Happy Easter!

Wishing you all a happy Easter and a lovely day spent with those near and dear to you.  We are heading out later to my in-laws but I'm just puttering around, waiting for the four men in the house to wake up for brunch.  Fruit salad is already made and the chocolate eggs are on the table!

Ingrid and I met up for a walk yesterday and we were so lucky with the gorgeous weather!  We decided to
start our walk from the Arenberg Castle on the university campus, and from there, head into the paths that go south towards Korbeek-Dijle:


This has been one of our longest distances to date together. We are shooting for the 25 km Loop van Vlaanderen, but next year, not this year, as neither one of us has had the time to build up to that distance yet. Slow and steady wins the race, as the old saying goes, and we kept to our usual slow (conversational) walking pace. And rewarded ourselves with a delicious beer (La Chouffe) at one of the numerous cafes at the end of our route. Zalig!

Spring in bloom

We've had such a mild winter that everything seems to be blooming at once here.  So Stefaan and I decided to walk down to the city botanical garden to see for ourselves what was in bloom, which is a nice walk, 6 km round trip.  Here are some pics:

The fountain at the entrance will need some serious de-mossing!

The shape of this tree reminds me of a lung, and when you think about it, that's what trees are.

The camelias were at their peak.

Getting the pelargoniums started in one of the greenhouses.

Grumpypants

There were a lot of people out and about.  We usually take our Sunday walks out more in the direction of the countryside, so it was a fun change of pace to go into town.  The advantage to walking in town is that you can stop and have a coffee (or a beer) on your way home ;-)

Answer to a question and a funny story...

Kim asked in the comments of my post below, regarding the street sign I posted with both Dutch and Leuven dialect, if I spoke both languages.

I thought I'd answer her question here, because I have a funny story related to this and it's too long to put in a comment...

I speak Dutch and after living in Leuven for 25 years I understand words that come from local dialect. You don't really come across people who only speak dialect; most people here (and in other areas of Flanders) mix their general Dutch with dialect words and a local accent.  There is a cultural organization that seeks to keep local dialect alive by producing publications and presentations in it, but generally you'd never really hear it in daily life, except perhaps from elderly long-time inhabitants.

The funny thing is, when we were first married and lived in the center of town, we lived on a very narrow street with tiny houses, and we had an elderly neighbor lady, Hermine, who did speak dialect.  She was always out walking her dog, it seemed, and we would say hello and exchange a few words when we bumped into her.  Half the time I had no clue what she was saying but after a while I got used to the way she spoke and understood her better and better.  She must have noticed this improvement because one day she said to me, "You understand me much better now, don't you?"

I nodded and smiled.  Then she added, "So you're not from Leuven?"

Something new in town!

 Our train station has been undergoing renovation for the past three years and today the main building finally opened!  All the containers from the square in front of it are gone!

My husband and I walked down to take a peek - we live very close to the station and were very curious how different it would look.

During renovation of the interior, they removed false ceilings to reveal the beautiful orignal plasterwork and friezes.  Not all the rooms are finished or filled yet (rumor has it we may be getting a Starbucks in the station - in this lovely room?  It almost seems a shame...)

The original floors were also uncovered and restored.  The main hall, where the new ticket booths are located, has a gorgeous black and gray marble floor.  It was apparently quite a challenge for the restoration team, but I would say it was a success!

Finally...I promised Giorgio that I would take a picture of a local street sign and so here you have it:

The top sign is in Dutch (Brussels Street) and the bottom sign is in local dialect and gives the former, more historical name of the street (Stone Street).  The red and white emblem on the left is the city's coat of arms.

If you're interested in learning more about Leuven, here's the Wiki page.  I personally love living here and am really excited our train station is open again!

Magazine Inspiration

I used to be a big magazine reader.  But over the years I gradually cut back on the magazines I bought or subscribed to, mainly because of the expense, all the waste and the feeling I had that they were constantly repeating the same information in their articles.  We still get the major local newspaper every day and on the weekend, both the weekly newspaper from the Flemish organization for families (Gezinsbond) and the Flemish automobile association's monthly magazine because we are members, I get the quarterly magazine of the Flemish vegetarian association, EVA, because I happen to be a member, and we get a monthly science magazine for our kids, but that's about it.  And even that seems like a lot to me!

There is an international press shop in town, and there you can buy just about any magazine from any country on pretty much any topic.  But they are pretty expensive; for most American magazines, they charge 7 to 10 euros for a single magazine.  So I hardly ever go in there.

This week, I had a good reason to go in to look for the latest edition of the American Runner's World - the author of an inspiring running blog I've been following was featured (Runs for Cookies).  Perhaps some of you read the article about Katie and her Ragnar Relay team of 12 people who all lost weight through running?  Very inspirational!

Anyway, it was fun to have a copy of Runner's World to read this past weekend, especially since my running is slowly improving.  I just did my longest interval training yet yesterday, on the treadmill, and it went really well.  Five minute warm-up, then five intervals of 4 minutes running, 1 minute walking, for a total of 30 minutes.  It felt good and no hip pain or other aches afterwards.  Plan is to do an outdoor run this Thursday, and see how that goes.

The other nice thing about my copy of Runner's World was a great Quick Hummus Salad recipe that I made yesterday for lunch:

My son and his girlfriend were here and they thought it was really good too!  I think we're going to be fighting about who gets the leftovers for lunch today...  The original recipe for it is here; to make it vegan I subbed a handful of sliced green olives for the feta cheese (which gives it a similar salty flavor).  Yum!

Anyway...I really enjoyed my one-off copy of Runner's World but I think that'll be it for a while now.  I think part of the reason I enjoyed it was the fact that it was a special treat.  Just out of curiosity: what's your magazine buying policy and which ones do you like to read?

Rainbows and running

There was an amazing rainbow right out our front door yesterday evening:

 It's not often you get to see the full bow of a rainbow, but this one was amazing - surely we could have found a pot of gold?

And even so, the pictures don't exactly do justice to how awe inspiring it actually looked, but I thought it was worth sharing anyway.

Just back from my first short outdoor run of the season this morning.  I've been doing intervals 2x week at the gym all winter and it's paid off.  Today I was able to do a 4 km out and back with my son, and it felt good, especially in the beautiful spring sunshine, with the birds singing and the spring flowers popping out.  

Just like the rainbow, it made me feel inspired and hopeful for the coming season!

Bring it on!

Roped in...

My workout life has been so routine lately it hardly seems worth posting - I get to the gym 3 days a week (I love getting in early now that they started opening at 8), I do yoga class twice a week and I walk and bike.  But this week I got to do something out of the ordinary so I thought I'd share!

My oldest son and his girlfriend wanted to go indoor climbing on Monday but none of their friends were free.  Charlotte is very petite and too light to belay Florian, so he asked me if I would go with them so I could secure him.  My very first reaction was oh no, climbing, ugh!  I've only been a couple of times in a climbing gym, which I find kind of scary and intimidating, and once outdoors during our trip to South Dakota two years ago (which I loved, actually) - see pic:

Yes, that's me up on the left and Florian on the right.
So fun!

But then I thought, hey - my teenage son and his girlfriend actually want me to come with them (okay, they needed me, but still).  What kind of mom would I be to pass that up??? So of course I said yes.

I still went to the gym on Monday morning, but I cut my usual weight routine in half - I didn't want to have wobbly muscles if I was going to try and climb.

In the afternoon we biked to the climbing gym, got our belts on and got started.  Florian had to remind me how to belay; I practiced on Charlotte while he made sure I did it right, and then I belayed him (much harder with someone heavier of course).  Then I got a turn!

We continued to take turns climbing and I ended up doing four routes altogether and it was just as fun and challenging as I remembered.  It was cool watching Florian and Charlotte climb; they're both really good.  So I'm looking forward to the next time they need me.  Although not too soon - my right shoulder was killing me from the belaying, which is actually hard work.  Especially when you really don't want to drop your son's girlfriend.  ;-)