Belgian Military History? Better believe it!

Although you certainly may not expect it, Brussels has a world-class military museum. The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History houses an awesome collection of uniforms, aircraft, weapons, and displays which recount the military history of Belgium and its neighbors from the Napoleonic era through the 20th century. An entire hall is devoted purely to firearms, uniforms and various pointy weapons from the 19th Century while others include expansive World War I exhibits, tanks from several nations, and a comprehensive World War II exhibit.

The highlight of the museum must certainly be the immense aviation hangar which houses dozens of early and modern aircraft. Owen declared that he could spend an entire day in this area and I can't argue with that assessment. We spent the better part of three hours at the museum and could easily have spent another three taking more time to inspect exhibits and examine the array of history on display there.

Oh yeah, and the gift shop was nothing to sneeze at either (and it was all FREE!!).




The 19th Century hall of uniforms and weapons.



World War I hall



The aircraft hangar

The McMahans meet their Waterloo

No trip to Belgium would be complete without a stop at the battlefield of Waterloo, am I right? Well, for us that is certainly the case and it was a great day for it. We were greeted by sun which shone down on us as we arrived in the town where the battle was fought that now somewhat resembles a strip mall. However, the battlefield is still generally untouched, aside from the gigantic hill they built right on the spot where William of Orange (the Dutch monarch) was wounded. Not a bad monument for getting a non-fatal wound!

For only about 30 Euros were we are to visit all the battle-related museums including the faux hill, the panorama (known as a cyclorama to Americans) and the nifty little wax museum. Cora is very excited to be the only girl in her class and possibly the only girl from Sykesville ever to have walked both the battlefield of Austerlitz, Napoleon's greatest victory, and Waterloo, his final defeat. Some girls have all the luck, don't they?



See, I told you it wasn't such a long walk from Brussels.















Napoleon never looked better, did he?











Elizabeth prepares to climb the 266 steps up to the Butte de Lion.

Belgium: Ghent – Where old meets new

Our second day was spent in the city of Ghent just a short ride down the road from Bruges. While not as picture perfect as Bruges, Ghent boasts an extensive old town and many canals of its own. While many shops were not open during our Sunday visit, we were able to visit a number of excellent museums and buildings including ‘s Gravensteen Castle, the van Aljin House (a local social history museum), and the city’s primary markets and cathedrals.



Central Ghent is dominated by the spires of St. Nicholas Church, the town Belfort and St. Bravo’s cathedral. Vertical lines catch the eye throughout town as the streets remain dominated by stepped Flemish gables.



The heart of Ghent lies along the Leie River between the Korenlei and Graslei streets, seen behind this tourist here. These buildings showcase some of the best architecture in Ghent and take one back to the city’s heyday in the 16th and 17th centuries.



Near the city centre 's Gravensteen Castle still stands watch along the river. While it is the city’s second castle, it is the best preserved and is open for visitors daily and is bound to ‘keep’ any castle lover satisfied.

Don't ask me why the name of this castle starts with an apostrophe s!

Belgium: Bruges - Venice of the North

Welcome to the first installment of our Belgium trip narrative! Our trip included something for everyone, especially if you enjoy old cities and derelict tanks!

Our first stop during our Belgian adventure was in the city of Bruges in western Belgium. This city was a centre of trade for the region until the 16th century when the river silted up, depriving access to the sea, while the town itself fell into political disfavor with its royal overlords. The ultimate effect of these events was to nearly freeze the town in time - discouraging development and renovation for over 400 years and preserving for us today a quaint tourist paradise.



In the town centre stands the Belfort and Hallen, a clock tower which looms high above the city. We reached the top by climbing 366 steep stairs, including a number of narrow wooden stairs that nearly brought Cora to tears! However, she persevered and made it to the top.











The Markt below the Belfort was surrounded by chocolate boutiques, waffle and frite shops, and other tourist traps. We were fortunate to arrive in town on market day and bought some fresh Belgian pastries which made an excellent breakfast on a chilly February morning.



In addition to being the home of a number of galleries devoted to the Flemish Primitive painters of the 15th century, especially Jan van Eyck, the small city is divided by a spider web of canals and waterways. We enjoyed a short boat ride on the canals which visited many of the main sites in the city.

Bruges is a must see for any trip through Belgium if only to explore its amazingly well preserved architecture and enjoy the relatively automobile free streets and alleys of the old city.

Skiing in Gloucester

Well, I have not skied very often in my life (try one weekend three years ago with Cub Scouts) but I have never skied without snow. This past weekend, though, we did just that in Gloucester at the local ski centre. We joined David and John Lewis for a couple of hours on the ‘slopes’ which were actually slightly damp bristle pad-like surfaces that vaguely resembled something you would use to clean your teeth. Not a surface you would enjoy brushing your face or other exposed areas of skin across.

It was good fun but I am not sure I would really call it skiing (not that anything I do out there remotely resembles it either, snow or not). It was worth a try and the only really dangerous part was trying to get on and off the lifts (Owen and John wiped out multiple times!).



David and John wait for a ride up the on the lift.



Owen cleans his skis on lots of tooth brush bristles.

2008 here we come!

Loving parties as we do, we had a small one on New Years this year with the Lewis's and the Celestes as well as a pack of McMahans, including Jonny Mac (although he managed to avoid having his picture taken!). This year's 'theme' was South of the Border, hence the very bad southwestern and country wear seen here. In fine American fashion we banged pots late into the night and probably annoyed several neighbors with fireworks and other loud bangs.



The scariest 'Village People' we've ever seen...



Pot bangers at midnight



Happy New Year Everybody!!!!

Merry Christmas

Being the season of visits and family we welcome the other half to Cheltenham in late December for Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa straight in from Macungie, PA. They were soon thrown into the fray, preparing for our big holiday party the day they arrived. They pitched in happily and enjoyed (we think) the big bash. This was followed by a VERY early Christmas morning wake up and a week of quiet hours around the house and years end celebrations.

I think the big hits this year were Croa's skates and Owen's MP3 player.



Grandparents and grandchildren on Christmas Eve



Cora and her skates




Grandma and her Austrian 'smoker'

What lies behind the Iron Curtain

During our Austrian expedition we spent a couple of days visiting two interesting towns in the ‘young’ nations of Czech and Slovakia. Their recent communist past were certainly easy to observe, although the Czech Republic seems to have embraced capitalism (and commercialism) much more completely than its eastern neighbor.




The Cabbage Market in central Brno.








After a long drive through northeast Austria we spent an afternoon in the Czech city of Brno. In town we encountered bustling holiday crowds, lots of traffic, and several excellent sights including Spilberk Castle, the city Catherdral and the Moravian (empire) museum. Several miles outside of town, after a long search, we also found the battlefield of Austerlitz, site of Napoleon’s greatest victory.



Cora finds a street statue in Bratislava.









The capitol of Slovakia, Bratislava, lies just over an hour from Vienna. A short drive brought us to this blue-collar capitol where we just survived running into some trolleys while driving on the wrong lane in the street. An impressive castle sits above the city with an interesting museum. In town we visited the market and found tasty sausages and a lebkuchen for Cora.




Old and New in Bratislava, capitol of Slovakia

Vienna waits for you...

It’s Christmas and time again for that honored tradition of visiting the European homeland for the holidays and, most importantly, the Christmas markets. Our base this year was Vienna and we discovered a cozy and welcoming gasthof in the Vienna woods called Almsturbel in Pressbaum (ww.pension-almstueberl.at/de/).














On our first day we received a blanketing of snow, about three inches, which remained throughout our visit as temperatures never passed above -1 degrees celsius. We visited several markets in Vienna, the most impressive being that outside the Rathaus in the western old town.














We had the chance to visit several other beautiful Austrian villages and towns including Linz, Durnstein, Melk and its great abbey, and Stein. At Durnstein, in the picture below, Richard the Lionheart was held captive by a local Austiran prince for several years. The castle is now a ruin and reached by a steep mountainside path. This and other sights along the Danube were simply amazing.

It's Christmas Season

December was a bust time of parties, singing and preparations for the holidays. We celebrated birthdays for Owen and David and welcomed many friends over for a large holiday party just before the big day.



Owen opens presents with friends at his 12th birthday party.



David and Jason honor their new shirts with holiday libations.



The kids and their Christmas duds

The Gauklers visit Cheltenham

The whole group stayed pretty busy while Umi, Papa and Aunt Helen were in town. Visits included a very wet day at Tintern Abbey, Coventry and the Cathedral there, Cardiff, Slaughter and the Cotswolds. Owen and Cora also received presents for their birthdays and some early Christmas presents arrived as well.



Papa and Cora hang around together at home.



Aunt Helen, Jason and Elizabeth inspect a Welsh cottage.



A family walk through Upper and Lower Slaughter

Thanksgiving with Umi, Papa and Aunt Helen

We were lucky enough to have lots of family here for Thanksgiving this year. We enjoyed the company of Aunt Helen, Umi and Papa for a week, including the big Thanksgiving feast. There was much hustle and bustle in the kitchen and other English friends joined us for our American traditions including the Lewis family and Don and Margaret Cormak. Since there were no football games on TV or other family for the annual game we had our own little football practice at the park with Papa and the kids in honor of past family traditions.



The gang all gathered at the table.



Umi, the Cormaks and David



Pilgrims arrived to cook the turkey and a small pet.

Making up for Lost Time

OK,so it has been a long time since we have posted so prepare for a bunch of new blogs from the holidays. Here we go!