Today was a full, fun, eventful day.
First I want to mention that the sea side town we visited yesterday was "Ostende." Then we drove on to Mons.
We woke up in Mons this morning, had the hotel breakfast, and did a walk around town, then left around noon.
At breakfast Sara, out of the clear blue sky said, "when I'm older, I will have a bicycle, and Julia can ride my tricycle, and we will connect by bicycle to the tricycle and I will pull her around." Yes, she said that! Exactly! It was so funny.
The walk around Mons was interesting, to compare it to the other Belgian places we've been to on this trip (Brugge, and Ghent). It was very real, with zero tourists. I mean zero. There were no chocolate shops. I mean zero. That is probably why there were no tourists. But they had crepes and waffels at little street side stands, and plenty of shops, restaurants, and so forth. We strolled the whole pedestrian area before loading up the car and driving off.
Our drive's goal was "Chimay." There are only a hand ful of "trappist" beers, and Chimay is one of them. So we drove to Chimay belgium to go to the Abby where the monks that make the beer live (and make the beer). The drive through the Belgium county side was a true delight. The landscape is flat as a pancake. That means you can see forever. 90% of what we passed was farmland. Huge manicured fields, or huge swathes of fertile brown dirt passed by out our car windows. Plenty of cows, some sheep, and several stone farm houses. No wood houses. Stone.
Watching out the window for our hour (or so) drive was such fun, we realized that driving was more than getting from point A to point B, but really part of the fun of the trip. We breezed around corners, being careful to stay on our side of the road, since the roads are as narrow as one-laned roads at home. It is amazing the small size of the roads are here.
I wouldn't say there were no hills, but there were certainly no big hills. The flat as a pancake landscape only varied like if you thought of the countryside as a frying pan and you took out the pancake and cracked an egg into the pan. There were some hills that were the size of the mound of yolk. Very pretty. It was a joyful ride.
We got to Chimay and our first stop was the cafe/restaurant (not part of the Abby where the monks live, but it is affiliated with Chimay, with a small museum, gift shop, and a huge nice restaurant). The first thing we saw were the two playgrounds that the restaurant had right off the sun terrace. How nice for parents who can dine and let their kids play! Oh, wonderful!
Our lunch was: home made meat balls in beer sause, 5 beer samples, 4 cheese samples, a salad, and a ham sandwich. All was great. Then we toured the museaum, which was okay. Then Sara rocketed towards the playground, and played to her hearts content. She climbed. She ran. She twirled. She was thrilled to do all that great playing. We liked watching her.
Then we went to see the Abby. I asked "how do you get to the Abby" because, even though it may seem obvious where it was - it wasn't. (The Abby is where they make the Chimay beer that everyone was there for). I was told, in French (which I don't speak) that the Abby was down a path. She pointed to the path. Fine.
I told Dan (who was outside with Sara) that we just walk down the path and we gathered up Sara and Julia for the walk. Julia was in the Baby Bjorn and Sara was walking.
Down the path we went. It was merely an opening in a forest. We stepped into the opening, and saw the path weaving its way through a thick dense forest. Only a little bit of sunlight found its way to the ground, giving the forest a near mystical quality. It was soothing and near magical. We walked happily down the path, expecting the Abby to just come in to view. Step. Step. Step. We kept walking. I was marveling at the green moss under the trees. The whole forest floor was covered with moss like it was wall to wall carpet. It even climbed up the trees a little. And it wasn't just one kind of moss, I think crayola crayons could get 20 different shades of green from that forest. The green leaves, the green moss, the greener moss on the trees, and the green moss around the short white mushrooms that probably provided homes for forest gnomes.
We kept walking on our forest path. Hmmmm. We came to a point in the path where all of a sudden it split into 4 paths. Which way do we go? We are in the middle of a forest - and we haven't seen a single other person! 4 paths? I paused for a moment. Dan paused. Sara didn't pause. She picked a path and kept walking. I guess 3 year olds are smarter than adults.
Sara's path was correct. We ended up at the Abby. We went into the huge stately, austere, serene building. Then we stepped into the courtyard. Oh, the courtyard was just so lovely I just gazed at it for a while. It had rose bushes, a stone pathway, manicured bushes, towering trees, and green grass. It was silent. No one else was there. No one. The only sound was the trees moving in the wind. Even Sara was quiet. It was quiet. I guess the Monk's vow of silences rubs off on visitors.
After the courtyard we wanded into their church. There were no signs. No enterance fees. No people. No employees. No other people. No monks. The only people there were us. We did know it was okay to be there, since the door had said "Enterance Free." The church was huge, plain white, and had some nice art in it. We were the only ones in the church, so our sounds were magnified by 100 as we walked in the huge openness of the church. Dan soaked it all in, really enjoying being where Chimay (special because it is a trappest beer) is made.
AFter the church, we walked down a tree lined lane to find a cemetery, where Dan noticed one of the monks was 110 years old when he passed away. The cemetery was perfectly manicured. After that we kept walking and headed out.
Our visit to Chimay and the Abby (I don't remember the name of the Abby) was awesome. Sara was an amazing trooper. She walked all the way, didn't act up, and was just her normal happy self. Julia was just happy in the Bjorn carrier. She didn't sleep, she just looked around. I'm glad she did, there was a lot of nice things to see.
We got back into the rental car (a VW van) and I nursed Julia. Then we did an 1.5 hour drive. The drive was funny. At one point, we passed a sign that said, "FRANCE." Ha! We had driven into France! That is the way our built in GPS unit routed us - to get to a certain part of Belgium, you just drive through France! I guess that means that this is a 4 country trip. Our drive in France was interesting. Passed towns. Passed farms. Dan noticed that the Belgian cows were fat and the French cows were skinny. It really did seem that way! The part of France we were in was thick forest mostly, with some towns. The towns were grey. A bit dismal, with not much action. We'd see a person on a bike, an old lady carrying a baguette loaf, and maybe a kid or two. Not very many people and we probably drove through 5 French towns. The french farms were nice, but I'd say not as plush as the Belgian ones.
We crossed back into Belgium, (no big fuss, just a sign on the road to indicate the border) and got here. We are spending the night in/near Bouillon (like the soup). We ate dinner here at the hotel, a 4 star hotel that feels like it is in the country. I had beef (funny since we passed so many cows and I was feeling bad that we eat cows, and then I had beef), Dan had wild pig/boar, Sara had pasta, ham, cheese. The meal was nice - especially since they brought out a coloring page and coloring pencils for Sara. After the meal was over we put Julia to bed (took 3 seconds) and then Sara (she has her own room in this quad room that we booked).
So it was a full day. We started in Mons, drove to Chimay, enjoyed the Abby, drove through France, and to Bouillon. I like travel. Days just are so packed with sights, sounds, and new things. You just never know what will be around the next corner - and when you find out - it brings something new to enjoy.
Good night. :) Lori
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