Monday, April 7, 2008

More of the snow in April

The fields next to Ben & Corinne's house, Hunningham church.


Ewe with her lambs in the snow:
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Weekend In Warwickshire

We went to the British SJ Championships at the NEC in Birmingham. It was fun for me but a bit boring for Downy. We also saw indoor polo, cross country and scurry racing.



Indoor Polo -


We stayed with Ben & Corinne in Hunningham, Warwickshire, which is a gorgeous little village. They live in a converted barn on a farm - has to be the best locum accommodation in the UK. On Sunday morning we woke up to snow everywhere, more than a sprinkling, everything was totally covered and so pretty. So freezing temps and snow in April, the weather has gone mad.


Sheep in the field near their house, little black lamb in the middle:

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Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Bruges

During our stay in Belgium we went to Bruges for the day. Bruges (or Brugge) is an ancient medieval town 1hr from Brussels, towards the French border. It Bruges they speak Flemish (Dutch) whereas in Brussels most people speak French. It was a rainy day but we still enjoyed strolling around the streets and canals.

The main square
We did a canal boat tour which was great, from the canals you can see all the gorgeous old buildings on the water. Our tour guide sounded like he had learnt English from a computer!



We climbed the 360 steps to the top of the Belfry where a man was playing the bells by hand, it was really interesting and they play familiar tunes and have concerts of bell playing!

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Brussels

Last weekend we had a 3 day break in Belgium. We stayed in Brussels for 3 nights and saw most of Brussels and Bruges. We indulged in lots of local food including waffles (below), mussels, Flemish stew and Belgian beers.


St Michael's Cathedral, the only sunny day we have enjoyed for about a month


Below is part of one of the main buildings in the Grand Place - a huge square in the centre of Brussels. There are shops and restaurants around the edge and would be great in summer. We went to a restaurant here which was in a 17th century cellar and we both had Flemish stew!

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