see what sort of things a Polish grocery store sells.

Here are a few things we bought.  The Pierniki cookies were delicious and reminded us of cookies our friends, the Walters from France, used to send to us.  I sent some of the goodies to Randi and family.  Jim ate those sardines.  And survived.

The store was fairly small, but they made room for a very large display of vodka.

We bought wine, vodka and a beer to try.  The wine isn't Polish, but the beer is from the oldest brewery in Poland and the vodka is apparently famous.

As we were heading toward the town of Lubniewice, we passed this cemetery and decided it was worth turning around and going back.  It was.

It's called Cmentarz Komunalny and it was pretty amazing.  Nearly every grave was adorned with flowers and trinkets and almost all had a little bench for family and friends to sit when they come to visit.

I've definitely never seen anything like this.  Seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

Each grave is very close to the next one and you can see it went on and on.  Many had candles and nearly every one had a crucifix.  Poland is 90% Roman Catholic.

Did you know that all female names in Poland end in "a"?  Popular girls names are Aleksandra, Paulina, Anna, Karolina . . . popular boys names are Mateusz, Jakub, Michac, Jan.

Many of the candles were lit as if someone had come by earlier in the day to light them.  Very interesting and apparently a very revered place.

This is the hotel we stayed in and although there were a few other guests, we felt sort of like we were on the movie The Shining.

We nearly had the whole place to ourselves.  Here's Winslow making himself at home.

This is Jezioro Lubiaz or Lake Lubiaz.

This nice pathway ran from the hotel alongside the lake.  We took a long walk and the weather was really nice that day.

It seems the lake is popular in the summer for water sports and vacationing.

We could see this building from across the lake so we decided to check it out.

It appears to be a church, but it must not be in use at this time.

This guard made sure we didn't get any ideas about going into the fenced area.

I have enough trouble making out signs in Dutch, and certainly have no idea what this says, but our best guess is that the EU has funded this project to attract visitors to this lake area.

It is definitely beautiful and peaceful and quiet and very remote!

You would definitely need GPS to find this place.

These are boats belonging to the Wodne Ochotnicze Pogotowie Ratunkowe or in English . . . the Water Volunteer Rescue Service.

Before heading out of town, we drove around a little, visiting a little store and the Post Office.  This building is also the bank.  One window for each - very convenient.

This is the City Hall.

It's basically a one horse town and also a nice place to visit.

As we headed back into Germany, we kept seeing cars pulled off and parked along the rural, wooded areas. 

Turns out the owners of those cars were out picking wild mushrooms.  We passed by some for sale and turned around to check it out.  We asked if we could take their picture and the younger woman seemed embarrassed and didn't want to be in the picture, but this lady was just fine with it!

I snapped the other woman's picture anyway as we made a purchase.  I think they were probably mother and daughter.  There was no way to communicate. They didn't speak a work of English, but seemed happy with the 5 Euros we paid for the mushrooms. 

Jim really wanted to cook them, but by the time we got home with them, it had been a few days. He's famous for trying nearly anything, but thankfully, even he didn't think eating them was a good idea.

We stopped in the next closest and largest town and snapped this photo at a real estate agency.  In Poland, the currency is the zloty and is more or less 1 Euro to 4 Zloty.  That house on the poster would cost about 50,000 Euro (or $64,000) and their website says the houses in that area are anywhere from 1,000 sq ft to 1,900 sq ft.

Back to Germany, it wasn't long before we saw lots and lots of windmills - there are about 22,000 of them here.  

We put "avoid motorways" in the GPS so we could drive down some beautiful roads like this one.

From the GPS, we could see this lake so we veered off to have a look.

It's hard to tell, but the water was crystal clear.

On the back roads again.  What a nice barricade to keep you from being killed by a sycamore tree.

We may never get the chance to return to Poland, but I'm sure glad we got to go this once.