Sledging until we're all battered and bruised

The 2nd Sunday of the new year was a glorious Sunday.  We had had a load of new snow on Friday and Saturday.  While Jan didn't feel too well and Beertje didn't want to walk,  Kabouter and I ventured out back to our favourite sledging hill at the end of the village near the river. 

Unlike all other times we weren't alone on the hill. It was quite crowded out there with about 40 people on the slope, all speaking French and German so I assume and hope a lot of neighbourhood people.  With all the giggling and screaming and babbling in the background and the sun out on the snow, I felt myself for an hour on a wintersport vacation.  

Since we were just two with 2 sledges, I didn't want to get cold by just watching, so I did my part of sledging down the hill. I was a little annoyed by the crowd but fortunately they all stayed nearby the road while our part of the hill was still all untouched for us to explore. 
The hill has some bumps form the GR trail that crosses so sledging down always makes you fly up a tiny bit and bump back down.  It would deliver me battered thighs with about 8 impressive bruises so I could "enjoy" this bit of fun for the rest of the week. 

It was difficult to leave the hill behind and walk back home to pack up and return to green rainy Leuven.  To worsen this feeling, we got stuck in the biggest traffic jam we've experienced so far in the east of Belgium in the last 10 years (not caused by accidents or snow roads or traffic works).   Wow, the closure of the boglands and the demand of the province governor and local mayors not to come sure has impressed a lot of people.