With mud season taking a firm grip on North Holland, we decided to head for the Belgian mountains last weekend for one final romp in the snow.
Our rental cottage...
...was situated in the mountains above our favorite Belgian village of Malmedy...
...with an access point to the provincial forest less than 100 meters away.
There were miles and miles of groomed (and ungroomed) trails right out the front door ...
...with hidden treasures around every corner, like this classic 14th century Belgian castle - Reinhardstein. This castle is still in private hands and we could hear a woman singing opera from the depths of the stone walls. Her voice echoed through the narrow valley where our ski trail was. It brought back memories of San Francisco when we sat overlooking the city and listened to a pianist playing in his Pacific Heights condo just after Beth accepted my marriage proposal - it's been a very interesting 22 years.
We woke up Saturday morning to a fresh 8 inches of snow! You've gotta love that antique, concrete power pole overgrown by the forest. This could have been a scene from The Battle of the Bulge where my great uncle fought in these same snowy conditions not far from here.
The Belgian trail system continues to impress us. It is extremely well marked and is amazing how they can pack so much into such a small country. Losloopende honden welkom.
Flatlanders enjoying the snow. Can you believe that she is still smiling after getting SMOKED at seven games of ping pong in a row?
This fuzzy horse at the trailhead freaked Sage out. She gave him a REALLY wide berth, although it might have been because she was on edge from all of the wild boar scent in the forest.
2 comments:
Hmmm. This pony doesn't look "excited" :-)
The French ponies certainly were more excitable, weren't they? Maybe you can share THAT photo in the comment field ;-)
Just spoke with Leti last week. She is still and Genesys and doing well. It was really good talking with her.
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