Hike #2

 Hike #2/52
Time: 60 minutes
Distance: approx. 6 km (did not have my Garmin with me as it was not charged up)
With: by myself - my usual Sunday walking buddy, my husband, had to go into Brussels for a meeting (Sunday meetings being one of the less pleasant features of his new job); and my oldest son, who sometimes walks with me, was too busy studying for a big Cell Physiology exam tomorrow.
Start: home

It was too nice and sunny this morning to blow off a walk just because no one could go with me. So I set off with my camera and a good hat for the wind.  With all the rain we had the past couple days the paths through the fields were really muddy.
Perfect for cyclocross but not so great for walkers - this path (above) was a slippery struggle.

 I headed up the Trolieberg and took the path through the fields that leads to the St. Martinsberg, which is one of the highest points in Kessel-Lo.  From this point (picture above), you can see the St. Rombouts tower in Mechelen which is about 30 km away.

 It was hard to believe this field was covered in snow just ten days ago - it looked and felt just like spring with the sun today.

Back in suburbia again, I passed by the Buddha garden...Namaste!

A good way to end a good walk.

Happy Sunday!

52 Hikes in 2015

hike

v. hiked, hik·ing, hikes

v.intr.

1. To go on an extended walk for pleasure or exercise, especially in a natural setting.

2. To rise, especially to rise upward out of place: My coat had hiked up in the back.

v.tr.

1. To travel over on foot for pleasure or exercise: hiked the Appalachian Trail.

2. To increase or raise in amount, especially abruptly: shopkeepers who hiked their prices for the tourist trade.

3. To pull or raise with a sudden motion; hitch: hiked myself onto the stone wall; hiked up her knee socks.

4. Football To snap (the ball).

n.

1. A long walk or march: went for a hike to the lake.

2. An often abrupt increase or rise: a price hike.

Ewa posted a link to an article on hiking goals on FB yesterday, and one of the suggestions was for doing 52 hikes in a year, which immediately appealed to me, so after a couple of back and forth comments with Ewa, we both decided we were going to try to do this, and post about it!

But then I was thinking about what differentiates a real hike from just a regular walk.  I would never think of walking around the block to the bakery, or walking downtown to the library, as hikes.  But would most of my longish walks on local paths with my husband count as a hike?  Or would it only count if I had my hiking boots on and a topographical map in my hand?  How long would it have to be?

So to be sure I looked it up in the dictionary.  What a relief!  A hike is simply an extended walk for pleasure or exercise, especially in a natural setting.  So for my purposes for this challenge, a hike should be:

• in a natural setting (so it needs to get me out of the urban setting where I live)
• extended (it needs to be a least 30 minutes)
• for pleasure or exercise (pretty much all my walks count, in my mind, towards exercise, so if it hits the other two criteria, it works)

So, my first hike was very simple.  Yesterday morning, with the winter sun shining brightly, and before we had to get ready to visit all my in-laws, which is the big tradition here on January 1st, we took a walk to the cemetery and back, to stretch our legs and erase the cobwebs from staying up late on New Year's Eve.  It was beautiful with the frost glazing the bushes and trees, and even though we had to be careful not to slip on the path, we were able to walk briskly enough to complete the four kilometers there and back in 50 minutes.  It felt good!

1 done, 51 to go.  This is going to be a fun challenge!  Anyone want to join in?

Three Winter Walks

 Suprisingly, December 2014 turned out to be a great month for walking.  I set myself a goal to get out for a walk every day, even if it was just ten minutes, and also ended up doing three bigger hikes with some great people.  Here's a recap and some photos of those.

Walk #1:  December 6th's monthly hike with Ingrid

(14.15 km in 3h 20 min)

Ingrid and I were so lucky - after a week of gray, rainy days, we managed to get an unseasonably warm and sunny afternoon for the inaugural walk with our new map.  The route I plotted out went along the Demer River and was supposed to be 12 kilometers.  However, what I thought was a bridge turned out to be nonexistent and we had to walk all the way to Zichem where the next bridge was (and a cute watermill) before we could head back the right direction.  But all in all it was a great walk and we found a cozy cafe to quench our thirst afterwards.

The sign says go straight but there is no bridge!

The old watermill on the Demer in Zichem

Walk #2: December 28th's belated White Christmas

Surprise, surprise! On Saturday it started snowing, those big soft fluffy flakes.  We couldn't believe it!  We usually have to wait until January for a bit of snow here, and I think last year we didn't get any.  And snow that sticks and stays is even more rare.  But we woke up on Sunday morning to a brilliantly sunny, ice cold day, where everything was covered in gorgeous white snow.  So my husband, my oldest son and I went out for a walk, through the fields near our home.  It was gorgeous and we were not the only ones out taking pictures.

This path was VERY slippery...

Walk #3: December 29th's annual Christmas walk with Leen

(7.3 km in 1 h 46 min)

This is the second year Leen and I met for a walk during Christmas vacation, so we decided to call it our new annual tradition.  Last year, her daughter Hannah joined us, and this year, not only did her son Lucas come along, but my husband as well.  Will we get an even bigger crew next year?

Luckily it was a lot warmer than the day before, and we were again blessed with sunshine.  Most of the snow had started to melt but the roads and paths were not as slippery which was a good thing.  We ended up doing a marked route around Korbeek-Lo called the Sint-Camillus walk, and ended like last year at the local cafe for a hot drink.

Posing in front of a traditional Flemish "square" farm

Still a bit of snow in the fields

December turned out to be a great month for walking.  I'm looking forward to some great hikes and other active adventures in 2015 and plan to be more proactive about documenting them here.

In the meantime, I want to wish you health, happiness and many good things in the New Year and thank you for reading!

Milestones

Kim was reminiscing on her latest blog post about when she started running in 2006.  I also started running in 2006, so eight years ago.  Hard to believe!  And despite the ups and downs I've had the past two years, running is still a part of my life, but now as one element in a variety of different types of exercises I do.

Selfie from one of our walks this summer

Ingrid and I took our last big hike of the year together two weeks ago and we were wondering how long we had been doing our monthly walks together.  Spurred on by Kim, I decided to figure it out, and it seems since 2009, so 5 years.  Wow!

Like with running, our hikes have evolved over the years, the major change being the longer and longer distances we do.  Another change is that, having exhausted pretty much all the trails on the two walking maps we had for our region (Zuid Dijleland and Hageland), we've had to branch out and start a new walking map in a different region (de Merode).  The new map is a laid out a little bit differently than the old maps we were used to, which tripped us up a bit on our very first route - instead of our planned 12 kilometers, we had to take an unexpected detour (what I thought would be a bridge over a river did not actually exist and so we had to keep going til the next bridge).  Result: we walked almost 15 kilometers instead.  But it was no problem, we've worked up to these kinds of distances gradually and we were fine.

And that is what is fun about looking back at milestones and reminding yourself of how long you've been doing something.  Whether it's running, hiking or anything else, it's amazing to see how far you've come and how much you've improved.  What milestone do you look back on with pride this year?

Happy Halloween...and not Japan

Happy Halloween!

Although I didn't look too pleased about my butterfly costume in this Halloween snapshot from 1968, did I?

I must have had about the same expression on my face when my husband told me we wouldn't be going to Japan as planned...

Fortunately it was for a really good reason (a big job promotion for him and he absolutely had to start the week we were to be in Japan) and so I didn't pout for long (really, I swear, I didn't!)

So we cancelled everything.  Sometimes life throws you a curveball and you catch it and it's a really good thing.

Have a great weekend!

Venice

My first time in Venice left me with a lot of impressions and a real desire to go back with my husband and kids someday.  Because I was taking care of little Anastasia from 9 to 6 (with an hour break at lunchtime, which I used to get out for a walk every day, exploring different neighborhoods) I got to know the city in an entirely different way than if I had been on a weekend city trip, which was actually really cool.

Laundry is hung everywhere in Venice.

I don't think I'd want my undies out for the grabbing right at street level...

Part of wandering around with a toddler means you look like a local.  Every day we spent our mornings in one of the few city parks, and by the end of the week, I'd made acquaintance with some of the other mothers who also came every day.  Old ladies on the vapporetto boat we had to take to get to the park always commented on how beautiful Anastasia is and what nice chubby legs she has (you don't have to know much Italian to understand these sorts of comments).  And more than once, tourists summoned up their very best Italian to ask me directions, and I felt bad disappointing them - not only could I not understand their request but often I was just as lost as they were!

Venice is a pedestrian paradise but a nightmare if you have a bad sense of direction!  And the main highlight of the city for me, seeing as I had little time for museums and churches, was just walking around the city and seeing it as one big open air museum.  Luckily I was able to take my time in getting to know the area our apartment was located in, and then slowly branch out.  After a while you get a mental map of the city in your mind, and you also realize that if you happen to get turned around in a street there is no need to panic, just keep going and soon you'll see something you recognize, or signs pointing you either in the direction of the train station or St. Mark's square, the focal point for tourists in Venice:

St. Mark's Basilica

One thing I hadn't expected was the difference in sounds in Venice as compared to home.  For an entire week, I heard not one car, bus, motorcycle or heavy truck rumbling outside my window!  Instead there were the church bells tolling every hour, sputtering boat motors, and singers on gondolas.  Quite a change of soundscape!

Spot the grumpy looking cat in the window?

I did poke my head into a few churches during my wanderings...

View of the Grand Canal from the Accademia bridge

It was an intense and tiring week (taking care of toddlers is hard work!) but at the same time rewarding and extremely interesting.  I was even able to get a ticket to a concert of chamber music by Vivaldi in a little church for my final evening, which was really special.   But by the end I was missing my family and looking forward to going home.  So we ended the week with an excellent farewell lunch at La Zucca (a well known restaurant that specializes in vegetable dishes), and I flew back to Brussels, hoping to return someday.

Enjoying a well-deserved Aperol Spritz!

Life is like a box of chocolates...

...you never know what you're going to get.

Remember that line from the movie "Forrest Gump"?

That really describes how things have been around here lately.

My parents-in-law were planning a big party to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary and as one of the gifts my sister-in-law arranged a photo shoot with a photographer, which was unexpectedly a lot of fun for us all.  The party itself went really well - a good time was had by all and it was so nice to see some of my husband's cousins we normally never see.

Tomorrow, I leave for a week in Venice!  This was also unexpected - I'll be looking after the 18-month-old daughter of a friend of mine who has to do research in an archive there.  She was having a hard time finding child care and asked me if I would consider flying down and helping her out for a week.  I've never been to Venice so it will be exciting and I am hoping to get out for lots of walks with little Anastasia to see different parts of the city.

Then, in October, my husband and I are going to Japan for a week!  This was my husband's idea to celebrate our 20th anniversary (which was two years ago - ha ha!) and he kind of sprung it on me early this summer.  I've been quite anxious about the whole idea (especially leaving my kids on their own while being so far away, which they think is great, of course) but as it's coming closer, I am starting to get really excited about it.

Finally, I even surprised myself and finished the Matt Roberts 12 week workout program I mentioned I was doing way back in May, I think.  I did take off four weeks while my niece was visiting us in July, but after she left I got right back on it and ended up doing all but 8 of the 84 days of the entire program.  The program was hard, and there were some workouts I really dreaded (like swimming) but I did it.  I lost some weight and had to part with some clothes that got too baggy, but the best thing is how good I am feeling physically right now - all set to take on looking after a toddler for a week, right?