There IS a difference

Ever since we got here I've been telling people that Belgian chocolate is so superior to US chocolate that you can't distinguish between good Belgian chocolate and bad Belgian chocolate. I've discovered that's not true.

We spent Valentine's Day weekend in Bruges, where there is a chocolatier on every corner and some in between too. Several of them were advertising a kilo of chocolate for from 12 to 15 euros. We thought, "Wow, what a deal!" So we bought some of the sale chocolate - but fortunately not a kilo of it! It's not that it's bad; it's just...well, tasteless. It's missing that rich, dark chocolaty taste and rich full butterfat sensation that give dark chocolate its mood-enhancing qualities. 

It being Valentine's Day and all, we (ok, I) needed some REAL chocolate. So we went to the Leonidas and bought another box. Heaven.

 

Action on the canal

No mules, but barges still somehow get where they're going. I think it has to do with steam.

How much s*** can one farm take?

Several weeks ago we drove to work behind a tractor towing a load of manure. When we finally had a chance to get around, we noticed another load a few hundred meters farther down the road. And we met several empties coming towards us. Obviously someone was hauling a lot of…fertilizer to a field somewhere. The French word for dungheap is fumier. Driving along behind this guy you could see why: the steam coming off it looked like smoke, or in French, fumée.

We long ago noticed a difference between farm equipment on the road where we come from and farm equipment on the road here. I'm use to tractors on the road, but in the US a farmer gets on the road for a few hundred yards, a mile maybe. Here, you get behind a tractor, he may be driving 20 km away. I guess it's the way land has been subdivided over the years here. One farmer seems to have itty bitty parcels scattered all over the countryside.

$$$$...errr, I mean €€€€

In Europe Nissan sells a sport ute called the Qasqai. To me that sounds a lot like "cash cow." Maybe it does to Nissan too.

Going Back in Time

Since we haven't done anything exciting lately, I'll catch you up on Christmas in Mons.

Each year since we've been here the Grand' Place has hosted a small Christmas market and a heart-shaped skating rink. We didn't get down there in time this year to take pictures of the rink, but we did manage to take a shot of one of the brightly lit streets off the Grand' Place. (I just can't remember which one!)



Topiary features among the decorations. This year there was a giant - what, giant? troll? He was unavailable for pictures when we were there but we were able to capture this huge winged creature.


And here's the Hotel de Ville on the Grand' Place. Our Grand' Place isn't as impressive as the ones in Brussels or Bruges, but it's not bad, especially for a smallish city in Wallonia. It looks right nice all decked out for Christmas!

Canal Ice

A while back I mentioned how cold it was in early January. Our canal (the Nimy-Blaton canal) froze solid. We thought it was just a thin layer of ice, but you can see from the picture below that it was actually fairly thick. David threw a stone out there and it just skipped its way across the ice. Barge traffic stopped completely for several days, and it took a good five days, once the temperatures got above freezing, for the canal to thaw sufficiently for the barges to resume sailing.

Here you can see how thick the slab of ice is. After it had started freezing, but before it froze solid, some barge traffic was still going through, breaking up the ice, which then refroze in these big sheets.

Yup, it was that cold!

Lies they tell us about Europe - Installment 2

In England the police don't carry guns.

Not exactly true. While not as common as in the US, where only Andy Griffith doesn't carry a weapon (other than his deadly sense of bemused tolerance), the arming of police officers has been spreading in the UK for some 15 years. Admittedly, we've been to the UK only once (so far), but you see lots of "Bobbies" with sidearms. They've traded in the cool hats, too. Now they wear regular police hats with a checkerboard band.

(For those joining us late, this is the continuation of a series that began a few months ago with installment 1. I was inspired to get back to it by Kerry and her caffeine posting)