L is for...
Lace
Lace is one of the many things Belgium is famous for! The style of lace above is from Brugge (the entwined circles around the edges give that away) and yes those are the prices for it in down town Brussels lace shops. Multiply that by about $1.35 these days (early 2010) to find out the amount in dollars - it's very intricately made as you can see in the pictures below....
These ladies put on lace making demonstrations at the Lace Museum in Brugge - all those bobbins! What an amazing thing to be able to do!
Following the pattern, using pins to hold places, while they just toss those bobbins back and forth and all around. Watching them work had us all fascinated!
La Hulpe
La Hulpe is a commune not too far from Overijse and this is it's chateau. It's also a place where cross country meets are held, so we went a few times! There is a beautiful park surrounding this castle that is great for walking and spending a relaxing afternoon.
Leopold
King Leopold - he made such a lasting impression on Belgium with all the things he brought in and places he took over in Belgium's name (the Congo for instance). We were at the Royal Military Museum and found his bicycle so the kids had their picture taken with it!
Limit
The Limit - on restaurant row in Jezus Eik - was the place we went for our very first meal in Belgium on the day we moved there. Alex always was wanting to go back, but we didn't make it back there until two days before we moved back to the US! He wanted it to be our last restaurant, but the rest of us wanted to have our last evening meal downtown, so we compromised and did them two nights in a row!