Liege

Liege was a surprise. People put on quizzical expressions and asked "...why?" when Chris told them of our plans to spend a day in the city. The honest answer would have been that we're running out of places to explore (within Belgium) on our budget. I know that there are probably tons of little towns like Leuven that we can head to, but we've been looking for a little something extra in a destination. After Liege I realized that we may find treasures in any city, no matter the size or lack of recommendation.

 The train station, left, was a surprise in itself. This thing was enormous and such an extreme contrast to most of the architecture we've come across in Belgium. Interesting.

It probably shouldn't have been but this was our first stop. This store is going to be our downfall. Thankfully, Liege is the only Belgian town that has it. We'll avoid it as much as possible.

Liege meatballs and french fries with mayonnaise. Honestly, all of it was great. Don't judge.

After lunch we stopped in at a tourism office to search out the map I'd seen online the night before...

we walked the green, orange and red trails, also a far-reaching, not-featured purple one

I'd stumbled across a website that detailed a night-time walk through the hills above the city in Liege. Even though we missed the date of the walk by a month, I figured, why not travel the pathway in the daylight? After so much city-city-city in every town it was such a refreshing getaway to travel these footpaths cut into the hills. I put my camera away for most of it so the treacherous cobblestones (made worse being covered by sodden leaves) wouldn't take me out as we explored, but I did manage to catch a glimpse here and there for you. Even with the bad footing, you can't put a damper on hiking-time. I loved every minute. Even in inappropriate footwear.

The first thing our map did was take us up above the town onto the "terrace" path where one can look down onto the rooftops.

part of the trail included the Mountain of Bueren staircase, some 373 steps.

At this point in our climb, (this little red bay window is about halfway), Chris looks at me at exclaims, "people live up here!?" looking at the doorways to our right and left I agreed and wondered at it myself. He followed with "I would hate carrying groceries up here" Again, agreed. But, the views...!

happy little puffy white cloud 

Finally, we grabbed one vanilla Liege waffle and one cinnamon one (yummm) and headed back to the train. We barely caught it by two minutes and if we had missed it the next one wasn't for an hour (whoops). With an end to the day as great as those waffles, we didn't have a care in the world. We might have even headed back for more finding ourselves with another hour to spend there. Or maybe we would have gone to the random (month-long temporarily-installed) carnival we walked past on our way out that had huge rides and tried our luck with them...?

I think we'll be back to Liege. Even on a day where it literally rained on and off every thirty minutes, it was beautiful. 

See you tomorrow!

Ghent

We won't be spending too much time on Ghent because Chris and I didn't spend too much time there ourselves. It rained all day with only a break at noon...for the entire time we were inside eating lunch...it started up again as we left the restaurant. But it was beautiful while it lasted and we sat near a window to soak it all in.

The first thing we did upon arrival was to walk to "millionaire's quarter" and take in what was supposed to be beautiful houses. They were. The only thing was that the beautiful houses were nothing compared with Southern Parkway in Brighton or East Avenue in Rochester. It was nice to walk around a neighborhood but it made me long for the ones in New York. I caught myself starting to think slightly superior thoughts (for about two seconds) while we walked around thinking, "our neighborhoods are so much more..." until I realized that I can afford to live neither here nor there and the haughty notions flew right out of my head.

 right before lunch

 and right after it

The castle was probably my favorite part. A real fortress in the city and the best part is that you can explore almost every inch of it. Walking around the walls and being in the tallest part of it really helps you gain a sense of the history of the place as you survey the town from the same place they did back then. I got a little carried away in the throne room...

On the left you can see me seated as they were back in the day. On the right, throne(s) more my current class and style.

The last thing we did was walk through a park to get to two museums. And yes, I'll admit it, even though I went to college for a fine art degree, I simply do not get some of the modern art out there. The portraits above are so much more my style. I could sit in an impressionist or portrait gallery for hours.


Liege to come. See you tomorrow!

Happy 30th Mom and Dad

Thirty years ago today my parents said "I do" 

Since I was little, I've been looking at their marriage and hoping, planning and expecting mine to look like theirs. Now that I'm actually in the married part of my life I am even more in awe of them. Marriage can be hard but mostly great. This is a piece of something that they're receiving today from us but as I still haven't worked out the post in Belgium, they're getting it via email and typed instead of snail-mailed and handwritten as originally created and intended (sorry guys). This is part of the gift below: 

If Chris decided to just up and quit his job and start a business a few days later in our home, I don't know what my reaction would be. My Mom handled this exact situation in her own marriage and seeing where they are today just leaves me in wonderment. When my mom was a psychiatric nurse my Dad used to have to handle all four of us on all her overnight shifts and that's another thing I can't imagine dealing with. Four kids five years old and under, no thanks. I know that these weren't their only obstacles and maybe they don't even see them as things that were that tough but trying to put myself in their places, it seems pretty tough to me. 

I look at the two of them and pray that I will follow their lead and have a marriage as strong and joyful and wonderful as theirs. 

Happy Anniversary!

p.s. I saw this on pinterest awhile back and made my own because it's completely true as a bucket list item and one I think my parents have followed:

Learning

I've got all the time in the world so I decided to learn how to make a new kind of treat for the eyes. I made the following little treasures and actually it was way easier than I thought. I'm going to do one for each trip that I loved. My goal is to work my way up to cinemagraphs. We'll see how this goes for now. They are spaced super far apart on here because looking at two at once is overwhelming and may cause seizures (probably). So keep on scrolling, if you're interested that is. Enjoy:

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Don't worry, you're almost there...

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And with that I'm stopping for now. We had two great day-trips this past long weekend, to Ghent and Liege. Pictures and stories to come and also something new again later in the week. See you tomorrow!

Laughter is the best medicine

My cross-country girls are racing in 38 minutes in Rochester, NY for a threepeat sectional title.

(One of ) Chris's best friends is kicking off his second professional soccer season tonight in Syracuse, NY.

I have butterflies thinking about all these sports and the best cure for those is either waiting for it all to be over or getting your mind off of it for a bit. Thanks, Jimmy Kimmel, this one helped with the latter:

(somewhat) Admitting Defeat

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I've known Chris for almost six years now (!). In those six years he has repeatedly insisted that his eyes are green. "It's on my driver's license" he says.

Note: In New York state, you fill out that driver's license information yourself. I should know, I said my eyes are hazel. They might very well be just plain brown but the licensee gets to determine which abbreviation comes after EYES: and on my card it reads HA because that is what I put down.

For six years I've stuck to the fact that I think Chris has blue eyes. Don't get me wrong, they're marvelous blue eyes. Excuse the sap, but I like them a lot, find them piercing, captivating even (I know, go ahead, puke) but the fact still remains that I also believe them to be blue and he disagrees completely. He refuses to even submit to my generous compromise of "blue-green".

And then last Sunday happened. As we walked home from Heverlee's market, we passed a house that strikes me each time I see it. It has exactly what I'm looking for someday in an exterior color combination (at the moment). I pointed it out to Chris and he asked me,

"What color would you say that is?"

"Well, it's sort of a really light...hmm maybe very pale green."

Cue smug expression on Chris' face. "That's the color my eyes are."

I blinked at him. We promptly looked both ways and crossed the street in an effort to prove him right/wrong. I positioned him directly in front of said house and took a few pictures...here are the completely unedited results:

Even as I looked at the two-inch screen in review, I knew I'd been caught in a trap of my own admission.

Now, I agree, his eyes are dangerously close to the hue that building is touting. However, scroll back up to those elegantly named, mostly blue tones at beginning of the post. "Pale, light green" doesn't really cut it, right? My perceived color of the building was incomplete and incorrectly named! Maybe what really happened was that I just had a mini lapse in brain functionality when attempting to locate the correct description of the color in that moment...? Words failed me, right? Maybe it's still open for discussion...? Alright, I'm dropping it.

Chris, you win.            sort of, for now


Have a good weekend everyone. We will be trying our hardest over here; Liege, Ghent, here we come! See you Monday!

Heverlee

Getting a late(r) start this morning because it's a national holiday today in Belgium! Which gave me license to keep Chris up with me as late as I could, insomnia is no picnic alone. Although he might not agree again after letting me pick the movies. Tomorrow I'm hoping to embark on a short train trip to a new town in-country since the hubs has today and tomorrow off of work. We're thinking it was designed this way (and is a very good idea) considering last night was Halloween and maybe no one comes in to work, (aware and alertly), the next day anyway? Any Belgians know the truth? I'm too lazy to Google it at the moment.

Hmmm...America? Wanna jump on that one? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Last weekend was one without a trip. We realized we're probably never going to do that again. It's not that we don't like our own little town but that's just it, it's little, it's our own town, and everything closes at 6pm Saturday for the entire weekend (except for the bars, don't worry visitors)...boooooring.

Sunday we walked to Heverlee for their morning market and then wandered home the super long way to walk past the closest castle we have.

Much to Chris's dismay, I take a lot of pictures of him. He's a good sport, usually.

This little chapel is nestled into the hill of KU Leuven's campus and completely walled in by trees. What a beautiful place to be still and know.

On the way back to Leuven we could hear a little shouts and lots of laughing coming from up on a hill. And then I spotted it. One of the coolest kid's treehouses I've seen. How cool!

I'm still not taking the sun for granted. It was such a perfect day for a walk that even with that backpack filled up with bread, eggs, butter, sugar and more, we (okay, Chris) toughed it out and walked slowly home in the sunshine. I'm soaking up every second I can get.

I have a little something special tomorrow for you. It's a concession, if you will (Chris is going to be thrilled, I'm not being facetious). See you tomorrow...