Belgium

Spring Break brought us to Belgium.  Riley had the opportunity to join her youth group, Club Beyond, at an Adventure Camp in Belgium, and we decided to vacation in the area as well.  That way we could do some things on either end, drive her into camp and enjoy some of spring break together.  Also, it was nice not to be 12 hours away, just in case.  :)

We found a lovely place to stay in Belgium that accommodated us and two other families who we vacationed with.

Just inside the door of the gite was this stone mosaic in the floor.

It was in a small, quiet village with a beautiful park just across the street.  The kids were happy to spend hours there.

Near the park was also this picturesque castle-like building.  We took advantage of the "picturesque" part and took a whole mess of pictures of it.

We didn't do too much big city touring in Belgium--in fact we missed Brussels altogether.  The kids were having such a good time with friends that it was nice to hang out in the gite and stay nearby.  We did, however, go out and about the area geocaching.  One cache, which we have no pictures for, took us on this lovely walk through the literal countryside.  Another cache had the group climbing up a very steep hill to get to a railroad bed at the top where the cache was cleverly hidden.

A third cache took us to this sentry-like tower.

While caching, we drove by the Bocq brewery and decided to head there later in the afternoon for a tour and some beer tasting.  That was not as fun for the kids, but lots of fun for Ted.

We also spent an afternoon walking around Dinant, one of the larger cities in the area that is the home of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of--yep, you guessed it, the saxophone!

There was also this lovely church and a citadel high above.  With the river below it was a pretty sight.

While in Belgium we also took advantage of the bakery down the street and tried loads of awesome pastries, breads and waffles!  The waffles had little chunks of sugar inside, making them super sweet.

The bakery had a vending machine where you could easily purchase loaves of bread.  

Mary was excited to try French fries in Belgium after reading that they were a popular item, served in Friterie stands around the country.  Indeed, the creators of the fries, the Belgiums had friteries all over the place--almost like an ice cream stand.

It was a good few days in a very beautiful place.