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!

NYC Part 2

The day before the marathon was again crisp and clear.We didn’t want to do too much so as not to tire out our race competitor so we planned a visit to the legendary toy store FAO Schwarz. Firstly though, Richard had to complete his marathon registration, pick up that all important goodie bag and the transponder that would record his time. After riding in from Brooklyn on the subway we walked in the direction of the convention centre where the big marathon expo was being held. As we got closer we noticed ahead of us a group of people who all looked like they were marathon contenders – some type of team all wearing matching jackets. On closer inspection it turned out to be a running club from Belgium!

Inside the convention centre, Richard went off to register and the girls and I started to look around the myriad of stalls – all in some way related to running. The girls were handed giveaways wherever we went but unfortunately there were no giveaways at my favourite stall – Tiffany’s. If, like I was, you’re thinking “how on earth is Tiffany’s related to running?” the answer is this. You could get sterling silver Tiffany dog tags engraved with your name and your time – “we have an engraver on site on race day” I was told. If I ever run the New York marathon I have promised myself a pair of Tiffany dog tags – Richard happily agreed. He knows there’s way more chance of hell freezing over.

Checking out the stalls at the marathon expo.

As we were leaving the expo I noticed a stand set up by the New York City fire department. I bought some tshirts for my nephews and had a bit of a chat with the lovely former fire fighter behind the stall. I told him that both of my grandfathers had been fire fighters in Scotland, at which he scurried off to a bag he had under a table. Upon his return he handed me an NYC Fire Department 9/11 memorial pin and told me to give it to my grandfather. I explained that both my grandfathers had passed away and I would take it back to New Zealand and give it to my parents. It was a very emotional moment and I felt very privileged to have been given such a gift. He wished Richard luck and said he’d be at the finishing line tomorrow looking out for him!

We hopped in a cab and headed for the General Motors building on 5th Avenue – the home to FAO Schwarz. This iconic toy store is the oldest operating toy retailer in North America, and was one of the pioneers of ‘entertainment retail” – that is a store should be an experience for it’s customers. And what an experience it is. I think the girls found it a bit overwhelming. We’d told them they could each choose a toy. Fortunately Edie was still fixated on that dinosaur we never bought at the Natural History Museum so she was easy to please. Olive however spent a great deal of time in the Barbie section debating just which Barbie she needed to join the box of Barbies she already has back home!!

Meeting the muppets at FAO Schwarz.

Ma na ma na - doo doo do do do.

FAO Schweetz - candy as far as the eye could see.

Our next stop was Times Square where we met up with an Australian couple who were also running the marathon. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant – carbo loading anyone? – which was aptly named the Olive Garden. Olive got fussed over when the waiting staff found out her name and they gave her a stack of Olive Garden cups to take home with her. As we headed back to the Times Square subway stop the girls were very excited to spot the billboard for the Liong King – and I was just the tiniest bit excited too!

"Oh i just can't wait to see the Lion king tomorrow!"

Back to Halloween House we went where Richard cooked us a yummy dinner – pasta! – and we all got an early night. Three of us were dreaming of Mufasa, Simba and Scar whilst one of us was preparing to get up at the crack of dawn, ride a subway to the bottom of Manhattan, catch the Staten Island Ferry, stand around for over two hours in the cold and then finally run for 42.2km. You would be right in guessing that person wasn’t me!

As I write this I am still in the process of coaxing Richard to write a guest blog about the marathon – watch this space 🙂

Herfst

De kleuren van de herfst.

Autumn or herfst, has well and truly arrived in Antwerp. Whilst this does mean the temperature is starting to drop, it also means a beautiful and dramatic change in the landscape. Because so many of the trees in New Zealand are evergreen, we have never experienced the transformation that is currently unfolding before us. The colours are intense and stunning – so many shades of red, orange, yellow and green. Watching leaves swirl and dance as they fall; hearing the crunch as my bike rides through a big pile of these bladeren; seeing city workers busy with leaf blowers so these autumn cast offs don’t become a nuisance to the cyclists and pedestrians – the arrival of autumn has given us lots of new experiences.

Olive and Edie attempting to catch the dancing leaves.

When we arrived in Antwerp last November I was shocked by the sight of the trees – completely denuded, bereft and almost sinister in their appearance. I found it hard to imagine such withered looking objects could ever produce leaves again and it made everything here seem so harsh and ugly. How differently I will look at these same trees this winter, knowing how gorgeous they have looked and will look again.

Burnt orange against the crisp blue autumn sky is a colour combination I am loving at the moment.

I get the sense that the arrival of autumn is almost celebrated here. At the market yesterday it was winter vegetables as far as the eye could see – piles of pumpkins proudly displaying their colour and size. At the flower stalls there were all manner of non flowers available to take home – branches, baby peppers in pots and wreaths full of leaves and berries. Even our local supermarket has a colourful herfst display as you walk in the front entrance.

Our autumn wreath.

Another symbol of the arrival of autumn is Halloween, and this year we have celebrated on a much bigger scale than we ever would have in New Zealand. Olive had a  Halloween themed dance class, the parenting group we belong to held a Halloween party, the girls had a Halloween dress up day at school and also went to a  Halloween party thrown by one of Olive’s classmates – we even made Jack o Lanterns!

We used tissue paper to make papier mache jack o lanterns. At night we drop a small light inside them and they cast great shadows.

Olive doing the mummy dance at kleuterdans.

All dressed up for the APC Halloween party - we won the prize for best dressed family!

Ready for Halloween day at school. Richard was in the States last week and thanks to Walmart was able to get these great costumes.

Yesterday we drove north of Antwerp. Our destination was the Kalmthout Arboretum. We’d been told it was a beautiful place to visit and it seemed like the perfect destination to experience autumn in all her glory. Kalmthout did not disappoint. The gardens were beautiful, the colours so vibrant and being amongst so much nature made us feel close to New Zealand.

Olive and Edie christened this "the fire tree".

Beautiful echinacea.

So much colour.

Surprisingly we had the garden almost to ourselves.

It was a great afternoon – a wonderful way to really experience autumn and for the girls to learn more about the cycle of the seasons. If you’re in Antwerp and you haven’t visited Kalmthout, now would be a great time to go. The Kalmthout railway station is directly opposite the entrance to the garden and it’s only a 20 minute ride from Antwerp central – another easy trip the girls and I can do on our own. We bought an annual pass as we’ll definitely go back.

The girls are now on holiday from school and on Wednesday we are off to New York City. We are all very excited and one of us will be very glad when that big run is over and done with! I’m sure I’ll need my next few posts to share with you all our adventures and experiences in the Big Apple. Apparently it is snowing there this weekend – yet more seasonal change to experience!!

If you would like to see more beautiful autumn images click on the link to my Flikr photos – I got a bit trigger happy at Kalmthout yesterday. I’ll leave you with a picture of our own little Herfst display. Lots of love to you all – 7 weeks and counting!!!

Herfst in ons huis 🙂

Mode

Between 1980 and 1981, six fashion designers graduated from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The designs of Walter Van Bierendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee presented a distinct and radical vision for fashion during the 1980s, and also established Antwerp as a notable location for fashion design. Now referred to as The Antwerp Six, their big breakthrough occurred in 1988, when they rented a truck, filled it with their designs and set out for London Fashion Week.

On Nationalestraat, in the heart of Antwerp’s fashion district, you will find ModeNatie, a beautiful building that was once a grand haberdashery. Today it houses the Flanders Fashion Institute, the fashion museum MoMu, the MoMu library and the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

The ModeNatie.

On Friday I paid my first visit to MoMu to check out the current exhibition  entitled “Dream The World Awake”, a retrospective of one of the Antwerp Six designers, Walter Van Bierendonck.  Known as the maverick of Antwerp fashion, Van Bierendonck is famed for his colourful collections, his unique perception of beauty, his spectacular fashion shows and the socially critical themes he touches on in his designs.

Walter Van Beirendonck at the entrance to his exhibition.

Van Beirendonck has his own label;  collaborates with other designers and fashion houses; works on projects in art, theatre and music; and in 1997 designed the costumes for U2’s PopMart tour.

If you live in Antwerp and haven’t yet seen the show, you might want to stop reading now. One of the things I loved about this exhibition was the big “wow” I experienced when stepping into the gallery – would hate to spoil that for anyone else.

Van Bierendonck's collaboration with sculptor Erwin Wurm.

The gallery was full of mannequins on pedestals, many slowly turning, allowing you to be still and see the garment in all it’s glory. And they were glorious. I was struck by the dazzling array of colour and the incredible detail on the clothes. Each one was a work of art in itself. Here are a few of my highlights.

Something about this made me think of home - the blue is very much like that gorgeous blue in our summer skies.

Detail on one of the garments.

Costumes from U2's PopMart tour.

Could see myself wearing this one - even the tiara - so pretty!

The museum was very busy – full of school children and fashion design students furiously sketching or taking photographs. It’s a great exhibition for kids – I liked it so much that we all went back as a family on Sunday afternoon. There was much laughing from the girls and debate as to which outfits they liked the most.

This was a big hit with the girls.

Richard's favourite - he'll have a hard time getting me into an outfit like that! And yes that is a phallus on her head!

One of the things I enjoyed the most about the exhibition is that it highlighted for me one of the interesting paradoxes about Belgium. Belgium is so often viewed as conservative, dour, boring even, yet this exhibition was such a great example of the creativity, whimsy, boundary pushing and sense of humour that exists behind those labels.

The Walter Van Beirendonck exhibition runs till mid February. I’m really looking forward to what will go on display next. Check out my Flickr photos for lots more of Van Beirendonck’s creations.

Next up on our tour of Antwerp – diamonds!! Until then lots of love and hope you are all well xxx

La ville de papier.

This time tomorrow morning we will be having breakfast on the train to Paris. It’s going to be a very brief trip but one that we are all very excited about. It’s almost six years since Richard and I were last there. Olive was there too – in utero – which meant that most of my afternoons were spent napping whilst Richard wandered the city of light alone.

The girls have been doing a lot of talking about what they will see there, with the Eiffel Tower being their number one destination. And yesterday we found the perfect craft activity to get them even more excited.

I’d had the website – http://www.madebyjoel.com – recommended to me. The site has been set up by a Dad, who’s also an artist and who’s really into doing arts and crafts with his kids. One of the great activities on his site are the paper cities. I knew he’d been asked to design a paper city for Sydney, but when I checked his site yesterday morning I discovered that he’d just added a paper city for Paris – perfect timing and just the thing for a dreary, wet summer’s day!

After a quick download and printout of the templates, we were ready to start construction.

All the important Paris landmarks - even a little citroen car!

Edie was the first to get her La Tour Eiffel up. Even got the colours on the tricolore in the right order.

Olive, being just that bit older and more focused, put a great deal of effort into her Paris. Not the city of light but the city of colour.

Edie's Paris - mostly made by Mum. Uncle Joe, that's you in the natty pink suit under the arc de triomphe!

Olive insisted on doing just about all the cutting herself. All those Montessori cutting activities have really payed off!

Volia! Paris - la ville de la couleur - as made by Olive.

I can highly recommend madebyjoel.com. He’s got a book coming out in November too which I’ll definitely be checking out.

We’re saying au revoir to Richard in Paris. He’s flying back to New Zealand not long after we hop on our train back to Antwerp. What a different space we’re in as compared to his last trip to NZ in January. Then, I really didn’t want him to go. Now I’m thinking – mmmm  two weeks of evenings to myself. Peace, quiet, uninterrupted viewings of my Brothers and Sisters DVDs  – all that important stuff!

Check back soon for an update on our Paris trip.

Love to you all xxx

Cologne / Koln

Koln is Germany’s fourth largest city. It sits on both sides of the Rhine and is the major cultural centre of the Rhineland. Koln has more than 30 museums and hundreds of galleries so it’s actually a good place to be when the rain is pouring down!

The centre of the city is dominated by the Cologne Cathedral or Kolner Dom. Built in the Gothic style, construction began in 1248 and wasn’t completed until 1880. Locals sometimes refer to it as the eternal construction site!

The Kolner Dom.

Years of built up grime give the church a spooky looking exterior.

Despite all the dirt it was a stunning building.

We arrived in Koln early afternoon and after checking into our hotel we wandered over to the Dom and had a look around. It was very touristy with all sorts of people touting for euros.

That'll be one euro please!

We wandered through the main shopping district where the girls were delighted to discover a shop devoted entirely to Lego. There were a few famous faces there too.

Olive refused to believe that the Stormtroopers are actually the baddies.

Not surprising really considering how relaxed they both were with Darth Vader. Just didn't seem right somehow - he's just not meant to be all chummy with children!

Dinner that night was at a highly recommended Indian restaurant – the Kama Sutra! The food was great and the decor, shall we say interesting. Lots of reproductions of Kama Sutra images on the walls and even on the menu. The girls of course were oblivious to it all – more interested in the sweets that the staff kept bringing them.

Mum did manage to have sex on the beach - the cocktail variety that is!

Sunday morning was a very wet one so we headed for the Ludwig Museum. It is a collection of modern art and one of the best museums I’ve visited. The exhibits were beautiful, weird, thought provoking, stunning – such a feast for the senses. The girls, particularly Olive, really enjoyed it too. It’s great to hear your five year old saying things like “Mum come look! This is so amazing”. And it was amazing to see works by artists like Andy Warhol, Picasso, Paul Klee, Francis Bacon and Roy Lichtenstein.

Art appreciation.

A great deal of discussion here about which was the most beautiful.

In the afternoon we took a gondola ride across the Rhine to  the Rhine park where the girls made great use of the playground.

View from the gondola.

We walked back across the Rhine by way of the Hohenzollern Bridge. What’s special about this bridge is not just the fact that you can walk across it next to all the departing trains from the central station, but also the love padlocks that adorn one side of the bridge.

Examples of love padlocks all along the bridge.

These symbols of everlasting love are most commonly placed on the railings of bridges and began appearing in European cities in the early 2000’s. It is thought that the original custom of locking a padlock and throwing away the key originated in China.

Many of the padlocks are carefully engraved with names and dates. Very sweet.

The company that operates the Hohenzollern bridge threatened to have the padlocks removed but had to back down in the face of huge public opposition.

A wall of love - aaahhh!

Apparently  a wall of love locks was started in Wellington earlier this year with padlocks being placed on the bridge between Frank Kitts park and the Boat Shed. Can anyone confirm that for me??

On our last day in Koln the sun came out. We spent the morning at a great thermal baths complex situated in the Rhine park. After lunch we let the girls have a run around and splash in some small fountain sculptures near the river’s edge. They caught the eye of a serious looking photographer who turned out to be a reporter for The Express – a major German newspaper. He took a few photos of the girls and promised to let us know if they would make it into the paper – all very funny!

Kiwi models hard at work.

Despite the bad weather we had a great time in Germany. Koln is also known for it’s great Christmas markets so we might have to make a return journey later in the year.

Hope you are all well and as they say in Germany, “auf wiedersehen!”

La Belle Bretagne

Four weeks into the zomer vakantie and unfortunately we are yet to experience the kind of weather one would expect at this time of the year. The only silver lining is that it hasn’t just been bad in Belgium. Across Europe things haven’t been too hot weather wise – pun intended!

We have managed to keep ourselves pretty busy and were very happy to welcome our friends Magnus, Jeanne and Seb to Antwerp two weeks ago. We spent a few days in Antwerp and then in convoy made the long drive to Bretagne or Brittany.

The weather in Antwerp was particularly atrocious whilst M,J and S were with us. Apparently not too dissimilar from what they were experiencing in Napier just before they left, which is pretty depressing considering NZ is in the middle of winter! On the one sunny day we had we all biked to the Middleheim Statue Park – definitely one of our favourite places in Antwerp. We also visited the new museum which I talked about in an earlier blog post, and went out to the zuid or south of Antwerp for a nice dinner.

Magnus and Richard checking out one of the exhibits at Middleheim.

Seb and Olive having a sing star duet - Lady Gaga's Bad Romance!

Interacting with the displays at the MAS.

On a cold and dreary Sunday morning we packed up the cars, strapped on the bikes and began the big drive. Every kind of electronic device was employed to keep the girls amused for the almost 10 hours it would take us to reach Bretagne.

Long car trip 21st century style - how on earth did our parents cope without all the gadgets?

Bretagne is a region in the north-west of France. In the Neolithic era, Bretagne was a centre of ancient megalithic constructions and later became the territory of several Celtic tribes. It has been referred to as lesser  or little Britain and along with Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales, it is recognised as one of the six Celtic nations. Each of these regions has it’s own Celtic language that is either still spoken or was spoken into modern times. In Bretagne this local Celt language is known as Breton.

We stayed in the south of Bretagne, close to the Gulf of Morbihan. Our accommodation for the week was a little cottage – Le Moulin de la Claie – which stood on the site of an old mill.

The cottage was cosy and just outside was a small lake with a boat, a barbecue to cook on, a friendly dog and lots of other wildlife – frogs, bats and even an otter type thing in the water!

Ship ahoy!

Barbecue Francaise!

Trying not to be put off by the weather – there was a fair bit of rain – we spent our week exploring the towns and countryside around the Gulf of Morbihan. We drank cider and ate galettes galore. Galettes are large, thin pancakes made from a wholewheat flour or ble noir. They were on the menus everywhere and you could have them plain or filled with all sorts of things – Edie was partial to ham and Richard had a great one filled with creamy mushrooms – yum!

Edie after eating her first galette in Malastroit.

Our cottage was not far from the city of Vannes. It was full of buildings like these.

Lots of stripes and lots of colour.

Most places we visited had a carousel in the town centre. This got the big thumbs up from Edie and Olive.

Wandering the streets of Vannes.

Must take exorbitant amount of photos for blog...

Braving the cold weather at Camaret-sur-mer.

The Bay of Islands...um...no...actually Le Bono. So pretty.

Megaliths at Locmariaquer.

Olive and a very old stone.

Baywatch New Zealand style.

Enjoying a break in the weather at Quiberon.

It really is warm enough to swim...honest!

Despite the bad weather, I loved Bretagne. The people were warm and friendly, and I got to speak French on numerous occasions – including a lovely conversation with an old lady we encountered whilst out biking with the girls one afternoon. She would have kept chatting all afternoon and it was nice to be able to follow along with most of what she was saying.

I think what I liked the most was being near a coastline that was similar to home. Rugged and rocky, wild and rough – it was the closet I felt to New Zealand – the land – since I left eight months ago.

And yes I did take an exorbitant amount of photos which you can see by clicking on my link to Flickr.

We hope everyone back home is well and surviving the cold snap – loved seeing all the snowy photos on Stuff. Missing you and sending all our love xxx

Mama en Papa / Oma en Opa

Last week we welcomed my parents to Antwerp. After eight months apart it was so lovely to see them – the girls were incredibly happy to have Grannie and Granda in Belgium.

Waiting impatiently at the airport on a very wet and windy Saturday.

"Look! It's Granny!"

I had anticipated doing lots of touristy things with Mum and Dad but unfortunately Antwerp’s weather was not being very cooperative. Plus my Mum had spent the past six weeks in Edinburgh overseeing my Grandmother’s move into a rest home, and so a quiet and restful week was needed instead.

We showed Granny and Granda around the city and they visited the Rubens Huis Museum and The Plantin-Moretus Museum. They also managed to fit in a day trip to the military cemetery in Etaples, France. My Mum is an amazing genealogist, and had tracked down two of our relatives who were buried there after losing their lives in the Great War.

Showing Granda one of our inner city play spaces.

Having dinner at one of our favourite restaurants in the Dageraadplaats.

I think what was nicest about our week however was the quiet times we spent together at home. Once Mum and Dad were here it was like we’d never had any time apart and soon it was like any other visit we’d had together – it just happened to be in Europe!

Dad would get up early and go for a walk around the city. He’d bring home an English newspaper which he and Mum would read and then Mum would attack the crosswords.

At 5pm it would be “a pair of teeth” time and out would come the g and t’s and the scottish antipasta (Gilbertson family joke which will only make sense to a small number of readers!)

Whenever we go and visit Mum and Dad at the farm, Richard and I get a chance to have uninterrupted reading time whilst Granny entertains the girls. We set ourselves up on the couches in the lounge – cups of tea and chosen reading material at the ready (for me Mum’s back issues of NZ House and Garden magazine!) – while Mum, Olive and Edie set themselves up at the kitchen table and play games from Granny’s games cupboard.

We managed to recreate this quite successfully here in Antwerp – although Richard didn’t get his quiet time due to having to be at work.

First it was jigsaw puzzles...

then card games...Snap!

Then Edie reminisced about what she used to do with Granny when she was very little!

Richard and I took Mum and Dad out for a very delicious dinner at the Sir Anthony Van Dijck restaurant. Van Dijck was a Flemish artist, born in Antwerp, who became the leading court painter in England. The restaurant was down an alleyway in Antwerp’s old town. Great building, great food and great company.

Mum and Richard laughing at my attempts to speak Flemish.

Me and my Dad.

The week flew by and it was time to say farewell. It was hard to say goodbye but I chose to think of what we would say in New Zealand – “Ka kite ano” or “Until I see you again”, rather than goodbye. In only five months we’ll be heading back to New Zealand, back to the farm, back to 12 or so issues of House and Garden to catch up on!!

Arohanui Granny and Granda. Ka kite ano!

Naar de Zee / To the Sea

"Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!"

We spent the past weekend at the Belgian Coast in the city of Oostende. I was very keen to sea a Belgian beach although I have to be honest that I was not expecting much. We have many amazing, rugged, breathtakingly beautiful “seaside” spots in New Zealand so I was preparing myself to be disappointed. For some reason I was expecting it to be all very British – not that I have spent much time on any English beaches – I don’t think a few hours in Brighton nearly 6 years ago counts!
Olive and Edie were very excited about our beach trip. After school on Friday we had to make a quick dash to Bart Smit – Belgian equivalent of Toyworld – to invest in some buckets and spades. The fact that the buckets were heart shaped and bearing images of the ubiquitous Hello Kitty just made it all the more exciting.
After battling through the city traffic we arrived in Middelkerke, a small town just outside of Oostende, and our digs for the weekend – the Zeegalm. It was a bit like an upmarket holiday camp – lots of cabins and bungalows arranged around a swimming pool and cafeteria – I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a yellow coat pop out and greet me with “Hi De Hi!” – there I am back to my British comparisons again! After a quick dinner we all hit the hay – Edie could not be parted from her bucket and spade…

I've always enjoyed cuddling up to bits of plastic.

Saturday brought blue sky and warm sun – a perfect beach day and we headed into Oostende armed with buckets, spades, towels, bikes and scooters. We parked the car and walked, biked and scooted along the boardwalk.
My initial impressions were not good – hard to be inspired when faced with architecture like this…

There were many buildings like this - huge blots on the landscape.

As we got further down the boardwalk things started to improve and there were several beautiful old buildings which hinted at how picturesque it must have been in days gone by – before the destruction of the first and second world wars.

The zee.

Richard mucking around outside a particularly grand old building.

Imagine all the buildings along the seafront in this style and you can picture how beautiful it would have been.

Olive and Edie were completely uninterested in the architecture – they just wanted to get their togs on and hit the sand!

Squeezed in a little bit of cycling first - look at my baby riding her bike!!!

Bathing beauty number 1.

And number two.

I love how everything at the seaside has to be stripy!

After a very enjoyable morning spent on the beach we headed a bit further down the coast to explore Fort Napoleon. Oostende’s strategic position on the North Sea Coast was advantageous for it’s role as a harbour, but also brought with it lots of trouble. It was frequently ravaged, ransacked and destroyed by conquering armies. Napoleon Bonaparte was concerned about an attack from the English and so commissioned a fort to be built in Oostende. The fort is a pentagonal design with bunkers over two floors. It was occupied by the German army during both world wars forming part of the defence known as the Atlantic Wall. It was a fascinating place to visit – even the girls liked it.

Inside Fort Napoleon.

The bakery - very important to have one of these if you are under siege.

Climbing to the top of the fort.

The view from the top of Fort Napoleon.

With all the sun, sand and interesting local history, Oostende was starting to win me over. When we went into town after our visit to the fort I felt like Oostende was calling to me from every street corner…

Christinastraat 🙂

Mmmmmm - Christina's patisserie!

After dinner we headed back to the beach and did a bit of kite flying. Olive and Edie loved it – especially when the kite nosedived into the sand!

It was a beautiful evening (and yes Alix that is the kite you gave us - bet you never expected it to be flying over a Belgian beach!)

Kite runners.

On Sunday we surprised the girls with a trip to Plopsaland de Panne. You might remember Plopsaland from one of my earliest blog posts. I think there are 5 Plopsalands in total and the one we had visited previously was an indoor Plopsa. Plopsaland de Panne is an outdoor Plopsaland. (I have probably just set a world record for the number of times the word Plop appears in a single paragraph!)
De Panne is not far from Oostende and as the weather was cool and grey we thought Plopsa was a better option than another day at the beach – Olive and Edie needed no encouragement – the squealing was deafening!
Plopsaland takes it’s name from Kabouter Plop – the main character in the television show Plopsa. Kabouter is the Dutch word for gnome or leprechaun. In folklore Kabouters are usually tiny men who live underground or in mushrooms. Our first ride of the day was a boat trip through the kabouter forest – it was very cute – the girls were waving to all the kabouters and calling out “hello, hello” – I’m sure they believed them to be real.

Little Kabouter firemen putting out a fire - so cute!

Kabouter Plop himself outside his mushroom house.

Olive and Edie with one of Plop's friends.

Our good buddy Mega Mindy showed up too!

I won’t bore you all with endless theme park photos – we had a great day – a great weekend in fact. We’re already thinking of heading back to Oostende for a longer stay. Piha it definitely wasn’t but it had a certain charm which worked it’s magic on us – or maybe that was the leprechauns!!
Missing you all and sending lots of love xxx

Buitenspeeldag

Sport is an important part of the Belgian culture. Not in an extremely gung ho everyone has to be a super athlete kind of way, but more in the physical activity is a great thing to do both physically and socially kind of way and there are many ways in which sport and physical activity are actively encouraged and supported in Belgium.
Tennis, not surprisingly, is extremely popular. The success of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin have a big part to play in that. Cycling too is very big here – not much explanation needed on why – this is the lowlands after all! Korfball is another big sport in Belgium. It’s a mix between netball and basketball but the big difference is that the team has to be mixed genders – four women and four men. I’d never heard of Korfball before, but it is played in 57 countries, including New Zealand. Belgium were the Korfball international champions in 1991, and have been runners up to the champion five times since then.
Participation in sport and physical activity is encouraged from an early age. Olive and Edie have two sessions a week with the school phys ed teacher – Meester Wally. We all love Meester Wally. He is young, super enthusiastic and great with the kids. Meester Wally’s idol is Sportacus from Lazy Town – he has even been known to dress up as Sportacus from time to time.
Sports complexes and grounds are found in every Belgian neighbourhood. Often they have a tavern attached. We stumbled across our local complex one Sunday evening looking for a place for dinner. Not long after we sat down, the Korfball match that was taking place in the adjoining gym finished and the tavern filled up with players and supporters of all ages. Everyone had a few drinks, some stayed for dinner, there was lots of laughter and a really relaxed and convivial atmosphere. Slightly more refined than the let’s get pissed after the rugby match mentality that can be found at home!
Because most Belgian women are working, holiday programmes are very important here, and often they have a sport focus like martial arts, gymnastics, football…even horse-riding. The girls often come home from school with flyers about “sportkampen” or sports camps.
Last Wednesday it was Buitenspeeldag which roughly translated means the day for playing outside. All around Antwerp the city council put on fun events. Nickelodeon, the kids tv channel, even went black for the afternoon. It was a stunning day, very warm, so we hopped the tram with our friends Charles and Christina and headed for the Buitenspeeldag activities at Koning Albertpark.

Olive got straight into it!

Olive, Charles and Edie do the hula.

Olive attempts the diablo - very popular with the big kids at school.

One can only spin a plate successfully whilst poking one's tongue out.

All athletes need cupcakes for energy!

Come on Mum - we need some more legs!

There was even a little pony.

The best thing about the day for Olive was that she got to have "bare arms" - finally!

Future NZ long jump champion.

A little bit of house building.

Even standing on stilts will not stop the pose and cheesy grin.

We bumped into our friends Liam and Hugh who live just across the road from Koning Albertpark. Hugh found a set of starter’s blocks in a box and set them up for the kids. They had a great time -carefully positioning their feet in the blocks, crouching down and bursting out at top speed upon hearing Mum’s simulated starter gun noise!

Liam and Olive psyching themselves up.

Take your mark...get set...GO!

The funniest thing about the whole afternoon was the gentleman in charge of the dancing station in the park. There he stood in front of all the children, promoting outside play and the benefits of physical activity, and all the while puffing away on a cigarette!
It’s the big birthday party tomorrow. We got four “Ja’s” and the fifth, Olive’s good buddy Helena, was devastated that she couldn’t come. According to her Mum she was in floods of tears and begged for the family holiday to start a day later so she could go to Olive’s party! Olive is thrilled and I am very relieved. The weather forecast for tomorrow is great and we’ll have twelve children in total. Watch this space for a party report!
xxx