Snow delight (& snow horror)
Last winter we had our eye at our current weekend spot already and we were cursing that we couldn't go there yet given all the snow Belgium got last winter.
Ha, how happy are we to have a record winter already. 18 snow days by mid December: we broke the 1945 record (cfr snow during the Battle of the Ardennes). Airports close partially in Europe everywhere and have to host a lot of stranded passengers, trucks are forbidden to ride so supplies run low at places, trains don't ride as the personnel doesn't get at the train stations or track switches are frozen, ... But it looks like I might experience my first white Christmas ever! Woohoo, that's about time.
So by now there's already 60cm of snow at the High Fens of the Ardennes. So apart from treating our muscles to some shovelling activities and some new cross-country skiing moves, we can profit a lot more of all the snow opportunities in Belgium's "snow walhalla" :p.
So last weekend we went to a nearby calm small ski-hill where I could refresh my long forgotten ski skills. As you can see Belgium's ski-hills are impressive, huge & extremely challenging but I had good fun and regained some of my lost confidence to be on skis. I'm not quite ready to return to the Alps but it does feel like more. Look look, I don't plow constantly anymore ;).
The next day my brother-in-law came to sledge a bit with the kids.
Unfortunately it was snowing massively, covering everything with a new thick white pack in record speed. As a result my fear of a long trouble some drive back to Leuven came reality. All truck traffic had been forbidden in the south of Belgium, ...not that such a rule truly kept them from happily sliding along in the middle lane. Argh. The roads were greatly covered in snow as this amount of snow cannot be handled by the plows in Belgium so everything was creeping along. Pure horror for me, although it wasn't quite as bad yet as that worst snow drive. We only had 2h delay this time before I could crash in the sofa, dreaming about nice easy bunny-hills to ski and snow free roads. And enjoy the fact that I have Christmas vacation and I don't have to leave the house if I don't feel like it
Ha, how happy are we to have a record winter already. 18 snow days by mid December: we broke the 1945 record (cfr snow during the Battle of the Ardennes). Airports close partially in Europe everywhere and have to host a lot of stranded passengers, trucks are forbidden to ride so supplies run low at places, trains don't ride as the personnel doesn't get at the train stations or track switches are frozen, ... But it looks like I might experience my first white Christmas ever! Woohoo, that's about time.
So by now there's already 60cm of snow at the High Fens of the Ardennes. So apart from treating our muscles to some shovelling activities and some new cross-country skiing moves, we can profit a lot more of all the snow opportunities in Belgium's "snow walhalla" :p.
So last weekend we went to a nearby calm small ski-hill where I could refresh my long forgotten ski skills. As you can see Belgium's ski-hills are impressive, huge & extremely challenging but I had good fun and regained some of my lost confidence to be on skis. I'm not quite ready to return to the Alps but it does feel like more. Look look, I don't plow constantly anymore ;).
The next day my brother-in-law came to sledge a bit with the kids.
Unfortunately it was snowing massively, covering everything with a new thick white pack in record speed. As a result my fear of a long trouble some drive back to Leuven came reality. All truck traffic had been forbidden in the south of Belgium, ...not that such a rule truly kept them from happily sliding along in the middle lane. Argh. The roads were greatly covered in snow as this amount of snow cannot be handled by the plows in Belgium so everything was creeping along. Pure horror for me, although it wasn't quite as bad yet as that worst snow drive. We only had 2h delay this time before I could crash in the sofa, dreaming about nice easy bunny-hills to ski and snow free roads. And enjoy the fact that I have Christmas vacation and I don't have to leave the house if I don't feel like it
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