Week 2- There Actually IS Sun in Belgium!

For those of you who did not hear about my New Years trip to Belgium all I can say is that I have never been so cold in my life. During that trip there was only one day where I saw sunlight and that was only for about 15 minutes. That sunlight was so remarkable that I actually did take a picture of it, in order to prove that it was there. This last trip left me with a rather negative opinion of Belgian weather. HOWEVER, now I have to apologize for all the negative things I said, because there actually is sunlight in Belgium.

In the last week I have not had to put on a single scarf, coat, or the usual two pairs of socks to stay warm. In fact, I have been in short sleeves for most of it. I'm LOVING the sun, but the Belgians assure me that it will be gone next week and then I will freeze again. Sometimes I think they like watching me freeze.

We have been taking full advantage of the good weather. On Saturday we went to the Ardennen, which is the "mountains" in the south of Belgium. Although I still don't think they qualify as mountains they are extremely beautiful. We spent the day on two different hikes. The first one took us through the woods and over the bridge to... a brewery. Very typically Belgian. The second hike did not involve a bar and was gorgeous. We topped out on some very tall ridges and got some nice over views of the Area. Of course the Ardennen is in the French speaking part of Belgium, and so although I wasn't surrounded by dutch, I still had no idea what anyone was saying all day.

Also yesterday we took advantage of Sepp's free day, and the sunlight, and went to Brussels. I must say its not my favorite city. It has some very beautiful buildings and great art BUT its very dirty. There is lots of trash in the streets, you don't want to lean on most walls or sit on most benches cause you have to worry about if someone peed on it and there is graffiti everywhere. I did enjoy the trip, but its not somewhere I want to spend a lot of time. If you do end up in Brussels though drop by the Cathedral. It is beautiful! Also with all of the stained glass windows it is a wonderful place to take photos because all of the light.  Below are a ton of pictures from the last week. It was a fun time!

Hiking in the Ardennen. This was about the time they told me
that we were going to a bar. I thought they were joking.

The Ardennen: Notice the hiker about
half way down.

Beautiful river in the Ardennen

Cathedral in Brussels

Outside of the Cathedral in Brussels

Over view of Brussels from the top of the tree tower.

See I CAN ride a bike. :p

Lounging in the sunlight in Sepp's back yard

At the peak in the Ardennen

Another peak shot

Ardennen 

This is a chocolate representation for the
most famous statue in Brussels. The actual
statue is tiny, but people travel from all over
to take pictures of it. The real statue does not
have a waffle. 

If you have been to Belgium you should
know they have lots of beer. This store
boasted 250 beers. 

A shopping center in Brussels

Our last adventure of the day in Brussels was
to climb to the top of the "tree tower." Its a giant
metal tower in front of the Cathedral with a live
tree on the top... I have no idea why its there.