SORRY EVERYONE!

I changed a setting inadvertently and made it hard for you to leave comments. It is all fixed now so comment away! I love them!

Te Reo in Belgium

Let's save ourselves 1000 words, eh? In case you can't make it out, the barge is called "Morena" and the cafe is called "De Kaai" (which I suspect means "Quay" but it's nice to dream).

Ants

All cities are not created equal. Antwerpen (Anvers to the rest of Belgium) for example, is full of chain stores, rain, wind and has a maritime museum which is excitingly inside a castle/fort and was... closed. Oh well. I did get a chocolate with my hot chocolate. And it does have a nice river and a very old zoo, with mosaic advertising of course.

Oh, and it has a WAY cool railway station...

FYI I woke up in the morning and decided to go to Antwerp, as you do. Spent the evening making scones, speaking German with Joan's French teacher and English with the landlady's granddaughter at a make-up selling party. As you do.

(In spite of the apparent sunshine in the last photo, it was the only bright spot in the day so my peanut butter sandwiches wouldn't go soggy (thanks God!). Christchurch would have been proud to call it a southerly.)

Paris!

Paree!Paree! Ah oui! Ah oui!
Baguettes and fromage
Pate and canard
Your effortless art
Your old but young heart
ThE Tower, the Dame
The well-deserved fame...
Paree! Paree! Ah oui! Ah oui!

Vendredi: Train 1hour 20, no stamp in passport, no checks, no security
Walked from station to lovely cousin's flat, then out to eat duck and frois gras (don't ask how they make it)

Samedi: Eiffel Tower (cool as! 677 steps to 2nd floor),
Arc de Triomphe (way bigger than I thought)
stroll down the Champs Elysees (shonseleesay) having Christmas markets (bought nothing of course),
Petit Palais (which is huge),
Notre Dame (impressive but WAY too many people),
Metro (superb and easy to use).

Dimanche: Le Louvre! Five hours and several times getting lost - I didn't know it was the biggest palace in the world - the ceilings are fantastic and that's without the official art. Typical moment was, "Oh that's a cool sculpture! ...Oh, it's by Michelangelo" and then, wandering through a long hall, "Those are stunning!... oh, Leonardo da Vinci " (The Mona Lisa is good, not mindboggling. Others I liked more). "The colours in that one are brilliant... oh, Brueghel... Botticelli... Veronese... Rembrandt etc"
My absolute favourites though were the French sculptures - huge, detailed, rearing horses, beautiful women, gorgeous men, some very clever political statements obvious even to the non-Francophone.

It reminded me that humans are capable of beautiful things.

Walked home and got a weensy bit lost, bumped into the Opera house, a big column and eventually some food. The sun comes from the south here, Penelope, the south...

Lundi: Breakfast then back to Brussels via some drama because I couldn't find my seat - eventually crammed into the excess luggage section with the rest of the plebs just as the train started moving. Got given a proper seat after a while through kind French men translating for me but the officials were not helpful at all. C'est la vie!
Tour round a Romanesque collegiale in Nivelles in the afternoon, weather so wild the guide was too scared to take us to the top. Have to go and buy a baguette for lunch now - au revoir!

Broooooge

Bruge ist mein cutestisch ville in alle die Belgique (apart von Nivelles where mein freund Joan ist). Zey all dere speeky die Englisches und smeile at die touristen trippin ofa die cobbelled straats und peerin at die alt hooses. Efry seccond cutesisch shop sells die wicked shokolade und die fein bier, und die builtings haf die golt carfings und die fansisch tings to machen dem look efen alter. Ich liked die fery quiet confents (vere dere are still nuns liffing appily, machen die lace) und die vindmillen und die kanals.

Mainly visuals

Been to Bouillon:

with Kendra the Canadian and Joan the Scot

The proud and noble... rooster. The inscription underneath says something like: "I too sacrificed my children for the war" Belgians are a little odd.













Sausages (we bought a figue - figure it out :-)

Castle (first mentioned in 968, so reasonably old)

River diverted in 15th century for a mill long gone.

Tomorrow and Sunday back to Brussels, Monday to Bruge so Joan can get some work done, next weekend to gay Paris to stay with Cousin Jill. La vie est bon! (in semi-French spelling)

Battle of the Belge...

Ah tis a sad thing. The pack was underweight when I left the UK, and the Penny was...not.
Enough of a fright to kickstart renewed interest in fat content and exercise levels - and it turned out to be a false alarm from pessimistic scales so all is well. Had a lovely and hilarious time with the Annie type Blinman and Joan on Saturday morning involving a full breakfast, castles, and jelly dinosaurs. I have good friends.

So, here I am in the land of Tintin, Poirot, Bruegel, chocolate and beer. Friend Joan lives at the top of 33 rickety wooden stairs in a cute wee apartment near the centre of Nivelles. (Actually, everything is near the centre of Nivelle because it is so wee and cute). We wandered round Brussels for a while looking at things and avoiding chocolateries (no mean feat) before going to eat roasted chestnuts at someone's house and going to a big old Anglican church full of smaller, younger Anglicans all gloriously speaking English. Incidentally, there was a juggling semi-festival in the Grand Plas. Foolish Penny was so distracted she forgot to video any of it. The photo is of a museum in the Grand Plas (which is quite grand actually).

Had my first taste of language regret yesterday, when a chatty lady let rip with a torrent of French in the supermarket. I said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak French", and I truly was. Today, slightly better educated, I sallied forth armed with (forgive the spelling, Emily), "Desolet, je ne parle pas le francais," but sadly had no chance to show my ignorance so eruditely.

It is conveniently a national holiday tomorrow so Joan and I and a Canadian friend of hers are off somewhere, possibly Ypres (pronounced ' Eep' I think) where there is a lot of WW1 sadness, or maybe I'm hoping, a working monastery or two. It is GREAT to see Joan and we are having a lot of fun even though she has to work and I have been a little under the weather.

Right, better stop before I get accused of falsely advertising brief blog entries. Later!

Och aye the noo

I've seen some castles ancient
And wandered by the sea
I've heard the seagulls plaintive
And watched them flying free

I've wrestled with pronunciation
Of lochs and rivers and touns
Have changed my own enunciation
So understanding can aboond




My correspondence staggers (sorry!)
Am feeling colder daily
Tonight I'm promised haggis
At a genuine Scottish ceilidh

The countryside surrounding
Is quite like the South Island
The hospitality is astounding
And the people here are grand

It's nice to know my tipuna
Came from this warming place
I should have come here sooner
And found my own wee space :-)

Scotland the gorgeous

Hello loyal fans
I am here in Scotland, about to venture north with my friend Joan to Inverness and Loch Ness (named after Nessie) and Loch Lochy (some Scots lack imagination) but wanted to show you the gorgeous ness (no pun intended) of the landscape up in the highlands. This is my best photo I think...
Happy days,
Love Penny.