Zac's Visit

So I (Greg) completely forgot to blog about Zac's visit until Megan told me today that I need to. Seeing how Zac came to visit about a month ago, I figured that I better get on it.  Anyway, Zac was in Europe on business so he decided to stop by Brussels and pay us a visit (for those of you who don't know, Zac is my cousin and he and his wife lived in Brussels some years back).  Anyway, the first night Zac was here (Friday) we kind of just hung out and ate cheesewursts (soooo good-Zac introduced us to those babies...) and drank "spa" orange soda.  It was good to catch up, and just kind of hang out.  In the morning we decided to head over to a sweet castle that I had never been to (which is surprisingly close to where we live and I didn't even know existed).  Megan decided to stay home as she had kind of had a long week and just wanted to lie low.  At any rate, the castle was incredible.  I didn't take many pictures, but here are a couple...

Beersel Castle

I thought that the little tiny spire on the top of this part of the castle was pretty neat.  It is SO tiny; I don't think it could fit more than one person up there.  It reminded me of a fairy tale or something.  I think you used to be able to tour up there, but they had it locked up.  

The castle was in the middle of renovation while we were there.  In fact, one part we were able to go up to didn't look exactly safe...  Zac and I were in the top floor of one of those big spires when we looked down and notice the floor was suffering from dry rot.  It looked like someone could EASILY fall through... luckily we noticed it before crossing the really bad part (you could see the room below through the rotting, deteriorating planks).  Normally the castle has a big moat filled with water and a draw bridge.  The draw bridge was being restored however, so the moat was drained.  I would definitely like to go back when the moat is full and the bridge is in place.  

After the castle, Zac and I headed downtown, went to a cool toy shop to get some toys for Bran and Nuala, went to the Grand Place, ate some Belgian fries (really good...), saw the Manneken Pis, toured St. Micheal's Cathedral, then headed back to our apartment.  We then picked up Megan and went to Waterloo (where Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo).  It is super close to where Meg and I live, but we had never been since you kind of need a car to get out there.  Basically, we payed way too much money to watch a couple really dumb film things and walk up to the top of the monument.  It was neat to go there, but not really worth the money.  We wanted to do the tour, but we missed the last one by about 5 min.  The tour probably would have made it a lot more interesting.   It was pretty incredible to look out and know that such a huge battle took place there.  The view was pretty incredible too.  Not quite the same caliber experience as Normandy (where the D-day invasion took place), but interesting none the less.  Here are some pics:

There happened to be this group of re-enactors camping out at the bottom of the monument. They were ACTUALLY camping too (we could see all of their gear in their tents).  Every once in a while they would get into formation and march around and pretend to be fighting battles.  Anyway, we kind of just walked into their camp and started looking at stuff even though we didn't know whether it was okay or not.

 

Zac slept on the cushions from our love seat with only a tiny fleece blanket--no sheets, pillow, nothing (and the cushions were way too short for him to fit on them).  I really wish we had a picture.  I think I took one with his camera.  He looked pretty hilarious, but probably went home needing to see a chiropractor.  All in all it was fun to see Zac and just kind of hang out.