Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The sleepy village of Walcourt

When Nancy and I woke up at our B&B in Walcourt, Belgium, we headed a block away to meet Severyn's kids and help him walk them to school.  I'm sure we disrupted the entire household, but Severyn's wife,Claire, took time to pose for us before she began her busy day as a physician.



Kids are excited about school, because they get to play on the playground before school.  Unlike our public schools, each child is greeted with a kiss and a hug by the teacher.


Then we went back to the B&B for a great breakfast that included delicious coffee, freshly baked bread, honey from local hives, fresh yoghurt, boiled egg and bacon and cheeses.  That was going to get us through a long morning.

This was the view from our room.


After we checked out, we got the tour of Severyn’s house. He has done a lot of work on this historic house, and has more projects underway.


 

Severyn claims that he is retired, but I can tell that he is still a collector as witnessed by the cars in his garages, some of which came from the U.S. and one which came from Australia.

Mr. Poe and the postman exchanged “bon jour”s





As Severyn explained, every village/town has a church in the center.  This is the beautiful one in Walcourt that is under renovation.










One of the gifts Severyn brought us to the ship was a mug for each of us.  These unique mugs have four handles.  The story goes something like this.  Charles V came to Walcourt and asked a barmaid for a drink.  She served it in tankard without a handle, and he said he didn’t know how to pick it up and left. She created a mug with a handle, and on the next visit, she set it in front of him, and once more he couldn’t see how to pick it up.  This continued until she had created a mug with four handles so that he could figure it out.  I’m sure this is a dig by the Belgiums at the French, and it is commemorated by sculptures in the square.







It was then time to catch the train to Brussels, so we  took the scenic view. That is Severyn’s house in the middle.  I can see why he likes it there.

 



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