A CHARMING VISIT

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

The dictionary explains that a visit is to go to and stay with (a person or family) or at (a place) for a short time for reasons of sociability, politeness, business, curiosity, or to stay with as a guest.


In my case the reason was just a visit of a good friend. I have met Claudie living in the South of France at the Côte d'Azur, through blogging in 2006. She came for the third time to the North, fortunately not into a too cold weather to  change a bit her daily routine, what I do too when I visit her.

Having such a nice visit are also holidays for me !



We started having a Doner in a little Greek restaurant in Waterloo, which was very good as you can see !

After a nice coffee with my friend Ilona, we started to visit the three castles not far from Ilona's home.



First we went to the Castle of Beersel an old medieval castle dated from 1300. Unfortunately we couldn't go inside because it was just being renovated.



A little farer was the castle "The Gravenhof" now a restaurant. We had a quick look inside and Claudie took some pictures. It's a very beautiful place and often used for wedding receptions.



The weather cleared up, sunshine came out and we could visit the the castle of Gaasbeek dating from 1240. Some historical explanations were written on this mirror horse and we had quiet some fun with taking pictures !



It is a very impressive building and has a huge beautiful park.



Here too we didn't have a chance to visit the castle from inside because it was Monday and closed !



After a long walk through the park, a little tired we had a drink in the restaurant just opposite the castle. It's wonderful sitting outside, there is a little zoo and Claudie petted the donkey which immediately arrived to say hello (probably expecting some food !)

The next day we visited my favorite shop, the Indian one where you just feel to be in an Indian home.



Claudie was delighted to see all these beautiful things and the ladies (all volunteers) offered her an Indian tea which she loved ! All things you buy here is for street children in India and for a village.

In the afternoon, we went to Brussels to see the exposition of the painterKandinsky.



We were quiet disappointed because there were lots of other Russian painters too and we had expected only to see Kandinsky's paintings. We felt a little cheated. After the exposition we had a drink inside a part of the royal Palace with a nice beautiful little square where we could sit and had a very much needed drink !

Quiet tired of all these visits we returned home !

Visits from friends are wonderful !