Our Funniest Pictures

Here are some of the funny pictures we have taken over the past three years:

Acting silly :: Mosel Valley, Germany June 2009

Sleeping in the bike trailer

Christmas Market :: Antwerp, Belgium December 2009

Autovrij Weekend :: Antwerp, Belgium September 2009

Look kids, Paris...

 ...and the Louvre :: Paris, France May 2009

One our early experiences with rain and how unprepared we were :: Luxembourg City, Luxembourg April 2009

Our Royal Tannenbaum :: Antwerp, Belgium January 2011

Chocolate in the Nose :: Middleheim Park, Antwerp, Belgium April 2011

Pretending to sleep on the horse :: Playmobile Fun Park, Zirndorf, Germany November 2011

Colin's first time bowling :: Antwerp, Belgium April 2012

When in Belgium...just kidding, it's empty :: Antwerp, Belgium March 2010

Colin pointing out the statue's birdie :: Gent, Belgium May 2009

Colin's Funny Faces

Big Ben :: London, England August 2009

Marienplatz :: Munich, Germany October 2011

When I told Chloe to go stand next to the bear so I could take a picture, she walked up to it and punched it in the stomach.:: The Hague, The Netherlands June 2012

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And the Winner is...

The tourist who wanted to take Chloe's picture because of the color of her hair and Colin who was giving her the look of death :: Marienplatz :: Munich, Germany October 2011

Grote Markt

Probably our favorite place to go in town is Grote Markt. Since day one, Colin has called the statue in the middle of the square, The Animal Statue and we still call it that now. I love it when Colin says "Let's see what's going on at the Animal Statue". I can't even guess as to how many times I have heard him ask this. We have over 150 pictures tagged Grote Markt that include The Animal Statue taken over the past 3 years!!! In sun, clouds, snow, with Jules, with a vuvuzela, with strangers, running through the water, at the Christmas Market, on a regular day, watching a football game, ice skating and more.

The statue in the middle of Grote Markt is actually called Brabo. The legend is that a giant by the name of Antigoon would tax people crossing the river. People who could not or would not pay, had their hand cut off and thrown into the river. The hero, Brabo, killed Antigoon, cut his hand off and threw it into the river. The name of the city was derived from this legend - Hand- throwing = Ant -werpen(meaning to throw). The story is a little gory, but telling it to the kids allowed them to actually notice several other details of the statue that they would have otherwise never noticed.

The city has been doing a lot of paving work around Grote Markt and while doing this, discovered cellar walls of the old town hall that date back to the 16th century. They have fenced off the area and built a temporary bridge of people to see. From what we know, they will be filling it back in again to complete the paving work. So cool.

This Past Week



With Coaches Inge and Cindy



Colin has been playing basketball for just about the entire school year. He first started with the youngest group and eventually was moved up to the next level that plays 2 times a week. He is not the best player, but being moved to the new group allowed him to play with one of his best friends from school, Khamrym. The opposite of Colin, Khamryn was probably the best player. She is also American and her dad plays for the Antwerp Giants basketball team. Last week was Colin's last practice and his coaches gave him a special basketball trophy. So nice :)

Last weekend was the Sint Andries run. Sint Andries is a neighborhood right next to ours with an open space (plaats) with restaurants, kids climbing net, basketball court, and a cultural center. We call Sint Andriesplaats, the Rope Park, and it is a place we go often. Colin was going to run in the Kids Run, but the weather was terrible. When it cleared a bit, we went over to see the Bakfiets Race. A bakfiets is a bike with a large box in front of the handlebars. It is completely normal to see parents bringing their kids to and from school in these bikes.

The rules of the race required all bakfiets to be parked in a staggered line along the beginning of the course. The person riding the bike had the run from the starting gate to their parked bikes and then start the course. It was also required that each bike had a passenger in the front. Probably a little dangerous racing your bike with your kid in the front, but they did require them to wear helmets. Helmets are not normal here and my friend joked that there were probably more helmets in this one spot than in all of Belgium. It was so fun to watch and there was a beer stall at the finish line, of course.

 Other than that, we are starting to sort out all of our things, sell our electronics and getting ready for the movers to start packing everything on June 25th. It is coming up quick!!

Beer

The Belgians are famously known for their beer and there are over 1000 beers brewed just within Belgium alone. For Christmas, I bought Craig the latest edition of Belgian beer book picturing and describing all of the beers brewed here. The book offers information on it taste, how it is fermented, the temperature at which it is to be served at, how it is to be poured and of course, a picture of the glass it is to be served in. Every beer has it's own glass and you will never be served a beer in a cafe that is not served in it's proper glass. For the most part, many of the beers here are very high in alcohol content. Normally somewhere between 6% and 8%. We have had some at 12% and I know they go higher than that. At this point, Craig has tasted about 200 of the beers in the book. Pretty impressive!!


We thought it would be nice to bring home some beer mementos for the bar Craig wants in the basement of the house that we don't own yet. At this point, we have a fairly large collection of glasses, which are the easiest to find. It has been more of a challenge to find signs and other accessories, but we have managed to collect some nice things.

We took advantage of one the past weekends to make a quick trip to the Duvel Brewery. The brewery is only about a 20 minute drive from Antwerp and down the street  from Craig's work. Duvel makes several beers including one of my favorites, Vedett, and LaChouffe. We managed to pick up a sign, coasters and make a stop in a local cafe for a beer (or two).

Also, now making Duvel Tripel Hop

This past weekend, we drove to Mechelen to visit the town and have dinner at Brewery Het Anker. They brew many beers under the Gouden Carolus name along with several other varieties. They have been brewing beer since 1471(!!!) but did not start using the name Het Anker until 1872.

The weather could not have been more perfect and instead of using our time to explore the town, we found ourselves sitting at one of the cafes on Grote Markt sipping the local beer. Most of the beer in Belgium is very territorial. Even though we were only 16 miles from Antwerp, there was no sign of DeKoninck, the staple beer in every Antwerp bar. Mechelen is obliviously very proud of there local brew and it dominated every menu here.



Brouwerij Het Anker - Stepped Gables surrounded by cases of beer.



Gouden Carolus Classic and Maneblusser

In Grote Markt - Mechelen, Belgium