Sleeping in the animal park has the advantage of being allowed in it earlier/later than the day visitors. The resort area in the west has - aside from the hotel rooms and cottages - black bears, gray wolves, beavers, .. and it’s open all night. The rest of the park is open to resort guests… Continue reading The last holiday day
Oooops. The goal was to get up at seven thirty, to have breakfast at eight, but I mismanaged my phone alarm and it goes off at six thirty. You would think, okay, just turn over and go back to sleep, but no, we only noticed when it was almost seven. Might as well stay awake,… Continue reading Pairi Daiza!
Up at eight forty five! If you’ve been following my posts for a while, you’ll fall off your chair in amazement. I did wake up just before seven and even got up for a moment, but I crawled back in to wait for Arne to wake up and next thing you know, it’s almost nine.… Continue reading Arboretum / medieval ruins
I must admit, staycations have advantages: I can sleep in my own bed and stick to the routine I'm used to! The two museums on the list today are in Brussels and because we want to avoid the morning traffic jams, we take it easy in the morning and leave around half past nine. The… Continue reading Fossils and military history
Only one thing on the agenda today and it opens at ten, so we take our time with breakfast. This includes finishing the last chapters of my book, that's how much time we had! The weather predictions are encouraging, though we keep a sharp eye on the national news service to follow up the status… Continue reading Open Air Museum Bokrijk
Today we're on a schedule, but in true holiday style it's pretty loose and relaxed. Alarm is at seven, but the dawn peeping through the shades wakes us up sooner. Hotels are not allowed to serve food inside, only on terraces, and that's not very handy for breakfast this early in the year, so we… Continue reading Museums and masks
Up at 7! We're not doing much today, so no rush to leave early. We pack for two nights out - it's about the same thing as we would take for a week, except the underwear and pill count. We spend ten minutes searching the library for the next book in Arne's list: he's reading… Continue reading Wildlife spotting
Up at 7! If you've read some of my earlier travel posts, you'll notice that 7 is simply my natural hour to wake up. Apparently, this is a trend that persists even when holidaying at home. Anyway, despite the Belgian tradition of closing anything official on Monday (this includes monuments and museums), we managed yesterday… Continue reading (Medium) old history
The whole corona thing is taking way too long. Part of me wants to save up my days off for a time where I don't have to wear a mouth mask and can travel freely, but mostly I just want to take some time off to relax. I had scheduled this free week a few… Continue reading A corona holiday: staying local
We're sleeping in the loft of the shed and left the window open, so we wake up before six with the birds and the sun. It must have been a cold, clear night, because the grass outside is frosty instead of dewy and we have a great view of the change from black to blue… Continue reading and back home again
Alarm is at six thirty, but I wake up a bit earlier, courtesy of the cat. I've prepared my bags yesterday evening, so I can take it easy this morning. I have some water, take my meds, put in my lenses and generally hang around. I'm doing 16:8 intermittent fasting to help my IBS and… Continue reading to Racour by bike
Our last day here in the Ardennes.. Unfortunately that means extra work in the morning: pack everything, tidy the house and load the car. We drive off around ten with a full trunk, but are by now smart enough to keep the hiking stuff on the back seat, we'll need that soon! This morning we… Continue reading Squirrel!
The cell phone alarm starts ringing at seven and when it wakes me, I realize today is a day off and we don't actually have plans. So I stay in bed, reading a book. After Arne also opens his eyes about an hour later, we get up and discuss the entertainment options for the day… Continue reading 101 Waltzes and Polkas
When we get up this morning the sun is shining and there's not a cloud to see in the sky! We decide on a 15 km walk right on the border with Germany, once again from the 'Pleasure Walks' book/website. We drive through Eupen (listening to ancient Pure Music cd's - or rather the Spotify… Continue reading a beautiful day
We're getting used to having nothing to do but walk, cook and eat! We're going through the books and TV entertainment quickly, but luckily we came prepared with much to read and watch, so we're not worried that we'll get bored. After the usual morning routine (with some leftover chicken berberé for the sandwhiches today),… Continue reading not fens, bogs!
elegant crack fix Up at eight, can you imagine! We sat in bed reading, cozily warm, for an entire hour before that. During a leisurely breakfast we negotiate which route to hike today, still with the eighties disco music list. It's supposed to remain dry until the late afternoon, so plenty of time to roam… Continue reading windy!
No rush today, so yesterday evening I set the alarm at eight. It's a bit surprising when it goes off at seven instead, but as breakfast is only scheduled at eight thirty we kill it and sleep another hour. We spent half of dinner last night talking about the new COVID-19 counter measures: less social… Continue reading A significant navigational error
Is this a 'broek' or simply a cut off arm of the Ijzer river? In any case this white heron was enjoying it until it saw me with my camera..No rain! The wind has picked up and is blowing the clouds away.The momument to the brothers Van Raemdonck, volunteers in the Belgian army in WW1.Did… Continue reading Summary
Alarm is still at six thirty, but we both wake up at six with an urgent urge to use the facilities. It's dry when we hop the 20 m to the common building, though the ground feels like it's been raining during the night. When we get back to our hut, we figure we might… Continue reading difficult knees
I must have woken up ten times during the night, every time I wanted to turn I got my legs tangled up in the linen sleeve inside the sleeping bag.. nevertheless I feel rested when the alarm goes at six thirty. We undertake a first express expedition to the facilities, it's not raining! Breakfast is… Continue reading Easily satisfied
Up at six, my Mom is the most polite wake-up alarm ever. We check the weather radar during the eggs and left-over sausage for breakfast and decide to put on Gore-Tex from neck to toes. All the luggage back down (over the narrow stairs, the lift is broken) and we load up in the entry… Continue reading A Gore-Tex day
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