Snowmagaddon in April

In contrast to yesterday's post these are pictures and my story of 2 weeks ago.  We were still in the east of Belgium and had been enjoying some snow already. 

Wednesday was the day we were supposed to return back to Leuven. It was one of the rare moments that we had used 2 cars to get to the east of Belgium (since we were transporting the cat and extra luggage for the extended weekend for the first time). So I had the joy of having to drive back in snowy conditions as well, which I tend to avoid at all costs. 

We got up at a thick snow landscape and it kept snowing heavily all morning. The view across the field was non existant as a snow fog had filled the landscape and lots of thick snowflakes flew horizontally by. 
Since any non routine drive (length, traffic jams, weather conditions) is a serious source of stress or let's just honestly admit "panic/fear", I felt quite sick that morning. 

I tried to overcome and not to show the children by ordering them to go play outside with me (while I could check the road conditions).  The wind was insane and cut in our faces.  It was harsh outside so besides a tiny walk in the village we quickly returned to the safe and warm indoor.   I could see the local farmer had already passed and cleared the road once but the ongoing snowstorm had already completely covered the road again and it was hard to tell where was the sidewalk and where was the road.
I made myself the promise to not drive through this at all and find another solution.  Even though I trust I'd be able to get through it driving slowly, I had heard from the neighbours that trucks were struck on the slopes of the highways in the area and the traffic maps showed standstill roads in the entire area.  Nope, I wasn't going to get in line in this storm like that.  

Back home I started investigating my meeting schedule for the rest of the weeks, to which degree I can log on to my work on different computers in the cloud (quite a lot!) etc.  So I told Jan we were at earliest leaving in the evening when predictions showed it would have all stopped or the next day somehow.  That calmed me down. 

11 AM

In the afternoon indeed the massive snowfall slowed down and eventually stopped. The roads got cleared by the farmer once again and I decided to profit from our last snow moment this winter (euh...spring) and pull Beertje in the sledge to the next village and back. I couldn't move Kabouter out of the door anymore after our morning. 

Snow had blown up in big dunes along the road. It was a quite impressive sight. 

2PM

A car had to be pushed up by some crowd in the village...in vain.  Even though the roads looked a bit more slushy they couldn't get conquered yet. 

Snow at bumper level

snow coverage on my car. It took me one hour of plowing to free up the cars. 

By the evening we finally saw signs that thawing had started and we could drive off without any real issues.  The roads had been cleared again and traffic had started, keeping them free. Pheww.  And like that our short snowmaggadon was over.    
I must say I am very happy to have had my clear share of snow this winter unlike previous years and now I am ready for some sun and spring.