The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,400 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 12 years to get that many views.
Posted in Uncategorized
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!
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 🙂
Posted in Belgium, Edie, Family, New Zealand, Olive, Richard, Uncategorized, Weather
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; Â 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
Posted in Belgium, Edie, Family, New Zealand, Olive, Richard, Uncategorized
Our first solo trip to Brussels was a visit to the Museum of Musical Instruments. Our friends Christina, Charles and Bertrand had been there a couple of weeks prior and said it was not to be missed, and as it’s only two hundred metres from the Brussels Central station it was an easy destination to reach.
We left home early Wednesday morning and because it was a weekday the girls were thrilled to discover that our train was “a double decker mum!” After initially setting ourselves up in what turned out to be the first class carriage we were quickly ushered into second class by the somewhat officious ticket collector.
Becoming very accustomed to train journeys. Olive modelling her latest fashion in hair design - Bjorn Borg chic!
The Museum of Musical Instruments dates back to 1877 when the Belgian Government bought the collection of celebrated Belgian musicologist, Francois-Joseph Fetis. This was joined with a collection of over a hundred Indian musical instruments which had been offered to King Leopold II by the Rajah Tagore. The first curator of the museum was extremely enthusiastic and dynamic and increased the collection of instruments significantly. Because of this the museum became internationally renowned for the importance, quality, diversity and rarity of the items it housed.
The museum is also special because of the building it is housed in. The Old England is a former department store built from girded steel and glass in the art nouveau style.
Brussels art nouveau gem.
After getting our tickets we were all given headphones and began to explore the different levels. Next to many of the exhibits there were small listening posts which you could plug into and hear the instruments on display. This was a huge hit with the girls. They dashed from display case to display case, swiftly plugging in their earphones and then delivering their verdict on the music – in very loud voices! There was also a lot of impromptu dancing as they explored the enormous range of sounds.
Wired for sound.
Olive loved the harps and spent quite a bit of time dancing around to the beautiful music.
It was an incredible collection. What amazed me was the age of many of the instruments and also how beautiful they were. They were works of art, not only for the beautiful music that they produced but also because of the ornate carving, paintwork and embellishments that adorned many of them.
A tambourine from Florence.
An example of how beautifully decorated many of the instruments were.
As a music lover it was great to see my children so interested and excited by the displays. It was also a reminder of how lucky we are to have the opportunity to visit wonderful places like this.
Weather permitting we’re off to Holland tomorrow to go cycling round the Kinderdijk district, which is home to 19 molens – I’ll let you figure that one out yourselves!
Take care everyone. xxx
Inside Antwerpen Central Station
The city of Mechelen is about 25km out of Antwerp on the way to Brussels. We’ve been there before to visit the science and technology museum Technopolis. Mechelen also has a toy museum called the Speelgoed Museum – speel meaning play. Situated only 100 metres from the railway station it was the perfect place to start our train excursions.
We invited our friends Christina and Charles to join us. The girls were very excited to meet  friends in the big train station, find and climb aboard the right train and look after the ticket until it was time to hand it over to the conductor. After a short ride we arrived in Mechelen and found the toy museum. Edie had been in the midst of a grumpy tantrum but as soon as she saw the window of the museum, “I want to go home!” rapidly transformed into “I want to go in there!”
And they didn’t stop squealing and pointing and oohing and aaahing for the nearly three hours we spent in the museum. It was fantastic – a huge and varied collection that would appeal to young and old. The first two floors house the permanent collection and the top floor is home to temporary exhibits, the current one focusing on The Circus.
Charles turned into an amazing strong man when he went into the museum!
There were dolls and dollhouse furniture...
some seriously stylish tea sets...
Barbie, Ken and all their groovy pals...
even Jacinta's Barbie kitchen from when she was little!
Harry Potter and Hagrid were made out of Lego...
as was this old favourite.
Some elderly but rather distinguished teddy bears...
and so many beautiful puppets, marionettes and wind up toys.
The train section was a big hit with the kids. Here they are looking down through glass at trains zooming around underneath them.
"Send in the clowns..."
and the monkeys!
So all in all our first train excursion was a big success. Have got a few more up my sleeve so will keep you posted.
Take care everyone. Lots of love xxx
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
Posted in Belgium, Edie, Family, Friends, New Zealand, Olive, Richard, Travel, Uncategorized, Weather
One of the great things about our new address is the weekend market. Every Saturday and Sunday, around the corner from our street, Het Theaterplein comes alive with stalls selling everything from cheese to bicycles.
Vogelmarkt means bird market and this is what was originally sold at this market when it began in the 16th century. You can still see some birds – mostly poultry – for sale on Sundays but it is only a very small section of the market.
The focus of the Saturday market is food – fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese, bread, cakes, sweets, seafood, olives, nuts – food from all different cultures. The stallholders call out, advertising their wares – “Aardbein, verse aardbein” (fresh strawberries).
Shopping at the market feels very European but you have to be pretty pushy to get served at the popular stalls. I even have a very stylish red shopping trolley to get my groceries home – tres chic – don’t know what the Flemish for that would be!
Just the thing to keep the girls entertained while we stock up on fruit and vege.
So many different cheeses.
The seafood stall is very popular.
Middle Eastern treats - many made with rose water - delicious!
Olives everywhere.
and nuts
Brood - bread
The flower section of the Sunday market.
It's very beautiful - a riot of colour.
Zonnebloemen.
Pots and pans.
All sorts of books - including one I really like in the middle - it's not Barbie!
Olive and Edie also really like the clothes stalls.
Schoenen.
Smoker's heaven - and yes it is a very popular stall.
Fietsen.
Snoepgoed.
Posted in Belgium, Family, Food, Uncategorized
hetbelgischekoekje 