Egg Hunting in Style!

I always wanted to take the kids to the White House Easter Egg Roll, but we never managed to make it.  However we recently got to visit Truman Hall, the home of the NATO Ambassador, for a fun egg hunt on a Saturday morning. 

I didn't know much about the house other than it was supposed to have beautiful gardens...here is the history on it from the NATO website, I like it even more now that I know the story behind it!

(for Belgian Chocolate fans: you can still by Cote d'Or chocolate everywhere here, I find it in most grocery stores, so maybe its the equivalent of a Hershey bar-not the fanciest but still yummy!)

Truman Hall is a traditional Flemish country estate built in 1963 for Côte d’Or chocolatier Jean Michiels. The house is the residence of the Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and is named in honor of President Harry S Truman, one of NATO’s founders. The design is the successful collaboration between Architect B.A. Jacquemotte and Landscape Architect René Pechère.

Pechère, one of the best-known contemporary landscape architects in Europe, transformed 27 acres of barren agricultural land into gentle hills and valleys, meadows, and formal gardens. A curvaceous cobbled drive, lined with roses, leads to the tree-lined approach to the residence. The home overlooks a sweeping lawn, towering cedars, English gardens and an herb garden. The lawn pavilion is planted with fragrant honeysuckles, roses, clematis, hydrangeas and wisteria. The original children’s playground, giant sequoia circle and maze are still effective landscape elements. Discrete paths wind through sequestered corners for quiet reflection. In 1984 on the anniversary celebrating Truman Hall becoming NATO’s official residence, a new garden was created with cobbled circles representing each NATO country.

The Truman Hall residence is constructed of painted brick, grey stone, and has slate roof dormers. Virginia creeper relieves the grey and white stucco, and in the Fall, turns a festive red orange. The plan is designed to capture sunlight – the kitchen/breakfast rooms face east, the dining room is illuminated at lunchtime; and the salons overlook sunsets. The interiors are humanly scaled with sensible arrangements and elegant proportions. The entry hall is paved in the famous “pierre bleu” Belgian black marble. The corridors are wide and inviting, and there is a library with fine 18th century wood paneling.

Truman Hall, graciously welcoming visitors from the 29 NATO nations and Alliance partner countries around the world, was sold to the U.S. Government at a reduced price by Mrs. Michiels, who said: “I want you to have it. Your country saved mine in World War II.”

Here was the view as we rode up to the house...

Charlie & Katie in front...

Kelly missed all the fun, she doing her own running at a track meet.

One view of a section of the gorgeous garden.

Beautiful area where we had brunch afterward.

With our Marine Andrew!

Charlie & his friend from school, he was delighted to have someone his age!

Before the big run through the gorgeous lawn!

We are so thrilled that the Ambassador shared her beautiful home with all of us for such a nice event!

The Animal Band

Another highlight was on the way there, we got to pass by the coolest fountain around Brussels, it is out by Tervuren and the Africa Museum, it is called the Animal Band.  It reminds us a bit of the cool spray park fountain at frog pond in Boston!

I guess we were on a quest to see beautiful places because the next day the girls and I got to go explore the Chateau de la Hulpe...a gorgeous old place where you could roam around its extensive grounds.  Here are a few photos of what we found.

Where was Greg for all the fun? That is for you to figure out...here are some photos of where he spent his time...my only clue was his pictures were not taken anywhere in Europe! 

Under the tee-pee looking thing is a shopping mall!!

No idea what this is but it looks amazing!

Stay tuned for our next adventure-this time all together!

Another season & brewery in the books!

We have recently wrapped up swimming and basketball.  Kelly finished her season as a swim captain and got to take a lap around the pool with her fellow senior teammates during the last meet in Leuven.

Katie's basketball team got to travel to Vienna for the final tournament and the came home champions.  This was a big shock as they struggled most of the season.

We had a fun time going to the airport to greet the champions!  Kelly helped me make the sign!

Charlie's team also finished, I survived my first season as a boys basketball coach, was a very different experience than my days coaching Katie's team!

This picture more accurately reflects what it was like to run a practice with this crew!   Especially that one kid is breakdancing on the left!

Our buddies the Baratas came to watch Charlie's game and we snuck to the open gym to play a Hughes vs. Barata match.  We are sad to report that they beat us fair & square....and they now get to keep their adorable dog Bella!

We had a few people over to celebrate St. Patrick's Day but it was pretty mellow since it was a Sunday!

In between sporting events on Saturday Greg and I did manage to sneak in a cool brewery tour in Mechelen.  We loved our guide and it was a really neat old place.

They had us climb to the rooftop of the brewery to the open vat where they used to cool the beer.  The views were amazing, especially of this church next door!

Here is a closer picture of the top of the church, it was really a striking statue!

Our guide told a great story about this piece of equipment, and how it was in use pre WWII, it is basically a big filter that cools the beer.  However, it is made of copper and he said that the Germans were looking for copper everywhere in Belgium so that they could use it to make bullets.  He speculated that they could have used this thing to make a ton of bullets to shoot at soldiers on the beaches of Normandy, so he claimed that this thing turned the tide at D-Day.  He did a much better job of telling it than I did!

 They also make whiskey and store it in the brewery.  I learned that whiskey evaporates in the process, so they had this really cool sign on the wall, saying that the angels get all that evaporates!

Whiskey barrels, they even made a whiskey beer which we bought a bottle of to take home.  Greg was a fan!

Our tour ended in a tasting room with big long tables and we sat with our group, it was a really nice bunch we liked hearing where everyone was from.  The beer was excellent too, this place  wins awards for its Golden Carolus beer and now we know why!

Time to go catch up with the kids who were shopping in the town center!

We walked around the town square of Mechelen a bit before we headed home, it was another cool Belgian city with lots of great character!

It is recommended to climb to the top of this bell tower, we saved that for another day!

Another elaborate town hall!

I just think the buildings look neat, these are in the main square.

I liked this elaborate signpost...so much that I took it from all angles...

One final view with the Neuhaus chocolate shop in the background!

Now on to another busy spring, track for Kelly, lacrosse for Katie and baseball for Charlie!

The Aalst Carnival Parade "It's Too Much!"

I was excited to see the Carnival Parade in the Belgian town of Aalst, it is another UNESCO recognized event on the list of intangible cultural heritage.  We hopped in our car and headed about 30 minutes north of Brussels.  We found a parking spot and parked next to a Dutch family.  I said something to them about being excited to see the parade and the man laughed a bit and said, "It's too much"...a very accurate description!

It was all in Dutch so many of the political jokes went right over our heads, but much of it looked like something right out of Oompa Loompa Land in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.  The floats & costumes were super elaborate! 

Here are some photos...

The Prince of Carnival!

Greg thought if you had to pick a float, this would be a good one to be on..the even could just sit!

Lots of bathroom humor!

This guy carried the outhouse with him through the whole parade. There was a delay so his helper was giving him a few minutes to rest his rig.  I think he should make friends with the beer float people for next year!

Speaking of bathrooms, I'm not sure I've ever posted this, but this is a very common site in Europe, an outdoor urinal...allows 4 guys to go at once..lucky I found it not in use when I passed it!

Kind of ruining my image of Iron Man!!

I walked down by the reviewing stand for a few minutes!

Cool clock near the old square!

Each of these guys had a dog, no idea why!

Another of the Belgian Giants...this one got sprayed with silly string!

This little cutie stood next to us to watch for a bit, I think she came off a float!

He reminded me of Peter O'Toole in Club Paradise..one of my favorite movies!

From Club Paradise!

This one was super cool when they shot confetti everywhere!

Awesome costumes on spectators alike, I liked the lampshade people!

Cute kids!

I had to curate my pictures for this one carefully, as there were some that Greg told me a could not put on the blog...if you want the crazy ones, I will fill you in offline!  We saw some things that would never fly in the US.  We also missed the float that doesn't work anywhere. It made headlines around the world...here are some articles!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/world/europe/belgium-carnival-anti-semitism.html


http://www.flanderstoday.eu/unesco-condemns-aalst-carnival-anti-semitic-representations

Clearly the Dutch guy was right, "It is too much!"  However, I'm happy we got to experience it!