So this lovely weekend day Pascale and Eddy gave me some options on some ways to "discover Belgium." Not see some cool stuff, no tourist traps, no museums or churches, always discovering the region. There are some English phrases that they have really caught onto, and say over and over. Another big one is "Don't stress!", which, quite frankly, sometimes does make me stress out even more. Don't ask me why, it just does. But really, it's funny and cute the little things they say in English that don't always make sense. And, well, if I can find some humor in their excellent English, I can only begin to imagine how amusing it must be to listen to me struggle through any kind of French... But slowly and surely, je commence a parler francais.
So anyhow, this morning Eddy and Pascale said they would like to take me somewhere. They gave me a few possibilties, and I chose what I thought would be the most fun. So after lunch, we headed out on a little adventure. First, we went to the site of an old abbey. Most of the actual building is gone now, but they have restored part of it and turned it into a museum. And one of the gates, with a BEAUTIFUL stained glass window above it, still stands. Apparently, back in the day they would keep the nuns there in the abbey, and they were never allowed out. At least, that was my understanding of it all. We just stayed outside and looked around for a bit. Apparently the museum just always hosts a whole bunch of temporary exhibits and I cannot even remember what they have now... But the exhibit before this one was Andy Warhol! I wish I could have gotten to see that, because I actually enjoy his contemporary work. I was supposed to go with my art class, but I was sick and then like the next week it was over, so in the words of Eddy "No chance. No chance."
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| The abbey gate... Apparently it is super old. |
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| Museum part of things! |
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| I don't know what Iwas doing... But my mum always wants more people pics:) |
Next we went to a church, the place that I had told Eddy and Pascale that I wanted to go for the day. It was a small church compared to some of the ones I have seen here in Europe, but it did have its nice bits. Even though it is still old, church is actually still held there. One of the only churches here in Europe that I have actually seen have church... There were some pretty paintings, of course stained glass, and cool statues too. I wish there were churches like this for me to go to at home, inside of the newly built modern looking churches we have. There is just something breathtaking about old churches with beatiful windows and paintings and such. There are so many beautiful things here in Europe with so much history, and I really think that is why there is such an appeal for Americans to come to Europe. The timeless artifacts, you just can't find something like that in the U.S.
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| The Church! |
I thought that, after we finished touring the church, we would be going back home. I mean, they asked me what I wanted to do, and we had completed those things. But apparently, it went a bit faster than they thought or something, because we continued to drive around, and not towards the house. First we drove past a really famous racetrack in Europe, Spa-Francorchamps. Every year in August there is a huge racce there, one of the biggest in Europe or something like that, if I understood correctly. Then, we continued driving and drove past the Haute Fagnes, which to me just looked like a huge field with wild grass like we have back home, but apparently the earth there is different than basically everywhere in Belgium and there are some other special things about it too. But for whatever reason, I can't seem to remember them... And then, as soon as the fields end, we drove across the heightest point in all of Belgium. I can't remember the exact height, but it was super low. Something like 400 m above sea level or something??? I don't know if that is right at all, and maybe it was in km, but it was not heigh at all. Especially since I live right next to one of the heighest points in Washington, Mt. Rainier.
After that, we drove to this lake in the area. I guess everything is just simply smaller in Belgium, because what they considered to be quite a big lake was actually quite small. Like, for those of you that know it, about half the size of Lake Tapps. I guess Belgium is just such a small country, there is not much of a possibility for there to be all of the mountains or plains or lakes like Washington. And yet, it is still filled with so much culture, history, and beautiful things sometimes I really forget how small Belgium truly is. Definitely small enough that it doesn't even matter that there hasn't been an actual government for over a year... :) But even though it was tiny, the lake was really pretty. Or at least, all of the trees and landscape around the lake made it beautiful. It was on this day that I was reminded why autumn is my favorite season of them all. The changing leaves and just the rest of nature is breathtaking. And even though I am not really an artist at heart, being at that lake made me wish I had pastels and some paper so I could make a quick little sketch. And since I have never had the urge to randomly whip out some art materials and make a quick masterpiece, I guess have so much art in my schedule has really rubbed off on me...
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| Simply Beautiful |
After the lake, we went back home after driving around quite a bit, just taking in the sights. And thus ends my day of discovering Belgium... <3
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