Bike Ride

Sorry to bombard you with postings in one day, but what the heck--most of you aren't reading anyways.

We're having a gorgeous sunny day today--the first nice weekend day in several weeks--so Rita and I rode our bikes to Beloeil, the site of the famous Château de Beloeil (well, it's famous around here). Along the way we saw dozens of other bike riders: families, gangs of teenaged girls, other couples, solo serious riders, small groups of serious riders, old guys going to the store, young guys going...somewhere, and a serious young woman rider (not as common as you'd think).

We stopped for refreshments in Beloeil. I mistakenly ordered an 11% beer. The barman pointed out that it would give me strength to pedal. While sitting in the cafe, we saw, not one, but two loads of hay come by. On the way there and back we saw onions being harvested. Did I mention that there's a lot of agriculture around here? We also saw a young couple on a Vespa. It was pale turquoise. And the girl was cute. It looked so Euro.

Then we wobbled our way home.

Things we saw today

Two culturally interesting things to note:

- We had coffee this morning at our favorite cafe in Saint-Ghislain, the Concordia, which finally reopened this week after its long summer vacation (it seemed long to us, at least). While we were there the local butcher (from Tertre, the next town over from us and in between us and Saint-Ghislain) arrived to deliver the meats. At the same time the fresh produce delivery arrived. Both deliveries were carried through the restaurant back to the kitchen.

- At lunch I was perusing the local newspaper, the Passe-Partout, and noticed a full page ad on the back advertising - get this - an All Saints Day sale on marble tombstones and slabs. The company promises incredible prices! Above pictures of two models.

I guess it's not terribly unusual to see restaurant deliveries in the US. We did find it not a little culturally interesting, though, to see the tombstone ad. Not something you'd run across too often in the States - but then Europe takes All Saints Day far more seriously than we do. It's even a legal holiday here.

How to learn a foreign language

No matter how much time you spend in a classroom, they can't teach you everything you need to know. You have to get out there and do stuff. Combined, Rita and I have spent close to a century studying French, yet every time we have a different situation we learn something. Today we went to the jeweler in Ath (cute town!) to have Rita's engagement ring repaired. She caught it on something boarding a train in Germany, and it's really messed up. So we learned that the setting is l'ensemble and a prong is une griffe, which also means a claw. At this rate I should be pretty fluent in a couple of decades.

A Medal!

At last, Belgium has an Olympic medal, a silver in the women's 4x100 relay. Thanks to an outbreak of fumbling by the favorites (the same thing that happened with the men), the Belgian women managed to snag the silver in this race. We're all excited as can be over here. It's a great Belgian team: a Walloon (Olivia Borlée), a Flem (Kim Gevaert), an African (Elodie Ouedraogo), and a can't-tell-which-she-is (Hanna Mariën).

Oops!

No, it's not an illusion, and no, it's not because of that extra margarita you had. The steeple in Pommeroeul really is crooked. Or tilted. Or bent. Not straight, at any rate. I have no idea what the story is behind this. And it's the steeple. All these little villages have only one church each, and each one's steeple is distinct, making it surprisingly easy in this flat country to navigate on a bicycle, especially if you're trying to get to Pommeroeul.

Straight, plumb, and level, guys, straight, plumb, and level.

Girls are different

Did you happen to catch the end of the heptathlon at the Olympics Saturday? At the end of the last heat of the last event, the 800 meters, all the competitors from all the previous heats poured out onto the track and milled around kissing and congratulating the winner. Rita said it looked like they all really liked her; maybe if she hadn't won the event she would have been voted Miss Congeniality. But they didn't stop there. They were kissing and congratulating and hugging everybody. Quite a difference from all the chest-thumping and preening that goes on after the men's 100 meters.

Elsewhere in Olympic news, in case you didn't notice, the Belgian men's soccer team beat the Italians, who couldn't seem to score unless the Belgians gave it to them. The poor, delicate Italian boys seemed to get booboos easily, always conveniently near the goal.

Maybe not as impressive as the flower carpet

But they ARE flowers from our garden. Oh, and a couple weeds too (the dainty yellow ones in the middle).

Remember you can click on the picture to get a close-up.

The flower carpet

Another thing Belgium does well - besides coffee, beer, and chocolate - is flowers.

Every two years they fill the Grand' Place in Brussels with a carpet of flowers. Each year it's a different design. This year they used begonias and it looks like a tapestry design.

Pretty incredible, huh?

Church on the economy, part deux

A couple weeks ago I mentioned having gone to church in our village for the first time. Now that we're in August, Sunday Mass has rotated over to Hautrage Etat, which is across the Route de Wallonie (a major road) from Hautrage Centre (our village). So yesterday I ventured over to Hautrage Etat for church. (Since it was raining, I drove rather than ride my bike or walk - it's only a couple kilometers away.)

There were only about 10-15 of us there, a smaller crowd than that of my Hautrage experience. Maybe the rest of the folks knew something I didn't: there was no priest for yesterday's service. We had a completely lay-led service, with most of the Mass elements except the consecration. We even had music. It was kind of weird and culturally interesting all at the same time. 

The absence of a priest was apparently an anamoly, because we were assured there would be a priest for both the Assumption day Mass Friday (another Belgian holiday!) and next Sunday's service.

Mom's new toy

This is what we went to Germany for last weekend. It was hard to decide between the many models but I had an idea of what size I wanted and that I wanted lots of color. So the very helpful salesman demonstrated several clocks for us, and since we both liked this one, this is the one that came home with us. It cuckoos out the hour and once on the half hour and is supposed to play two tunes. We haven't figured that last part out yet, so we'll check back with the store to see what we need to fiddle with.

Below is a little better view close up.



In case anyone needs a recommendation for a cuckoo clock store, this one is from the House of 1000 Clocks in Triberg (check out their website at www.houseof1000clocks.com). The staff is used to dealing with English speakers, and they have a repair center in the US. Much to our surprise, the Belgian repair center is in Ath, just up the road from where the US commissary and PX are located. That's because they sell to so many Shapians.

"Oh, that's a feature."

This is what our sysads say whenever we complain that something we used to be able to do on our computers is no longer doable. Politicians could learn a lot about spin from these guys.

Today, however, I have conquered feature creep on at least one site. Viamichelin is the Michelin travel folks mapping and trip planning site. (I hear they make tires too.) It's a good tool, partly because it offers pedestrian and bicycle options. But they recently updated it (run away! run away!), and it started to stink. The new version will let you ask for a bicycle route but never quite gets around to displaying it for you. ("Well, sir, that's a feature of our new and improved tool.")

But just now I discovered, waaaay down at the bottom in a big long list, a link to the old site, which still works great and is fast as greased lightning. Unlike me on a bicycle. The link above is to the old, useful site. It's a little Eurocentric in presentation, but the maps of the US work just fine.

One small step for man, one giant leap for computer-using mankind.

Speaking of the Dutch

Okay, so technically you and I weren't really speaking about the Dutch, but I've been thinking about them a lot since our weekend trip to the Black Forest because just about every other vehicle on the road out there this time of year is a Dutch family either in a smallish RV or in the car towing a largish camper. It's because they're tightwads and conservative and don't want to 1) spend money on lodging, food, or drink or 2) risk not being able to find beer in one of those funny wine-drinking countries.

So now that we're both thinking about the Dutch, let's try something completely different. Allow me to direct you to a web site where we have posted (finally!) pictures of our April trip to Keukenhof. You might want to try the slide show feature at the top.

A Multicutural Moment

On our way to Germany this weekend (more later), we were listening to a German radio station while driving through France, and they played a French country and western song entitled Sur la route de Memphis -- On the road to Memphis. It was a trucker song. It made me think of the first French trucker song I ever heard in 1978. I still remember the chorus: Roule, roule et bouffe du goudron -- Keep on drivin' and gobblin' up asphalt. Holy cow! I remember the tune too!

Also seen along the way: hops fields. They grow really tall! I knew that on an intellectual level, but to actually see a 25-foot-tall crop is impressive.

And one tobacco field. I have no idea what it was doing amongst all the corn and wheat and barley and grapes and hops and orchards and cherry trees, but looking across a little vale, I saw a piece of equipment that looked familiar. It was that platform thing with the awning (sorry to get so technical). Then I noticed the crop itself. I think they were topping. If they weren't, they needed to.