Liège, Luik, Lîdje

G'day Mates,

After a difficult time I'm back and I hope I didn't loose any of my readers/fans?
Live goes on, as hard as it is, especially for the closest family members of the ones who passed away.



Enjoy my new story, its about a city in Belgium;  Liège, Luik, Lîdje;

 Liège is not the most attractive destination in Belgium to go to but we were going there to attend to a concert of Lara Fabian. Most probably most of my readers don't know her but we recon she is one of the best singers in the world and to convince you, here is a link from YouTube and look for yourself if you agree with us.

Goosebumps;

After seeing her you now will understand why we volunteered to go to Liège. No, I'm just joking, well it's not the most beautiful city in the world but I can prove it isn't that bad.

Cathedral Saint Paul

A photographic eye always find something worth to make a picture of and because we took advantage being in Belgium and we adore Belgium beer, we stayed a few days in a lovely apartment.

The river, La Meuse (De Maas) is running through Liège...

They also still have some nice old buildings.....

In this building is a museum, the building is called "Grand Curtius"

Of course I also want to prove that we've been at the concert;

As you can see we were sitting far away from the stage so it was hard to see her properly, and she spoke French so we couldn't understand her but the music and her singing said it all. 

We hope there will be a DVD of this concert soon as she is a person with great expressions in her face when she sings.

And of course did some walking.

On top of the"Sainte Walburge" hill was an old citadel (just remains left) were you could drive to by car or bus but more famous is going by the "Stairway of the Montagne de Bueren"which contains 374 steps. Because the view supposed to be great we decided to go there, and as we are no sissies we didn't drive there but we took one of the walks to go up and go back by the steps, down isn't that bad for our bad knees!

The walk was great and not so hard

And the view stunning....

On Cointe-Hill is a war memorial situated;

 And the steps were OK too.

Coming down the steps I saw another walk which we decided to do so you would end at the other side of the centre and that sounded OK to us.

We just hoped there wouldn't be any steps or heights in this walk but we were wrong.

I think we even did more steps then the famous stairs as we got lost and faced closed gates every time we thought to find an exit.

At last we did get out of this labyrinth which is called "Terrasses des Minimes" and decided to take the first terrace we could find to grab a beer! We could hardly talk of thirst. And so we did. With Belgium beer often comes some cheese, yammie!

But I must admit, also this last walk was very nice and we wouldn't have wanted to miss it.

Our apartment was situated very central, close to a big shopping centre but also to the old centre of Luik. We could walk to restaurants, bars, cafes and shop in just 5 minutes, also the theatre where the concert was held, was just 900 meters from our apartment.

The last evening we wanted to eat something real Belgium and that we found. I found a nice typical Belgium restaurant just 2 streets away and I called in the afternoon to make a reservation for diner. Unfortunately the guy who answered the phone said they were fully booked. I was really disappointed and went back to the Internet to find something else and so I found 2 alternatives, I didn't call to book, just thought we go there and see. Just before we left the apartment I said to Fred; " let's just go past Tchantches ( the Restaurant I called) and see if someone maybe cancelled" , and so we did.

Tchantchès is a folkloric character (Walloon for François), a hard-headed but resourceful Walloon boy who lived during Charlemagne's times. Tchantchès is remembered with a statue, a museum, and a number of puppets found all over the city.

When we came there they were not booked at all and we got our table for two. Together with a nice bottle of wine we had rabbit leg, cooked in Tchantches beer. It was just delicious!!

Some more images of the cosy Restaurant;

Totally satisfied we went back to the apartment to have a good night sleep before going back to Vorden, to our caravan.....

Good night!

Cheers!

Sadness in "Het land van Maas en Waal"

G'day Mates,


My sister Rosita and I have been to Druten on the River Waal for a few days last week. Not that Druten is so special but we just wanted to have some quality time together and that we had.

Unfortunately the first night in our little cottage we heard that again a dear member of our family has past away suddenly, she is the third in a row in just 3 months time.

Because I'm not really in the mood for a funny new story now, I today only provide you with some pictures of the region around Druten, the so called "Land van Maas en Waal" and of the romantic little cottage we were in.

Lets start with the cottage;

Waiting for the rain to stop!!

The bed was covered with a huge mosquito net

The one funny thing was that we wanted to do some walking and because my sisters dog Pepper can't walk that much anymore, she is nine, my sister bought her a little buggy so she could join us.

Pepper admiring herself....

Not sure about the quality though.....

But then......, maybe it was too heavy loaded....

A little tea dome on the dike...

This is supposed to grow in Autumn, not in SUMMER!

You can see we also indulged ourselves....

On Wednesday the 22nd of June we finely had nice weather so we could have a decent walk.

We walked 4,5 k's over the dike to "Boven Leeuwen" a small town also on the Waal......

There was a nice cafe where we had a beer......

On the way back we passed these poor Kangaroos, must be in shock from the weather as they look so pale......

and a former Abbey which is situated in Druten itself.....

We walked about 10 k's all together that day and were glad we could take our shoes off..... 

Despite the circumstances and the amount of rain we had, we had a good time just being together.

We wish our family concerned in Australia all the strength they need for the coming difficult and sad time. Fred and I are very sorry we can't be there but our thoughts are with you.

Till next time.

Bronkhorst a historic and smallest town of the Netherlands

G'day Mates!

Here I am, with the first real story from The Netherlands.

If you ever been here on holidays you might have heard or even seen the smallest town of The Netherlands, situated in the municipality of Bronckhorst, Gelderland; Bronkhorst!
It is a town with only 171 inhabitants (in 2006 according to Wikipedia).

The tiny town was established somewhere around the year 1000 as a fortified farming settlement, so Bronkhorst is not only the smallest town but also a very old and ancient town.

In a document dated 13 March 1482, Gijsbert VII granted city rights to the inhabitants of the village Bronkhorst. Concretely this meant, among other things, that they were given limited self-government and were allowed to administer the law to some extent.

Bronkhorst is known for its picturesque buildings, houses and a museum dedicated to Charles Dickens which also contains items purchased from the former Dickens museum at Rochester.

Bronkhorst has about 38 national monuments, including a mill and a Jewish cemetery. All the places of interest can be combined into one short tour.

Bronkhorst has also got a lot of exclusive shops....

Also the surrounding is beautiful....

The old shed; here you can buy ancient Dutch products but also nice cheese, jams, lollies etc....

Monumental farmhouses are all over the place...

Is that all?? No, it now might look like my story is very short and I'm going the easy way but you are wrong there as I putt all the effort into a compilation of the nicest pictures....

While watching this movie will make you feel stepping back in time....

Enjoy;

Cheers!

Time-out !

G'day mates!

I hope you liked my last story about the RDA!

For now I again have to apologise for the fact that I can't provide you with a new story for the time being. It's not that I haven't got any adventures as there are plenty, but I just don't have time.
So many things to do and visits to make and to get but really, I've got a lot of pictures made already and going to as next week we are going to Belgium.

So please be patient, I'll be back as soon as possible.

Cheers!