Family outings-  mini castle visit and a weekend of activities...

I don't have much time today, but I just want to post some more photos of some recent outings... Gotta make the most of the weekends that hubby is not working as these are quite rare (working every second weekend is a huge bummer but means the other weekends are a bit jam packed with child pleasing activities!)

Before I start inundating you with photos, I think I forgot to mention in the last post that we have a farmers market in the square directly opposite our apartment EVERY FRIDAY AFTERNOON - how lucky are we??!!!! There's a Greek delicatessen, a bakery, cold meats, fruit and veg stall and the usual clothing and bric-a-brac. It's a weekly tradition that we stop past on the way home from school and pick up a cooked chicken and some croissants or freshly baked waffles... yum :)!  

And I should also show you one of my best purchases to date:  My nana shopping trolley! Never thought I would have one but both me and hubby agree that it is pretty nifty and since I am doing the shopping using public transport at the moment, it makes life a lot easier. 

So back to our excursions... a couple of weekends ago, by popular request (ie nagging), we went back to the fantastic castle playground that was featured in a post a few weeks ago. Near the end of the afternoon, we decided to go and have a look at the real castle that was just nearby. It is actually part of the original city wall of Brussels, complete with moat and drawbridge!  I would tell you something useful and interesting about it, except the information we brought home is in flemish, and as of yet, my flemish is non existent.  Suffice to say there were enough suits of armour, swords and crossbows on display to keep even the little two amused for long enough. We went up the precarious stairs to the turret and had a great view over parts of Brussels: 

There was a lot of excitement for the kids to be walking around a real castle turret (castle/city wall same thing really, it's old and made of stone and has turrets and water moats)....

Inside was as you would expect from a really old building..

 Amazing architecture and as I am no engineer/ architect, a complete lack of any understanding how they built these things back then.  

And here is a preserved horse from a couple of centuries ago (I really should take more notice of the information signs but pretty much it is a real horse back from the days when the castle was functioning)...

When we visited, they had an exhibition on which featured olden day rubber squeaky toys - I am not sure what this had to do with the castle as such, but it was light relief for the kids, and at the very top of the castle, they had set up a huge playroom with toys, books, and seating for adults, so that kids could have some free play time. Very good thinking I must say! And even better, there were public toilets (phew). That would be reason enough to pay a visit again!

This weekend just gone, we managed to cram in two full days of outings... And both days were extremely successful.  It is hard to top one great experience after another, but Belgium continues to surprise us in a good way..  

Saturday we decided to take a quick trip to Gent - a scenic town that is renowned for its beauty.   I didn't manage to get any photos of the actual city but here are a couple of downloaded ones to give you an idea:

Yes, it does actually look like that, magical!  I had done my research though, and rather than spending the afternoon admiring the architecture, sipping lattes, and strolling the river banks (as you would expect would be the most appropriate activity in this town), I was hostage to 4 ratty adrenalin bunnies who have rather specific requirements. One of which is that they do not like to be bored. And secondly, that car trips are definitely boring. (As is sitting idly, admiring the scenario, and general relaxing).  Fortunately, Gent is only a 40 minute car trip from our place, and also I had found a large playground area that looked good to explore.  

And, large is an understatement about this play area.... it is actually a huge sports and recreation complex/reserve/domain.. I am not sure what to call it as it is so huge-spanning 87 hectares.  We encountered delight after delight with play grounds, adventure forests, all natural play equipment made from logs and ropes set into the natural forest and even a cafe (with toilets - bonus!) in case we had a chance to relax.

You may notice no actual photos of kids posing, too busy running to get to the adventure playgrounds.. 

 It was absolute heaven for our adventure girls.  Interestingly, although probably not surprisingly, the brightly coloured playgrounds held much less appeal than the natural less structured play areas... Not a safety device in sight nor a helicopter parent. Seems that children are encouraged to be more independent here than what we have been used to. 

And finally, when we were thinking about leaving as the sun was getting low in the sky, we walk round a corner to discover this: 

...a mini beach. Ok, so coming from the land of beaches, this is not altogether that exciting, but what was new and kept our troops enthralled for another hour or so was the raft set up. There were two rafts that could be pulled from the shore to the central island and back again. This could not have been a more perfect place to let their imaginations run wild, engage in team work and enjoy the natural scenery.  I imagine in summer, this place is probably very crowded, but right now at the very start of spring with unseasonably mild weather, it was idyllic. The water was FREEZING but this did not stop them demanding to come back the next day with togs. After this fantastic day out, the consensus from the midgets was unanimous - BEST PLACE EVER! 

Sunday started in a place of misery- after all we were not returning to the BEST PLACE EVER, and therefore, their sole purpose in life was to nag us until we agreed to return. Nothing, I repeat, nothing, could possibly top this.  Aaah, how children's minds work. I love the passion that they have and the way they throw their whole selves into each experience, but it takes work to help them deal with the other side of the experience, the disappointment of not reliving it immediately, the insecurity of not knowing whether the new experience will indeed be worth it,.... I am teaching them slowly but surely, that this mother knows best and that they need to start trusting me on this! We decided not to do another big car trip and decided to stay around Brussels today.  We went to visit the expansive Bois de Cambre which is a huge forest at the south of Brussels.   The playground was a bit tame compared to the previous day's experience, but there was once again a cafe (and a toilet -yippee!) which served Haagen Daz icecream and waffles.  

The highlight of this trip was the roller rink that was set up in the middle with roller blades for hire. So the older two had a great time learning to roller blade, while the little two got to have fun on the bouncy castles.  

I don't think it topped the trip to Gent, but it was good enough and they all had an exhausting but entertaining weekend.... Next one will be a home one, but then it is school holidays (again) and we will be off to Sweden!