Visitors #2

Next to visit were Greg's Aunt and Uncle, after their trip through Laos and Vietnam. We had a great time showing them around Hanoi and preparing them for their own new grandchild just born in Australia.

Visitors #1

After our own fabulous trip overseas, we were glad to have some visitors come to our part of the world. First in, Grandma and Poppa. We had a great time eating out, playing with bubbles and learning new skills.

Ghent

Truly one of the most beautiful cities I have visited in Europe, this city is known as the city of spires. Its not hard to see why! We took the train from Lille, France, back into Belgium for the day (ah the joys of European proximity) to visit this spectacular old town.It was a beautiful day to see everything and the view from the belfry was magnificent.
However after mastering walking on cobblestones, Claude's favourite thing was chasing the pidgeons in one of the squares. Pigeons 1 Claude 0 (and one scraped nose).

Birthday celebrations

We celebrated Greg's birthday with a fabulous afternoon tea in a very nice part of town. We were fortunate to stay with some family friends who knew all the good places to go.Although Antwerp is famous for its diamond trade, we were doing another kind of window-shopping! Check out the amazing chocolate displays!And of course, where would we be without Belgian beer!

In the town where I was born...

This is me in front of our old apartment building - we lived on the 4th floor.There are definitely men who sailed the seas here too since its one of the larger port cities in northern Europe. We made a trip back to Antwerp to visit my birth place and see a little of the town itself. Despite the cold and rainy weather we loved walking through the city.The cathedral is surrounded by guild houses for all the old trades.Of course the other famous resident of Antwerp was Peter Paul Rubens. (Unfortunately artistic talent doesn't run through everyone born here!)

Belgium

We went from Switzerland to Belgium via 1 tram and 4 trains. It was a lot of getting on and off with all our luggage but we made it to Brussels and then onto to stay with some friends from Hanoi who have moved back here. We had a look around the town of Leuven, an old university town with beautiful buildings and then headed into Brussels.Life with a toddler means a different type of sight-seeing. Not so much of the churches and museums, and lots more of the parks and swings!I'm so pleased Claude likes the bucket swings - a favourite memory of mine from when we lived in Belgium many many years ago.