I found this very interesting. It is above a doorway into a Church, about nine or ten feet off the ground.

This is a picture on a wall. I thought it would provide a good idea of what this abbey really looks like overall.

The Abbey

With a little imagination, you can see it as it once was.

Brewery and Abbey Trip

I can account for the smiles and the unusual facial expressions, can you? There was one additional keg before we arrived.

A few photos of Dinant

Week Four Photo

This is a typical European village. Notice the Citadel high on the hill overlooking the village.

Dinant, Belgium - 24 Jan 09

We had lots of fun going to this town. The first time we went (last March), we couldn't go up to the Citadel. It was raining and it was cold and just miserable! Not that it was really warm this time but at least, we could ride the cable-car up and look at the city from up high. We went inside the Citadel and it was wet even there so I can just imagine in past centuries how miserable it must have been to stand guard and defend the place with all the humidity around you... I just thought also of the smell! in the summer months - lol - anyway, today, we had a great time!

Wanna come back...

It is said that if you touch this statue, you are guaranteed to come back to Brussels... every time we go by the statue which is around the corner from Grand Place, we touch it (and everyone else as well, if you judge by how it shines) in the hope that we will return after our tour here is over. I will stop by there soon and read again the name on the statue so I can record it here as well.

A Rose is Just a Rose

I saw this in a little eating joint downtown and I thought it would make a nice photo. So, here is my pic for the third week of January 2009.

One of my most favorite pictures!

My daughter is into scrapbooking... ok, that really doesn't express the extent into which Andy is involved in this "passtime"... anyway, she made this page for one of her many scrapbooks and I absolutely love it. Maybe our Bryan did get the shape of his chin from me or maybe not, but on this picture, I can say our chins certainly look alike! :):):)

Christmas past... actually Jan 2007

When we first arrived to Brussels, our sponsor took us around town. We ended up at what is our favorite place to go for waffles. Right next to it is this building that was full of climbing Santas. Thought I was not going to have a chance to see them again or take a picture of them and here I ran across one when looking at old pictures. I will have another souvenir after all!

On the way to the base...

Thought I would share a couple of pictures of the road to Chievres, it was beautiful, these pictures really do not make justice to the whole scene. The picture in the middle is of some monument to something or another in one of the thousand round abouts that exist in this country. If you click on the picture you will see more details and what I liked the most was that it looked like each grass blade was showing with snow... beautiful!

Night Out

Just a couple of pics from a night out with friends at Pablo's.

Brugge, Belgium

This is probably one of our favorite cities in Belgium, I love going there in the Summer. You can walk in the park by the river or you can ride one of the small tourist boats or just walk through the city looking at all the old buildings and the nice shops where you can find old toys or tapestries or lace thingies. I hope to visit there a couple more times before we leave!

Still cold in Brussels

... and snowing on and off all day today. I still like it here. This is a fountain by our house which in the summer looks very pretty with grass all around it. Some kids got on the edges of the fountain, it is cold but it doesn't look like it is frozen solid. It is not a deep fountain so they wouldn't get very wet but it would be a nasty surprise!

Stone Henge Brussels

This is my picture for the 2nd week of 2009. We were walking home from work one cold winter evening when I discovered this. We live less than a block away from Stone Henge Brussels and we didn't even know it. So, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Christmas 2008

My two favorite pictures, Bob will be fluent in Spanish by the time we get to Costa Rica in 2010. This will give him something to do while we are in Baghdad. One of my favorite calendars is from Mary Engelbreits. I have it now hanging in the kitchen and it has lots of stuff already, the main thing, marking the day our Andy will come to visit us in May!

King's Day - 06 January 2009

Today is the day when the Three Kings took their gifts to welcome the new King of Kings to the World. In some countries, children will get a small token, kind of an "extra" Christmas present. I loved this Santa Claus outside this house balcony... is he leaving? During the Christmas Season, many people in Brussels decorate their balconies or the outside walls with Santas climbing towards a windows with the elfs following him with bags full of cadeaux... didn't take any picture of those... will not have a chance this year!

At Cinquantenaire Park - 6 January 2009

I love this monument, I must have 100 pictures of it taken in the past two years. I like going up to the top and been able to see the city from up there. I am sure going to miss it... again already sad that we have to leave Brussels in 6 months. For more information on this park, go to
http://www.trabel.com/brussel/brussel-cinquantenairepark.htm

And here we are, almost a couple of frozen burritos. I have so many layers of clothes that I was actually sweating! We walked home from work, it only took us 40 minutes and I really enjoyed it, aside from a few spots here and there where the ground had a frozen layer of mud and I was afraid to fall... it wouldn't be a first!

Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy

On our trip to Rome back in October 2008, we seemed to end up at the Spanish Steps all the time, no matter where we walked, we came back to the fountain in front of the steps. And it didn't matter what time of day or night, there always seem to be tons of people there. It was fun to people watch, though, we always wonder in how many pictures we have been included in that area alone!

Snow in Brussels

This morning when I looked outside my window, I saw that it had snowed during the night. It was beautiful but since it was dark, I couldn't take a picture, I wish I had. It has snowed on and off all day but now it is not so fresh as it was early in the morning. As I was walking to the Metro, there was only one other set of foot prints... it actually gave me the creeps thinking that nobody else was around! LOL - anyway, I came home and decided to take a couple of pictures from windows on both sides of our apartment. One is a view of the side where the grocery store is - not a very interesting picture but it is not every day that I see all that snow. The other picture is a view of the city as far as downtown. Of course, you can't see much but you see that big bubble-looking white mark on the picture (it is a snow flake), well, it is right on top of the dome of the Justice Palace (Palais de Justice de Bruxelles - Justitiepaleis van Brussel ... have to get in tune with the locals and put everything in French and Dutch!).

My pictures for weekend 1 - 2009

Pat will also join in the fun. Here are the pictures that I took this weekend. Christmas is over and as you can see by this poor drooping Christmas tree, it is ready to be put away till December when we will get another tree that looks just like this one from the Bastogne area in Belgium. The people of the Ardennes donate a tree each year to the Mission in rememberance and in honor of the people who fought in the famous Battle of the Bulge. A photograph of the photographer. Bob certainly takes picture taking very seriously and here you see him in action. This picture is of the courtyard at the European Commission building. Each cube represents pictures and information about each member of the European Union. And the last picture is of a statue of two girls. This is actually one of group of statues in front of another building of the EC buildings. You can see a bit of snow fluries.

First Weekend - 2009

My daughter is doing a 365-day picture exercise but I am only doing it a week at a time. Here are some pictures of today. Pat and I went out today even though it was snowing a bit and cold!!! The top picture is of the monument at the Cinquentanaire Park on a cold, wintery day. You can see the very fine layer of snow on the ground. The middle picture is Pat standing in front of the monument to King Leopold II. This is on the side of the Royal Palace. The third picture is of one of the columns to one of the entrances to the palace. I thought it was a nice picture as you can see the Belgian flag flying through the trees.