Overall Impressions

Now that we've been back in Madison for about two months, we have enough distance from the trip to look back with at least a little objectivity, and make deep, meaningful pronouncements about the trip. These observations should be considered definitive.

1. In a word, the trip was positive. We endured a lot of pain and effort to make the trip happen—medical physicals and fingerprinting, work visa legalities, finding a State-side house renter and dog sitter, finding an apartment in Brussels, finding a school in Brussels, packing (twice!) a ton of suitcases, lugging said suitcases, etc.—and every month we bled more money to the cause. But in return we got invaluable intangibles, meeting new people, culture, and geography.
2. The transition from Madison to Brussels was hard, particularly for me (illness) and JoJo (culture/language shock, illness). But fortunately we got over it, and grew to feel comfortable in our new, temporary home. Naomi in particular wondered what would have happened if JoJo never got over the hump; but JoJo did get over the hump, and that perseverence probably has increased her self-confidence.
3. The transition back to Madison was suprisingly difficult, although much easier than the first transition. After less than a week back home we headed out west for a week in the San Francisco and Lake Tahoe areas (Naomi had a conference there, and we decided to make a family trip of it), and the multiple changes of locations and time zones confused our bodies. I would say it took a month back in the States before we really felt like we were settled again in Madison.
4. The girls achieved some fluency in French. Their understanding of French is better than their speaking of French, and if we'd stayed for a whole school year instead of just half I think they would be pretty solidly bilingual. But they definitely gained the perspective that there are other languages out there in the world besides English. Jenee has made Tuesdays and Thursdays days to speak French, so hopefully the girls' proficiency in French will continue.
5. Naomi and I both spoke French with a low level of fluency before the trip, but I was disappointed that our fluency didn't improve much. We both worked in environments where English was spoken, so we didn't get a French immersion experience. We could have made greater efforts to seek out regular French conversation, but life was busy. Oh, well.
6. Naomi and I each had pretty good work experiences. Naomi wasn't teaching, but she got on a reasonably regular work schedule, commuting variously to the University of Ghent and the Erasmus Hospital in Brussels. I think her collaborations were often productive and enjoyable. For my part, I enjoyed working with my European counterparts at TomoTherapy. The 7-hour time difference was often painful for communicating with our colleagues/students back in Madison, even with modern communication tools like Skype.
   
7. One of the negatives about our experience, or at least my experience, was a feeling that there was a lot of latent (or not so latent) anti-Semitism out there. There was significant pro-Palestinian sentiment around Belgium and Europe in general, and in many cases that sentiment seemed to be tantamount to anti-Israeli sentiment. In Amsterdam I saw spray-painted on a bridge a star of David with the letter "F" inside; I don't know specifically what the "F" meant, but I can't imagine it was good. And of course the girls' Jewish day school had impressive security, including two sets of security doors, ex-Mossad agents, and a healthy municipal police presence to boot. On the one hand it was good to see how seriously the safety of the kids was taken, but on the other hand it's very sad that such lengths were deemed necessary.
8. Given that Naomi and I worked and we had the kids in tow, I think that we did a lot of travel, both day trips and more extended trips. Nevertheless, I would have loved to do a lot more. So many places were so comparatively close to Brussels. I would have loved to get to Venice, Barcelona, Prague, Germany, Scandinavia. If French Open tickets had still been available when I looked online, Naomi and I would have made a day trip to Paris—it blows my mind that a day trip to Paris is feasible from Brussels!
9. The food was great. I also really liked all the walking I did in my commute, and the calm and civilized commute by train (the occasional irregularity notwithstanding). I definitely lost some weight in Brussels, and I think I have already gained it back. It is ironic, because I ate a lot more chocolate and cheese in Brussels than I do in Madison!
10. Naomi and the girls were glad to be back in Madison, and I was too, but I felt a lot of ambivalence about it. I enjoyed working at TomoTherapy's Brussels office, and with all my unfulfilled travel ambitions I would have been happy to stay longer in Brussels.
11. The trip had the feeling of a "once in a lifetime" type of thing. However, I had two similar experiences growing up (my father took sabbaticals in the Grenoble, France, area during my kindergarten and 7th grade years), and Naomi and I already are looking forward to her next sabbatical, presumably 6 years hence. If you get a travel opportunity like this, we heartily recommend taking advantage of it!
    

Le Grand Retour

We have now been back home in the States for a month (plus a few hours). In seems like ancient history now, but I thought I'd try to recollect how the trip back went.

Naomi and I substantially worked up until the end of our stay. We had a nice Shabbat dinner our last Friday night (June 5th) with some friends, and one of Naomi's collaborators hosted us for dinner our last night (Saturday, June 6th). We tried to tour a castle near his house, but we got there just as the castle closed; so we had to settle for visiting the rather small farm next door (read on for the resulting consequences). Saturday was otherwise largely engaged by packing, as you might imagine. Sunday morning we had brunch with a few of my colleagues, at a casual place near our apartment, and then two of the colleagues drove us and our ample luggage to the airport.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, for once, and our luggage took up four carts. Two of the bags were literally dedicated to bringing back Belgian chocolates. The chocolate was very dense, so even though the bags were small, they were heavy! And the big, heavy bags were really heavy—most of them were over the weight limit, but British Airways was nice about it, and didn't charge us extra.

The "chocolate bags" were among our carry-on items, and so we were weighed down with a lot. Jenee's "chocolate bag" broke during our layover in Heathrow, so she had to carry it instead of wheel it around. In addition, the girls were not pulling their weight, to say the least, and wanted to be carried around. To make matters still worse, we thought we had gate-checked our stroller, but it had been checked through all the way to our US destination (O'Hare); usually our stroller has a kid in it, plus lots of bags hanging off of it. Oh, well, we did the best we could.

The flights themselves were fine, and the girls traveled pretty well in general. The on-demand video system completely rocked, and I remember glancing over at Amelia cracking up while watching one of the "Ice Age" movies.

But by the time we got to O'Hare, it had been a very long day. We left Brussels around 3:30pm local time, and got to O'Hare about 8pm local time, which is 3am Brussels time. On our customs form I had marked that we had visited a farm and touched farm animals while abroad. (We had petted rabbits and fed goats the night before, and we had also petted goats at the petting zoo in the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo.) That made us quick friends with the good folks at customs—and also made a cranky Naomi incredulous. (Curse my honesty!) After she stuttered non-sensical responses to the questions from the customs agents, we all got taken aside. They took the shoes we wore on the farm, and after a few minutes came back with them—we didn't ask what happened in between. Then we were free to go!

Our friend Matt picked us up in our minivan and drove us back to Madison. Amelia had a very impressive meltdown as we left O'Hare, but eventually everyone except Matt fell asleep, and we got home around midnight (7am Brussels time). Matt's wife Brenda drove us down to O'Hare at the beginning of our big adventure, so it felt like the circle was complete: the trip was over!

In Bruges

Today Naomi and I and the girls made a day trip to Bruges. We took the train, which in both directions was as crowded as a Who concert (but fortunately not as rowdy). The central circle of Bruges was similarly sized to that of Leuven, perhaps slightly bigger, and once again we walked from the train station at the periphery to the center. However, Leuven, as nice as it is, is like Bruges' ugly sister in comparison. Bruges is bigger and more bustling, with many beautiful buildings, large and small, and beautiful squares, and of course the canals. After lunch we took a horse-drawn carriage ride and tour around town, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

I think Bruges had the highest number of tourists, per capita, of any place I've ever been—and I've been to plenty of places with a significant tourism industry. There were shops with absolutely beautiful laces and other arts, but we didn't get the chance to really check out the wares. On our carriage ride, I was amazed to learn that Bruges used to be on the ocean, but centuries of silting have pushed the ocean out 10 miles!

Bruges was one of the destinations I really wanted to hit before we returned to the States, so I'm glad we were able to sneak this trip in just under the wire.

Groovin' in Leuven

Yesterday we all (me, Naomi, Jenee, and the girls) went to Leuven, roughly 15 miles east of Brussels. We unintentionally took the slow local train out, which was about 40 minutes with numerous stops, but we got it right on the return trip with the 20-minute express back to Brussels. Central Leuven is basically a circle of diameter 2 km or so. The train station was on the east side of this circle, and we walked to the center. Essentially at the exact center of the circle was the beautiful, baroque city hall, which in style could have held its own in Brussels' Grand Place (where Brussels own city hall is located). There was a wedding party having pictures taken on the front steps of the city hall, and we wandered around the pretty blocks and squares until we found a nice place for an outdoor lunch. After lunch, we wandered some more. There were several outdoor markets, variously selling antiques, bandes dessinées (comic books), and foods. We got ice cream cones, and the girls left a trail of melted ice cream in case we needed to find the ice cream store again. The other end of our ice cream trail was a plaza by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven). The plaza had the largest threading needle I've ever seen, probably 50 feet or more, standing up like a flagpole with a giant beetle skewered near the top.

Leuven seemed like a very nice town, with beautiful squares and architecture. Frankly I'm not exactly sure what to do there besides just wander around—and this is not meant to imply there's nothing to do there—but wander around we did, and we enjoyed it.

Grève danger (is there any other kind?)

Today I enjoyed that quintessential European experience, the grève, or strike. The strike in question was a train strike (more specifically, train controllers), and I learned of it when I got to the train station and saw that almost every scheduled train appeared to be cancelled, including mine. (Actually, most trains appeared to be expunged, with no trace on the board; normally, a cancelled train is on the board and labelled as cancelled.)

I ended up sharing a cab to work. At the taxi stand I overheard the guy in front of me saying he was going to Diegem, which is where I was going too. It was a funny coincidence, less than 1% chance that I'd be going to the same neighborhood, and when you add that I happened to overhear where he was heading, the odds were probably 1 in 1000 or more. But it saved me half my cab fare!

Brussels: Loving City

So today I was walking home from work, when I see another loving couple. I was walking through a popular park near Gare Centrale, and saw a couple ahead, standing in an embrace. But as I drew near—just to continue on the path, not to give closer inspection—it became clear that a lot more was going on than just embracing! I swear I mind my own business, so these couples are obviously trying to find me. Or maybe Brussels is just the nastiest city since Caligula's Rome!

L'Hitraot, Yisrael

See you later, Israel!

So I thought I'd say how the rest of the trip went, and also share a few random observations about our Israel trip.

We spent the last weekend in Ramat Yishay again with Ofer and Tal's family, starting with Shabbat dinner. Ironically, Ofer was called suddenly to his second-ever business trip to the US during the week, and didn't get back until Saturday night. Naomi and the girls went to a Haifa beach on Saturday, but I stayed home to take it easy during my recovery from food poisoning. While I read most of a novel, the large beach-going group—comprising Tal's family (minus Ofer), mother, and brother's family, in addition to my own family—took in the rays, with (I think) the only damage being some minor sunburns on Amelia.

Ofer returned Saturday evening, early enough to do some chatting. Sunday we had to head to the airport early enough that there wasn't time for much, although Ofer was able to take us to a patisserie for some tasty baked goods—arguably not as good as what we can get in Brussels, but still quite good, and probably better than what can generally be found in the States. Then we made a late (but fortunately not too late) departure for the airport: an official at our first security point told us bluntly we were late, and by the time we got to the gate boarding was mostly completed. The girls' behavior on the plane left room for improvement, shall we way, but we (mostly Naomi) managed ok.

In summary, it was a lovely trip, busy, but not overly so. I expected more bonding with Israel, but instead got more bonding with relatives; this in in contrast to my first and only other visit to Israel, in '97, in which my bonding was in the opposite order. But I think both kinds of bonding are good, and I hope my kids bonded in both ways.

Now before the observations, a small vignette: Our checked baggage allowance was 20 kg per person, and although we had 4 people we only had 2 checked bags, so I did my best, without a scale, to keep each bag under 20 kg. At check-in in Brussels, the weights of the bags were 19.2 kg, and 19.8 kg. Incredible! you say. Yup, I was pretty proud of myself. But, once in Israel, Ofer convinced me that the total is the key (i.e. less than 4 × 20 kg = 80 kg for us), and not 20 kg per bag. His theory was born out when, on our return check-in, a bag tipped the scales at 24 kg, with nary a consequence.

Observations:

• Israeli drivers were as bad as advertised. Very aggressive, and apparently very blind! In addition, motorcyclists loved riding the dividing lines between highway lanes, and I always thought how easy it would be for one of these blind Israeli car drivers to switch lanes without warning just as a motorcyclist tried to pass by.


• The traffic light cycle was very involved. Instead of green / yellow / red, it was green / flashing green / (short) yellow / red / red & yellow together. So there are two warning phases before stop, and one warning phase before go.


• We were advised a GPS was unnecessary, and at 55 NIS ($14) per day it was certainly expensive. Our experience partly bore this out, but there are two caveats: (1) you want maps or advance online route planning, and (2) a GPS sure is helpful in the big cities (Haifa, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv at least).


• Dog poo was overly present on sidewalks and in playgrounds, even more so than what we've seen in Belgium and elsewhere around Europe. This is a little surprising because, in some cities in Israel, you can apparently be fined for walking a dog if you don't obviously have the wherewithal to dispatch your dog's dispatches, let alone if you don't clean up after your dog. Oh, well, at least it dries quickly in Israel!


• Much of the northern half of the country seemed green, but a green reclaimed from the desert, as opposed to a green natural to the land. While in Israel, I was impressed at how green it was; but on the plane home, I was sitting next to two Germans, and as we flew over Germany and Belgium, seeing vast green spaces out the windows, they remarked to each other how they were happy to be heading back to the rich flora of home. It suddenly struck me how the vegetation in Israel—impressive in its own right: agriculture is huge there—was no match for the lushness of Europe.


• For breakfast we sometimes ate the Israeli version of Cocoa Puffs, called Cocomon Kedorim, which on the box was translated into English as Cocoman Balls. I think this translation may have unintentionally picked up a little extra connotation—and hilariously so!

Jerusalem trip

Yesterday we wrapped up our visit to Jerusalem, and now we're back in Ramat Yishay at Ofer and Tal's. On Wednesday we visited the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. It was comparatively large, and the exhibits were not jammed together. JoJo used the map of the zoo to guide us. I think we ended up seeing less than half of the zoo, but it was a nice place to be. In addition to the exhibits, there was a very nice playground, with very interesting mosaicked animal sculptures, in addition to the more typical swings and climbing structures. We saw elephants putting dirt on their backs to try to beat the heat. We also went in an aviary that had a variety of large birds—eagles, vultures, hawks—that weren't really separated from us. I think we were safe enough (except possibly from bird excrement), but Naomi and I shared the unsettling vision of a bird swooping down and carrying off one of our kids. Did I mention these birds were large?

Thursday we went to the Western Wall. We proceeded to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, and had lunch in the Christian Quarter (I think). We saw many beautiful items of art and judaica, but our main purchases were sandals for JoJo and a crappy camel plushie for Amelia. The Wall was my favorite part of this excursion. It was a hot day, but the wall was in the shade and felt cool to the touch. The stones are smooth from millenia of weather, but they are also bumpy, and I can imagine the deep history the Wall has seen is stored in these smooth bumps.

I wasn't feeling great wandering the Old City, and the next day (yesterday) we found out why: food poisoning! Yesterday morning was sufficiently grim that I saw a doctor, an Australian expat who was a little odd, but quite confident in his diagnosis and quite specific in his treatment. He said that after a day under his treatment regimen (which puts us at about this moment that I write this) I would be saying a prayer for him, but I'm not quite ready to do that yet.

It was very nice visiting with Jeff and Adele, and they looked after the girls for Naomi and me when we went to the doctor, and also sometimes after the girls were asleep. Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), which commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem after the Six-Day War in 1967, took place during our stay in Jerusalem, but we didn't really join the celebration. Adele went out Thursday night with 50,000 of her closest friends, but the rest of us were simply serenaded by a choir across the street from the apartment.

A focal point of the visit to Jerusalem was the playground near the apartment. It was uncommonly nice, devoid of dog poo (unfortunately this cannot be assumed in Europe or Israel), and very well utilized. The girls loved it, and went at least once a day. And for whatever reason (maybe all the time running around the park?), we were able to get the girls to bed at a reasonable hour in Jerusalem—something we haven't been able to achieve in Ramat Yishay.

Israel Trip, north by northwest

Friday the 15th we flew to Israel, and this blog comes to you from Jerusalem. Our planning and preparations for the trip were mostly pretty last minute, or "just-in-time" as they might say in the biz world. We flew direct non-stop from Brussels to Ben Gurion on a Brussels Airline flight that was operated by El Al. Flight crew specifically sought us out for early boarding, since we were a family with small children, and it was nice to be taken care of by the smiling crew. The food was all kosher, and it was decent to boot.

After landing, we rented an Israeli phone, and then got our car rental. There's an apparently mandatory $12/day charge for third-party accident issues, and it was annoying that I hadn't been informed about it in advance (supposedly it was in the fine print on the web site), but what can you do?

We next headed directly to the home of my cousin Ofer, in Ramat Yishay about 30 minutes from Haifa. We had shabbat dinner with Ofer's family, including wife Tal, four boys, parents, and sister Tamy's family. It was kind of crazy, but not as crazy as you might expect given all the people and kids: Ofer and Tal preside over an easy-going household. It was a very nice, warm welcome.

The next day, Saturday, a more extended family came for a potluck lunch. The lunch wasn't exactly in our honor, but we were the excuse for it. Descendants of two of my mother's mother's brothers were there, including five of my mother's first cousins (plus spouses). Most but not all of these people I had met on my only previous visit to Israel, in 1997, not including the entirely new generation that didn't even exist then.

Sunday Ofer and one of his boys took us to Rosh haNikra, the northern most Israeli town on the Mediterranean. It is home to cliffs and caves ("grottoes"), and we took a cable car down to see them. Ofer's mother Edna had taken me there in 1997, but it was good to see again, and in any case Naomi and the girls hadn't seen it before. Then we lunched in Nariya, and visited cousin Gila at Kibbutz Cabri, close to the Lebanese border. In addition to visiting a playground there, Gila gave us a tour of Cabiran, a kibbutz factory for precision aluminum casting. The girls got little squares of wax as souvenirs, and we'll see if we can't turn them into candles.

Monday we spent the first half of the day in Haifa. Edna was our chauffeur, and she took us to the beautiful Bahá'í World Centre buildings and gardens, located on the side of Mt. Carmel. We then met up with Hadas and her parents for lunch at her apartment. The food was falafel, which is of course very Middle Eastern; whereas the apartment really felt like New York to me. For the second half of the day, we headed to Tel Aviv to meet our MIT friend Adee and her two sons (her husband was regrettably indisposed). It was a long day, but fun.

Yesterday we arrived in Jerusalem, but we first stopped at Tamy's at the moshav Beqoa. She and her one-month-old son took us to a nice restaurant that served delicious food made from very local ingredients. Tamy said the restaurant was famous in the area, but it was off the beaten path to say the least—you really had to know where you were going to find it, literally traveling unpaved roads through farmlands. We were hoping to do more in her neighborhood (see Mini-Israel or Stalactite Cave), but we were late for getting to Jerusalem as it was.

Our destination in Jerusalem was the German Colony, not far from the Old City. Uncle Jeff and aunt Adele are fortuitously renting a 3-bedroom apartment here for a few weeks, so for a few days we will occupy two-thirds of their place (that's not too big an imposition, is it?). Navigating to Jerusalem was trivial, but navigation within Jerusalem is another matter entirely, especially since on counsel we did not rent a GPS. There is currently construction related to a new trolley system, and that's not helping, but fundamentally the issue is this is Jerusalem, where the insane layout of the streets is presumably meant to serve as a deterrence to invasion or something like that. Last night we visited a nearby playground with the girls, today we went to the zoo (more on that later), and we'll see what other sights we taken in in the next day and a half.

Mike's visit redux

Now that we're in Israel, it seems like a perfect time to recap Mike's visit with us in Brussels! He came to Belgium from Norway, and left Belgium for England. While in Belgium, he visited Mini-Europe with us, and he also wandered around town on his own, all the while snapping pictures. Mike is a serious amateur photographer, and he took a very cool picture of the Atomium in particular—actually, as he explained, it was 3 pictures taken in quick succession, each concentrating on a different level of brightness, and then digitally combined into a single photograph with a large range of contrast.

He also showed us pictures of his friend's house in Norway where he stayed, with the snowy fjords in the background. It was somewhat reminiscent to me of the views from the Sikirjdi's house in France; while the fjords in Norway have a very different flavor than those in the French Alps, they are both beautiful, snow-capped mountains, apparently viewable from the comfort of people's homes.

Back to Mike: He and I were roommates for a number of years in Cambridge, but it had been a while since we'd spent much time together. It was good to see him!

Mini-Europe

Yesterday, we (Naomi and I, the girls, and my visiting friend Mike) went to Mini-Europe. This tourist attraction is outdoors, with the Atomium looming nearby in the background, and it comprises 1:25 scale models of numerous famous European buildings and sites. I only knew a few of the models, but I imagine a better-traveled person would know a lot of them. Most of the models were much shorter than a person, a bunch were around the height of a person, and a single one was much taller than a person: the Eiffel Tower. A lot of the scenes had a button to press, which played music, or moved boats or planes, or circled a bull to move around a bullfighting ring (with the crowd shouting "¡Olé!"), or made a nude Scandinavian jump into cold water or run into a sauna. There was also a crank that turned Dutch windmills, and there were trains that continuously ran on their tracks, and Mt. Vesuvius regularly rumbled (although no lava flowed). Somewhat dramatically, fireboats put out a burning offshore oil tank. Mini-Europe was one part entertainment, one part cultural, and one part cheese.

Mini-Europe is part of Brupark, which also includes a movie theater, a water park, and a bunch of restaurants situated around a nice playground and carousel. After touring Mini-Europe, we had a nice lunch. JoJo rode the carousel, and Amelia whined about wanting to ride the carousel (but we know from experience that that is not a scenario that ends well—maybe when she's older).

Royal Greenhouses of Laeken

Yesterday Naomi and I took time off in the morning to tour the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken, the Belgium royalty's greenhouses on the residential palace property in Brussels. It's something of a big deal, in part because the greenhouses are big, extensive, and beautiful, and in part because they're only open to the public a few weeks out of the year.

The line of people waiting to get in was nontrivial, but it moved along ok. Once inside, you had the option of moving with the masses at their glacially slow pace, or separating yourself and moving even slower. Unlike a typical museum, for example, there was no way you could cruise through the greenhouses; once you were in, you were committed to about two hours of slowly walking. The path through the greenhouses was linear (although not straight). There were a few large round or rectangular greenhouses, and there were smaller, longer and straight greenhouses ("greenhallways" would be more apt). One stretch of the circuit was actually outdoors; the grounds were nice, and some of the grounds were very nice. The grounds and greenhouses were essentially devoid of insects, Naomi observed, which was especially odd given all the flowers.

The plants weren't generally labelled, and I don't know whether many of them were rare. Plenty of the plants were garden variety (rim shot, please), such as African violet, and others that I recognized but don't know by name. But plenty were otherwise unknown to me. In any case, the greenhouses were quite beautiful with well-designed gardens, and the large greenhouse buildings themselves were beautiful. And collectively the greenhouses were very large, even larger than they looked from the exterior.

Ironically, I'm not sure I would have been jonesing to go to the greenhouses if they were open all year 'round—not that I wouldn't want to go, but maybe other destinations would be more attractive—but the scant availability to tourists somehow sweetened the deal, and I'm glad we went.

Joan & Mark visit redux

Mark and Joan (Naomi's parents) visited from Wednesday April 22 to Tuesday May 5. The first few days they stayed at a nearby hotel to ease their transition to Brussels, they took an excursion to London and Cambridge from the 27th to the 30th, and then they spent the rest of their visit with us (well, ignoring the fact that Naomi and I were absent from their last weekend here). They spent their first night with us too, because the hotel botched their reservations.

While in town, Mark and Joan visited the girls' school, and also saw the Toy Museum and visited local castles, and acquired chocolate provisions at the Neuhaus outlet store. There were trips to parks, and there was hanging out. There was some tourist activity, obviously, but not tons of it. Mom had a variety of comestible objectives while in Brussels (chocolate, gaufre—waffle, crepe, frites—french fries, moules—mussels, etc.), which she met with mixed success. The girls got a bunch of presents, and I hope they didn't act too entitled about it! ("When do I get a present?" etc., etc.)

Spa weekend

Last weekend Naomi and I were afforded a romantic getaway weekend by Naomi's parents and Jenee. Naomi made all the arrangements for us to go overnight to Spa, somewhat over 2 hours by train from Brussels, including a switch in Verviers. It is the namesake town of the word spa, and also home to the world's oldest casino.

We stayed at a hotel about 2 kilometers away from the center of Spa, and up the same hill as their world-famous thermal spa. On Saturday we each had a 1-hour massage (pleasant enough, not deep) at the hotel. While one of us was getting massaged, the other hung out in the nearby pool area or sunning yard. There were signs everywhere to be quiet so as to promote everyone's relaxation and well-being. For dinner, we went down to the town center, for a very nice 3-hour dinner at Le Grand Maur (The Great Moor). After dinner we wandered around the town, which seemed very nice, then walked back to the hotel.

Sunday we had a better-than-most breakfast at the hotel, and then walked to Les Thermes de Spa, the local natural thermal spa. There was an interesting changing room and locker system where we left our bags and showered. On the main floor there was a big pool with areas with water jets. This pool was connected to another outdoor pool that was similar, but outside. The water temperature was simply tepid, very comfortable, but not hot. The water didn't have much smell and it didn't sting my eyes, which was nice, but I wondered what could be in this water to make it so special.

Upstairs were the saunas and steam rooms and baths. The saunas were an insane 80°C (175°F), but with low relative humidity (variously 10% to 30%). I didn't think this kind of temperature was compatible with human life, but it wasn't bad, as long as all you did was sit. I started out with my silver necklace on, but in the heat of the sauna it started to burn my skin, so I had to take it off. (The heat transfer from the metal to my skin was much greater than from the hot air to my skin.) I couldn't deal with the steam room—I felt like I could barely breathe the thick air, but Naomi liked it a lot. The baths came in 3 flavors: 20°C (68°F) and calm, 30°C (86°F) and bubbling, and 38°C (100°F) and calm. So there was no really hot water in the building, but the thermal spa was still a very nice experience; I don't know what health benefits there were, but it was relaxing. We paid 14€ ($19) each for 3 hours, and it was pretty reasonable. There was food and massage available, but the only thing we got beyond entrance was a towel for me (3€—$4) and a bathrobe for Naomi (7€—$9).

At the end of the 3 hours we changed and headed back to the Spa train station. The region was pretty in a general way, with green rolling hills everywhere, and quaint towns nestled in. It was a nice way and place to spend the weekend.

The Girls' May Day

Like Naomi, the Girls didn't get any flowers for May Day either but they were able to get their faces painted at a flea market that was happening in a neighborhood south of the apartment. A street that was several blocks long had been shut down for the purpose and it was filled with vendors selling things like books, random household items, music, videos, clothes, crafts, toys...typical flea market really! After Naomi, Mark, Jojo and I (pushing a sleeping Amelia in the stroller) walked through the crowds and taking in the wares, we had a nice lunch on a bit of green space and Jojo somehow spotted a woman doing face painting. Naomi and Jojo headed over and I soon followed with Amelia who had just woken up from her impromptu nap. Jojo had already started her transformation into a butterfly and snapped some photos as well as took a somewhat long video of the transformation. FYI: My camera doesn't do sound so it is just a visual--don't adjust your speakers!



Of course Amelia had awoken enough at that point to request that her face also be painted but all the adults were worried that a full treatment would quickly smeared! As such, she was quickly turned into a princess. We enjoyed a dessert of ice cream (the girls), waffle (Mark), and mixed candied nuts (Jenee). Naomi managed to leave the market with only having purchased a pair of Dora socks and a pink squishy toy that stretches and lights up (which we didn't know about until later)!

Jojo's Art Open House

On this Thursday past, (the last day of April), Dan and I (as well as Amelia) were able to attend an art open house that Jojo's class at school was having in the morning. The theme of the past month has been Australia...one of Jojo's classmate's and his family recently left Belgium for Australia but we aren't sure whether or not this inspired the theme or if this is something that they study each year. No matter what the inspiration, the artwork was all Australian oriented as well as quite numerous and I was impressed with the variety of projects and media used! I have to say though that for Jojo it was a typical amount of artwork considering her passion for art but I'm sure she loved having the opportunity to do more than draw! She was definitely very proud to point out which one was hers in each grouping of projects and tell us what it was.

Anyway, I'll let the artwork speak for itself!

Toy Museum

I've been getting some mild ribbing for letting Dan do all the posting on this blog (with a very recent and some past posts by Jenee) but I've also been getting lots of compliments on the quality blog in general. Well, that's all about to change because here's a post from me!

Today is May 1st, which, as we were informed by the Fulbright folks "brings with it two traditions in Belgium and Luxembourg. The first, far older, one is the offering of muguets or meiklokjes to a loved one. Not too long ago children sold huge bouquets for next to nothing and women sometimes received them anonymously, like mysterious Valentines!" Hey! No one bought me any flowers! But, this is quite true. Nearly every other person on my trains yesterday or that I saw about and about today had single flowers, elegantly wrapped.

The second May Day tradition, La Fête du Travail or Arbeidsfeest, "actually had its origin in the United States, where an intensive campaign in favor of the 8‑hour working day was launched on May 1, 1886. The holiday is still celebrated in many countries but has been replaced in America by Labor Day in September." So, it's an official day off. I asked my colleagues in Ghent if BBQ-ing was traditional and they said no, the main thing is to do no work. :-) I couldn't even get into the University today to show my parents around (who are visiting). It's all locked up.

So that explains why I'm blogging today. What am I blogging about? Well, there was one outing last week that Dan did not join in on, so he can't blog on it and that was our visit to the Brussels Toy Museum. You really have to see it to beleive it! (see slideshow, right and maybe up). Jenee was off with her friend Heather so my parents and I took the girls on the bus -> metro -> walking to this hole-in-the-wall museum that was listed as "good for kids" in the Fodors. The exterior was extremely unremarkable. I saw the address but couldn't imagine there was a museum inside.

Turns out it's a very non-American type museum. First, you can touch nearly everything: old plastic things, balls with shoots, riding donkeys (electric and not), toy soldier sets, castles, puppets, play kitchen, etc. etc. While that may sound pretty cool, it also means nearly everything is broken and/or filthy. Even the platform that some of these things were displayed on had nails sticking out, cracks, or were just thin plexiglass. For example, the old-style foosball table was sitting on top of a plexi display case. As a consequence, kids were sitting on the case to play the game. Crazy!

You won't be surprised to learn that the girls had a great time. They rode the donkey, played in the kitchen, and fought with other kids about the ball-and-chute sets (Josephine's French is really improving!). As a parting gift, I bought Josephine a lion-handle jump rope (she's been wanting one) and bought Amelia a lion that, well, how do I describe this? You push a button on the bottom and the thing kind of collapses. Let it go and it stands up again. Remember those? Anyway, very popular gifts courtesy of Mom (i.e., me, not my mom)!

Also, by the time we left I realized we only had to take one tram to get nearly home so that was a bonus.

Filling in the Blanks: Bruges and Around Brussels

As Dan had previously mentioned, his brother Larry’s visit coincided with my friend Cristin’s visit and we all worked it out the night before to head to Bruges with the girls on the Tuesday of their visit. We arranged to get an earlier start as the girls would be up anyway and Cristin it turns out, was up early (jetlag issues) which gave her plenty of time to get ready and check out of her hotel as she was staying the next couple of nights at the apartment. After packing the backpack and rousing Larry (who also had sleep issues it turns out) we were off to the Central train station along with Naomi who would take the same train and get off to go to work in Gent. The train took about an hour and was pretty packed...it was making one more stop after Bruges and it was still pretty full when we got off! Who knew it would be such a busy line on a Tuesday morning!! We had guidebook maps and after being pointed in the right direction we were off, walking towards downtown. We wandered our way through the deserted and quaint streets and eventually made our way to the main square.
Along the way we pondered a possible boat or carriage ride as we saw tours taking place in the canals as well as horse drawn carriages being pulled through the streets. The various guide books stated that the view from the belfry in the main square was quite exceptional and since it was a great day in terms of weather we decided to give it a go. The line wasn’t overly long and we weren’t sure what the problem was when after standing there for about 10 minutes and it hadn’t moved! The line finally started moving when a group of people came down and out of the belfry tower so we figured it had something to do with only allowing so many people up the tower at one time. With about 366 steps up the tower it was no easy trek, especially not for Amelia’s little legs. Luckily there were several levels where you could stop and take a break on the way up the tower so Jojo made it up the tower just fine (with breaks) and Amelia only needed to be carried for the last couple of parts. With the very narrow and winding stairs closer to the top, the trek wasn’t the easiest I had done but the views were quite wonderful! It was fairly close confines at the top with the bells so after snapping some photos we headed back down to the level below and decided to wait for the bells to ring and watch the mechanics on display at that level do their thing as it rang 12 o’clock. The bells were quite sizable so I was glad that we didn’t stay on the bell level as they were loud enough a level down for me!
While one would think that going down would be easier, it was still slow going as it was tricky to let people coming up pass as you went down and Amelia was very unsure of going down the steep stairs and only holding hands (I can’t say I blame her as I too was a bit worried about the trip down) so I ended up carrying her down the tower as well! I hadn’t communicated clearly that we were going to stop and listen for the hour to ring so Cristin made it down before the rest of us but luckily she knew there was only one exit we could come out of and a street musician had set up in the belfry courtyard and started playing some music. As entertainment, it was pretty cool as he was playing what looked like an inverted tin drum as well as an instrument that looked like an Australian didgeridoo. After a potty break and taking in the musician for a few moments we decided to grab something to eat at one of the nearby bar/cafes. We decided on one that had outdoor seating that was just a bit off the main square that had some more reasonable prices. There was still a great view of the Belfry (as seen in the photos) and we had a nice lunch while still enjoying the great weather!
We wanted to still do one more thing before I had to leave with the girls and unfortunately for the adults, there was an area in the center part of the square that had some fair type rides for children. The girls were given a choice of doing one thing (kiddie ride, carriage ride, or boat ride) (by their Uncle Larry) and surprise, surprise, they chose the kiddie ride. So for 4 Euro, they were able to ride in a little car and go around in circles for a few minutes while the adults stood by and watched. Amelia unfortunately didn’t fully understand that when she agreed to go on the kiddie ride (as Jojo had pretty much chosen and Amelia followed suit) that she wouldn’t get to do a carriage ride and afterward she kept asking about the horses and going on a ride! I explained the situation as best I could and she seemed to understand a bit better though she was still sad. I definitely emphasized with her as I think that a carriage ride would have been fun even though at that point both girls may have fallen asleep during it! Oh well, Amelia soon fell asleep in the stroller and as Cristin and Larry didn’t have anything else that they felt they absolutely had to see (and were also tired after their respective sleeping issues) we were all off to the train station to catch a train back to Brussels. We didn’t have to wait long and we all got seats as the train wasn’t quite as crowded as the previous one. While Jojo colored and I held Amelia while she napped, Cristin and Larry eventually dozed off for a cat nap while we journeyed back to the city.



After arriving back in Brussels, Larry was off to the apartment to meet Dan and let me in (as Larry had Dan’s set of keys) and the girls, Cristin, and I stopped at le Parc de Bruxelles so that we could grab a snack and the girls could play a bit before we headed back to the apartment. I figured that they had been very good sports and had behaved quite well that morning so they definitely deserved a bit of time to run around and do as they wanted for a bit! After a snack and walk through the park, Cristin went off to explore the shops on Avenue Louise. This is a street with many high-end designer type shops and if nothing else, it is a fun street to walk down and do some window shopping on a nice afternoon! Amelia, Jojo, and I finally made our way back to the apartment for dinner time. Larry had gone out for a run and hadn’t planned to eat with the family (as he initially wanted to get mussels) and I was waiting to see what Cristin wanted to do as we didn’t make plans before she left.
When she arrived we decided to go out to eat and since we were thinking about going out to a bar that Cristin had heard about afterwards, Larry decided to join us. We ate at a lovely little Thai restaurant that is a couple of blocks to the apartment and luckily we timed our arrival there just in time to get in out of the rain that was starting to fall! We ate dinner, trying some new (Thai pork Raviolis, soup) as well as usual sorts of things (fried rice, mixed vegetables and rice) and since the rain had stopped, we decided to walk to the Grand Place. Larry hadn’t seen it yet and I thought it would be fun to see by night, and we were all glad to see it as the city has the buildings nicely lit around the square and it was fun to see! We then tried to head to the bar that Cristin had heard about that supposedly had 2000 different kinds of beer, The Delirium! The street we needed wasn’t on my map but we knew it was in the neighborhood so after asking a couple of times for directions we made it to the right place…it was quite hidden away on a back street. We went and grabbed a table at the already busy downstairs portion of the bar. The building had two levels and we later discovered that the lover level catered to a more mature crowd while the upper level served a younger and noisier set!
With so many beers to choose from we didn’t quite know where to start but luckily the first menu we saw had a smaller collection printed on it and so our first round were all fruit beers. I had a Cherry, Cristin a Raspberry, and Larry had a mixed wild berry. Each were good in their own way but being so sweet they were quickly polished off! The second round didn’t quite have theme but Larry tried the chocolate flavored beer, I had a strawberry beer, and Cristin…I forget, she may have had another fruit beer as well. For the third round we moved upstairs and quickly realized that it was not only louder but we were the oldest ones there! I always forget that the drinking age is younger here than in the U.S….I don’t know the exact age in Belgium but places are usually more lax about beer consumption anyways. We asked the bartender for any 3 beers as I had suggested a surprise round since we couldn’t decide and ended up with a beer that didn’t taste stronger than water (but had a strange aftertaste) another light Belgian beer, and a nice brown ale of some sort. So many types of beer to try and so little time…since it was getting late, we didn’t quite finish this round and headed out intending to head back to the apartment.
Before we even left the street though, I looked up and there was a sign for the Jeanneken Pis!! This is a statue of a little girl peeing that a nearby restaurant owner had put up in response to the Manneken Pis. It wasn’t on my map of Brussels and while I had been out looking for it before I had been unsuccessful and although it seems odd, I was quite thrilled that I was finally going to see it! We went and of course took pictures and then since Larry hadn’t seen the Manneken Pis, we went and saw the original inspiration! All in all, a great, but long day!

On Wednesday we (the adults) all got off to bit of a later start and headed out to the Atomium. The girls weren't really interested in going up but Cristin and Larry were curious about the view since it was once again a beautiful day in Brussels! I hung out at the base with the girls while they did their chalk graffiti thing for awhile. There was a bit of a wait for the trip up to the top and through the exhibition as it was a holiday week still for most Europeans so when it got to be lunch time I headed off with the girls in search of food. For the Atomium being a tourist sight it isn't the type of neighborhood to have a good selection of restaurants in close proximity so we had to walk for a bit before we came to a nice little brasserie where we had a light lunch of soup and salad.



While I headed back to the apartment with the girls so that Amelia could take a nap, Cristin and Larry decided that since the couldn't get a hold of me (as I didn't hear my phone evidently) to head out to the Neuhaus (a very yummy Belgian chocolate artisan) chocolate outlet. Here three decent sized boxes (think boot shoebox sized) of chocolate with 3 layers of chocolate pieces (pralines) can be had for 20 Euro which is pretty much a bargain basement price for such good quality chocolates! There are smaller gift wrapped boxes as well in addition to bags of different kinds of chocolates! Everything that is for sale can be sampled before purchase (since you are buying in such large quantities) which is quite dangerous! At the time I hadn't been there myself but it is like a mini heaven for both chocolate lovers and bargain hunters! The rest of the afternoon was leisurely spent by all lounging around the apartment and making plans and preparations for the weekend. Cristin and I were off the next morning for Paris, Naomi was leaving early for the Netherlands, and Dan, Larry, and the girls were following Naomi later that morning. After a nice dinner we were all able to sample some of the chocolate that Cristin and Larry brought home before they sealed it all for their trip home...yum, yum, yum is all I can say and thank goodness they were willing to share their finds!!

Castle Tours

Saturday we (Naomi and me and the girls and Naomi's parents) went on a tour of castles in Klein-Brabant in the Antwerp region. The tour was organized by the Belgium (and Luxembourg!) branch of the Fulbright Program. A chartered bus picked us up at Central Station in Brussels, and we had professional tour guides of the Castle of Bornem, and also the De Notelaer pavillion and the Castle D'Ursel, both in Hingene. The two castles (Bornem and D'Ursel) didn't seem quite like stereotypical castles, although they each had a moat.

For each site, our group divided into two, each with its own tour guide. We always had our main tour guide (who also traveled with us in our bus), but at the Castle of Bornem the other tour guide was one of its residents, the Countess John de Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde, née Amélie d'Arschot. At the conclusion of the tour, there was a gift shop of sorts where you could purchase a book about the castle and then get it signed by the Count and Countess! It seemed a little bizarre that bona fide nobility engaged in such pedestrian activities, but perhaps nobility isn't what it used to be. (And here I was, in the market to buy a title.) The castle was lovely, however, although we did not see the current residential part of it. We did see several large stalls filled with an impressive collection of coaches.

The De Notelaer pavillion had a very interesting and pretty round room topped by a dome. The building was also interesting in that it sits on a steep hill—on one side, you can't see the dome, but you can see 4 or 5 floors of the building; on the other side, all you can see is the dome and the floor below it with the round room.

The Castle d'Ursel was not very castle-like, except for the moat; it was more of a very big house, with large rooms for entertainment. It was under renovation, in various stages of completion in different rooms. Once again, the grounds were very nice.

The tours were very authoritative, and sort of interesting. But at the same time, it was all very esoteric, and I'm not sure what if anything I'll remember from them! Still and all, the day was relatively unique, and we got to meet a bunch of other Fulbright staff, Fulbrighters, and their hangers-on (Naomi had the most hangers-on). Without solicitation, several people remarked to me how impressed they were with the girls' behavior—very nice to hear!

Larry's visit redux

My brother Larry visited us for a week, effectively from Sunday April 12th through Saturday the 18th. The second half of his trip, to the Netherlands, was already chronicled in the previous post. During the first half, in Belgium, Larry's visit coincided with a visit by Jenee's friend Cristin, and they ended up doing some wandering around together, sometimes just them, sometimes also Jenee, and sometimes also Jenee and the girls. If memory serves, Larry went to the Atomium, Grand Place, and the Neuhaus chocolate outlet in Brussels, and also a bit of Bruges and Ghent. (Apparently all of our visitors visit Bruges. Me, I haven't been there yet, either during my 1-week visit to Belgium last September, or thus far during the 3½ months into our current visit.) Larry also did some jogging around Brussels, but did not achieve his objective of having moules (mussels), one of Belgium's signature foods. It was good fun having Larry here.

We are now in our busy season. We had a week's vacation in France just before Larry came, as our intrepid blog followers know. Then shortly after Larry left, Naomi's parents, Mark and Joan, arrived. They will be spending a few days in England this week, but otherwise will be with or near us during their 2-week European holiday. Shortly after they leave, my friend Mike will be coming for a long weekend. Mike is our last scheduled visitor, but we'll be spending a week in Israel shortly after Mike's visit is over, and then we have our final two weeks in Belgium before returning to the States. It's actually sort of insane!

Netherlands vacation

The second half of last week we took a trip to the Netherlands. Actually, we took two trips, or at least one and a half. Naomi had a conference in Rotterdam on Thursday and Friday, and she left early Thursday morning. Later Thursday morning, the rest of us—me and the girls, plus my brother Larry, who was visiting for the week—took off for The Hague. Friday evening Naomi hooked up with us in the Hague, and Saturday we took a day trip to Amsterdam, and then an evening train back to Brussels.

Our (all of us except Naomi) trip got off to an inauspicious beginning when the train we planned to take from Brussels to The Hague got supprimé (canceled), and the next train was not for another hour. But we took the lemons and made lemonade by taking a train to Antwerp, thereby affording Larry the opportunity to see the magnificent train station and nice nearby square, which the rest of us had seen on our trip to the Antwerp Zoo. (There also happened to be a gigantic inflated dinosaur taking up most of the square.) Back at the station, we purchased lunches to go, and then got on the next train to The Hague. About an hour and a half later we arrived at The Hague HS Station. Deboarding was not as straightforward as we had hoped, with the result that Larry didn't get off the train before the doors closed on him—and the doors didn't open again, despite our button pushing and efforts to get the conductor's attention. But Larry managed to turn around and meet us at our final train station destination for the day, The Hague Central Station, with a net loss of less than an hour (not including the other hour due to the original canceled train).

In The Hague we stayed at the vacant apartment of the Keanes, family friends from way back. Keane son Maurice and family live in The Hague, and he met us at the apartment (which was conveniently close to the Central Station) to give us the key and orient us. Maurice left, and then we did some hanging out and grocery shopping and ate a take-out dinner. Also, the display on my laptop died that night; every time I powered it up it looked like it was melting—very cool looking, but the laptop was effectively useless, and unfortunately I had had real plans for it.

The next day, Friday the 17th, we took a walk around the center of town, looking for a playground. We found some kind of obstacle course, which the girls liked, but honestly it wasn't that great for them. But as Rummy might say, you play on the playground you have, not the one you want, and that's what we did.

Later in the day, we met up with Maurice's family on the beach, near where they live. Maurice was not actually there, but his wife Alexandra and kids Berber, Daudi, and Lois were. Then we hung out at their house, where Naomi and Maurice eventually and separately joined us, and the kids had dinner. It's also where JoJo played a bunch of Wii sports games—tennis, bowling, golf.

Saturday we briefly met Maurice and his kids at the apartment, to transfer ownership back to the Keane clan, and then we headed up to Amsterdam to meet the other Keane son, Marcus, and his wife Fareeda and newborn Alexander. We had a nice lunch at their place, and then we went for a walk around Vondelpark, to the center of town. There we (minus Marcus and family) took a canal ride, which was a pleasant and interesting way to see the city and harbor. The canal system is quite extensive, and the "no parking" signs on the inside walls of the canals cracked me up.

We nearly had to abort our visit with Marcus' family due to bizarre circumstances, but fortunately it all worked out in the end. Lois came down with chicken pox. Our girls haven't had it, but they have been vaccinated. Nevertheless, there were questions about how Alexander could be affected. Fareeda called a doctor friend, who said that Alexander is well protected by Fareeda's antibodies, through one of the miracles of breastfeeding.

It was great fun for me seeing Maurice and Marcus and their families. I hadn't seen them in literally 30 years, and I had not previously met their wives and kids. I tried to reconcile their looks and personalities with how I remember them from so many years ago. (Larry had seen them all in modern history, except for Alexander. He had also previously stayed at the apartment in The Hague, and loved people-watching out the living room window.)

We did not partake of Amsterdam's infamous offerings, but I would have, if the girls weren't with me, and if I were single, and if I were basically not the guy that I am. We observed that there were many cyclists around The Hague and Amsterdam, with large bicycle parking lots outside the train stations (the one outside Amsterdan Central Station was comically large), and only a single cyclist wearing bike helmet.

Passover observed

We didn't observe Passover as rigorously in Europe as we usually do. We made a very nice second-night seder, as I previously described, and we had regular and sweetened matzo throughout the week. But on the whole it was difficult to get Passover foods, especially when we were traveling, and we ate plenty of tref (i.e. non-kosher). However, I felt a ray of seasonal familiarity at one of the regular grocery stores we patronize in Brussels when I found gefilte fish!

There are a variety of connections between Passover and Easter, but the connections are really highlighted in French. Easter is Pâques in French, and Passover is also called Pâques, or Pâques juive ("Jewish Easter," I guess). I actually think "Passover" is a great name because it evokes a core element of the story of Passover, and it also matches reasonably well with the meaning of the Hebrew name of the holiday, Pesach; these elements are obviously missing from the French.

By the way, the timing of our France and Netherlands trips (the latter still to be blogged) coincided with the girls' two-week school vacation for Passover.

France vacation

Our vacation in France started Friday night, April 3rd. I wanted to meet my friend Florence in Meylan, next to Grenoble in southern France, who did an internship stint in the lab where I got my doctorate. Florence was only available to get together on Saturday the 4th, and as she was an 8-hour drive from Brussels, we decided to break up the drive by spending our first night at a random hotel in Nancy, France, a little less than half-way to Meylan. We left Brussels after dinner, and got to the Nancy hotel with the girls sleeping in the car.

Saturday the 4th we headed out for Meylan, taking a break for lunch. We discovered that when you drive on the autoroutes, options for eating are often lame or non-existent. We found a town that had some eating options, according to the GPS, but they were all closed for the moment or closed permanently. We got some bread and cheese at a little store in the little town, and ate it on a bench in a little playground (do I sound like Gulliver in Lilliput?).

Traffic getting to Meylan was worse than we anticipated, possibly because we were traveling at the beginning of the holidays in this part of France. But we eventually hooked up with Florence and her 3-year-old son Peyo, and proceeded to a nearby playground, and then dinner.

Our accommodations for that night (and 4 out of the 8 nights of our vacation) were at with Claudie and Pierre Sikirdji, who live in Sainte-Agnes, up the Chartreuse mountains near Meylan and Grenoble. Their address simply doesn't exist in a conventional way, and it defied our GPS. We had a lot of trouble finding their place, and when Claudie eventually found us waiting for her, it turned out we were only 100 or 200m from the house! The 20-minute trip from Florence to the Sikirdjis probably took us about 2 hours, the girls sleeping comfortably in the car.

Grenoble is located in the valley between 3 mountain ranges, the Vercors, Chartreuse, and Belledonne. The Sikirdjis house afforded great views of all of them, from their snow-capped tops all the way down to the valley. Sunday the 5th we took a long walk around the local farmlands and small town center. Then we went down to Grenoble for lunch with Claude and Bernard Ramus. Their daughter Claire and her two kids Simon (4-ish) and Anna (2-ish) joined us after lunch for a venture to a large playground up the mountain a little bit.

Dinner that night was back at the Sikirdjis, and their son Laurant and his wife Marion and daughter Maude (11) joined us. We enjoyed home-made orange wine, which I loved, and also the most enormous chicken in the history of chickens. Our girls were put to bed before dinner started, but it didn't stick, and they made several appearances during dinner.

Monday the 6th we headed out to Juan-les-Pins, where we knew no one. The drive there took us through beautiful mountains, and we stopped for a nice lunch in Eygians, which had a nice (guess what?) playground. I've already chronicled our little misadventure getting to Juan-les-Pins, so I shan't say more about that here. But Tuesday the 7th was a beautiful day there, almost too warm for a shirt. We spent a bunch of the morning playing in the sand on the beach, and getting our legs wet in the cold Mediterranean water. In the afternoon we swam in the slightly less cold water of our hotel's pool. We stayed in town most of Wednesday the 8th too, but the weather wasn't as warm or sunny as the day before. But we thought one perfect day was worth this part of the trip. It's kind of funny: Juan-les-Pins is about half a degree further north than Madison, and yet palm trees grow there!

We returned to the Sikirdjis late Wednesday night. Thursday the 9th was all about Passover for us. Everybody except me made some home-made matzo in the morning, and it came out pretty good (you know, for matzo). Later, Naomi and Claudie shopped for ingredients in the morning while I played with the girls. (I was hoping to take the girls up Grenoble's telepherique, but the timing didn't work out.) Still later, Naomi and I cooked chicken, matzo stuffing, matzo ball soup, haroset, etc., while Claudie wrote down what we did. The seder was intimate, with just the four of us and Claudie, but very enjoyable. We had hoped to share the seder with Michele and Gilbert Ganem too, but unfortunately that didn't work out.

Friday the 10th we met for lunch with Malice and Dominique Mathias, our next-door neighbors in Venon in 1978–79. I was in the same class as their son Benoit (and a few years younger than another son Nicholas, who we met last month in Paris). The Mathiases moved to Saint-Martin-d'Uriage a few years ago, which is one town over from Venon. Both towns are in the Belledonne mountains, with great views of the Grenoble valley and the mountains around it. JoJo got sick on their front door step when we arrived (presumably car sickness from the windy mountain roads), but the visit improved considerably after that and we had a great time. On our way out of town, we went through Venon and Gieres for a very quick trip down memory lane for me.

Our last stop in France was that night at a B&B in Pressigny, near Dijon. This town was so far in the boonies that camion boulangerie (bakery truck) delivered bread around town—in other words, the town was too small for its own bakery, which in France is saying something. The next morning we learned the B&B didn't accept Visa, and I had to go to the next town to find a ATM. But the area was beautiful, with lots of farmland, and lots of roads that were little more than cow paths. The B&B was very nice for our family, and we had a nice dinner and breakfast there.

We got back to Brussels Saturday evening the 11th. With all the driving we did the vacation seemed a lot longer than just eight days. It was good to be back.

Diesel-tastrophe

For our family vacation through southern France this week, we decided to rent a car. We were hitting a lot of spots in the Grenoble area, also going to the French Riviera, and maybe going to Switzerland—I thought that having the car would be the cheapest, most flexible, fastest (for our itinerary, at least), and ultimately easiest way to travel.

I picked up the car at Midi, the main Brussels train station. It was my first time behind the wheel in three months, and it was a stick, which is not my custom. And it was also in Brussels, which in my opinion makes for unpleasant driving. I was very busy stalling the car the first few minutes of operation, and when I left the parking garage at Midi I had to drive around randomly until my GPS figured out where I was, so it could direct me home to pick up the family and our luggage.

On the whole, though, Naomi and I both felt that the driving went ok (once we got out of Brussels), whether on the autoroute, on mountain roads, or just around town. Yesterday we drove from Grenoble to the French Riviera, and the trip took us through some beautiful mountain vistas. About an hour before our destination I stopped for gas. The rental car took diesel, as do most cars here; it was my perception that Europe basically runs on diesel. The gas pump had four hoses, none labeled diesel. Under the circumstances, though, I assumed they were different grades of diesel. So I chose the lowest grade and pumped a full tank, and we all know where the story goes from here.

It was not diesel that I pumped into the car, but rather regular unleaded gasoline. I happily pulled back onto the autoroute, and then almost immediately I started to get engine knock and hesitancy in pickup. It was a horrible, sinking feeling, and Naomi and I quickly diagnosed the problem. I would have liked to pull over onto the shoulder and stopped driving—I know it's bad for the engine to drive on the wrong kind of gas—but the shoulder basically was wide enough for a car and no more, and I thought parking in the shoulder, possibly for hours, was a recipe for death. So I drove to the next exit, perhaps 3 or 4 miles away. At the first stop there, at Le Muy, waiting in line to pay the toll, the car conked out and wouldn't start again (although the starter system could turn the engine over fine). A toll worker helped me push the car through the toll (stopping to pay, of course), and we parked the car on the side of the road a few more feet up.

Naomi had already made contact with Avis, our rental company, and they got a tow truck under way. Naomi snapped some pictures of the girls and me standing in front of the tow truck with our car on the back, and then we drove to the garage. Our Avis guy helped us get a taxi to St. Rafael, which at about 15 miles away was the nearest Avis franchise that had a car available for us. We got the new rental car, had dinner in St. Rafael, and then headed to our true destination, Juan-les-Pins.

This experience evoked a lot of ambivalent feelings. On the negative side: I was clearly an idiot; we were out an additional 265€ ($350) for the tow and car repair, and another 75€ ($100) for the cab ride; we lost 3 hours; and for the third night in four, we were putting the girls to bed in the back seat of our car. But the negatives were substantially outweighed by the positives: I thought the repair would be $1000 to $2000, so 265€ was a relief; we only lost 3 hours—it could have been a lot longer, and the girls held up great and we got to our destination ok; we got to spend a little time in a nice town not on our itinerary (St. Rafael); we learned a valuable lesson about fuel dispensers; and fundamentally we were all ok. Furthermore, we were lucky because we just got to the garage before it closed (when we left the garage, it was after its official closing time); we were able to get a taxi to take us a long distance on short notice, and this only succeeded because our taxi driver was in our neighborhood ending his shift, and heading home right near St. Rafael; and the Avis franchise with our new car was held open extra expressly in anticipation of our arrival.

I have to give snaps to Avis, because I felt we were given excellent and kindly support. And I also think it's amazing how quickly it was possible for our plan to be adapted. In the age before cell phones and GPS navigational systems, our story would have likely been much more unpleasant.

After dinner in St. Rafael, we packed ourselves into the new car and headed out. After a few minutes, JoJo helpfully asked, "When is Daddy going to break the car again?"

Art!

So for those of you who may have worried that Jojo would have less time to complete a variety of artwork during her stay here in Belgium, I am here to say that you need not have worried!! She, as well as Amelia are still drawing and creating at their usual respective paces--although Amelia usually enjoys cutting things instead of coloring!
Anyways, here are some photos of a lot of the artwork by both girls that is posted around the apartment. Also included are some recent photos of the girls doing their own version of graffiti with sidewalk chalk while we waited for the bus one day. I must say that Jojo's contribution definitely gave the Brussels graffiti artists a run for their money which says a lot about Jojo's talent and not so much about the graffiti around town!!

A Whirlwind Birthday Weekend

So I guess this is where I need to step in
On Tuesday or Wednesday of last week I had gotten a head's up on a birthday party that Amelia was going to be invited to on Sunday morning for her friend Nora Rose. Since Naomi knew that I was going to be on my own that day she had discussed a carpool with Raquel, another mom who had a little boy (Noah) the same age as Amelia. This family also has a boy-Issac- that is Jojo's age so a play date for the older kids as also arranged. When talking with Raquel on Thursday morning regarding the plan for Sunday she asked about what we were going to do about the party on Saturday and with a confused look on my face I replied, "What party?" Raquel then explained that there was a party for a girl in Jojo's class on Saturday afternoon and we were probably left off the list only because the parents were operating off of an old email list and they would want to know that there was someone left out. She was worried that Jojo would feel left out if everyone was talking about it at school afterward although I kind of thought that Jojo might not really understand anyways but knew that Jojo would enjoy going to the party. Raquel graciously offered to do another carpool and take both Issac and Jojo to the party in their car--especially convenient for me as the party would start during Amelia's nap time!
Since each girl had a party and no present shopping had been done our Saturday morning activity ended up being present shopping! There was a toy store (The Grasshopper) that I had seen before near the Grand Place and that had been recommended by another mom (of one of Jojo's classmates) and I thought it would be a good outing and activity rolled into one. Luckily Dan didn't need to leave to catch his train until a bit later that morning so there was another adult to help not only on the bus there but also in the store telling the girls not to touch absolutely everything that they saw! We didn't get to the store as efficiently as I had hoped as the street surrounding the Grand Place are like some sort of Bermuda Triangle for me sometimes in terms of navigation but with only a couple of more minor casualties (a chunk of cheese and a wet pair of tights-jumping in a big puddles without boots not a good idea!) we finally arrived at the store.
The store was much bigger than I had expected but it turned out to be a good thing as it then had an area with some toys that kids could actually play with giving me more time to find age appropriate gifts. Luckily before we had departed for the toy store I had called the mom who was helping carpool and clarified about what kind of party it was...I had initially thought that it was joint part between a girl in Jojo's class and her sister and so I wasn't sure if I need to get the sister a gift or not. It turns out it was a joint party for TWO girls in Jojo's class so another gift to purchase was added to the tally! I finally picked out some nice puzzles that the distracted girls approved, were purchased and wrapped. We then we slowly extracted ourselves from the store (as Dan had departed for his train before I had gift decisions had been finalized).
Before we had left the store the girls had found some loose "jingle" bells which inspired Jojo so I was treated to a rousing chorus of "Jingle Bells" all the way to the bus stop. It was fairly loud but cute and it kept them amused on the walk so I didn't rein in their enthusiasm--luckily most of the looks we got were of amusement rather than annoyance! Once at the apartment it was a quick lunch and a nap for Amelia and then Jojo and I hastily made some birthday cards for the gifts (although they were the same for each girl) in time for her to hop into the car with Raquel and Issac.
Amelia was finishing a snack after a short nap when Omi (aka Joan aka Naomi's Mom) and Grandpa (aka Mark aka Naomi's Dad) called and we were able to do a brief Skype call and arranged for another call when Jojo would be back. Jojo returned with a gift bag of candy and a ceramic Disney princess teapot (the top of which was quickly broken-accidentally though). After a somewhat wacky dinner we did another Skype call with Omi and Grandpa and after we finished a bit of dessert Grandma and Grandpa (Dan's parents) called to chat as well! It felt a bit like Grand Central Station but both of the girls had a bit of a chat with them and after a bit of clarifying and more information from me we wrapped up the call and it was off to bed with the exhausted girls!
The wake-up call came a bit earlier Sunday morning as we lost an hour with daylight savings--yes several weeks later than when it is done in the U.S. It was thus a whirlwind of dressing and breakfast and out the door so that we could arrive at our carpools' house by 9:30 as the party was to begin at 10am! Raquel, Don and the boys were having similar adjustment pains when we arrived (they too missed the extra hour to get ready) but everyone was soon ready to go and Amelia and Noah were strapped into the car and off to their party! The older kids were happily playing with various toys, dress up clothes, and Don (Issac and Noah's Dad) but we eventually motivated ourselves enough to go to a nearby park. The weather had finally improved enough for outdoor play and although it was still cooler the sun was out and I think we were all ready to absorb some sunlight! The park as a hidden courtyard type of situation but luckily it was public rather than just for those who had a surrounding apartment. While it was definitely on the smallish side, it had a few climbing things and Issac and Jojo's imagination did the rest of the work and they amused each other for awhile by pretending to be a monkey and a lion respectively. Don had also brought a soccer ball as well as a baseball and bat. With Don's wonderful pitching aim, both Issac and Jojo had some great hits before we left the park. A bit of amusement also appeared for the adults...a resident of a nearby building/apartment was moving a couch into their place and it seems as thought it didn't fit in through the front door! Instead they had carried it over a wall into the backyard and then they tied ropes around it in order to heft it up to the 3rd floor! Luckily there were 4 of them, 3 above pulling and they thought ahead and had one below holding the couch stable to make sure it didn't swing into one of the windows on the way up. After about 15 minutes of hefting and one final big pull to get it over the rail their mission was accomplished and the other couple (and their kids) that occupied the park clapped for them!
After playing, we headed back to Issac's house and had a bit of lunch and Noah, Amelia, and Raquel arrived back soon after we did. After dinning and eating some dessert (more candy bags from the party were involved) we walked home. Amelia took a longer and late nap (although with the time change it probably felt about the regular time to her) and Jojo got to watch a bit of the new Curious George video she borrowed from Issac. It inspired her to make musical instruments from recycling and since we have plenty to choose from I thought it would make a good project. We ended up with about 6 shaker type instruments which Naomi and Dan were promptly shown the next morning- much to their surprise (an alarm may have been a better wake up call but probably not as motivating)!
After a bath, a quick phone call from Naomi and Dan, and an attempt to watch a couple of Pixar shorts the girls were off to bed. Despite it being earlier, Jojo nodded off without a problem while Amelia with her longer and later nap, had a bit of a harder time falling asleep but all was finally quite by the time Naomi and Dan arrive back from their journey! Although I didn't personally attend any of the parties, a good time was seemed to have by all and it definitely made it a bit of a hectic weekend but in a good way!
The weekend didn't truly end there though as yesterday (Monday) was a no school day (some sort of teacher in-service day) and a play date was arranged with Jojo's friend Ellen, her little sister Tiggy and their Mom Sarah. It was a whirlwind tour around the playground and shifting moods and a cooler temperature (despite sunny skies) had us a leaving the park after a bit for a bit of hot chocolate before we headed home--yum! The afternoon ended up being more of a true stay home day as Jojo woke up with a bit of a fever after her nap (as she has been fighting a cold) and while Amelia didn't wake up with a fever her mood was not ideal for an outing either!
Jojo and I are home again this morning (Tuesday) and she seems to be well on the mend! Rather than just sitting on the couch and watching me color (which is what she was all she was up for yesterday afternoon) she was finishing art projects left and right this morning and coloring new ones--hopefully pictures of all the creations coming soon as it is on my to-do-list! Here are the pictures I did take this weekend-enjoy!

London, baby!

This past weekend Naomi and I were in London, and without the girls (they remained in Brussels with Jenee). Naomi had a conference in London Friday and Saturday, which was the impetus for the weekend getaway. I rolled into London mid-day Saturday, and we connected in time for dinner. I had the afternoon to myself, during which I put on a lot of miles on foot, and also went to the Victoria & Albert Museum, with its stupefyingly large art collections. Naomi and I stayed at a hotel just off of Trafalgar Square; a panel I read in the architecture exhibit in the V&A mentioned that Trafalgar Square (nowhere near the V&A) was the heart of London, which made me feel like we had gotten a great location, even if quite by accident.

Actually it was not so accidental. Naomi's conference was near Trafalgar Square, and we also wanted to be close to the nearby theatre district, where we saw the final production of Avenue Q at the Noël Coward Theatre. It was a cynical, humorous play with human and puppet characters, and the interactions between puppet and puppeteer were quite interesting.

Sunday morning Naomi gave me a whirlwind tour of Kings College, also nearby, and where she spent her junior year of college. The connected buildings of the "campus" were pretty wacky and labyrinthine, although there were some nice spaces. Then we met up for breakfast with Marion and Jonathan, cousins of Naomi that I hadn't previously met. The four of us next proceeded to the Picasso exhibit at the nearby (isn't everything nearby Trafalgar Square? it's the heart of London, you know) National Gallery, an exhibit that highlighted Picasso's artistic relationships to earlier artists.

We parted ways after we finished the exhibit. Naomi and I then walked east along the River Thames to the Tate Modern Art Museum, getting good views of the London Eye and partial views of 30 St Mary Axe ("The Gherkin") along the way. The Tate was large—but not large like the V&A—and the exterior clearly showed the original purpose of the building: power plant. There was a very nice exhibit of cubism, futurism, surrealism, and vorticism (whatever that is). The Picasso and Tate exhibits were actually quite complementary, which added a dimension to our appreciation.

Walking around London, I continually had the feeling that if I stayed in London long enough, I would ineluctably get flattened by a driver who didn't know that the world drives on the right side of the road, for crying out loud. Our final journey within London was from the hotel to the train station, and we made the journey on a double-decker bus. We sat at the front of the top deck, which gave us an outstanding view wherever the bus went.

What did the little girls do back in Brussels while Mommy and Daddy were away? I know that each girl had her respective birthday party to attend over the weekend, but frankly I haven't gotten caught up myself yet!

Riding the train early Sunday morning

Yesterday (Sunday) I was on call, and working all day at the office. I took the train in a bit before 7 a.m., and as the train approached my destination I got up from my seat and went to the foyer by the train exit. The foyer was flanked by a large room on one side, whence I had just come, and a small room on the other, and glass doors separated each room from the foyer.

As I entered the foyer I saw through the glass door that the small room was occupied by a couple in a loving embrace (he said understatedly). I got enough of an eyeful to confirm that I actually saw what I still can't believe I saw, and then I stopped looking. The gentleman standing with me in the foyer said something in Flemish, and judging by his disapproving tone I think we had similar feelings about what was going on next door.

Now I'm much too much of a gentleman to detail here what I saw—although obviously not so much of a gentleman that I won't blog about it—but all kinds of questions arose in my shocked mind. Were these two exhibitionistic, or thrill seeking, or just supremely unselfconscious or self-centered? Was this a couple in love, or just a pair of skanks? Was I supposed to keep looking, or look away? And lastly, was this experience going to make me more likely to support or oppose the controversial plans for a railway through Madison?

Wackiness, what else?

This weekend Dan was on call (working 7 am - 3 pm) so I had some quality time with the girls. Amazingly, the weather cooperated and we were able to spend most of our days outside. First thing in the morning, we headed off to a very nice park across from a historical prison which was, very unfortunately, locked! Another woman was waiting with her two children and an older woman came by every 10 minutes or so to commiserate with us that the staff people hadn't unlocked it yet since it was such a nice day, etc. etc. She had quite a bit to say actually but I didn't understand most of it. I am getting good at nodding and smiling. After maybe 30 minutes, we gave up and headed back to the bus stop to find a different park. But, lo and behold, then it was open! So, we trekked on back and had a great time. To the right is a video of the loudest children in the park being just about as loud as they can be.

I should mention that their chant, Rattletrap Car, is a book we have seen on the website onemorestory.com. It's pretty great actually. Classic children's books read aloud and with some music all on line. I think it's $40/year but if you like plopping your kids down in front of something and TV just seems too... um... mindless (Mickey mouse), annoying (D-d-d-d-dora) or violent (Bob L'Eponge), then this is a good option. Plus, as the reader goes, the particular word they are reading turns to a red font so that early readers can begin to recognize words.

We went to two other great parks over the course of the weekend so I may have to officially revise my position on Paris being a better place for kids than Brussels. These parks are fantastic!

Amelia's Intervention

So for a while, Amelia has been getting increasingly difficult to deal with. (Not 100% of the time, obviously. She's still been a lot of fun a lot of the time, but when she hasn't been fun, she reeeeally hasn't been fun.) When she was contrary, she would throw bigger fits, scream louder, hit more, and do it all longer and more frequently. (I know, a difficult two year old—call Ripley's.)

Anyway, a conflict was building between Amelia and the caretaking trust (me, Naomi, and Jenee)—and Amelia was winning. We decided that we were not being consistent in the way we disciplined Amelia, and this gave Amelia a window (or maybe a garage door) through which to push or exceed boundaries of acceptable behavior. Last week we launched Operation Strict Discipline, which largely consists of the timely and consistent administration of timeouts, and things have been steadily improving. One of the ironic (but not surprising) aspects of this improvement is that, not only is Amelia behaving better, but she is happier as well. As are we all!

Purim Spectacular

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to the Purim Spectacular put on by the girls' school at a local community center. (Purim is a Jewish holiday commemorating the story in the Book of Esther, a story about a defeated genocidal attempt against the Jews in ancient Persia.) Each class—except for the youngest ones, including Amelia's—put on some kind of act for the families and friends in the audience. JoJo's class did a line dance number, and it was extremely cute. The kids were dressed uniformly, and they executed their moves with pride and concentration. In other circumstances, I would have simply felt it was cute and left it at that; but that was my girl up there, and my heart swelled with pride. It was great!

A number of the classes had nice routines, although I thought a few were pretty lame. Mostly the show was in French, but one class performed in Hebrew, and another in Flemish. JoJo said she had a good time performing, and also watching the rest of the show from the side of the stage.

After the show there was a buffet. Despite the fact that the buffet was arranged in two reception rooms, it was absolute chaos: throngs rushing the buffet tables, and very limited seating once you had your food. After lunch, we adjourned to the play areas. In one of the reception rooms there were a number of game and activity stations, in addition to the buffet area. One of the stations had a fish tank filled with candy. You picked a card, which connected you with a kitchen utensil; then you used the utensil to acquire a single scoop of candies. The utensils ranged from a butter knife (worst) to a ladel (best for the unskilled) and whisk (best for the skilled). The woman operating the station rigged it so that each of my girls got the ladel. Another station had face painting, where JoJo got her face turned into a butterfly.

In the entrance hall was erected an inflatable bouncy castle. Both girls did a bunch of jumping in there, but Amelia took it to a whole 'nother level. She frequently came to me for water, and ultimately drained my supply. Shortly after that, I noticed she was missing. (There were three exits from the bouncy castle, and it was hard to watch more than one at a time. Classic!) Eventually I found her wandering around the auditorium, in search of more water. I wish she had just asked me!

The show was nice for the parents, and what came after that was obviously more for the kids. When we eventually decided it was time to head back home (this determination is highly scientific, and heavily tied to Amelia's mood), Amelia had a most excellent meltdown. She calmed down by the time our tram arrived, however, and she slept almost the whole way home.

A brief note about Purim tradition and the Purim Spectacular: People often get dressed up in costumes for Purim, but I only saw several little kids and one adult who did this. In fairness to the event, all the school kids except the youngest where in the show, so they were dressed appropriately for the show, and not for Purim per se. Also, the next day (today) the kids got to dress up in costume for school—JoJo was a fetching Queen Esther, and Amelia was, um, Minnie Pearl or something. Another tradition that was overlooked at the Spectacular is the hamentasch—a triangular, filling filled (is there a less repetitive way to say that?) pastry—which was sadly missing from the buffet tables. On a different note, we were assured by another family that the food at the Purim Spectacular (and school-related events in general) was legitimately kosher. This was not the poorly-informed understanding we had achieved at the school fundraiser dinner, but I think our current, slightly-better-informed understanding is probably correct.

Antwerp Zoo

Today we all went to the Antwerp Zoo, including Jenee. We took a train to Antwerp, which is 30 or 40 minutes north of Brussels. The train station was reportedly beautiful, and it turned out to be as advertised. A lot of the station has the feeling of being outside, except it's actually under a glass ceiling many feet above. There are multiple levels of tracks, so if you enter the station from one of the lower tracks (as we did) you see this very large, open view of the beautiful station.

The zoo is right next door to the station. Entry is rather steep: 18.50€ ($24) adult, 13.50€ ($17.50) 3–12, free for < 3. I did not even try to exercise my French—in Flanders, speaking French is not generally appreciated, to put it mildly. We got a fair ways into the zoo before we saw our first animal, but then things got rolling: flamingos and other birds, lions, jaguars, panthers, tigers, camels, donkeys, a hippo, elephants, apes, monkeys, giraffes, and more. To me, the hippo and the elephants were among the more exciting animals, because we don't have them at the Vilas Zoo in Madison. The hippo was in a pool with only a small part of its back showing, and we couldn't even tell which end was which. Amelia insisted on watching the hippo longer, which was good because the hippo eventually raised its enormous head for a while.

In addition to having a reasonably impressive faunal collection, the zoo was also sort of a European garden, or series of gardens. There were topiaries, statues, garden paths. From the human perspective, I think this fusion of zoo and European garden was well done. From the animal perspective, I think it was mixed results. Some animals had clearly inadequate space (the lions being among these, but the cats are scheduled to get a much improved space in the forseeable future), but others seemed to be all right (the elephants were in this category, and when we saw them they were fraternizing in a very playful way with each other).

We had lunch in the principal food station inside the zoo, a burger place where we sampled mediocre hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, and fish sandwiches. A serving of a side of kethcup was an extra 0.70€ (90¢)! But honestly, all things considered, I only felt gouged at the gate, not at the restaurant. After lunch, we spent some time at a nice playground next to the restaurant (and still inside the zoo). Then we returned home, except for Jenee, who did a little more touring in Antwerp.