Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Summer in Belgium – A Special Time

Where do I begin? This was the first time in 21 years that I returned to my home country for more than two weeks. It’s very different to “live” in Belgium instead of frantically seeing all my friends and relatives in a span of fourteen days every year or two. That method always felt like it was a dream; a whirlwind of activity that seemingly didn’t happen because it flew by so fast. I skipped last year.

Mark, Maya, and I made the decision to visit Belgium for two months straddling July, August, and September, to take an extensive break from our life on the road in South America and to enjoy quality time with my family and friends.

(As always, click on or hover over photos in galleries to read their captions.)

My parents let us use their small vacation house nearby, so we had the privacy and comfort of a real home, while being in driving, biking, or walking distance of everything we needed and everyone we wanted to see, including them. I also had first dibs on their only car. Life was easy!

The first two weeks, we got settled in “the little house” as we came to call it and worked a lot, while sprinkling in visits to family members and going for daily walks with Maya in the natural areas around us.

Being able to just walk outside and follow trails around the lake (Donk) any time we wanted was a big plus of this location!

Maya had many comfortable spots and was adored by friends and family!

I usually only see photos on Facebook of the amazing parties our friends Davy and Ellen throw at their farm-turned-home and yard-turned-tropical paradise in Zwalm, so I was happy to finally attend an event on their property, which Mark and I visited in the past. The occasion this summer? Ellen’s 50th birthday party!

And I managed to move my boxes of photo albums, diaries, and souvenirs from my cousin’s attic to the one in the little house.

From August on, our jobs slowed down a bit and we hung out with dear friends and family at an average pace of every other day. Sometimes, the social days and evenings were stacked and we felt exhausted, but other days we found ourselves with free time. As always, a balance was key, but every visit was fun.

We spent a weekend with our friends Rosy and Peter and a second weekend in Boom, focused once more on beer production.

During these longer visits, we managed to see a couple of historic Belgian towns.

Mark and I also drove an hour to an empty beach in the Netherlands to let Maya run before 10am, when dogs needed to be put back on leash (but were still allowed on the sands). On the drive home, we visited an online friend of mine on one of her historic canal boats.

The last ten days of August, our trio went on a real vacation – meaning no work – with my cousin, Griet, and her husband, Wim. We had booked apartments in the northern and southern part of the Black Forest in Germany and in Austria to visit Liechtenstein affordably. More about that trip in a future blog.

More about Liechtenstein later

The first two weeks of September were filled with visits from friends to our little place, a dinner invitation by my other cousin, Katrien, and her family, a fantastic gourmet multiple-course lunch at Pacht 26 with my mom and aunt Marleen, a quick visit to my aunt Nicole at the seaside, and a last-minute and highly appreciated reunion “halfway” in Liège with long-time friends from Germany.

Mark, dogs Kali & Darwin, and I met German travelers Sabine and Michael way back in 2006, when all of us were RVing (now called overlanding) in Central America. We shared an Airbnb house in Liège (in the south of Belgium) for one night to catch up.

Sabine sent us a photo of their visit to our sailboat Irie in the Bahamas in 2008 as a comparison of how we have aged in the last two decades… 😊

Our time in Belgium flew by too fast – who would have guessed? – and we thoroughly savored the company of our friends and family, daily hot and pressurized showers, unlimited electricity, a nice bed to sleep in, a comfortable couch, stacked and varied grocery stores, amazing food and drinks, a quiet environment, and the beautiful, sunny weather we lucked out with. I suffered from dental issues, which would be addressed on our one-week return to the US.

I think it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t mind another one of those comfortable breaks in the future. That being said, Mark and I are still happy nomads who look forward to continuing our South American adventures, next week.

Curious about a previous ten-year chapter in our nomadic lives, which includes eight years aboard a 35-foot sailboat in the tropics with dogs, check out my compelling, inspiring, and refreshingly honest travel memoir:

Plunge – One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary

Available on Amazon and elsewhere

eBook: US$ 5.99

Paperback: US$ 13.99


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28 Comments

  1. Sounds like a fabulous visit filled with a diversity of travel and family. 🙂

  2. Looks like you had an excellent two-month holiday with family, friends, good food, home comforts and fun travel.

    • Hi Natalie,

      It was such an easy lifestyle that we sometimes wonder why we don’t stick with it. We still had to work, so it wasn’t a holiday, but things sure were much easier than usually. Yet, the cost of living and the lack of adventure would cause itchy feet, I think.

  3. Living large! Great to have a nice chunk of time like that to reconnect with family and friends. I haven’t seen my sister, niece, and her 3 kids since Covid! We hope to squeeze in a visit as we’re rolling south for the winter — closer to the end of Oct. Glad you guys had a good time! 🙂

    • Oh yeah, Jim, we were living really large – and enjoying every minute of it, haha. But, it was temporary and that’s for the best. We don’t want to grow roots anywhere and get too comfortable! Or too used to luxury! 🙂

      I hope you get to visit your sister and her family on your drive south. It sounds like it’s been a while since you saw them and those family times are super precious. We don’t always realize it, but life is short… For everyone.

  4. Looks like so much fun, I’m surprised you left! That place looks like an amazing location for a party.

    • Haha, Alex! It would have been easy to stay a while longer. I actually wish we planned to be in Belgium for three months (my US husband can’t stay longer than that) but I’m sure we would have filled up our time just as much. And, yes, our friends’s yard is party central and a real tropical paradise. In summer anyway. 🙂

  5. Wow, it sounds like a wonderful break! Very different from suffering through freezing nights while the condensation drips on your bed. 😉

    • You know it, Diane! We cheated big time by flying away from winter and returning during the austral spring. This year, we will actually have two summers. Although, in Patagonia summer might as well be winter.

  6. petespringerauthor

    September 25, 2024 at 16:30

    You and Mark have figured out what works for you, and that’s all that matters. How many people get to vacation when they go home?

    • True thing, Pete. I guess life works the other way around for us. We travel full-time, while others only head out once a year. And when we return to our home countries, it feels more like vacation than in our camper. Solely because life is so much more comfortable and convenient in a house. Funny stuff.

  7. What beautiful photos and a wonderful trip back home.
    The smiles say it all! <3 <3 <3

    • Hi Donna,

      I’m glad you enjoyed our photos. An overload of it. And I still had a hard time picking this selection. Yes, there were many smiles – all around. From people and animals. 🙂

  8. What a wonderful summer! Including the weather which did not make its way this far north. We have had a poor summer (but still lots of fun).

    • Hi Anabel,

      I’m sorry you had such a crappy summer. Yet I’m glad about all the “dreary” fun!

      People in Belgium will say that the weather wasn’t all that great, this past summer, because they remember the heavy, never-ending rains of the spring, which lasted until the week before we arrived in July.

      But I can assure anyone that I’ve never experienced any summer for as long as I lived in and visited Belgium with this little rain and this much sun. The climate has changed a lot since my childhood and others have gotten used to this, while I haven’t. I could never sit outside at night without a sweater two decades ago, for example. Now, this is possible. Global warming. It’s a thing!

  9. Your post is brimming with family, friends, and food–as it should be. I’m so happy you had a more leisurely pace on this trip and I also had first dibs on a car. My son-in-law and grandson visited Belgium at the beginning of a tour of the Netherlands and Germany this summer. They loved it.
    Thanks for the update, Liesbet! 😀

    • Hi Marian,

      How nice that your son-in-law and grandson enjoyed a Western European tour this summer. I’m glad they added Belgium to their itinerary. Bruges more than likely. 🙂 A father-son travel experience? How special and cool!

      Thanks for the kind words, as always. This was such a nice visit to Belgium. It always is, but this summer was extra special because we stayed much longer than usually, so it will really stick. The memories will have to last until I go back in a couple of years.

  10. Sounds like a great recharging time!

  11. I really enjoyed reading this post and discovering a little bit about your friends and family from Belgium. Do you have any brothers or sisters?
    The little house looks so cute and comfortable, and the surrounding area very picturesque.
    I loved seeing how well Maya has adapted to being in Belgium. Was the flight over there ok for her? She is such a sweet girl.
    I am looking forward to hearing more about your trip to Liechtenstein, I have always wanted to visit it😀

    • Hello Gilda,

      Thank you for the sweet comment and interest.

      I have a brother who is two years younger and has a wife and two children, a boy and a girl. Maya was a trooper on the plane. She is so well-behaved, adapted, and flexible. She flew from/to three continents in one week!

      We are having a serious engine issue at the moment, but hopefully, we find a solution for it soon. Then, we plan to travel through southern Brazil. I’ll let you know if and when we reach Porto Alegre. 🙂

  12. They say, ‘There’s no place like home,’ and your photos are a testament to that, Liesbet. Your accommodation looks so comfortable, and it must have been amazing to spend two months rather than two weeks with family and friends. It looks like you packed so much in during that time. Sorry to hear about the dental issues, though. I hope they’re sorted now.

    • Hi Hugh,

      It was a super comfortable summer with friends and family – precious! It almost makes me want to return to modern, western living. 🙂

      I just posted my dental hygiene story… Some parts are irreparable, but other negative factors are heading in the right direction!

  13. Wow, what an amazing summer you’ve had! What better than comfort, friends and good times! I loved your vacation stay at your parent’s place. Must have felt like a palace for you, lol. I look forward to hearing about Lichtenstein. <3

    • Hi Debby!

      Yes, it was a very different summer than usually! And we truly enjoyed it, especially the food, comfort, space, and company. Nice memories now. 🙂

  14. So nice to take a break from regular life for a while.

    • Yes, it was. Belgium was a break in different but mostly fun ways still. I’m not sure if our batteries really got recharged on this summer visit. I feel we fell right back into the not always enjoyable routine of camper life from the moment we returned and the sleepless nights and tired days. Maybe we are still getting used to the routine…

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