First of our Summer Visitors

 We are most excited to have many people coming to see us this summer.  Candy & Paul and their friends Shari and Paul were the first.

They battled through jet lag to see the view of the city from the arch at the Parc du Cinqantenaire.

We were excited to go to the Brewery Tour of the Cantillon Brewery, located in an old industrial part of Brussels. They serve the beer in cool wicker baskets, which I was excited to see, Greg was most excited to sample the beer which is his favorite variety called gueuze.

The logo is cute...the old guy tipping back drinking his beer!

Our tour guide informed us that it takes a sophisticated palate to appreciate the gueze, so Greg was happy to hear that he was sophisticated!  Really it was all about the fact that there is no sugar in this beer, it is for those that don't want any sweetness!

Almost all the machinery in the brewery is from the early 1900's and most of it was made somewhere in Belgium...the guy said the only new machinery they have is the bottling stuff and it is what breaks down!

Whenever they talk about Lambic style beers in Belgium they always mention that they are fermented in big open vats and they use the wild yeast that blows into them in the process.  I was super curious to see how this was done.  We got to go up into the attic room in the brewery and see the shallow tank where the magic happens.  They have louvers on the sides that they can control to slow how much wild yeast settles into the beer.

 They have louvers on the side walls that they can control to slow how much wild yeast settles into the beer.  (see slats on the left)

They only brew in the cold months, so we are excited to go back in the winter and see it all in process.

Waiting in the barrels for Greg to try it all!

This one was our favorite, it was mixed with grapes.

Visitors are a great excuse to go see all the wonderful places that are on your list but you don't make the time for!!

Riding the Rails!

We took Greg rail biking for Father's Day.  It was about an hour away near a town called Dinant.  There are a few different choices for routes, we chose the two hour one (not the 3 hour loop). 

Greg liked that when you pedal you don't have to pay attention where you are going you can just look around and enjoy the scenery  Katie is doing that while Greg and Charlie pedal!

Another of the crazy places we have taken Louna..

Riding through the tunnels was extra fun.

Louna wasn't too sure about this whole idea!

At the turnaround point we stopped for ice cream and pictures!

This cool old house was across the street from the place, I have no idea what its story is but it sure was fun to look at!

The kids liked it so much that they want to take some of our summer visitors back to try the bikes!  

World Cup Fever-Go Red Devils!

For months in the stores we have been seeing Red Devils gear.  At the grocery store I get stickers to put in this sticker book whenever I spend a certain amount.

Carrefour is the big grocery chain here.

Charlie and I have been studying up & trying to collect the entire team.


Over the weekend we watched a few of the matches in the other divisions.  During the Portugal game I was outside when Ronaldo scored his amazing third goal that wrapped around the defensive wall and into the goal.

The entire neighborhood erupted around us, people were yelling and carrying on.  It reminded me of being in our Boston neighborhood when the Patriots or Red Sox were scoring!







Last night Belgium played their first match against Panama and won-yippee!  We headed to this one area in Stockel where they had set up a giant screen for the fans.  Charlie missed the fun and Kelly is checking out Navy, so just Katie & her friend and I went.  I encouraged the girls to at least wear something red, but they didn't listen....they did grab Charlie's flag on the way out the door...

No red....they will correct this before the next game!

The giant screen...huge speakers too...

A sea of supporters watching...

Loved this little fan!  Just got Charlie the head dress too...it came free at the grocery store if you bought two packs of cheese!

Cheerleaders & Tuba players, a little something for everyone!

Crowd erupts after a score...Belgians are a little confused though...this is the Boston Bruins goal scoring song!

The confetti flying everywhere was very cool!

Jupiler is the working mans beer here...they are the big red beer can that sponsored all this..

Our corner pub was packing them in....and out on the street!

Just a house window I passed on my way home from school..

A restaurant downtown all decorated...

This is the side of an ivy covered house on my block...I love the round window.  I took this photo last week...

Same cool ivy house, but now my favorite window even has World Cup fever!!

We look forward to more Red Devils matches and hear good things about their chances, they have more players playing for the English Premier League than the English team was the stat we heard yesterday!  Next time Katie & her friend will be much more prepared and dressed for the game...stay tuned!

Baseball in Brussels...

Charlie just wrapped up his first season of baseball, after playing cricket and begging to play baseball instead.  He is hooked! 

I got to help coach his team and had fun teaching all the good games I fondly remember.  I'd have to say the kids loved pickle and 500 the most!   We also did some other activities like hitting and throwing water balloons and trying to bring down a drone with baseballs that some guys were flying over our practice.  (drones are super distracting to a field full of kids)

Here is the team...the U10 Zombies...they named themselves....

Greg was the pitcher for our away games...here is a picture from our game at SHAPE...which stands for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe...Charlie was most impressed with the field because he called it a real field with dirt, dugouts and a pitchers mound.  Our home field is at the kids school is on turf and  I agree with Charlie that it doesn't quite feel the same as a real field!

 Charlie at bat!  This is our home field...not quite the same huh?

Hustling down to first, or else the mean first base coach will yell at him!

One afternoon after we finished baseball we saw our neighbors heading out and they told us they were going to family day at the Coudenberg Paleis.  It is the site of the old palace of Brussels and it is basically under the palace of today.  We decided to go check it out, the girls had to study so we just took Charlie.  The boys got to shoot little crossbows, we got to taste some beer, I was most impressed because one of the beers was brewed by the guy at the tasting table!  We also got to dress up...here we are...

Greg said his beard made him look authentic!  He was mad the lady made him hand me some silly flower instead of letting him hold the crossbow!

 Outside the guy at the crossbow stand recruited him to shoot it...so he finally got the crossbow!

He was happy with his shot!

A cool view of a Brussels landmark that we walked past on our way home, sadly we just missed the six pm chimes!

One of the best parts of keeping this blog is it makes me go back and learn about things that we see...here is an article all about the carillon in this picture...happy reading!

Carillon at Mont des Arts

End of School Year Fun

As the school year winds down our lucky kids are getting to do lots of fun activities and make new friends.  We are hosting a summer intern who is a Senior at UNC. 

Charlie is delighted with his new buddy Will..

Kelly took a trip to England with her Lacrosse team.  She rode the ferry and reported that they stayed next to a Costco, which is a store we miss here in Europe! No photo to share as she is very stingy with her photos for those of us not on Instagram!

Katie got to join her class on a trip to the Loire Valley in France where they visited Versailles and other famous old chateaus.  She took almost no photos, so I had to use this one from the school.  Katie is in the bottom right. 

Charlie had field day at school which had an awesome obstacle course for the kids and did lots of other cool activities.  Very different from the 3 legged race I remember at field day!

Boys!

Greg and I got to enjoy some Brussels culture with a Whiskey and Spirits festival that was held at Autoworld.   We really liked talking to one guy who was representing his family Cognac business which has been run on the same farm in France for six generations.  He was doing his best to convince us to switch to Cognac!

They had bagpipers playing and the whiskey tasting was up on the upper level and you could look down on the car collection.

The current exhibit is Belgian race car drivers at Le Mons.

Without Charlie along to appreciate the race cars the only other thing that caught my eye was this old motor home, it was so cool!

It looked like the table dropped down into a sleeping bed, just like our old pop up camper!

Over the next few weeks the fun will continue for Charlie but it will be a bit stressful with exams for the girls before summer can begin for them!  We hope all of you got a nice start to summer over Memorial Day weekend...