Hot air balloons

One reason for which I love warm clear summer nights are the many hot air balloons. In the region between Antwerp and Ghent, the air is always filled with hot air balloons (they can't fly near Brussels because of the main airport there). Quite regularly in the summer I can see more than 20/30 balloons on my way home, some in quite different shapes.

I remember that I sometimes did a bike ride with my parents on summer nights and then it has happened that a balloon was landing in the field next to us. A couple of years ago there was a balloon stuck on the church tower in downtown Ghent during the festival in Ghent. It almost seemed like a planned attraction :p.

As a kid I was always running outside in the garden when we heard or saw a balloon coming by, waving enthousiastically to the people. Sometimes they were so close we could hear them talk.

Anyway, these are pictures taken from my window in Ghent last Sunday night. It was a sunny clear day but it wasn't very hot!! Sometimes you see them in early spring when it's still really cold. Imagine being up there, where it's so much colder!! Then I am glad that I can just watch them from my warm car or appartment.