Christmas Market

 

This year at the Christmas market there was a HUGE Cote d’or chocolate elephant.

 

Syrian Food

This is a typical old fashioned table of Syrian foods.  Very yummy!

Friends

 

My good friend from Guadeloup/Belgium.

 

Big Ben

 

Big Ben tower in central London.

London

 

Charles Spurgeon’s church in London. 

 

Teenagers…

Our precious teenagers looking so innocent.

One Year Ago…

It’s hard to believe that a year ago on September 6th Hary and I were married.  In many ways the year has just flown by.  So we will be celebrating here in Belgium.  Actually we will be celebrating 2 anniversaries…the civil service (which is mandatory in Belgium) anniversary on August 29 and the church wedding anniversary on September 6.  A girl has to get the very best out of 2 anniversaries!!

Labyrinth

For some reason I have always thought that walking a huge labyrinth would be very fun and very European.  So when Hary and I were on vacation we found a labyrinth made of corn!  It was done in a 2 kilometer square and each year there is a different design.  So Hary and I got ourselves lost in a field of corn.  Luckily at that center of the maze was a little cafe for something cold to drink.  And then after we mastered the corn challange, we entered the wooden maze that said “for children” but as Hary said “what children were they thinking of when they made this?”  We never had so much fun getting lost.

Crystal Park

Outside of Liege is a place called Crystal Park.  Hary and I went to see how crystal is made.  This factory is called Val St. Lambert.  It has a long history in Belgium and is known as some of the finest crystal in the world.   Their big client in NY is Tiffany’s (that’s pretty classy if you ask me).  We toured the factory and watched as they demonstrated how to make several pieces.  At the end of the demonstration there was a museum .  Here I am in the crystal igloo.  Actually in the center you felt like you were standing inside a disco ball!

Ardennes American Cemetary

Hary and I took a little time away a few weeks ago.  We couldn’t go far but just wanted to get away and turn off the cell phones.  The third largest city in Belgium is Liege.  So I found a nice little place to stay in the country near Liege.  There was green grass, trees and even cows!!  We explored many different places and one of them was an American Cemetary in the Ardennes Mountains.  There are a little more than 5,000 buried from WWII and the Battle of the Bulge.  We talked to the soldier who took care of the cemetary and learned that there are actually 3 American cemetaries in Belgium and around 17 outside of the US and around the world.  Hary was amazed at the precise design of the markers and the exact cut and angle of every blade of grass.  It was his first real experience where he was kind of on American soil and he said he had never seen anything so well taken care of in his life.