Hello, we have returned from 4 days in Belgium. As I said earlier, we went to visit friends, Kristine and Pat McDevitt. They have been living over there for the last 3 years and we were able to catch-up with them before they headed back to the states.

After arriving on the train from Paris, we went back to their home, in a suburb outside of Brussels. It is a lovely marble floored, open home. We had amazing weather and spent the first evening in the garden catching up, enjoying great food, company and Belgian beer. It is so tasty. We thought that it had more flavor and much less carbonation, making it a lovely accompaniment to our meal.

The next morning, the 2 boys, Alec and Patrick, had swim camp and the girls; Kristine, Bevin (11 year old daughter), Griffin, myself and Todd (yes, I realize Todd is included in the girls list :) all headed into Brussels. After Paris, Brussels seemed a bit provincial, but it had a lovely square and the staircase gables atop the guild buildings (the kind you see in all the collector towns). We ate belgian waffles for a snack - delicious, we got the works; strawberries, chocolate, bananas and whip cream. It was a bit of overkill, but when in Rome... We walked around and saw some of the local sites; Mannequin Pis (the statue of the little boy peeing), a lovely little square with lavender bushes (the girls followed the locals and collected a handful to bring home) and capped off the afternoon with a Leffe, Belgian beer, at an outdoor cafe. We picked up the boys at swimming and then read/rested a little before dinner. Kristine is an excellent cook, so the evening meals were delicious.

The next day Bevin, Griffin, Todd and I headed off to Brugges. Kristine had some documentation to take care of so she sent us with maps, recommendations and well wishes for the day. Brugges is very quaint. It is largely a tourist town, but it is still enjoyable to amble through the little streets. We visited a "gated community for women", actually it was a place for women who were widowed and pious, but not nuns. These houses were built around the church where they could live and serve, without becoming a nun. It was a peaceful quiet place to visit. We ate lunch nearby and had wonderful traditional flemish food. I had a dish called waterzooi (sp?), it's a light chicken stew, an oxymoron, I know, but really tasty. Todd had lapin, or rabbit, in a rich red wine sauce. He loved it. The girls had lasagna and salmon penne pasta - both delicious. Of course, there was beer. We walked up to the square and climbed the clock tower. It was 384 steps and provided a great view of Brugges. There was only one stairwell, so navigating people coming up and down was a bit challenging. It was also quite steep. We ended our day with a boat ride through the canals. The ride wasn't terribly informative, but helped us get our bearings.

The next day we headed into Gent. It is a university town and livelier than Brussels. Pat works there. It is not an easy commute, though, about 1 hr. 15 min, by car. The unfortunate part about our visit was that the entire city seemed to be hidden behind scaffolding. There was a huge music/street theater event starting this weekend and the temporary buildings were in the process of being erected. Even so, through the tent posts you could tell that Gent had a lot of charm. We visited a medieval castle, climbing our way to the ramparts. It had suits of armor, weapons, and torture devices. We finally saw a guillotine; we haven't seen one anywhere in Paris - out of sight, out of mind. We went into a lovely gothic style church with a beautiful side altar and a painting done by two flemish brothers. The statue of the brothers is in a small park by the church. The final stop was the chocolate shop. We purchased some dark chocolate and an assortment of filled ones. The shop had an area where the floor was glass, so that you could see the making of the magic. We went out to dinner to Kristine's and Pat local italian place, La Bruschetta. It was delicious! We sat by the pool, it abutts up to a pool company :) Great ravioli, penne and pizza were enjoyed by all.

We finished our trip with a visit to Waterloo. There is a large monument, it is a huge green mound with a lion atop it that was built by local labor. Women carried buckets of dirt and piled them up until it was 41 meters high. It is a 226 step climb, but at the top you can look out over the fields where the battle took place. We also watched a couple of short films that took us back to the battle and chronicled the day, June 18th. It was fascinating. The area has been preserved as historical land and it looks pretty much the same as it did then. You could really imagine it.

We headed back on the train and arrived "home" at about 5:00. We had a great time in Brussels and it was a nice change. It did feel good to come back and know, kind of, our way around again. We unpacked, washed clothes and headed out for a dinner on Place des Vosges. We went to a place that served traditional french food. It was very good and it was a beautiful night to be eating outside.

We came home and were reading when an awesome storm blew in. It went from breezy to blowing with huge raindrops and then hail, in about 2 minutes. The hailwas quarter sized. We watched the chaos that ensued. People were frantically trying to take cover. It had been a balmy evening, so a lot of people were outside. The streets flooded and the sky rumbled with thunder and lightening. It was a sight. It only lasted about 10 minutes, but it was amazing. It also cooled everything down and made for good sleeping weather.