Sorry for the delay in posting the rest of our trip.
Life is quite busy, full and wonderful and today was Aspen's 4th Birthday!
(St. Pancras train station in London)
After leaving the Lewis residence we boarded a combo of six trains and cabs to get back to Belgium and then on to the most darling, quaint European city, called Leuven,
where the conference took place.
(Leuven town hall building)
As soon as we arrived to our hotel Cody wizzed off to the conference and I headed out on foot to explore. I stopped into the "visitors center" in the heart of the town, found someone who spoke English, thank goodness, and asked about tours.
He looked at me like I was off my rocker and politely explained that there are
no "tours," well, only ONE, which was of their incredible town hall building.
When I heard the news I smiled inside realizing that I was in a truly special place that has not yet been bombarded by tourism.
I participated in the city hall tour and learned all about this incredibly detailed building.
If you look closely in the picture above you will notice an intricate bible
scene displayed underneath the statues.
Each statue on the exterior represents an important figure in Leuven's history.
On the right the "sin" is depicted and on the left the "punishment."
In the picture above you can see Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
on the right,
and on the left, the "punishment" of when they were cast out of the Garden.
The inside of the building was just as ornate and carefully crafted with such
detail and meaning. Above is one of the rooms where town officials still hold meetings.
This town was full of similar buildings that were simply majestic
and full of rich historical significance.
Here is a picture of portion of the first hotel we stayed in.
It was very charming indeed!
This is a little church and alley I passed through each time
I walked into the town center and then back to our hotel.
And here is another cobblestone passageway on my walk to and from the hotel.
Note to self: Don't ever again wear heels while walking on these types of streets.
I did on the night we attended a conference event. NOT a good idea!
Cody's conference took place inside the
oldest Catholic University in the world,
located in the heart of Leuven.
It was cool and at the same time a little foreign
that all the lectures and hands on training took place in such a place.
The conference had hired
university students to practice various techniques on.
Cody's boss has been traveling the world for many years teaching
pediatric radiologists procedures and techniques that HE has developed.
It was fun to pop into the meeting one day and
observe Dr. Shiels in action.
It is not hard to see why he is a
world renowned expert in his field.
Cody is surrounded with many wonderful mentors in his group!
After snapping this picture we were headed out on foot to go to dinner and Dr. Shiels mentioned how great it would be to attend one of these conferences as a participant, but his skills and developments have landed him mostly in the position of teacher and mentor to those in the world of pediatric radiology.
Many of the streets were lined with quaint restaurants with outside seating.
It was fun to stroll along listening to the locals speaking Flemish
and eating a great variety of foods.
One item of great popularity were mussels. It was a first for both of us and, I have to admit,
I thought they were completely disgusting, but Cody was a trooper and ate them all!
Another first for us was Kangaroo meat, see middle picture below, again Cody was the brave one who ordered it. I was surprised, it was delicious!
Tasted a lot like a really tender juicy steak.
This big red ball travels through several different European Cities and
just happened to be in Leuven when were where there.
Go
HERE to learn about the
Big Red Ball Project.
One day I rode my rented bike into town to attend the weekly street fair.
The townspeople show up here each week to buy everything from the freshest produce,
bakery goods and poultry to cleaning supplies, clothing and shoes.
I bought three colorful scarfs for the children and a pair of the most comfortable
European shoes for myself.
Belgian waffles are EVERYWHERE. They are chewy and warm and wonderful.
Here is one of the several bakery like booths. Here the girls were cleaning up shop for the day.
This brings me to another cultural difference, in Leuven all the stores, except restaurants,
close for the night at 5pm. Apparently they value family time there or something?
I think we could learn a lot from this lifestyle!
Directly across from our second hotel sat this beautiful university campus (above).
During the day that I rented the bike I biked everywhere and just hoped I wouldn't get lost.
I visited a sweet little primary (elementary) school.
Most of the children ride bikes to school or their parents "carpool" them up with bikes that have tag-a-longs or big buckets for the kids to sit in (below).
At the end of the day the kids form a bike line with a teacher in front and a teacher in back and they bike around the area dropping each child
off at their home along the way (above).
This is a typical parking garage in Leuven.
Like I said, I think we could learn a lot from these people!
Can you guess what their obesity rate is? A ton lower than in the US.
All the schools have
similar "parking garages" for bikes.
For second
two nights we stayed at another
hotel called The Lodge.
The Lodge Hotel is a renovated barn and was over-the-top cool!
Here is a picture of our hotel room at The Lodge and below is the bathroom.
Staying in a converted barn was another first for us...a very fun first!
What a great place for Cody to have a work "obligation," thank you darling!
Up next = Our day trip to Bruges, Belgium.
