Traveling with the kids

Sunday David, Rachel, Steve and I took advantage of the continuing sunny (but cold) weather and went to Ypres, where we had lunch, checked out their collegiale (big church that's not a cathedral), and wandered the streets gazing at the architecture of buildings rebuilt in the old style after being destroyed in the war. We didn't run across any lost wallets so we moved on to Oostende, which, as you might have guessed, is at the end of Belgium. Only not the east end. Go figure. Anyway, it being October, there wasn't anyone swimming at what must be one heck of a crowded beach during the summer. It was just a wide expanse of beautiful beach and the Atlantic Ocean out there, a gorgeous sight on a sunny day. But one can imagine how threatening it must appear on a rainy, gray day. We'll attach a picture when we get around to downloading them.

Today we're playing hooky from work to take Rachel and Steve to Aachen, Germany. It's been on my list of places to visit since we got here and it's only about two hours away from us. More to come...

We solve a mystery

Yesterday Rachel and Stephen and Rita and I took Grandmother to the airport (sad face about the end of a nice, long visit) then went into Brussels for the day. As we explored a side street that led to a section of the old city wall, Rachel discovered a pile of credit cards and IDs, obviously the contents of a wallet--no wallet. We gathered up all the bits and pieces and deduced that they belonged to an American student at a Brussels branch of a US university. Once we realized we were dealing with a countryman, we decided we didn't trust the police to return the contents. Plus we had no idea where to find the police. Nor did we trust the embassy. So we called a Brussels number from a business card of what was apparently a university official, got the student's phone number from her, called him, left a message, continued our tour, and went to lunch. He finally called back while we were at Chez Léon waiting to order mussels. (I had curry flavor, Rachel had the regular--yummy! Stephen had stoemp and sausages, also yummy; and Rita had...well, it was fried salad: bacon, green beans, and potatoes all sautéed in butter; it may have been the best of all.) The guy wasn't far away, so he came down to meet us. He was grateful. Turns out he had left his wallet on the counter when he stopped in a store to buy something to drink. He was hoping to go back and reclaim it once the store opened, so he was holding off on canceling his credit cards. So even that part had a happy ending. It was pretty satisfying to have an adventure, solve a mystery, and do a good deed all at the same time.

We're still here

It occurred to us the other day that we hadn't posted lately. That's because we've been busy. With what, we couldn't say, except that the days seem to be getting shorter. Maybe it's because they are; it's dark now by 7:30 at night (or sooner - I've lost track), which means we're going to bed earlier, despite having the same workday and the same errands to run after work.

Today we hurried to get our walk in before darkness fell. As we rounded the corner about halfway through one of our usual routes, I squinted at a sight down the road and wondered, is that a big dog or a calf meandering down the sidewalk? We had just about decided it was a calf when we saw a second cow, this one definitely a bovine of some sort, in the same vicinity. Were they lost? Were they out for a stroll? Were they refugees? We'll never know because they took off across the street before we got close and then we turned to go home. Life in the Belgian countryside.

In other news, we went to France the weekend before last to visit a friend who lives near Tours. We had a great time eating, drinking, visiting, drinking, touring, drinking. Wait, did I mention that we sampled a lot of sparkling wines? Of course the trip included the obligatory visit to a cave, where we bought more...sparkling wine! Bet you couldn't see that one coming!