Our first full week in Belgium

When I say first full week I mean a full week. We made a trip to the grocery store every day trying to get set up. It was fun to try to figure out how to buy the simplest things like salt and pepper. Flour is called bloem, Cinnamon is kaneel and garlic is knoflook. It's a good thing they couldn't change the smell of garlic because that's how I found it. Laurene brought a small English to Dutch dictionary and it has been very helpful with shopping and other things. Laurene and I have also found that we are not the type of people who are comfortable with maid service. It is hard to watch the lady do the cleaning in our apartment twice a week. Although she does a great job and I don't know why but it makes me a nervous wreck. Then to top things off, when I turned one of my stovetop plates on it blew the power to the whole complex. In the process I did get a new stove top. The only problem is that the directions are all in Flemish but I can always get it on high. So Dad can now be truthfull about me cooking everything on high. We have taken a few drives around town to see things and more by accident than not we got back where we wanted to be and saw a lot of country we would not have seen otherwise. The shopping is scary because we are paying over forty percent more for everything because of the dollar being so low to the euro. It makes you think, do I really want this? If I do buy something how am I going to get it home? We found a laundromat but it costs nine dollars just to wash a load of clothes. Laurene and I decided we might have to rub-a-dub-dub in the tub and hang clothes out to dry. Saturday we went for a drive to Mechelen. Leo and Dave had been there before so they were excited to show us the town. Laurene wanted to do a walking tour so that's what we did. It was neat to learn the history of all the old churches and buildings. The churches we huge and ornate.

We saw a couple of the old castles of the countesses.

The city hall was a real treat to see.

There was a huge tapestry hanging inside that was five-hundred years old. The streets are cobblestone and very narrow but that dosen't stop the people from speeding through them. I do love the country here even if I can't speak the language. People are friendly and helpful most of the time. And believe me we have had to ask a lot of the time. Thank heaven for Laurene's English to Dutch dictionary.