Saturday, May 19, 2007

Belgian Countryside




I won't bore you all with the torture of jet lag, but the extra two hours sitting in the plane before take-off in Washington DC made the twelve hour flying time into fourteen. By the time I got to Brussels at 9am the next morning my body didn't know day from night. But, now that I've had a couple of days to adjust, I'm starting to feel almost normal. Sitting still in one place for that long goes against all things natural for a body. Let's just say I was a wee bit exhausted by the time I arrived. A terrible price to pay for two months abroad, heh.

My daughter, Kellee and her husband David have been wonderful to me. Their house is like a castle and seems my two grandsons, Taylor and Gavin, have adapted to life in Belgium without much trouble. They enjoy the space they have here and find living without television makes life more interesting. Their imaginations are growing along with their boy bodies.

The Belgian countryside is lush and green this time of year. There are fields of grain and newly sprouting vegetables, cows and sheep dotting the hills. The buildings are mostly old with red brick the standard building material. Yesterday,Kellee took me into Mons, a small city in the south of Belgium where we walked around the Grand Place (city center where there are no cars and people are sitting outside eating and drinking beer). The flower market was big and the variety of flowers and potted plants and vegetables was impressive. I had a for real Belgian waffle and man oh man....it was to die for. (nothing like we have in the states)

I will be leaving for Paris tomorrow. Taking the train and trying to locate my first hotel by myself!