Happy Saint Nicolas!

Look what I got in the mail yesterday from a wonderful friend:

merci Kyt!!!

Yummy Belgian chocolate!!! Just in time to celebrate Saint Nicolas today! :o)

What's that? You didn't know today was Saint Nick's day? The original guy behind Santa Claus? Well, I did! You can't have lived in Belgium and NOT know it! Saint Nicolas is a very big deal for kids in Belgium, northern France, Luxemburg, the Netherlands... He comes to their house (and their grandparents' and other family members' houses) and leaves them candy and cakes and toys. It's a good thing the kids never stopped to ask why he doesn't always show up on his day (Dec. 6th, not an official holiday) but conveniently drops off his packages on the closest weekend... ;o)

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Final Snowy Solstice Morning

The sun rises on my final morning here, on the shortest day of the year. It�s colourful and magical, but I�m glad to be going. I�ve had fun in the snow �as you have probably noticed from my snowbsession these past few weeks-, but I�m glad to be heading south for the summer!

Early bird catches the worm they say� although berries would be more accurate! I finally found out what happened to my snowctopus�s eyes! Indeed, I caught the culprit red-beaked:

HA! Gotcha! I hope he enjoyed his early breakfast, cheeky blackbird! :p

Strategic retreat, although at some point he�ll head back down to finish off the other eye. I should have used coal�

Tonight I�m moving out to a friend�s apartment to be closer into town. Tomorrow morning I need to get up early to take a suitcase to the Post Office to have it mailed back to Spain (all my winter stuff, plus some chocolate and other goodies), head over to the bank to get some kiwi dollars, print my e-tickets and boarding cards and then catch a 13h45 train to Lille in France from where I get a TGV to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and then� I�m off! Up, up and away!!! New Zealand and a summer Christmas, here I come!!! :o)

(this would be the end of my snowbsession of the past month... I just realised I haven't written anything that didn't talk about snow since the end of February, lol!)

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White Weekend

So after a snowy Friday, I woke up yesterday morning to see a beautiful blue sky out of my window, with sunlight shining down on the snow!

I needed to go into town to finish up my Christmas shopping, and as I was heading out I decided to walk into town along the river to enjoy the sun and snow and take a few pictures of something I'd never seen before this year: snowy riverbanks along the Meuse!

This one's coming up on the Pont de Fragn�e:

I walked along the bank until I reached this point and realised I could go no further! I was at the meeting point of the Ourthe and the Meuse!

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Snowy Friday

So yesterday morning I quickly posted a couple of pics of the view from my bedroom window and said I was wondering what would be waiting for me 150m higher up on the university campus... well, here's the answer:

That's the view from within the bus, was a bit thicker down below and the bus was having so much trouble making it up the hill for a moment I thought he'd pull over and say "time to walk guys!". It was snowing hard, and from my stop to class I got covered in snow!

But when I got out of my first class at noon, no more clouds, gorgeous sunshine, and everything looked lovely!!!

keep reading!

It's BAAAAACK!!!

File this under the category "Be careful what you wish for"...

When I got up to Campus on Monday for my first class of the week, I was complaining how ugly everything looked with the snow all gone (melted with the *slightly* warmer weekend temperatures and rain) and how it was no fun dealing with below freezing temperatures if you couldn't at least have pretty snow!

Yeah well... several hours later it started snowing! Not much, just a few centimetres to make the place all white and shiny the next morning. But then Tuesday evening... aye! aye! aye!!! When I got up Wednesday morning: snow in town, so even more snow up on the hill! Plus it started snowing again during my first class, and I had to cross the whole bloody campus while it was snowing! (if it had been raining I would say pouring!)

Not that I minded all that much as you can tell from the grin on my face:

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MORE snow?!?!?!

This is utter madness! This is my 10th Fall in Li�ge and I've NEVER seen anything like this, never before Christmas, and never even this much or this long during "real" winter (although I missed the 2 worst ones of the past ten years).

What am I going on about? You remember me complaining about the "slushy snow" that was raining down on the city all day Sunday? The stuff that melted all the snow in town and has stopped me from making a snowman in my back yard? Well it never occurred to me that up on campus the situation would be any different. Silly me, I forgot that the Sart Tilman - our "hill" - is about 150m above the city (Li�ge is only 68m above sea level). And what was rain down here was probably snow up there! So basically it snowed all day Sunday, stayed freezing Monday, snowed again a bit yesterday... and here's the result:

You think that's white? Take a look at this!

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Snowy week!

It's been crrrazy here in Li�ge this past week! Snowing almost every day, snow up on the hill (on campus) and snow downtown (which almost never happens! or at least it doesn't "stick"). And temperatures below freezing for 10 days straight. This is my 10th Fall in Belgium, and I've NEVER seen this much cold and snow this soon!!!

I cancelled my evening sports activities due to being worried about being stuck up on campus at night if the snowing increased and the buses stopped running (they do that some times, nightmare!), but I enjoyed myself like a 6-year-old kid all week long goofing around in the snow and taking pictures! So here go some snowy shots and the tale of last week. ;o)

This what I woke up to on Tues Nov 30th:

Snow and the cars and the street:

made some things irresistible!

(and yes I know I'm early... 3 weeks to go!)

keep reading!

Hiking through Wallonia: a gorgeous day between La Roche and Marcourt!

I had forgotten the difference the sun makes in this country... It's like there's a Jekyll and Hyde switch between rainy days and sunny ones. And the latter are so few and far between... (it's actually more grey than rainy most of the time)... that when you find yourself in the midst of a truly glorious sunny day it's like rediscovering sunshine and warmth all over again!

On such a day (Oct 3rd... I'm running behind on these posts, argh!) I got to do my 3rd 1/2 day hike exploring the rural areas of Wallonia (the French-speaking part of Belgium). A fabulous hike through some gorgeous forests (with sadly fewer mushrooms, they're on their way out now) and fields, under radiant sunshine (that had me wondering why I hadn't thought of bringing sunscreen!) and going up and down and UP and DOWN some very, very, STEEP hills! Once again, this may be a flat country (highest point is 694m above sea level), but when a hill is steep, it's steep!

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Hiking through Wallonia: Creppe with the FFBMP

I think I mentioned last week that some of the hikes organised by the University Hiking Group don't allow for meet-ups at noon and so you're either in for the long haul (25km) or you don't go... Well turns out my second weekend in Li�ge was going to be one those, and quite frankly after the aches of the previous week and worried about my ankle I wasn't up to trying a 25k hike on my second trip out! Fortunately for me some other people in the group felt more like a half day hike as well, so a friend (the one who got me mixed up with this group in the first place!) and I joined them on Saturday Sept 25th for a hike organised by the F�d�ration Francophone Belge des Marches Populaires (FFBMP for short). I hadn't heard about this organisation before, but I think it's fabulous! Each Saturday and Sunday they choose a couple of spots where they programme circular hikes of varying distances (usually 5-10-15-25-50 km) and mark the paths with colourful bowties or arrows so that they're easy to spot and follow (and you don't need to be an expert with maps and following complicated GR trails). You go alone, with friends, in a group... at your own rythm! There's a rallying point where you start and finish in a local school where they serve food (grilled sausages) and drink, and there are a couple other "rest stops" along the way where they also have drinks available.

So Isa, a University hiker with two dogs, e-mailed several people telling them she was going on one of those hikes in Creppe (r�gion de Spa) instead of the big Sunday hike and who wanted to join her? Well 4 of us did and we had a lovely afternoon of it! Not as challenging as the University hike for sure, but was nice to get some km under my feet (we went a bit too leisurely and ended up doing the 10km circuit instead of the 15km as planned 'cause we were running out of time). Had a bit of rain (not too bad for Belgium) and mostly had to deal with a lot of MUD! :p

So ready to join me on another hike? Here we go! ;o)

keep reading!

Hiking through Wallonia: Nonceveux-Lorc�

Time sure flies when you're busy as a bee! So much to write, so little time!

One of the reasons I'm glad to be back in Belgium this fall is that I've joined the University of Li�ge's hiking group! Starting up hiking again was one of my plans for getting back in shape last winter and spring... until a certain tumble knocked me out of circulation for a couple of months and then limited me to aquatic action. Well, taking it slow but surely (being careful of my ankle and how it reacts) I'm done with standing still, I'm on the move! And I'd like to share these tales of trees and hills (they don't really have mountains here... but the hills can have some very steep climbs!) and mushrooms with you! Hope you're interested. ;o)

keep reading!

La Nocturne des Coteaux

a.k.a. my favourite night of the year in Li�ge! :o)

One of these days I'll get around to giving you a proper tour of Li�ge, but right now I'm just going to talk about what I think is the most awesome night of the year... when the oldest part of the city and the hillside gardens and forest that lead up to the old Medieval walls are all glowing with candles and lanterns and music fills the air!

keep reading!

Journees du Patrimoine: Tour Eben-Ezer

So, after several "real-life" related delays, we've finally made it to Day 2 of the Journ�es du Patrimoine! This year's theme was "Patrimoine et Modernit�", making the star of the show modern constructions, which usually aren't my cup of tea. But when I read in the booklet about a modern (1962) tower built "old-style" with four winged animals crowing the corners... I couldn't resist!

Tour d'Eben-Ezer in Eben-Emael... here I come! ;o)

Here's where we're heading, it already looks freaky across the fields:


Walking around it towards the entrance...


It's a 30m high tower all built from silex! The site was originally a silex (you know, the material for arrowheads and stoneage tools?) quarry, and they found quite a few archaeological remains as they began the project. If you go to the Mus�um du Silex website, you can find a collection of old photos from when it was being built.

These steps weren't very easy to handle (between the height and the material...)


Ready for a closer look?


The Tower wasn't built as a residence, it was supposed to be a manifestation of its creator's - Robert Garcet - personal philosophy, of his beliefs, of his anti-conformity. He was an amateur historian, paleontologist, anthropologist. He was a writer and a sculptor. He was anti-clerical and anti-war and I'd say generally anti-establishment! Apparently (from the anecdotes told by our guide who worked with him many years before he passed away in 2001) he was quite a character! He wouldn't let anyone in who was wearing a uniform... and that goes for the local priest who used to wear a cassock (before they abandoned those) to a military group that was coming to visit (he said no problem as long as they didn't show up in uniform... apparently the head of the troup showed up wearing a Hawaiian shirt!). If you can read French you can find out more about him here (click on Robert Garcet). This was the original welcome sign:

WELCOME

To Pacifists, Internationalists, Optimists, Anarchists (?), War Resistants,
To all those who fight for peace,
To all those who engender Fraternity.

The inscription around the door is a statement of the rights and obligations of humanity:


Libert� - Egalit� - Fraternit� -> the original statement from the Declaration of the Rights of Man (written in the French Revolution) = Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

But having rights also means having to fulfill certain obligations, and according to the architect these are: Aimer - Penser - Cr�er = Love, Think, Create.

The tower is rife with symbolic references, nothing in its construction or d�cor was left to chance. Dating back to the Tower of Babel, towers have symbolised a link between men and the gods, they're anchored to the ground but reach up to the heavens. Robert Garcet's objective in building his tower was for it to be a means for men to reach another existencial plain by following a path of knowledge. The Eben-Ezer tower represents Humanity as she is represented in the Bible by the Celestial Jerusalem, a mythical city of 12000 "stades" (2160km) in length. Not having that large a space for his tower Garcet did keep the same proportions in his work and the sides of the Tower measure each 12m. (text adapted from the website)

How 'bout we go on inside?

Damn, I just realised I didn't get a complete picture of the main room, just the details! The room was an interpretation of the Apocalypse.

In the centre was the column holding up the upper structure. A hidden column, all we can see are the four cherubims in the Apocalypse shoulder to shoulder around it, with the heads of a lion, a woman, a bull and an eagle:


In the four corners can be found the four horsemen of the Apocalypse:


Our philosopher interpreted the Apocalypse as an end of the wars, a period of peace. Among things he condemns in these odd images are all of humanity's wars, and here's a looong list:


And check out this dinosaur!


I believe a Mosasaur, a species from the Cretacean discovered in this region (near Maastricht). He's got his foot on a sacrificial lamb, above his back are various slogans man has fought over throughout history:


His head is leaning on a Bible:


Open to the Gospel of Matthew, high-lighting what he believed to be the most important commandment, the one which sadly almost no-one obeys:

"Love thy neighbour as thyself"

Time to make our way UP the tower.


Check out this room:


an aquatic festival! full of models and fossils of aquatic critters from the Cretacean and photos of great scientists. A banner in the corner is another manifesto:

"A Nation will no longer draw a sword against another and we will no longer learn War..."

But where I really wanted to be was all the way on top, with those statues (the four cherubims from the Apocalypse) we saw from a distance... The spiral staircase leads up and out under a lion! Written around the wall:

"Like a Lion I stand on the tower all day long and I am at my post every night.
She is fallen! She is fallen Babylon the (...)
And all the images of her gods are broken!"

I really liked that lion:


Isn't it gorgeous?!


The other three corners were occupied by a Sphinx:


A winged Bull:


and a Griffin:


Check out the view from up here, breathtaking even on an overcast day:


Time to leave, and say farewell to these guys who look just as impressive from below:


And voil�! A couple of days late due to an annoying element called work, but better late than never! :p
After the Tower I headed in to visit my favourite Church in Li�ge that is sadly rarely open due to Restoration, but I'll leave it for another day/week when I get around to talking about the many churches in this city! ;o)
I hope you enjoyed re-visiting the Journ�es du Patrimoine with me!