Bikes in Denmark

Copenhagen is bicycle-friendly. Bikes have their own - wide- lanes on the roads. People go to work on their bikes: people in suits, skirts, jeans, stretch pants, billowing coats. All on bikes, despite the cold, rain, and wind. Because this city is set up for bike travel. I've never seen so many people riding bikes (except in the Tour, of course).

But what does that have to do with this picture? Well, these are the guards who guard the royal palace. They march from the Rosenborg Slot (that means castle) in one part of the city to the royal palace in another part of the city. They march on the city streets. In the bike lane. We snapped this photo while they waited at a red light, along with the cars beside them.

Come to Daddy

Big Daddy Deer next door is in rut. We know this because he's spent the last two days emitting this weird call that sounds more like a belch than anything else. So far nothing seems to be happening. However, this evening as I watched from our bedroom window, Big Daddy ran wildly over into a corner of the neighbor's year where I couldn't see him. A small brown deer ran in the opposite direction. After a few seconds, Big Daddy ran into another section of yard and stood there, bewildered. (Presumably it doesn't take much to bewilder a deer.) Soon thereafter, I saw the brown deer run away again. Big Daddy may be on to something here.

Fortunately it's too cool to keep the windows open at night; otherwise we might hear something rather private going on over there tonight.

Halloween in Hautrage

Pumpkin Man came to Hautrage even though there were no girls to be scared.

We had no idea what would happen on Halloween, since this is our first year here. We had our pumpkin carved and illuminated. We passed the word at work that we would welcome trick-or-treaters, and one of our colleagues, who lives in the next village over, brought his kids and their Belgian friends by. We asked the Belgians what they say when they trick or treat and one replied, with a puzzled look, "Merci." So we had to rephrase by asking what they say when they knock on the door. We got two answers: "bonbons ou mort" (candy or death) or bonbons ou sort (we're guessing this means "give us candy or be prepared to meet your fate").

We were rather disappointed that these were our only trick-or-treaters, but you know, that's only a few less than what we normally get at home in Columbia. Next year we'll make sure the neighbors know we're ready and willing to hand out American treats.

Walking in the dark

We meant to post this entry a couple nights ago.

One evening this week - maybe Wednesday - we stayed a little late at work to finish up some things. That meant we got home as it was getting dark and we had to go for our walk in the dark. We chose to walk along the canal, figuring that was safer. We took two flashlights because the entire path we planned to walk isn't lit. Well, walking along the canal kept us out of the range of cars. We hadn't reckoned, however, on one of the flashlights dying on us less than a kilometer out. By then we had discovered the dangers of walking the canal path: horse hooey. Big piles of it. Nevertheless we soldiered on, past the parts of the path that are lighted, saving the battery on our remaining flashlight. We encountered Mama cow and three calves OUTSIDE the pasture, grazing by the path along the canal. This was the second time I'd met Mama so I guess she figured we were harmless and she ignored us. (The first time she and the calfs ran along the path in front of me until I gave up and turned around.) Anyway, meeting up with Mama wasn't scarey; not knowing where she and the babies had been, if you know what I mean, was. We eventually got to our turning around point and headed home, racing the waning battery in our remaining flashlight and trying to remember exactly where we'd seen those big piles. Fortunately we guessed right and the light lasted.

The next day we walked at work.

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!