Euro Spring 2015 - Part 28 - The Belgian Inquisition

Where Our Heroes

• Find the Inquisition is alive and well in Walloon Belgian and endure
• Trial by unannounced closing
• Trial by sick child
• Trial by grocery store
• Trial by lack of fire
• Persevere through all and once again enjoy their mutual company

Today was Wife's birthday.  Happy Birthday Wife!  We had every intention of doing things in a relaxed way that she would enjoy.  However the powers of the Inquisition are alive and well here in the Belgian countryside.

As we are traveling there's a limit on things that can be done but with the loving and capable daughter #3 there are always birthday possibilities.  We had decided that today was going to be a rest day so no running around.  But unfortunately little 3.2 has come down with a a new tooth coming in and a slight cold and was a crank most of the day.  3.1, seeing the opportunity to grab the 'good girl' space behaved wonderfully.

See what a wonderful girl I am - NOT like my cranky sister

 

One of Wife's favorite meals is steak cooked over a fire with baked potato and a nice wine.  Since there is a grill in the back yard, I decided that I could indulge here this opportunity.  She also thought it would be lovely to walk to a restaurant in town as a family for lunch.  #3 and I went out to go to a butcher shop close by and pick up the meat and check out the time the restaurant opened.  Instead we found the butcher closed (even though the times on its window says it should be open).  We find the restaurant closed as well.  Fortunately we found this small clothing store and they had this cute necklace that I bought Wife as a birthday present.  She was very surprised since we don't usually buy gifts for each other.

We needed to go out to the local grocery to pick up things needed for our dinner.  But we had so much trouble finding things.  I though their meat was not good enough for grilling and we had trouble finding all kinds of other things.  I finally settled on some frozen salmon.  I also bought a bunch of veggies for grilling including white asparagus that Wife loves. 3A and I had a difficult time figuring out what to buy in the way of charcoal.

In the meantime, #3 and 3.1 were making the birthday cake - from scratch I might add.

Mother-daughter cake making

Base cake

Making frosting

Okay the attempt to spell out Wife's name didn't come off that great using a plastic shopping bag as a cake decorating tool

3.1 enjoys the first taste of cake because her bed time precedes our dinner

Next came what I now recognize as a traditional ordeal - the attempt to make a fire and grill in a strange place.  Short version of the story is it took hours to get a fire sufficient that we could actually cook anything.  However, ultimately we did get everything done and it turned out pretty good.

I've been pretty amazed during this trip that everyone, especially myself, has maintained their cool throughout all the various stresses we've gone through.