Liege, Belgium

Posted on December 17, 2023  •  11 minutes  • 2305 words

Our second night in Paris I was on Facebook and saw a photo of Elena (Ben’s nanny from when he was an infant and we lived in Boston) and her husband, Robert, on an airplane. I assumed Oaxaca, but her husband is Belgian, so just threw it out there and asked where they were going as we were going to be in Belgium. They were flying to Belgium! Within hours, we had a trip planned for us to meet up with them! I was kicking myself for not reaching out earlier, but had just assumed they would go to Oaxaca from Christmas, which they do a lot to see family. We had even gone with them one year. Changing Airbnbs, checking cancellation/refund policies and re-booking train tickets quickly was a bit stressful, but it worked out. One Airbnb, I was withing hours of the cancellation/full refund policy. We shaved 2 of the 7 nights we were going to be in Paris and 1 night in Brussels (before Dan and his mom got there).

It was so exciting to see Elena there waiting for us. It’s been 5 years since we’ve seen them, and even though we keep in contact, it’s not the same. She was so excited to see how big the boys had gotten. The boys ran straight into her arms, even Max who had never met her.

So many hugs and we headed up the escalator to where Robert was waiting with the car. Lots of talking and story telling in the short ride to their place on the outskirts of town. We pulled into the driveway and the kids were SO excited! There was a big yard where they could run around and a full bamboo forest, as they called it. We went inside where we saw Karla, Elena’s oldest daughter. More hugs and then the kids were off to running around and checking out every room in the house. And there were so many rooms! Robert’s great-grandfather had built the 3-story house and it all was so magical, but more on this later. Kids did the inside loop and then outside to check it out more. And if the setting wasn’t perfect enough already, their neighbor had sheep!

Near their place is the Blegny Mine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that they thought we would love. The only tickets they could get were for that day at 4pm, so much to the detriment of the kids, we loaded them back in the car after only playing for about 30 minutes outside. When we got there, Robert did the talking and reported back that our guide could do the tour in English for us, instead of doing a guided audio tour.

Robert and Elena had done it a couple times, so they waited for us in the café. We got helmets and shirts/smocks to keep us a clean, in case we rubbed against coal on the wall. Turns out we were the only people in our time slot, which was great because he could cater it to us. The tour was 1.25hrs and we decided to slim that down to a little under an hour. It was perfect. The kids were loving wearing the helmets and thought it was hilarious every time they ‘accidentally’ fell off. I offered a candy in the car for any kid (the culprits were Sam and Max, go figure) who didn’t have their helmet fall off the rest of the tour. Solved that problem super-fast!

We started the tour out by taking an elevator down 30 meters.

Before radios and current day communication, they used a bell system to signal how far down you wanted to go.

Heading down, it was a bit dark and spooky. Our guide was so knowledgeable and I was enjoying it so much. Ben too really, but Max and Sam were more interested in just looking around, walking on the rails and trying to find anything to touch or pick up. The passage way was quite big now, but it used to be only 80cm high (don’t quote me as there was a lot of info). I remember thinking, Max would have had to crawl also.

Thinking about it now, maybe there should have been some more thought to ‘is this safe?’ Clearly it’s been working for over a hundred years, but looking back at the photos of the structure makes me think.

Our guide explained a poster about how you could tell the amount of oxygen in the mine depending on the color of the flame of the light.

As we walked down the passage way, we crossed a ’line’ of where coal was extracted. You could look to the left and see up the strata layer; it was about 2-3 feet think. They the imaginary slope of the layer where we were walking and then it continued down to the right. A full layer of strata had been removed for hundreds and hundreds of square yards. I don’t even know how far it went in each direction. I was so caught up in the craziness of this that I didn’t take a photo and struggled to find one online. It’s hard to explain it exactly and even harder to imagine the coal being removed and these support posts/jacks with iron ‘beams’ running between them.

And if all that wasn’t sufficient enough to boggle your mind to explosion, think about how much pressure is on these little supports that is holding up the gap where the coal was taking out. SO MUCH!!! Our guide said that if the soil/rock above was unsupported for 4ft, it would collapse and it looked like they used an okay factor of safety and placed the supports much closer. Feet upon feet upon feet of soil above! Actually, you could do a rough calculation: at 100ft down, column/jack at 2 feet on center (both directions) would equal 100ft x 2ft x 2ft x 100pcf (density of soil/rock and this is LOW but I don’t want to use a calculator) = 400000 lbs on each jack! That’s 400 kips! That’s 100 sedans! Just a rough estimation, but you get the idea.

We went down steps, equivalent to 30 meters and were now down 60 meters. It seemed to go on forever.

We saw an old drill that would drill meters and meters into the rock to explore, looking for a layer of coal. In this area, the layers of rock or coal were at about 30 degrees. Simple math could tell you where it would continue depending where you were. Pythagorean’s theorem works in all languages. :) Kids loved the old tools and carts. Our guide turned on some of the tools momentarily to give an idea of the noise level. It was loud!

This one could lift up the material and carry it 180 degrees overhead and dump on the other side.

Continuing along the carved-out tunnel, we made it back to the elevator. This time we took it all the way up to the tower to see how the coal was processed, sorted and shipped off.

It really was so interesting, I think I had a vague idea of how coal was mined, but most of that was based on Zoolander.

We took off our jackets and helmets and met back up with Elena and Robert. Excited kids telling them about some parts and as we were walking out, we passed a pretty cool playground. Kids were dying to play and the adults were dying of cold standing there in the wind. 3 minutes I gave then and then we all got back in the car to head home.

More tearing through the house, it was dark so they couldn’t play outside, and checking out every single room. Easy dinner and I let them watch a Wild Kratts so I could just sit and have adult time. Ben came up, asking for me to say goodnight. They were all tucked in and looking tired by 8:30pm. I lasted an hour upstairs and when I came down, kids were passed out hard, but had migrated around the room.

When we woke up, I could see a little light outside. It was 8:30am! First thing they wanted to do was go outside, so Ben and Sam headed out.

It was a pretty chill day as Elena, Robert and Karla had plans to head to Brussels for the day. They invited us, but I told them the kids just needed a day without marching around a city and where they could just do their thing. It worked out perfectly as they were outside for more or less the whole day and I was able to get a lot of work done, without having to stay up really late.

Lunch time came and it was a struggle for them to come in and eat. ‘But MOM!!!’ They planned a show for me, which ended up in Max getting whacked with a stick in the face. No more banging sticks. Poor guy.

When Elena and crew came back around 4pm, they were STILL outside! They came in for a bit to say hi and sit on laps, but still ran back out for a little bit more before it was pitch black. The sun set around 4:45pm. Elena had decorated the house so well and the kids loved the lit candles.

Same routine as the night before, dinner, kids went to watch a show, said goodnight and stayed up drinking wine until we were all too tired. Kids had migrated locations by the time I came to bed.

Robert had a few things we wanted to show us in Liege, so the next day we bundled up and went to town. There was some waiting on the front steps for the 2 older kids to be done with their backyard ‘work’.

Karla, the kids and I got dropped off to climb some stairs, famous I guess, while Robert and Elena did some errands. It was a few hours since breakfast, so on the way walking there we stopped to get some pastries…we needed extra energy for the stairs, right? Super yummy as usual in this part of the world. Kids got waffles, Liege style, and I got some flakey pastry with chocolate, but not a croissant.

We got to the stairs and that is just what they were! A giant staircase headed straight up.

No turns, to flare, just straight up stairs. Kids took off and it was nice you could see all the way to the top. Max slowed down a bit, but not the other two. We made it up and were rewarded with views of the city and a few more bites of waffles.

The way down was the treat. The kids used the handrails as a slide. Ben and Sam were big enough to make it over the half way post, but Max had to climb over. They loved it! Ben and Sam made it all the way down and then went up as far as I would let them to do it some more.

We finally convinced the kids to stop sliding and we walked through the Christmas market to meet up with Elena and Robert for lunch. Sam did some drawing.

A bit too cold for outside, so Robert found a very yummy place to eat. Wiggly butts and arguing over who got to sit next to Robert, but overall a great lunch.

I forgot to take a photo of my delicious salad before I started, probably because I was so hungry.

I hopped into a grocery store and Elena and the kids found this.

Back at the house, kids headed straight to the backyard without even stepping foot inside. Lots of playing and I finally coaxed them in when I couldn’t see them from the front step because it was so dark.

I had a meeting that night at 5:30pm, but kids were thrilled to play with Elena while I was not to be disturbed. I love how much they love her. Easy dinner and same night routine as the night before.

The next morning, after more sleeping in, we woke up after Elena and Robert had left to get their friend from the airport in Brussels. Quick breakfast for the kids, and yup you guessed it, right back outside.

The magical place from the front. And when I’ve been saying ‘backyard’ I really mean, front/back/side yard that they would just run around in forever.

I packed pretty easily and enjoyed some downtime with Karla. More wraps for lunch so they didn’t have to come inside to eat and a warning that we’ll be leaving for the train station in about an hour. They really didn’t want to leave…and now I didn’t want to after seeing the most amazing looking pastries they picked up on the way back from Brussels. That’s mine that Max is eyeing.

Robert and Elena drove us to the train station and after so many hugs and so many ‘we’ll plan something sooner next time’ and we lugged our bags to our platform.

Super cool gigantic roof of the train station.

Kids were thrilled when a double decker train came to our platform. So crowded with people getting off and on, but once we were on, there was plenty of space. Quick 45min ride to Brussels and as we slowed into the station, there was Dan looking for us!

We got off and Ben and Sam were trying so hard to run to get to Dan first, that they tripped each other. The reunion was filled with a bit of tears, but got over it quickly as we walked downstairs to where Grandma McConnell was waiting with the baggage at a cafe and all three rushed into her arms.