No question of any alarm clock. And so at 09:53 (which is early for me on a Sunday as you know) I heaved myself out of my stinking pit. A leisurely breakfast was followed by a shower and just some general mooching about – and why not? After all, we’ve been working hard just now.
After lunch we went for a walk in the park around here. It is in fact an enormous series of parks that are all linked up to make a good walk. We started off just 200 yards from here where you can disappear into the woods that were formerly part of the domain of the Abbey of Dieleghem. Here there is a shrine that is supposed to have been the subject of a miracle and there are always a few people around there (except today of course – it was too flaming cold). We saw some parrots too there. Not too far away a small zoo was bombed during the war and the birds escaped. They have now established themselves in the wild just around here and it’s quite impressive to see them fly about.
We then walked along the bed of running sand that stretches for a few kilometres from the north to the sout of the city. We took the north direction and ended up at the Chateau de Laarbeck, which is now a cafe.
And that was that. We came home and thawed out because it really was a freezing cold day. But it was still nice to be out and about. Tomorrow we are back at work.
