Forestia -- Climbing the Ardennes Forest

This was a great day! We got up early, had brekkie and made a sac lunch then met with N. and her four children, a niece and her mother, "Mammie" to go to the Ardennes' outdoor adventure park that consisted of a domesticated farm-animal display (deer, goats, pigs, sheep, peacocks) and a tres-cool tree climbing area with three degrees of difficulty: for the youngsters (under 9--where one's feet are about 1 m up) the youth (aged 12 and the novice adults that permits one to be about 2-3 m up) and the adults (about 5 m above the ground)--all in the great canopies of the evergreens! Here's a picture of me on one of the cable rides fully outfitted with the Petzl helmet, the rock climbing harness and the bungee cables that clip onto the cables between trees. It was very expensive, but definitely worth it, since even after during lunch, there was a great park full equipment better than most I've seen in Canada for youngsters to burn calories on.

Hubby did the tallest activity area: I've try to capture it on video: better videos have been taken by N. so I'll try to copy and upload those on another posting.

Tomorrow we go back to Bruxelles to be interviewed and to interview the school where the boys will be attending...school is my thing, but because of the language difference, I feel very nervous about this and I will be forever more appreciating the challenges our immigrant families feel coming to the school systems at home!

beer while supervising the playground??

I love this country! You can supervise your children playing at a great playground while having an Orval or Stella Artois at a little outdoor cafe! There was no 8 foot fence, no doorman, and no silly liquor licensing to get in the way of a pleasant afternoon playing and imbibing! (perhaps there's less stupid drinking in this country? Either that, or there's less concern--if you're stupid enough to get pissed and then drive, you pay the price...I have heard the tolerances for blood-alcohol are much less than in Canada, but I'm not sure what that is yet--I'm careful anyway!)

So as an afternoon activity, we went back to Tongeres and let the kids loose in a very nice, very large playground that has activities for toddlers to 12 year olds, including a go-carts, a paddleboat pond decorated with exotic ducks, a mini zoo with two emu, three deer and a mountain goat and the best climbing equipment (for my oldest that must have been a monkey in a previous life this was just heaven) that I've seen in Europe so far--just what the stir-crazy people under my roof needed!

Here's the pic of hubby enjoying his afternoon sun with a Duval--one of his many favorites...behind him is a three-storey climbing "tent" that our oldest mastered in a matter of minutes then yelled at us once he reached the top--happy kids and happy hubby--a good day.

German town of Monschau

Today's little trip was to a quaint village nestled in the hills bordering Belgium and Germany. It's perfect homes and shops all have the characteristic architecture of the country boards/beams and stucco plaster resembling an english tudor cottage, though I think this style came first. Many of the buildings have as either their front, back or side access to the several fast running creeks or rivers that make the village so picturesque...here's a picture of my oldest son watching a fly fisherman under the bridge to one of the hotels. In 2005 I had a beer right under the tree you can see here on the right of the frame. Today we were too cold to "terrace" so went into one of the many (dozens) of coffee shops looking onto the market square for a pain chocolat and an espresso. This little jaunt was only 45 minutes away from where we're staying so made for a lovely excursion to stave off the "I'm bored" sounds that frequent our son's vocabularies.

Tomorrow ... hmmm ... maybe mommy and daddy need to check out a trappist monastery to inspect their cheeses and beers, or find the heart of the chocolate making industry or go to "Spa" (an actual town named for its healing and naturally occurring springs)...so many choices, and thankfully, some time to do these things!

Cooking With Mme C.

And I thought my hubby's family was large and loved to entertain, eat and laugh! On Sunday, we went for a walk to see JR's house in the midst of being renovated and then I went early to Mme C's house to help prepare the meal from things she made the night before. Meats included roasts of pork and chicken, sausages, and a pork and beef meatloaf with boiled eggs set within (beautiful on the presentation plate). Veggies included the now common sliced cucumber salad with minced onion, chives and mayo, cold cooked green beans, boiled cubed potatoes with parsley and shredded carrots in a vinaigrette... but the piece de resistance hands-down was the dessert: home made choux pastry biegnets or eclairs filled with vanilla pudding and topped with melted belgian chocolate...for those who didn't like chocolate (these people exist, I was surprised to find out) there was the same but with creme fraise and icing sugar topping the vanilla filling. All the assembled agreed that this is the specialty of "mammie" the pet name all call Mme C.

Here's a picture of us in her kitchen finishing off the dessert and setting them on a tray. This was snapped just before the 6 year old grand daughter and I nabbed some spoons to sample the creme to make sure it was frais enough!

Our hosts and landlords for the BE house

Here is the lovely garden as seen from the treehouse. Our hosts P & M were gracious and shared a sparkling white wine with us to celebrate our new relationship. The weather was lovely and the boys wasted no time getting into the warm, deep and large piscine (swimming pool--a name I find ironic, but didn't want to point that out to the owners--this language is odd that way, at times!!)

Our Brussels domicile

Today we met the owners of our house in Brussels and got a tour of the house, garden, tree house (!!) and pool. The boys were very excited but the youngest (14) of the 3 girls of the house was horrified to see boys playing in her tree and potentially playing with her things (I understand boys can be alien, but perhaps she was a bit sensitive to be in tears so soon after meeting my two?)

We got there around 3:30 and left close to 8:00 with our heads spinning. So many things to discuss and so many things to remember! The mother is a psychotherapist and will be returning in November, January and April for her patients, so if there are unimportant questions we will have an infrequent audience with her in order to resolve our concerns. They seem very nice but also very serious and reserved. I have been lead to believe this is a cultural trait to some extent, at least in this province...we will hope the "locals" will warm up to us, as if not we will be very lonely or hungry for expatriate company.

Food tonight was the lowest so far of our trip. A roadside restaurant to just feed the savage bellies then get back to Glons. Unremarkable and typical of all highway food internationally. I wish we had had the energy or time to explore a place with more character, but the knot at the ends of our ropes was fraying and the children needed more than we had on hand in the car. All parents can relate to the imminent meltdown warning signs, I'm sure!

Tomorrow I am invited to cook with Mrs. C. as part of the preparations for the large Sunday meal with the extended family (to which we're invited guests) so I know our prospects for lovely meals will improve. Will report more again soon. A Bientot!

Making Friends

Yesterday we had a lovely day since in the morning we travelled to Maasricht (see hubby's blog for more details of that) and then went to the home of a friend's for BBQ and dinner. They have 4 kids, with the second and fourth the same ages as our two. My little guy, when asked to greet the children (as all Europeans do, to kiss the cheek of the other) robustly grasped the shoulders of the littlest girl and planted a juicy wet one right on the lips--we of course laughed, the girl swiped her face with the back of her sleeve and our guy dissolved into a puddle of confused tears, "Don't LAUGH at me!". She was most gracious, and forgave him immediately and I think will be his European girlfriend (sorry RB you've been temporarily replaced by another blonde cutie--this one has ringlets)

As you can see by this photo, my oldest got involved in play, and since these children don't speak english and our kids only say "merci, s'il vous/tu plait and non" at this point, it was a relatively graceful and peaceful playdate...NO ARGUMENTS!

Dinner was great--the meal consisted of several salads, such as a carrot/cucumber salad with a mayo, pepper, cardamom dressing (and not your regular helmanns in this country--this is like caviaar or filet for this is light, bright, creamy and not oily or cloying--beautiful). Accompanying the salad was a platter off the briquette BBQ that offered pork chops, margueze sausages, BIG pieces of not really cured bacon (take your normal streaky bacon, multiply its thickness to about 0.5 cm and eliminate the spatter and most of the saltiness--they call this lard which sounds gross but tastes gourmet)

The conversations were stilted, but I did my best, and felt most comfortable in the kitchen and chatting to our hostess. I helped and watched to get lots of ideas and when talking about food, my vocabulary came to me easily. It was when I was trying to talk about the past tense or the non food activities in my life that I smiled and shrugged a lot or called in help from the men sitting around the dining table.

The kids grazed then went and watched the typical Disney films but in french dubbing, which I suggested so that they could hear new words in a familiar context--its surprising how much you understand when you already know the story!

We had to leave for les enfants' bedtime, but will gather again soon I hope, as we all had a great time and their house is lovely with rabbits, ducks, play equipment, chickens, and all the outdoor toys our children miss by living in a loft away from the parks/playgrounds we're so accustomed to.

our ruin trek

Vikings and ruins

Yesterday for a brief adventure we went to Tongeres, a medium sized town 20 km away...known as one of the oldest towns in Europe and for its antique markets (of course!) The first time I heard my non-plussed 8-year old say "Cool!" was when he saw a sculpture of an "asterix" type viking who had made his home in this village in the 4th century AD...this picture above is us posing with his spears. The boys scrambled all over some 4th century ruins at the base of the town's church and were astounded at the thickness of the walls. A local boy (age about 10) tried out his english on us ("good day boy, how are you? You happy to meet me?") and our boys found it curious and a bit odd...they'll get used to that, as I'm sure it won't be the last time.

So we're off to another wee adventure before having dinner at a new friend's home where chickens roam the garden and a new rabbit family has been born (yummm....rabbit stew!!)

grocery shopping in Belgium

There's so much to tell about our adventures so far, but lets keep it to the curious and the different instead of the mundane and the typical (ie: you know air travel can be tiring and patience wearing, so why tell you the same again?)

Now that we're in Glons (SE edge of the country, 14 km from Maasricht) we've rented a lovely apartment in a converted and renovated barn (the portals that were used to dry the hay have been made into windows, the space has an exotic Parisian spiral staircase to the second storey loft and fully equipped with all amenities of home). We've of course made ourself at home, and since the kitchen is an open-concept with an island workstation much like we have in Toronto, we've wasted no time cooking up lovely dishes and meals with the local produce. Grocery shopping was the first order of business after getting a rental car and learning the layout of the neigbourhood and nearby villages. We went to a great super marchee called "Delaize", a Belgian chain much like our Canadian Loblaws. Some things were the same, such as having to use a coin to access the grocery cart, and others were very different, such as the two rows right off the bat of wine and spirits right in the grocery...this blew us away, since next to these was an entire row of chocolate products--Cote D'Or is a common brand (actually distributed by Kraft here) but there were probably 20 other brands. Unlike Loblaws or Sobey's where they have the produce first, the booze and choloate is where you blow your Euro first--go figure! Now, don't get me wrong--the produce is excellent, and much more inexpensive than I worried it would be. An entire bunch of carrots right out of the ground (still with tops, probably 25 of them) was a mere 1.20 Euro. The cucumber was 0.20 Euro...but if you went for junk food or imported goods, that is when they nailed you right in the wallet...one of hubby's weaknesses is chips, or crisps. The 130 g bag of Kettle Chips slammed us close to 4.00 Euro (that is $6.00 CAD)...perhaps this will be one habit that won't come home with us. We brought home foods for meals we would make at home, a few staple the home didn't already have on hand (coffee, onions, garlic, pasta) and the bill came to a whopping 114.00 Euro! The wine was the least costly frill at 2-5 Euro a bottle--I'm going to like this country!

The first meal we shared with the brother of the landlord, and a good friend of hubby's teacher from when he lived in Liege. He's a local travel agent and has been our JR. It was simple Margueze sausage in tomato sauce with pasta, a lovely (and cheap) italian red and some Chimay semi-soft wash rind cheese and fresh made baguette. Divine. Our second dinner consisted of a roast chicken advertised as corn-fed with roast carrots, braised zucchini, rice and gravy. Our dessert was simple: fruit, cheese and chocolate. To ensure we used the bird to its best, we made a browned chicken stock (right out of the Chez Piggy-Kingston ON cookbook) and will have a rich chicken, leek, potato and carrot stew for dinner.

This village is lovely and very rural...we just got interrupted by the cows being walked through the village to be milked. The picture at the top of this post is a typical view twice a day out our second floor window. No wonder why milk is relatively cheep (0.59 Eu/litre) and cheese is exotic and plentiful.

So that's it for now. If you'd like to see more of our adventures, see Matthew's most recent post at www.matthewzadow.com and follow the links to his blog.

All the best until next post--Bon soir!