THE ROOSTER

That's the name of the little town I went to on the Belgium coast.  It sounds much more romantic in Flemish - De Haan - don't you think?

I took the train over the flat countryside, through the well-known cities of Ghent and Bruges to the coastal city of Oostende, a trip of about 1 1/2 hours.  Oostende is a bustling port and tourist vacation spot so there's lots of activity and highrise apartment buildings.

From one end of the Belgian coastline to the other (a distance of about 68 km from the French border to the Dutch border), you can ride the "Coast Tram" or the "Kusttram" for 5 euros a day.  It's the longest tram line in the world and it stops at all the little villages along the way, like ..... De Haan.

De Haan is the most beautiful village on the coast, utterly charming.  Of course it has a seaside promenade but behind it you discover a delightful maze of green, meandering avenues and a Belle Epoque area, well over a century old, an Anglo-Norman residential area.

 The weather was grey and chilly, more like winter than spring, so I thought it would be fun for you to see what I looked like as I walked the beach, enjoying the sound of the waves and the gulls.  (I told the Flemish lady who took my picture that my friends in Canada would never believe that I was walking on the beach in a winter coat!!)

And the sea...the endless sea with its never-ending waves. And then the beach in all its simplicty, with no frills and no people.

                 Beaches like this are where the Allies landed on D-Day in 1944.

The round park in the centre of the beautiful downtown residential area was coming to life!

                      And there was even a coastal forest I could meander through.

My hotel was quaint, my bed comfortable, the seafood delicious and the peace ...exquisite.  I came home relaxed and ready to pick up my responsibilities again.

                                               Thank-you, little rooster!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

Ohhh, but it's been a long, cold winter here in Brussels.  We haven't had the mountains of snow that Quebec has had, but we've had more snow than usual and temperatures have forced people to continue wearing longjohns, thick scarves and fleece coats right to the end of March.  There was a snowstorm on Palm Sunday!  Having an apartment that has relatively little insulation doesn't help.

No sitting basking in the sun on terraces, no snowdrops or crocuses pushing their way up through the soil, no reappearance of short shorts on the long-legged Brussels beauties. (Well, that's not completely true because they have reappeared...but with warm tights!!)

Ahhh, but here comes April and spring and blue sky (well, at least some days) and the promise of warmer days!  And flowers ...

Yesterday, it was beautiful so I took the rattlely old tram to Tervuren, a suburb of Brussels, to visit the Africa Museum.  The tracks followed large boulevards where the grass was turning green on the lawns surrounding mansions housing embassies, ran alongside an expansive park where swans were floating on a little lake, and wound through a woods (Forêt de Soignes) where the soil was pushing up purple and yellow and white crocuses and snowdrops.  Everything is waking up again!

The Africa Museum was built by Leopold II to house his enormous collection of artefacts from Africa, particularly from what was the Belgian Congo, now DRC.  There were many objects that were familiar to me from having lived in Nigeria, but the exhibit that allows the visitor to follow the meandering Congo River from its source in the south to its mouth in Kinshasa was fascinating. 

There were photos and newpaper articles about Stanley meeting Lingstone, and monkeys, elephants, deer, zebras, fish, hippos, lions and birds in their habitat, that the taxidermist had prepared for us to admire.

 I was glad to see that the museum also chose to show the visitor that there was a very dark side to all this: the exploitation of the Congolese people in the ivory and rubber trades.  Much of the beauty of Brussels - its parks, large boulevards and grandiose buildings - was built on their backs, with the money from these trades.  It's a sobering thought for me, as I walk around this city of Brussels and enjoy its beauty....

                                         hands cut off because the quota of rubber
                                      exacted from those men had not been reached

Next week, I'm going to escape for 3 days to the Belgian coast, to a little town called De Haan.  I have never been to the coast so I'm looking forward to the sand, the wind, the coastal vegetation and some "down time".  I'll take you with me ..... :)

THE BLESSING OF LOVED ONES

I surprised myself by being eager to come back to Belgium.  While in Quebec, I was talking to a dear friend, Mo Umran.  Mo is from Syria but has lived most of his adult life in Canada.  We talked about the difference between one's 'homeland' and one's 'home'.  Syria is his homeland but Canada is his home.

That helped me understand the mix of emotions I was feeling on arriving back in Brussels: Canada is my homeland but Belgium is my home right now, so I was delighted to hear "Welcome home, Nancy!" when I arrived at church on Sunday morning.

How do you put into words that warm, comfortable blanket of feelings that flows over you when you are once again with dear friends and family that have known you for ages?  That's what going back to Quebec for two weeks was like.  I was able to be in my home church, see all my siblings, stay with my grandchildren and visit some dear friends as well.  It filled up my love bank and propelled me back to Brussels with wind in my sails.

                                                    my siblings John, Stephen and Kathy

                                my grandchildren Donovan and Gabrielle having fun with me

                                              some of my special young friends at church

                                            and I got my wish: a fullblown snowstorm!! :)

BIKE OR PLANE ?

                                   Guess how many people are taking the train this morning!!

Well, I'll be taking the plane, not a bike, tomorrow morning (Thursday the 14th) for a 2-week holiday in Quebec.  Going home to see family, friends, my church, my dentist, my doctor, my accountant and look after some business.  It's not long but it will be good to touch base again with my life in Quebec and my loved ones.  Bye for now!

BOODSCHAPPEN DOEN .... what?

I thought it might be interesting for you to see where I do my grocery shopping (that's what the Flemish title means).  Since I live in the centre of town and have no car, I don't have access to the large malls with large grocery stores in the suburbs.  They do exist here ... but I've never been there.

However, I love my little Delhaize store on a narrow street near me.  Delhaize is a chain of grocery stores.  It's never open on Monday mornings or Sundays and they stock the shelves on Wednesday mornings.  You bring your own grocery bags, or pay for the ones you need to buy.

 Outside the store, there is a "permanent" beggar.  He has his little tin on the sidewalk just by the door, so when you go in, you have to be careful not to knock it over.  On the cold and rainy days, he often comes into the store and sits on one of the chairs by the entrance.  The manager lets him do this to keep warm and I suspect he gives him food every once in a while.  He's a rather permanent fixture around the place.  (You'll just have to imagine a middle-aged 'grey' man, ravaged by time and drink, wearing tattered clothes, and smoking when he can find a cigarette. I'm uncomfortable photographing him...)



This is the first aisle - fresh produce and fresh meats (This is the length of the store.)

This is the beginning of the 2nd aisle - breads and cakes ...

... followed by dairy products with a frozen section at the end

On the other side are ... the eggs ... on a shelf!!  You can buy packages of 4 eggs.

canned and packaged goods in the 3rd aisle ...

... including cereals: this middle section is the only choice there is! (Jams and honeys on the far left)

the last aisle - and the biggest selection!!

and 4 cashdesks squished in near the door

This is where I do my 'boodschappen' about twice a week because I only buy what I can carry home in my two arms.

An interesting thing I discovered: many companies give their employees meal vouchers of a fixed value that are good all over the city.  This is to pay for their noon meal.  However, lots of them bring their lunch to work, save their vouchers and turn them into the grocery stores or bakeries to help pay for their groceries.  I had wondered about these pieces of paper that clients in front of me in line were handing over along with cash.  Now I know!!

FULL HOUSE !

Forgive me for backtracking to autumn 2012 but I want to share with you the fabulous trip I took with my sister Kathy to Istanbul, Turkey.  I wanted to take an "exotic" holiday while I was here in Europe and Kathy was ready to pack her suitcase and come with me for a week.  And what fun we had together and what amazing things we saw!

Istanbul is definitely the gateway to the East: I found it much more Eastern than European.  Into our week in the city, we packed visits to mosques, the whirling dervishes, Turkish restaurants, the covered Grand Bazaar, the Spice Market, luxurious palaces and a Turkish bath.  The highlight for me was being in the Hagia Sophia and the Chora, buildings that are now museums but were once Christian churches back in the Byzantine Empire.  To see the vestiges of Christianity - the mosaics, the fading wall paintings and the crosses carved into the stone - moved me as I felt a kinship with those men and women who had worshipped the same God as I do many centuries ago.

Autumn saw my little apartment full with visitors from home.  After Kathy left,  it was fun to welcome my dear friends Normand and Lucie Bédard from Trois-Rivières. 

And then my dear son Caden and his partner Matt Seburn arrived for a visit and that was more fun!

And in November, my niece Rebekah Klinck came to spend three weeks with me.  It was fun to have her here during Advent because she decorated a wee tree for me, made a holly wreath for my table and put holly branches in the basket on my front door.  She got me into the Christmas spirit before she left :)

And then a lovely little surprise landed on my doorstep a few days before Christmas -
Marie-Christine Jutras, the young daughter of friends of mine.  She is studying in Paris; her exams were over and she needed a break, a change and a familiar face.  We had fun discovering Brussel's fascinating Christmas market together.

SNOW !!

It's been 'way too long since I last posted on my blog.  Life seems to have been in the fast lane for the past three months and I never got caught up with myself - still haven't but the beautiful soft snowflakes falling on my window ledge this morning convinced me to stop and write to you about how beautiful Brussels is when it's snowing.

The snow piled up quickly on the streets because there wasn't any snow removal equipment to carry it away.  What fun to put my boots on and walk to and from church today in the snow, licking the snowflakes with delight as they landed on my face!  And no white marks on my boots because there's no salt on the streets!  A lot less traffic too and few pedestrians. 

 

 

 

At church, some friends smiled at me and said: "It's Canada outside this morning, isn't it, Nancy?" :)  

It's been a good day.

I'll do some catching up in subsequent posts but today I just want to say again - as I wrote to you in my Christmas letter - that I'm delighted to be staying here another year.  God just made it so obvious to me through various means.  I can continue to be part of St. Andrew's and carry on with the activities there that I'm involved in.  I can continue to be a help to Andrew.

And ... I can carry on with my Flemish lessons and my discovery of this lovely city and its surroundings!  I'll drink it all in for one more year.

For the moment, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!