Sunday 14 Septembre 2003:   A La Belgique!

Our train left St. Nazaire at 8:07am.
Françoise picked us up in Brussels,
and drove us home to a warm welcome by Émile & Clara and their two playful puppies, Belle & Gaspar.
Pierre soon joined us for a dinner of mussels & frites -- scrumptious!

Monday 15 Septembre 2003: Abbey Villers

Each morning, we walked with the children to school.  Sometimes we bought fresh bread at the local boulangerie.

This day, we drove Françoise to work. She works as an English instructor in an adult education program in Floreffe.

We visited the Abbey Villers, a magnificent estate of ruins from the Middle Ages!

Later that day, charles found an Incredible Bread Machine!
He also spent hours teaching the puppy to stand...
And Clara danced ballet in class!

Karen did the laundry!  and drank beer with Françoise.
And we all enjoyed an extraordinary dinner with Françoise's Tarte Aux Herbes!

Tuesday 16 Septembre 2003:  Namur, Floreffe, et "Who is Yertle?"!

	We visited the lovely slow-paced village of Namur (Their mascot is a snail). Over a yummy petit-dejeuner, charles prepared for his "Who is Yertle?" talk for the English class.
charles' talk to Françoise's adult English class was entitled: "Who is Yertle?" [click to view the Powerpoint presentation] [best viewed in Internet Explorer] Karen gave the introduction, and added her own thought-provoking commentary throughout the presentation. A lively discussion followed!
After the talk, we visited the Abbey de Floreffe, and relaxed with their Trappist biere.
	We enjoyed an evening with the family, and a wonderful dinner of salad and pasta prepared by Karen & Françoise.

Wednesday 17 Septembre 2003:  Sombreffe with Mamon et Papa

This week was "Mobilité Week" and the children made banners to support walking to school rather than driving by car.
Wednesday is a special school day as the children are in class only until noon and then Mamon et Papa come to pick them up.
As usual, Mamon prepared a delicious meal, and this day Papa et Mamon celebrated our marriage with a champaign toast and
a wonderful salmon meal.  Bernadette and her family joined us for a tarte dessert.

That afternoon, we drove Émile to soccer practice.

Thursday 18 Septembre 2003:  Amsterdam and Anti-Federalism!

Mobilitè Week continued on our morning walk to school.
Then we drove to Amsterdam for charles' presentation to the Libertarian group.

	Upon arriving in Amsterdam, charles prepared for his lecture that evening and Karen toured the town. We met up with Frank -- the organizer of the libertarian group, Peter -- an economist, and charles' friends Hubert & Rita -- longtime libertarian activists, for a tasty Greek dinner.
charles' talk to the libertarian group of Amsterdam was entitled: "Anti-Federalism: An Idea Whose Time Has Come" [click to view the Powerpoint presentation] [best viewed in Internet Explorer] The presentation began with two short videos: 2001: An Anti-Federalist Odyssey: HighQuality (8 Mb);  LowQuality (555Kb)       How the Ggrrrinch Stole Congress!: HighQuality (13 Mb);  LowQuality (901Kb) Karen introduced charles, and charles introduced Richard Henry Lee. The lecture stimulated many questions and an interesting discussion among the Europeans about their own transition to a unified Europe.

... a long, late drive home.

Friday 19 Septembre 2003:  A day in Sombreffe

The last day of Mobilité Week and carrying our banners to school!
We spent the morning in Namur with Françoise and the afternoon with the puppies and the children.
We played soccer before and after dinner!

	Bon Nuit!

Saturday 20 Septembre 2003: Sombreffe marché et fête en Marche-en-Famenne

Our day begins with a walk to Sombreffe's farmers' market.

Then we drove to Rhines, where Émile and his team played soccer -- they won by a landslide. Charles & Karen started a pickup game with some local boys. On the way home, we celebrated at the Friterie.

		We visited the eglise at Sombreffe.
		and then we drove to Papa et Mamon's house in Marche-en-Famenne.

	We had a wonderful celebration with all our family! It was amazing to see how everyone has grown and changed. Karen was thrilled to introduce the family to charles! We played soccer and petanque throughout the day and feasted on a meal prepared by Mamon. Michel was also a wonderful host and kept everyone's glass full!

Sunday 21 Septembre 2003:  Marche-en-Famenne promenade

We spent the night in Marche-en-Famenne and awoke to breakfast and sharing of photos.
Papa et Mamon shared their honeymoon photos and we shared ours on our laptop.

We went to mass with Papa in a very old church.
In honor of the festival of Wallonie, the celebration was held in Wallonian, an ancient language of the Ardennes.
We didn't understand much, but we sang enthusiastically!

That afternoon, Karen, Françoise, Pierre, Jean, Michel, Émile and Lanna
went on a long walk through the countryside...and met a Toro!
Charles stayed home, with Mamon, Papa, Tante Maïe and Clara, and worked on preparing his speeches for the web.

Au Revoir with love to our Belgian family!

Thanks for sharing our adventure!

www.charlesOlson.com/HoneymoonDiary3France.htm

www.charlesOlson.com/HoneymoonDiary2England.htm

www.charlesOlson.com/HoneymoonDiary1Ireland.htm

www.charlesOlson.com/wedding.htm

www.charlesOlson.com/CBOWhatsNew.html

www.charlesOlson.com

or email us at charles@CSMNL.com and/or karen@senffner.net