Why Vienna is the greatest city in the world

Bacon-wrapped sausage.

Skyscapes

Belgium is flat. Even the hilly part, the Ardennes (think, Battle of the Bulge), is not all that unflat. As a result, the sky takes on more importance, and you find yourself more sensitive to changes and textures and colors up there than on the ground. Yes, it's cloudy a lot, but as you can see we do get some nice weather. It sweeps in off the Atlantic and the English Channel, and it tends to be quickly changing bands of rain and wind and clear and cloud. I've heard several regions make that old joke about "If you don't like the weather around her just wait 10 minutes." But here in Northern Europe it's true.

Not About Belgium

For those of you who don't know this, my Grandpa Mendl was a bronze chaser, meaning he created molds and cast objects in bronze. We've always had a lot of stuff lying around that he made, from the dinner bell that called us home as kids to the turtle pictured here that until last weekend was brown and dull with the dirt of ages on it. The turtle's shell lifts up to reveal a small receptacle, probably for holding cigarettes. Grandpa made a lot of little ash trays too. so even though I don't remember, I suspect he smoked.

The photo below is one of those ash trays, this one featuring an image of Teddy Roosevelt in quest of a ferocious tiger. The ages have not been kind to this piece; even with a vigourous scrubbing with some pretty powerful brass cleaner, some discoloration remains. Nevertheless, if you've ever seen these pieces in our house, you'll notice a huge difference. Too bad I didn't think to do this sooner!

Les petites annonces

I am intrigued by the classified ads in our local weekly, especially in the "Rencontres" (Encounters) section. In addition to the usual "man seeks young woman" (h ch jf) ads, there are the clairvoyants. Cristaline promises an answer to every question. Cabinet Bangoura specializes in bringing back your loved ones, where ever they may be, and in two days! But you have to bring a picture and a candle. Maitre N Karan is known for his effectiveness and quick work; he specializes in the occult. Both Bangoura and N Karan post their pictures. To me they just look scarey. Mr. Sanquiana offers to work on your family problems; with the "honey of love" husband and wife will become inseparable. ... Uh, too many ways to look at that so we won't go there.

Then there are the OTHER ads. A 35-year-old housewife, adventurous but lacking affection, is looking for a guy to spend an afternoon with in complete discretion (ch. h. ou j.h. pr passer après midi...). There are the 50-something women who are "still very sexy" and the usual phone sex numbers. And here's my favorite: a "duo coquin," a 52-year-old mom and 23-year-old daughter combo. Gee, that could have been me and Rachel 4 years ago!!! Ugh.

Le Basket à la belge

Rita went to her first and I to only my second professional basketball game ever last night. No, we didn't see the Wizards or the Bobcats, but we did see Dexia Mons Hainaut spank the ever lovin' daylights out of Spotter Leuven! DMH is the local team and a pretty danged good one. They're tied for second in the Belgian league, have already qualified for the next round of the European championships, and could seal a first place finish and home court advantage with a 3-point win Tuesday over Ural Great Perm.

I've been intrigued by the Mons team ever since I noticed that among its four American players were Justin Gray (Wake Forest '06 and pictured here), whose college career we had followed closely, and Ben Ebong, fellow Davidson alum ('99). I shamelessly dropped their names when I emailed the team to reserve tickets, which caught the attention of the press director, who in turn decided that we would be his guests. We got to meet Ben quickly before the game and had a chance to chat briefly with Justin afterward. It was cute watching the Belgian teenagers fawn over him as he signed autographs. All the boys wanted their picture taken with him, and one of the girls asked him for a bisou (the kiss on the cheek). Not surprisingly that was a French word he knew.

Anyways, we had a great time. Our guys did really well: Justin was the high scorer with 23 points (a point a minute), and Ben had 8 points, 4 rebounds, a pair of assists, and some solid defense. As is always the case when you see a familiar thing in a new setting, some things were different. Maybe the weirdest was that they pounded drums while the home team was shooting free throws. But it was still the same game we know, and we'll be going back to see some more. Allez l'union!

More from Wuerzburg

Ok, these pictures are supposed to be below the previous entry. So start one down.

Where we went

It had been a month or two since we went to Germany, so we went back last weekend. We actually went to see our friends who will be heading back to the States in a few weeks. The four of us grownups and one little guy trundled off to Wuerzburg, another German city that suffered a lot of destruction during the war. Nevertheless there were still some interesting things to see. You're looking at a picture of the Marienberg Fortress on the hill across the Main River from town. ...We meant to spend Sunday night in the Ardennes, on the German-Belgian border. We figured there wouldn't be a run on hotel rooms, so we didn't make a reservation ahead of time. What we hadn't counted on was a couple hotels in St. Vith being closed, apparently still loafing after the Christmas season. That, coupled with the rain and gloomy skies, sent us home Sunday - but not until after we'd looked at some massive German-style (but Belgian-made) solid wood furniture. We came away thinking none of it would fit in our house in Columbia but maybe we'll go back and look again another day...