Longest Post Ever

This month has been pretty busy so I've neglected the blog. Here's all our adventures since my last post.

We've been missing our kayak and boating back on the Chesapeake so we found a place that rents kayaks just south of Leuven. We had a peaceful trip down the river with the boys in a couple of double kayaks.

Kathy and Jesse with some of the local fauna

We also found some used kids' bikes on the internet. Now we just need to train the boys to ride them without training wheels.

Jack practicing without training wheels

We also bought a device to attach their bikes to ours so we can take longer trips. It's worked great so far; we can ride out of town and then the boys can practice. Here's a short clip showing how it works.




Kathy's parents arrived at the first of October. We rented an electric scooter for her dad since he has MS. It's been a great way for him to explore the city since most things are within walking (or scooter) distance but aren't easy to drive to.

All this month we've been giving unit dinners for the students. Basically the 70-person dorm is split into 6 units with around 9 to 15 students each. We host two dinners each week. Kathy's parents really helped out by cooking up a big pot of chili one week. The students loved it and it made it easy to feed these large groups. Almost half the students are from Loyola in the US, the other half are a mix of Belgians and internationals. So we always have a diverse group of different nationalities to talk to.

One of the unit dinners

We also took a few side trips with the whole family. One weekend we took a scouting trip to Ypers (we'll be heading back there with the students next week). This was the site of some of the worst battles during WWI. About a million soldiers died in this area. The city was totally destroyed but has been rebuilt to match the old structures. So the city hall and churches look much like all the other original structures you see in Belgium. Just outside the city is a place called Sanctuary Woods with some trenches that have been preserved.

Some existing trenches in Sanctuary Woods

The next weekend we headed east. We stopped for lunch in Maastricht just across the border in The Netherlands. With the EU being so seamless now you don't even know when you cross into another country. The only indication we had was a change in the look of the road signs

Bill (Papa) and Marilyn (Nana) having lunch in Maastricht

That afternoon we went to Aachen. This city was an old spa town during Roman rule and later became Charlemagne's primary home.

Charlemagne's church. The center section is original (786) and the rest was added over time.
The church was very ornate inside with marble columns and mosaic tile in the ceiling.

Aachen also has several great fountains. This one has figures you can pose.

As you can see the weather turned a little wet that morning so we got back in the car and headed to the Neander Valley the site where they first found Neanderthal bones. We had a hearty German lunch and toured the large museum about the history of the Neanderthals and homo sapiens. The museum was even kid friendly so it was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.

After that we tried to get a room in Dusseldorf but they were all booked up so we went a little north to the town of Duisburg and managed to find a room. The next day we also stopped by Cologne, Germany the site of a very impressive Chathedral.

Jack took our picture in the Cologne Cathedral

A few days after we returned Bill and Marilyn left on a side trip with some friends to Normandy. While they were gone we took the students to Ghent.

Gravensteen

Here we are at the top of the castle. Jesse was surprisingly glum even after seeing the very cool room full of medieval weapons. Maybe he was bummed he couldn't take one home.

The boys in front of a very old cannon showing off the castle set we bought in Ghent. Jesse perked up after our visit to the toy store.

On the walk home from the train station we meet a family from St Louis that lives just up the street in the Begijnhof. They have two boys 6 and 9. They also know another family from Montreal that live in the Begijnhof that have two boys 6 and 12. So we should have a few friends to hang out with when the weather starts turning cold.