MALMEDY AT CHRISTMAS

We spent Christmas this year in Malmedy in the Belgian Ardennes, which had quite a sad role in WW II especially for the American army. But today it is a wonderful holiday place, in summer for hiking and in winter for snow sports.

On Christmas Eve day, we walked down to Malmedy. It had snowed and the landscape looked very pretty.

My son with DIL and MIL

We went through the woods and sometimes the way was quite slippery.

Then we arrived in Malmedy

which was nicely decorated for Christmas

There also was an ice skating place for everybody, which my son and dog Jersey inspected.

The big Christmas tree in the middle of Malmedy

Nicely decorated windows

the barmaid in the Pub where we had a hot drink, was already dressed for Christmas Eve

the whole town was decorated with cats !

small and big once

nearly at each corner ! They probably did it for me !

But there was also a funny Christmas tree with CDs as ornaments, outside a computer shop.

Brussels Christmas market

Last week I went to the yearly Christmas market in Brussels. It is quite big, more than 2 km (1.2 miles) long and has 240 stands.



My friend and I started at the Grand'Place where the tradional Christmas tree was standing. This year it came from Germany, is 240 m (787 ft) high and 7 m (23) large. It's all decorated in blue and looks very beautiful when it is dark






The gold on the buildings were shining in the sun !





The nativity scene with human sized figures and one real sheep, but it slept in the corner.



The stalls started at "La Bourse" which is the Brussels" stockmarket building





taken over from Germany, the Glühwein, a hot red wine with spices







a better view on "La Bourse"



the other part of the market was a little further on across a boulevard



of course we stopped at many stalls. There were such nice things to see.



I had fun of taking a picture of myself



and my friend, in the mirror where we finally bought warm gloves



She was also hesitating to buy a warm knitted bonnet



gift ideas for everybody



and this sweet "cotton" to eat



You could also ride on this geant wheel



or do some ice skating





Poor woman was just eating



an enormous variety of sausages !



I got also hungry and ate a "Tartiflette", (potatoe slices, with smoked ham cubes and cheese)



Ilona looked at an American Native's stall



There also was a huge elephant



and a large choice of candles







certainly enough to eat for everybody's taste



and the Lion at "La Bourse" was wondering what happened here.