Pris and Rhoda Visit

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August 29 - September 3, 2003

The last weekend of summer we had the pleasure of hosting two friends from our church, Pris and Rhoda. We have known them since 1989, when we joined First Universalist Church in Denver. It was really fun having them visit because Rhoda has lived and travelled all over the world, and Pris is a natural with children. To welcome them, Ellen decided to turn our guest house into a hotel. She created a reception desk and had them sign in. Then, each day she provided maid service for tips. Maybe she'd clean her own room as well if I left her a tip!

On Saturday we all decided to go to Dinant, which is a small city in the Ardennes (the "mountains" in southern Belgium). Dinant is an especially charming town. Our first stop was lunch, which we had in a typical brasserie along the river (you can see the building in the lower right corner of the photo to the right.). Across the street from the restaurant was an old church, the Collegiale Notre-Dame. A church was built here sometime in the 10th century, but has been alterred and rebuilt a couple of times. The onion dome is especially interesting and there is an engaging stained glass window that tells the story of the Bible. Dinant has an intriguing and gory history of suffering from invaders, including King Henri II of France's troops in 1554, Louis XIV of France's army in 1675 and 1692, and the Germans during World Wars 1 and 2.

After our quick visit to the church, we headed to the Citadelle in Dinant. This is a fortress that sits on the top of a cliff overlooking the town and river. We chose to ride the cable car to the top. A castle was built here in 1051, then rebuilt in 1523. You have to tour the citadel with a group, and the tour guide "only" spoke French and Dutch, so we had to make up our own stories much of the time. While at the citadel, Ellen and Will took lots of photos with the digital camera. That's the joy of digital - the kids can snap away and it costs nothing! Will got this great shot of Ellen. She had been smirking at the camera for weeks, but this shot really captures her spirit and love.

From the Citadel, we went to the Grotte la Marveileuse, which is a cave located just outside Dinant. The guided tour was excellent and the caves were impressive. Along with the stalactites and stalagmites were large rooms where the residents of Dinant hid during World War II.

On Sunday Pris and Rhoda spent the day in Brussels and on Monday they headed to Brugges. The rest of us prepared for the first day of school, which was Monday. On Tuesday Laura joined Pris and Rhoda for a road trip west of Brussels. Our first stop was Beloeil, a chateau that has impressive gardens. Unfortunately, in a true "Belgian" moment, the chateau was closed until later in the afternoon, in spite of every travel guide we had reassuring us that it would be open. So, we took these photos from outside the chateau and continued on our road trip.

From Beloeil we drove to a town for lunch with the locals, who were clearly curious about what the heck we were doing in their little town. Then we went for a drive through the "Flemish Ardennes", which is a picturesque area west of Brussels. Here we found a lovely valley with rolling hills and beautiful Flemish farms. We had a wonderful time with Pris and Rhoda. It was great to get to know them better and have some real "bonding" time with them.

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