Vous êtes Hollandaise, n'est-ce pas?

This spring first sunny and warm Saturday really spoiled us. But on Sunday the temperature dropped up to 13 degrees and started to rain bringing us back to reality. This is Belgium!

Let’s hope the bad weather won’t ruin our trip!

The rain gained in intensity until it became a downpour when we reached the little village of Houx, our starting point of the hike.
NO hiking without waterproofs today!

Cobblestone path led us from the village right to the steep muddy trail climbing up to the ruined castle of Poilvache. We’ve been here before, long time ago, then on a warm sunny day. It was beautiful!
But also today the lush woodlands were covered with windflowers, fig buttercups, cowslips and my favorite sweet violets.

By the time we reached the ruins we were already soaked. Luckily it felt quite warm so we decided to continue anyway.





The nature reserve along the river Meuse is a great hiking area but using this dated hiking guide it was a challenge to find our way.
Many times it was rather following our instinct. Most of the suggested paths were overgrown and impenetrable.


That’s how we came across this rusty bomb probably from the World War II. The boys were shaking with excitement, especially the bigger one, so I really had to rush them away from this place.
Up and down we went climbing and descending for several times, forcing our way through the thicket, we startled a deer in the brush… Finally, rather by a miracle we found ourselves on a path leading right to the searched Tour de Géronsart, ruins of a medieval watchtower.

Naturally Maarten couldn’t resist climbing those thick walls making me nervous, therefore I could hardly enjoy the marvelous views from the old bare windows overlooking the Meuse river valley.

Descending back to the valley it was muddy and slippery meaning Maarten was most of the time on his buttocks having blast of course!
Ooh, almost forgot to mention that it actually stopped raining somewhere half way.

An old jeep puffing up the hill with a little doggie behind the wheel stopped next to us and two laughing men went straight: "Vous êtes Hollandaise, n'est-ce pas? I can tell just by looking at you. This is actually a private area. Mais c'est pas grave."

Our guide book was dated, but what an adventure!