Vacation!

No way! I did my best to show the nicest corners of Brussels to my parents, but also the weather (hot and rainy) has ruined my efforts. My mother tried to be positive, my father noticed the same defects I hate of this place. The only outstanding locations are the church Notre Dame du Sablon and the Jubilee Park. The rain has spoiled also the St. Gilles market on Saturday. The little town of Grimbergen offered more opportunities, with a bell concert, a nice museum in an old mill, and the garden around the old castle of the local prince. After showing Antwerp to my parents that have appreciated the pedestrian areas and the beautiful buildings (included the gorgeous railway station), we moved with the camper van towards the southern Belgium. The selected destination, suggested by a Belgian friend, was Durbuy, a medieval town in the Ardenne. Unfortunately the camping site was deserted and we reached Erezee, another cute town in the Ardenne.

Nassereith

The following step was traveling across Belgium and Germany, down to Kempten in Allgäu. We stayed in a camping close to a clean, warm, and very inviting lake. How sweet was hearing again the local musical dialect and receiving congratulations for my German. It has been like being in the heaven for me! The day after we visited our old friends in town. It was sad to see how much they are aged... they are over 80 and he is going to be 90 in a month. We stopped a night in Nassereith (Austria), a town that is noteworthy for the Baroque churches and painted walls of the buildings in the traditional Tyrolean style.

Italy welcame us with traffic jam in the highway and no information. Typical! I've spent the last Saturday climbing the Mount Cornetto, between Lavarone and Folgaria. After a long time, I overcame again over 1000 m altitude gap. I got a sunburn on my forearms but the landscape from the top of the mountain was worth of the effort. Far from any trouble and, above all, far from the ridiculous news about the Italian politics! We stopped one day in my hometown before I took a flight back to Belgium. This has been the hottest day ever. Finally, the flight to Charleroi was sad, not because it marked the end of my vacations, but because it marked the return to the Belgian life. I'm still not accustomed to this situation. The long queue waiting for the bus and the little issues found in the letter box have been the adequate conclusion of my happy  vacation days. The autumn atmosphere, with rain and 17°C temperature, did the rest.