Autumn walk through the Tervuren Park

Weather was quite good on Saturday. I was beginning to feel better after a horrible bout of flu which had me confined at home with over 38 degrees fever for three days. I was not fully recovered, but desperately wanted to get out into the fresh air.

So, around lunchtime, off we went to the Tervuren Park, which has to be one of the biggest, nicest parks in Brussels.

First we went for lunch. We headed to the Bootjeshuis, which serves typical Belgian brasserie-style food: Belgian carbonnades (beer beef stew), sausages with stoemp (a typical Belgian pure) and the like. While the setting is lovely and the food and service are quite correct, it was a bit of a let down. The restaurant had just started the lunch service and already they did not have a few of their specialities. On top of tat, at the end of the meal Mr M had to go to the nearest cash machine as they did not accept credit cards..... I don't know if they had a particular issue with their system that day, but I found it quite odd that such a big restaurant only accepted cash. Anyway, be warned.

On the plus side, they had a very nice baby-changing station, so I give them credit for that. Most restaurants in Brussels don't cater for families with babies that need a diaper change every once in a while, so it was a nice surprise.

After lunch, we went for a walk through this lovely, huge park. Due to its location close to the British School of Brussels, lots of English-speaking expats live in the area. It felt a bit like walking through a huge Regents Park.

There were many geese, ducks and swans to watch.

And even some spiky, weird-looking caterpillars

The Tervuren Park also houses the Royal Museum for Central Africa. It's set in a magnificent building built during Leopold II reign and houses all sorts of interesting pieces that give testimony of Belgian colonial history in the Congo. Neglected for a few years, the museum will finally undergo mayor renovation works that will last several years. You can still visit the old museum until December 1 2013, so hurry up if you want to see the "before" and "after" effect.

Our walk took us up to the "Spaanse Huis" (Spanish House in Flemish), which, besides not looking very Spanish at all, is a beautiful former water mill that since last year houses a nice cafe with a charming little terrace.

It was a great autumn walk, definitely worth taking your camera and recording the beautiful colours of the trees. Kids will love to walk, cycle or dart around in their "trotinettes" (scooters) through the parc (and they will sleep like angels on the way back home) :-)

Escape to Parc Tenbosch (Ixelles)

So, what do you do when, suddenly, both your children are at home during school holidays (the baby one and also the one you counted on being at the quite expensive hockey one-week stage you signed him up for but that he emphatically refused to go to after three days ?

Well, if you live in the Ixelles/ Uccle area, you escape to Parc Tenbosch for a spot of pic-nic. Obviously.

It's the yummy mummy park par-excellence here in Brussels, I think. Today, though, not a mummy and baby yoga class in sight. It was all very quiet and peaceful. All the loungers were empty, so Bibu and I settled and proceeded to attack our picnic sandwiches while baby Pingu proceeded to attack us (and steal some bites of my sandwich, after having eaten his own appropriate warm baby-meal)

As usual, picnics with two boys tend to last about 6 minutes, just long enough for Bibu to scoff his food as fast as he can and declare that he is ready to go to the playground. So there we went, wallking along the brick road, past the romantic, beautiful wooden benches:

And into the strange red wood chip playground

Parc Tenbosch is incredibly beautiful, definitely one of my favourite parks in the cityl. It's small, but big enough to house a couple of gated playgrounds (the woodchip one and one which is just a sandpit), a tennis, a petanque and a basquetball field, plus all the nice benches and greenery galore. The only thing missing is a toilet, preferably with a nappy changing station. Many other less nice parks in the area have toilets, so it's baffling why such a well maintained park doesn't.

That, and a nice coffee place just across the street is what would make Tenbosch the über-park. In the meantime, though, not to be missed. Boys and mamma very pleased with the bit of fresh air.