Trouwen

Last Friday we were very lucky to be present at the wedding of Edie’s teacher, Miss Sarah. To say that Edie likes Miss Sarah is something of an understatement. Miss Sarah is to Edie what Miss Honey is to Matilda and what Miss Binney is to Ramona. Quite simply, Edie adores her and so we were thrilled to be present at her marriage to Pieter.

Polka dots are one of Miss Sarah’s favourite things so there was really only one outfit option for the girls…

all polka dotted out in honour of Miss Sarah.

The wedding was held at the district house in Borgerhout which is directly opposite Miss Sarah and Pieter’s house. Shortly after 10am the bride and groom emerged.

A very grand building to be married in. Love the bunting.

The bride and groom emerge – compulsory grab for the tissues!

As every bride should, Miss Sarah looked radiant and Pieter scrubbed up pretty well too. I’m not ashamed to say I had tears in my eyes when I saw her and even more when she was greeted by her students.

The beautiful bride and her groom.

Rushing to greet a very fancy Miss Sarah.

As I said – adores her!

After many fond greetings and much ooohing and aaahing over the bridal couple we moved into the district house for the ceremony.

Heading into the Trouwzaal or wedding hall.

Best seats in the house for this little gang.

It was a lovely mix of the formal and informal – there were serious moments but also lots of laughter and of course a great big kiss!

Getting down to the serious business of trouwen or getting married.

Lots of smiling and laughter throughout the ceremony.

And a little bit of love too!

The rings were entrusted to the beautiful flower girl – big responsibility!

After the formalities were over the children were invited to write or draw on the marriage certificate, and then it was outside for more congratulations and some bubble blowing!

Pondering what to write – I love big sis whispering advice!

More big hugs. As we left the wedding Edie said she would love Miss Sarah forever!!

Edie even had polka dots on her sandals – such is her devotion to her beloved teacher!

Olive preparing to unleash some bubbles.

We toasted the happy couple with grown up bubbles at the cafe across the road. The children played and the grownups chatted and basked in that lovely feeling of seeing a couple so happy together embarking on the next stage of their lives as husband and wife. It’s going to be a very special Belgian memory for us and we must say a very big thank you to Sarah and Pieter for sharing their big day. As we would say in New Zealand – Arohanui!

I’ve reserved the final picture for Miss Sarah’s bouquet. It’s made of felt, as was Pieter’s buttonhole flower. So beautiful and will last forever.
Congratulations Miss Sarah and Pieter!!

PS Lots more wedding pics if you click on the link to my Flickr photos.

Barcelona

I’m listening to this song as I write this post. Freddy Mercury and his impassioned and rather over the top number seems somehow fitting whilst writing about such a colourful and vibrant city. I heard this song so often during the television coverage of the 1992 summer Olympics and often wondered if I’d ever make it to “Barcelona!!” – imagine if you will Freddy belting out that last word. I certainly never dreamed I’d be visiting at the age of 40 with a husband and 2 children in tow – as the saying goes, life is full of surprises!

The Croad ladies hit the streets of Barcelona.

To say that we liked Barcelona is an understatement. We loved it – Olive declared it to be the best place we have visited and we are already toying with the idea of going back in the summer. Three days really wasn’t enough.

Before all the Barcelona love however, we had a wee bit of Croad love. I know that the girls have been missing Richard but I got a feel of just how much they miss him when I saw their reactions on spotting him at the airport.

Richard took this photo as the girls rushed towards him. Tissues anyone?!

After the dramatic reunion we headed into Barcelona. We were staying just outside of the city centre and once we’d dropped off our things and had a quick freshen up we jumped on the subway and headed into the city. Our first stop was the Arc de Triomf, a structure which was built for the Barcelona exposition in 1888.

So now we can all say we've seen two Arc de Triomfs 🙂

From here we wandered through the streets until we arrived at La Rambla, the tree lined pedestrian mall popular with tourists and locals. We grabbed a quick bite to eat then stopped at a souvenir shop to make the etremely important purchase of flamenco dancer outifts complete with polka dot clip clop shoes!

I think this picture sums up beautifully just how Olive and Edie feel when they don their flamenco outfits. And oh how they can get some noise out of the shoes!

As we excited the souvenir store we noticed that people seemed to be congregating on either side of the street and we quickly grabbed an empty spot. Being in a predominantly Catholic country on Good Friday, I had high hopes of seing something religious and our timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

When these two appeared we knew something interesting must be about to unfold...

...definitely interesting! Olive and Edie were completely unfazed.

Of course those guys were just the supporting act and JC soon took centre stage.

His Mum was there too and was a big hit with the girls - "Oooo look it's Mother Mary"!

Saturday began with the obgliatory search for a good cup of coffee and then we hopped on one of the tourist buses. We were heading for Parc Guell – the garden situated on the hill of El Carmel – and decided to take the tourist bus so we could see a bit more of the city along the way.

Olive really enjoyed the trip on the bus and listened very intently to all the commentary.

Edie mostly just practised posing!

We saw many eye-catching sculptures...

lots of interesting modern architecture...

a giant easter egg...

an old bull fighting ring...

and Gaudi's masterpiece the Sagrada Familia.

Maybe he was responsible for the giant Chupa Chups too!

We spent a good couple of hours in Parc Guell – there was so much to look at and listen to, as musicians were dotted throughout the gardens. The colours seemed so much richer and more vibrant than here in Antwerp or maybe that was just the beautiful weather!

Picnic lunch in Parc Guell.

Some of the gorgeous Barcelona colours.

We headed to the waterfront for dinner – close to what was the Olympic Village. We ate a great meal looking out at the sea and the girls had a blast running around on the sand.

Fish sculpture near Barceloneta beach.

The floral adornments, as you have probably guessed, are part of the flamenco outfits.

The beach at nightfall - beautiful.

We woke on Easter Sunday morning to more blue skies and headed straight back to Barceloneta beach. We’d promised the girls a longer play at the beach and a chance to wear “our togs”!!

No togs for me however - quite happy with a latte and a stunning view.

I know...I'm biased...but they are stunning!

And just a little bit crazy too!

Around lunchtime we walked into the old part of the city and stopped for some tapas. Then more wandering, a quick rest at home and then back to Sagrada Familia for a closer look.

It really is spectacular.

We headed back to La Rambla for dinner and a glass of sangria - yum 🙂

Richard disappeared back to the States very early on Monday morning and the girls and I spent our morning exploring the aquarium. I’d located the whereabouts of a Camper store and was planning on doing some serious credit card damage after all that fish watching. However Easter Monday in Barcelona meant most stores were closed so no new shoes for me – probably just as well! We did manage to find a Desigual store that was open which kept the girls very happy. They love the riot of colour and pattern that hits you when you walk into a Desigual shop and there was much oohing and aahing and a teeny bit of purchasing!

So all in all it was a fantastic trip – just a little on the short side! There are oodles more photos if you click on the Flikr link – my camera tells me I took over 500! Rest assured I did whittle it down befroe uploading!

It’s a big day in our house tomorrow – Olive is turning six. Will try and write something quick tomorrow evening. Until then, crank up the Freddy Mercury – Barcelona!!!

Stoofvlees

We spent Sunday afternoon with our old neighbours – Joeri, Isabelle and Nina. They were keen for us to experience some traditional Flemish cuisine, so invited us over for a dinner of stoofvlees – a beef stew which is often referred to as the national dish.

The secret to cooking great stoofvlees is time – Isabelle began marinating the meat on Saturday evening – and when we arrived at their house on Sunday afternoon the stew was slowly cooking on the stove top.

I took a sneaky look - it's clearly not the most attractive of dishes but the smell was enticing.

With at least a couple more hours of cooking required we headed out to the Mikerf Kinderboerderij in Braaschaat. Literally translated, kinderboerderij means children’s farm. In English we’d call it a petting zoo.

The setting was beautiful and the girls had a wonderful time getting up close and personal with a range of farm animals.

Meeting a very friendly mouse.

It was very exciting for Nina.

Olive, Nina and Isabelle brushing one of the goats.

Edie also had a turn.

"Is your name Baaaaarbie?"

Gently does it.

Like every good children’s attraction in Belgium there was a speeltuin or playground with cafe close by. We sat and watched the girls play and then it was time to head home for dinner.

"It's just like Granny and Granda's!"

Back home, Isabelle made the final touches to the stoofvlees whilst Edie and Joeri made a quick trip to the frituur to pick up some friejtes – stoofvlees is always served on top of hot chips! Edie was very happy to report that the woman who runs the frituur remembered her from our trips to get fish and chips when we lived in Marcel Auburtinlaan.

We gathered around the table, loaded up our plates with frietjes and witloof and Isabelle served up the stoofvlees.

Lekker!

It was delicious – so good in fact that I had two helpings. After cooking slowly for such a long time the meat was incredibly tender and the beer gave the sauce the most amazing sweetness. Owing to the amount of time needed to create such a flavoursome dish, stoofvlees is not eaten as often as it would have been in Isabelle’s father’s day. He gave her his stoofvlees recipe and I’m hoping I can get my hands on it too!

I see they have a Flemish beef stew on the menu at Leuven in Featherston Street –  just the thing for those fast approaching winter’s nights in Wellington!

Take care everyone – sending lots of love xxx

Dinant

On Saturday morning we packed up the car and drove south into Wallonia, the French speaking region of Belgium. As it was the last couple of days of the crocus vakantie, and as Richard is heading to the States next weekend, we wanted to have a bit of a family holiday. Plus we wanted to get back into travelling more regularly in and around Belgium. Our travel in recent months was focused heavily on New York and then New Zealand, and as our time in Europe is not unlimited we need to keep on exploring.

Notre-Dame church and the Citadelle of Dinant.

About a ninety minute drive south of Antwerp, you will find the small town of Dinant. This very picturesque settlement stands on the east bank of the river Meuse. Dinant is dominated by the gothic style, black onion dome of Notre-Dame church, and also by the escarpment or Citadelle perched high on the rocks above the church.

The traditional sites of Dinant had to wait however as Richard was very keen for us to explore some of the surrounding countryside on our fietsen or bikes. Olive and Edie are always keen to travel this way and as I do a lot of cycling in Antwerp, I couldn’t see any reason why not to…I had of course forgotten one of the key differences between Flanders and Wallonia…hills!

All ready to explore.

"What was that? A climb akin to the Wadestown hill? Yep..sure..no problem...gulp!"

Because of the aforementioned hills, there was a lot of huffing and puffing and a fair amount of walking whilst pushing the bicycles, but what we got to see made it all worth it.

"Just a bit further Mum...honest!"

Such beautiful scenery - Wallonia has so many more wide open spaces.

The reward for yet another climb.

Of course the great thing about climbing hills is that you also get to go down them – heaps of fun, if not a tad scary, on the fietsen. No photos of this unfortunately – all energies focused on surviving downhill dash with child behind me!

We covered about a 20km loop then reattached the bikes to the car and headed for our hotel, Les Grisons. We had planned to drop off our stuff and head out again but lo and behold we switched on the television just as the England vs Wales rugby match began. To be honest I was glad of an excuse to rest my aching limbs and made good use of the bath whilst Richard revelled in England’s defeat.

Les Grisons - just outside of Dinant.

The couple of times we’ve been in Wallonia, I’ve had the opportunity to parlez-vous Francais and I made very good use of my high school French on this occasion. There was a mix up with our booking which led to me opening the door into an already occupied room. I had to go back to the main hotel, ask the daughter of the hotelier – about 10 years old and no English – to go and get papa and then explain that “il ya quelqu’un dans chambre dix-sept”. I managed to get everything resolved without resorting to English once – tres bien!

We dined at the hotel restauarant – very formal, very quiet, an older couple next to us who appeared to grimace every time Olive or Edie muttered a sound, very stressed out Mummy – you get the picture. Halfway through dinner, the daughter of the hotelier appeared and promptly had Olive and Edie under her spell. Despite the fact that she had no English and their French runs to “bonjour” and “on y va”, they got on like a house on fire. The older, grim faced gentleman asked me about the girls and turned out to be quite lovely. We had a little chat en francais and dinner suddenly got a whole lot more relaxed – phew!

Sunday was devoted to catching the telepherique or cable car up to the Citadelle, and exploring Grotte la Merveilleuse – a fantastic cave which is renowned for its frozen waterfalls, stalactites and stalagmites. We also drove through the Rocher Bayard, a pinnacle of rock which marks the most westerly point reached by German troops during the Ardennes offensive.

Rocher Bayard.

Quick photo opp whilst there was no traffic.

Looking down on Dinant from the Citadelle.

The escarpment. It's possible to walk up from the bottom - only 408 steps.

Descending into Grotte la Marveilleuse.

Frozen waterfalls.

Our wonderful guide who switched effortlessly between French, English and Dutch - amazing.

Olive and Edie, who’d had a very late Saturday night, were starting to fade by the time we reached the end of our tour of the cave, so we started to make for home. Whilst the girls slept, we took a slow drive home via Namur and Leuven – more places for us to come back and visit. Belgium is definitely underrated as a tourist attraction.

If you click on the link to my flickr photos you will see many more images of our visit to Dinant, plus you’ll also find out who is Dinant’s most famous son – your clue is Henry Mancini’s famous musical score, The Pink Panther.

And I’ve written captions for the photos too – all the more reason to check them out!

Until next time – au revoir!

Buiten

A couple of weeks ago Antwerp was hit by a cold snap – a very cold snap. Temperatures were well below zero, in fact they were the coldest they’d been in fifteen years. Some days it was -9 degrees and overnight it got down to -13. What started one Friday afternoon as a gentle snowfall, quickly became a blizzard which paralyzed the roads around the city for hours.

A snowy Saturday morning on the Meir.

Because of the extreme cold we spent a great deal of time indoors or binnen. Last week the weather settled and as the thermometer was hovering around 4 degrees, pretty tropical when compared with -9, we decided to take advantage and spend some time buiten or outside.

We began our buiten day at the beautiful Antwerp park, Rivierenhof. Rivierenhof has a great space for children to ride their fietsen or bikes, and the girls  had a great time whizzing around the miniature streets. We even got Edie to take the training wheels off – albeit very briefly.

I think the last time I posted pics of Olive on this track, she was just learning to ride without her trainer wheels. What a difference a few months makes.

Edie Kinevil roaring down the home straight!

Zusters op de fiets.

From Rivierenhof we headed to the Kalmthout Arboretum. I wrote about our visit there last autumn when it was full of all the glorious herfst colours.

This is the same tree that I used as the first image for my previous post about Kalmthout - looks a little bit naked now!

Despite the fact that we were visiting in winter, Kalmthout was still beautiful. Certainly different than when we had visited in autumn, but no less interesting or inspiring.

Edie playing peekaboo.

It even hailed briefly!

Olive's summer house photo.

The lake was still somewhat frozen.

It's a very beautiful garden. The girls love exploring all the nooks and crannies.

Warming up with the help of a little fire.

Very pleased to find this book, in English, in the Arboretum shop. Richard was stoked to find a book all about the couple who started Kalmthout Arboretum - ook in het Engels.

Being in Kalmthout made me want to rush back to New Zealand and find a house with a big garden! As that wasn’t a terribly practical solution for a Sunday afternoon we decided to create our own mini garden on our little terrace in the heart of the city. We already had some flower seeds which we’d picked up on our last visit to Kalmthout, so we bought some carrot seeds to go with them. On the way home we stopped by Walter Van Gastel – a garden, florist, homewares kind of store. It’s huge – there’s actually nothing in New Zealand I can really compare it to. It’s kind of like an enormous, incredibly chic Palmers Gardenworld, complete with great cafe and playground which keeps the girls happy whilst we browse the aisles. We first visited Walter Van Gastel in the weeks before Christmas, when we’d just arrived in Belgium. The displays were astounding.

So today we were only meant to be popping in to grab some potting mix and a tray to plant our seeds into  – famous last words! I was instantly won over by all the beautiful Easter displays and couldn’t help but come home with a few pretty extras!

The highlight of our trip to Walter Van Gastel was what we discovered languishing at the back of the store, perilously close to the heavily discounted odds and ends they were trying to get rid of…

what the....insert another F word here...??!!

I’m not aware of any gardening craze sweeping Belgium which involves the use of distressed looking planter pots emblazoned with “New Zealand”. Obviously noone else is either – hence the large stash of them. I resisted the urge to buy one – much to my husband’s relief!

Back home Richard and the girls got busy in the “garden”. They loved every step of the process – particularly the all important use of the watering can.

Getting ready to plant the carrot seeds.

Very carefully placing the seeds.

Adding the water.

Olive giving the green thumbs up to her planted flower trays.

More water.

Final soil top up.

So now we will wait with baited breath to see what emerges from our inner city garden  – hopefully lots of juicy carrots for the paashaas or Easter bunny.

It’s crocus vakantie this week so the girls are off school. We’re planning a visit to the toy museum, will make a trip to the movies to see The Muppets, have tickets booked for a circus style puppet show and hopefully squeeze in a couple of playdates. Oh…and of course…will water plants regularly!!

Lots of love everyone xxx

Dag Sinterklaas

As I write this we are counting down to Friday morning and the start of our long trip home to New Zealand. Being home will be wonderful – particularly being home for Christmas. Christmas last year was very hard so I was determined that our celebration this year would be a big improvement!

It wasn’t a practical idea to take Christmas gifts for the girls to New Zealand, just so they could unwrap them and then bring them back to Belgium again. So we decided to have an early Christmas which coincided perfectly with the very important Belgian festival of Sinterklaas.

Visiting Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet.

December 6th is official Sinterklaas day, but as that falls tomorrow most Belgian families celebrated yesterday so that the children would have time at home to play with their gifts, rather than having to rush out the door to school. We had our own combined Sinterklaas – Christmas Day and it was lovely.

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring...Edie slept all night with Sinterklaas' mitre on her head 🙂

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there...looks like he found us okay!

Olijf and Edie left some beer, speculaas and carrots for Sinterklaas, Zwarte Piet and the horse - known in Flemish as "slecht weer vandaag" or "bad weather today! Sinterklaas left a note in Dutch thanking the girls for "het lekker eten".

It's customary for Sinterklaas to leave snoepje or sweets for the children - Edie looks happy with hers.

Time to check out the presents.

Edie was thrilled with her Peppa Pig figurines - a great find on my trip to London.

New crocs for summer in New Zealand.

Hard to see under all that hair, but Olijf is thrilled to discover that Sinterklaas has brought her a real watch.

The aforementioned Peppa Pig figures.

Yet more Peppa Pig!

And Lola!

Sinterklaas even made sure there was something under the tree for Dad and Mum.

In the evening we hosted four of Richard’s kiwi Taura work colleagues and our neighbour for a Christmas feast. I channeled my inner Alison Holst (legendary queen of NZ cuisine) and made a pavlova and a Christmas cake – we even had turkey.

Tasted just like a bought one.

So this will be my last post from Antwerp for a while. The next few installments will be coming to you from beautiful Aotearoa. Ka kite ano!

Plopsaland!

It’s been two weeks since my last post. I think that’s my longest absence since starting this blog almost eleven months ago. I do have several good excuses! Since the start of September we’ve been focused on getting back into our day to day routine – a big part of which has involved the girls starting at their new school. I’m happy to report that they both love it and are really thriving. Richard has been travelling – he’s back in New Zealand for the second time in less than a month and he has a few more trips to take in the weeks ahead. We’re also focusing on our trip to NYC in November and then home to NZ in December, so we won’t be doing the little trips away that were becoming a very welcome part of our routine.

So what I thought I’d aim to do over the next couple of months is spend some time exploring many of the great attractions here in Antwerp which I’ve yet to visit, and share them with you.

Tonight I’m starting with…drumroll please…Plopsaland!! Aaah no! Not again! I can hear you groaning! I know I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel somewhat but it’s been so long since I posted I thought Plopsaland was better than nothing at all.

Saturday was a beautiful day here in Antwerp, and as Richard was off to New Zealand on Sunday, we thought we’d treat the girls and surprise them with a trip to the outdoor Plopsaland at De Panne.

Plopsa!

De Panne is a 90 minute drive from Antwerp and we weren’t on the road for long before the girls had guessed our destination and the shrieks and squeals when we arrived were deafening.

Photo shoot with Maya the bij.

Buzz,buzz.

We headed straight for Maya Land which is a new attraction at Plopsa. There was a small queue as we were there ten minutes before the official 10am opening time (nothing happens before 10 in Belgium). Richard and I found it very hard to stifle our laughter as the first two punters in the queue were not, as you would expect, excited children but rather an elderly couple dressed in matching red outfits, grim faced and determined that noone would beat them through the door!

Please God let me not end up at 60 odd going to children's theme parks without any children!!

It must be at least six weeks since we had a face painting pic on the blog so here you go!

With Pete Piraat...skip ahoy...hoy..hoy!

All ready to rollercoaster.

By far the best part of the day was running through the Plopsa fountains - almost felt like summer.

Wet,wet,wet.

Very happy girls.

Check out my Flickr photos for more shots of Plopsaland. And I promise my next post will be something of a much more intelligent and cultured nature!

Lots of love to you all – counting the sleeps until December 9th! xxx

Parijs

The sky was ominously dark, the rain was coming down thick and fast and the roar of thunder filled the carriage as our train pulled out of Antwerpen Centraal on Friday morning. Just another typical Belgian summer’s day!

We didn’t care – we were off to Paris!!

Very excited travellers.

Richard and I have always spoken positively of Paris whenever we’ve mentioned it to the girls. Olive has also been interested in the French capital because she knows that she visited Paris when she was growing in mummy’s tummy. Much as I hate to admit this however,  it’s really Barbie that we have to thank for the high level of enthusiasm that the girls have shown towards Paris since we moved to Belgium. In no less than three of her movies, Barbie makes a visit to Paris. And if Barbie thinks it’s cool well, who are we to argue? Just think what she could do for Palmerston North!

Me in Paris - oh wait no - that's Barbie.

We arrived at Gare du Nord shortly after 9:30am and were soon on the Metro heading to our hotel.

Becoming very accustomed to using public transport.

We were staying in a part of Paris I’d never been in before – the 15th arrondissement – and our hotel was only a ten minute walk from La Tour Eiffel. As we approached our hotel and the iron lattice tower loomed into view the shrieks were deafening.

"It's the Eiffel Tower!!"

After a quick check in we hopped on the RER train and made for Musee d’Orsay. It’s a place Richard and I both love and as we’ve seen a great deal of modern art on our European travels we decided it was time to immerse ourselves in some old classics. (We will also always remember Musee d’Orsay because last time we were there we literally bumped into Judy Bailey. It was just after that big scandal when it was revealed how much she was being paid to read the news and she’d obviously headed to Europe to get away from all the negative press. I just couldn’t resist saying “oh look, Judy Bailey” in a loud kiwi accent – the poor woman visibly squirmed and dropped her glasses!)

Olive outside Musee d'Orsay.

One of the things I love about this museum, apart from all the amazing art, is how open the exhibition spaces are. Musee d’Orsay used to be a railway station and when you stand in the great hall you can see so much all at once.

Inside Musee d'Orsay.

Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Renoir, Rodin, Degas… I could go on and on. It was wonderful. Olive was particularly taken with Degas’ ballerinas. She loved the sculpture La Petite Danseuse and admired all the tutus in his Paris Ballet paintings.

Marie - la petite danseuse.

Although we could have spent all afternoon in the museum we pulled ourselves away, crossed the road and hopped on board a BatoBus for a quick cruise along the Seine. It was pretty cold and rainy but Paris still looked beautiful as ever.

Playing around with another Paris icon on the BatoBus.

La Tour Eiffel from the Seine.

We hopped off the BatoBus at the Eiffel Tower stop and lo and behold…another carousel! They are somewhat unavoidable in Europe in the summertime.

It was very much enjoyed - as you can see!

When the ride had finished we strolled back to our hotel for a short rest and a freshen up. Edie was checking out the view from our window when we heard her call out very excitedly, “look! It’s Michael’s statue!” Upon further investigation we realised that we were looking down on the Parisian Statue of Liberty. (The NYC statue makes an appearance in one of Michael Jackson’s videos, hence “Michael’s statue”!)

The Paris version sits near the Grenelle Bridge on the Ile des Cygnes or Island of Swans. Our hotel was located on the Quai de Grenelle which later that night was to reveal, most unexpectedly, another Parisian monument that I’m so glad I got to see – more on that later.

We ventured out into the 15th arrondisement in search of dinner. We walked in the direction of the Eiffel Tower as we’d promised the girls the chance to see it by night. It was great to be in a new part of Paris and the neighbourhood had a relaxed and almost laid back feel to it.

Soon we reached several streets lined with bistros and cafes. One was very busy which we took as a good sign and so ventured inside. It was a good decision – the food was good, the service was friendly and there were…..snails!!!

Mmmmmm...escargots.

No surprises as to who ordered them!

For a brief moment we thought Olive was going to give them a try but she really just wanted to try using all the interesting spoons that came with them.

After the girls got over the shock of Dad eating garden friends we headed back to the Eiffel Tower. We’d missed out on tickets to the top via the elevator but as we drew closer we noticed the queues to climb to the second level were very short. The girls were desperate to climb the tower and once we’d paid our money and got onto the stairwell they didn’t stop until they’d reached the second level – that’s a climb of 1,652 stairs!

Climbing into the tower.

Looking over to Sacre Coeur.

Such a beautiful city.

We made our descent on jelly like legs and headed across to the Trocadero to catch the hourly light show, when the Eiffel Tower is transformed into a glittering spectacle. Olive and Edie were entranced. Mum and Dad too!

Just like a Christmas tree.

By this time we were all starting to fade and we turned our heads towards home. Richard wanted to see if we could get onto the Ile de Cygnes so we took an alternative route home. As we crossed one bridge and made to turn right onto what we thought was the Island of Swans, I noticed a sign bearing the inscription “Monument du Vel d’Hiv” and an arrow pointing in the direction we were headed.

A few months ago I read a book that had been recommended to me by someone I met here in Antwerp and which I soon discovered had been read by several of my book loving friends in New Zealand.  Her Name Was Sarah by Tatiana de Rosnay recounts the events of the 16th and 17th of July 1942, when the French Authorities rounded up thousands of Jewish families, forcibly kept them in the Velodrome d’Hiver in appaling conditions and then ultimately deported them to Auschwitz. It’s a deeply moving story which I couldn’t put down, and there is also a film version starring Kristin Scott Thomas.

Prior to our Paris trip I had thought about trying to locate the monument to the Vel d’Hiv but as we only had such a short time in the city I resigned myself to just not being able to have the time to see it. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw that sign.

As the photo I took was taken at night, it didn't come out very well so here is a better one. The curved sides of the monument are meant to represent the curved walls of the velodrome.

The inscription reads: “The French Republic pays homage to the victims of racist and anti-semitic persecution and crimes against humanity committed under the authority of the French Government. We will never forget.”

I think seeing those statues by night made it all the more poignant. Olive and Edie wanted to know what it was all about, why I was so interested and though I was somewhat stumped as to how to begin that conversation I know that we will talk about it. It’s important that we do so that we will never forget.

My hopes of being able to fit all of our trip to Paris into one post are fading fast! Bear with me and I’ll have part two for you in the next couple of days.

Jusque-la, au revoir ma chere famille et amis.

De Smurfen / Les Schtroumpfs

In the late 1950’s Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford  (more commonly known as Peyo) was having a meal with a friend at the Belgian coast. Having momentarily forgotten the word “salt”, Peyo asked his friend to pass the schtroumpf. His friend jokingly replied, “here’s the schtroumpf – when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back”. The pair went on to spend the rest of their weekend speaking in schtroumpf language and so began the life of those tiny blue-skinned creatures we all know and love as The Smurfs.

La la la la la la...la la la la la! Les Schtroumpfs!

Understandably the Smurfs are very popular in Belgium. A house in East Flanders is home to one of the biggest smurf collections in the world. Sisters Veronique and Michelle – known by everyone in the Smurf collecting business as “the sisters” – own more than 12,000 Smurf figurines. Their collection even includes a pornographic Smurf comic – eeeek!! The sisters are also renowned for their annual Smurf fair, which is held every October and goes by the name Blue Paradise. It attracts over 600 collectors from around the world, from as far afield as Canada and Australia.

The sisters!

The Smurfs are particularly popular at the moment owing to the recent release of The Smurfs movie. The girls have been very excited about it not least because Katy Perry is the voice of Smurfette – gasp!

Yesterday we ventured out to the Metropolis cinema to see The Smurfs. We live only a five minute walk from the movies but thought we’d make more of a day of it and take the tram to the much bigger metropolis complex in the north of the city.

Posing with their new best friends.

It seems that every new kids movie is in 3D these days so it was time for the funny glasses.

As you can imagine, marketing of The Smurfs has gone into overdrive with all manner of things being “smurfed” up. Plates, glasses, lunchboxes, towels, pyjamas, t shirts, tomato sauce bottles, mayonnaise bottles, nutella jars… anything that can have a smurf image emblazoned on it has been branded.

In our house we've managed to limit it to Smurf biscuits and Smurf cereal.

The Del Haize chain of supermarkets – Belgium’s answer to New World – are running a promotion whereby you collect stamps and then trade them in for smurfs. So we’ve had a few move in and take over the doll’s house.

Smurfette and her boys.

The doll's house dolls were cruelly tossed aside to make way for this lot!

One of the Smurfs we have collected is the Scottish Smurf called Gutsy, or as Olive and Edie have dubbed him – Granny smurf (my Mum and Dad are from Scotland). When Scottish Smurf started to speak in the movie, Edie called out, “hey! He’s talking like Granny!”

Gutsy aka Granny!

Olive and Edie loved the movie. For me it was a bit ho hum – not a patch on the TV series – oh how we used to love it!

It is pretty great to be living in the country where De Smurfen were created whilst all this Smurf hype is happening. I’m almost tempted to make a trip to Blue Paradise in October – all in the name of research of course!

Anyway in the words of the Smurfs, have a Smurfing good weekend. It’s a long one in Belgium so we are off to Germany to do a bit of cycling along the Rhine and then spend a couple of days in Cologne. We’re hoping to have a smurftastic time!

Bruxelles

After nearly nine months in Belgium we finally took a trip to Brussels in the weekend. Brussels is the capital of Belgium, home to over a million people and is also the headquarters of the EU.

Historically Brussels was Dutch-speaking but became increasingly French-speaking over the 19th and 20th centuries. Today most of the inhabitants are native French speakers but both languages have official status. Despite this, in the words of wikipedia, “linguistic tensions remain”!

Brussels also has the dubious honour of being one of the most congested cities in Europe so we ditched the car and took our new favourite mode of transport, the train.

"All aboard!"

I had to sit by myself 😦

After 50 minutes or so we arrived in Brussels and headed for the old town square or Grand Place. It was beautiful.

The Grand Place.

Gold adorned so many of the buildings.

It was very different compared to Antwerp.

Like Antwerp though, chocolate and chips were everywhere.

"A fountain of chocolate Mum!"

The bilingualism of Brussels is evident in all the signage, although it’s the French language that usually comes first.

Meat and bread street.

After a quick look around the Grand Place we wandered towards the Mont des Arts or Kunstberg, which is the museum district of Brussels. On the way we discovered the most amazing toy store – one in which we almost whiled away the rest of the day!

So glad this store is not in Antwerp or it would bankrupt us!

The route to the Mont des Arts had a very Parisian feel.

Great blend of old and new architecture.

Looking down on Brussels from Mont des Arts. Again this view reminded us very much of Paris.

There were so many museums to choose from but we could not go past the Magritte. This famous Belgian artist is a big favourite of Richard’s – I gave him a book on Magritte for our anniversary earlier this year – and we felt the surreal nature of his work would appeal to the girls. Although we move much quicker through museums and art galleries with the girls than we would do on our own, we are pretty lucky that they like to visit museums and really enjoy looking at interesting and sometimes downright strange pieces of art. Before we went into the Magritte we told them to keep their eyes peeled for men in black hats and granny smith apples and this really kept them, particularly Olive, focused.

Olive making friends in the gallery foyer.

Outside the Magritte collection. Understandably you couldn't take any pictures inside.

The exhibition was wonderful. It’s a real privilege to be able to see such important works of art up close – one of the great benefits of living here. In the museum shop we were excited to see a picture book which pays homage to Magritte by the Belgian artist and children’s book author Leo Timmers. We are big fans of Leo Timmers as English translations of his work are available in New Zealand through Gecko Press. Who’s Driving? and I Am The King! are two of his stories that we read a lot.When Olive and Edie left their preschool just before we moved we had to give them a Leo Timmers picture book – only right as we were moving to Belgium!

From Meneer Rene by Leo Timmers

We ended our day in Brussels with a late lunch at a cafe inside Galeries St Hubert, famous for being Europe’s first shopping mall. I think today’s mall designers could take a leaf or two out of the design of this building – it was very beautiful.

Inside Galeries St Hubert. Lunch was good too!

We made our way back to the station, a bit tired but very impressed with Brussels. In reality we barely scratched the surface of all there is to do in Brussels, but I’ve already found a couple of places for the girls and I to visit on our own. In fact we’re heading back there tomorrow to check one out!

As they say in Brussels – au revoir mes amis!