Our Hometown of Mons

This weekend we stayed close to home. These are pictures from the town of Mons which is about 4-5 minutes from our house. We took Sophia to a local indoor playground, although it was a beautiful day, it wasn't quite beautiful enough to let her play outside for a long period of time. This place was really neat because there was seating for the adults with an eagle eye view of the playground. John and I were cracking up because Sophia climbed up this high part and was inching her way backward to get her toes to touch the mat but she kept giving up (when she was like an inch away) because she couldn't feel the ground yet. We watched her do this four times going from one side of the platform to the other (as if they were different heights lol) before she finally touched the ground and went down to the next level. It was so cute to watch her explore. Then we went into the center of the old town. There are lots of cute shops and little cafes and it was very busy. SOLDES is a sale that happens here twice a year, once for the whole month of January and again in July...and it ended yesterday so the streets were packed. We've included pictures of the church there (we were there at a gorgeous time of day when the sun hit the stained glass perfectly---which by the way dates back to the 1500's) and pictures of the Grande Place (and the obnoxious red thing in the middle is Belgium's version of our blue mail drop boxes). Finally, there is a picture of the Car D'or (or Cart of Gold). This dates to the 1500's and has an interesting history. Each year it plays a role in Belgium's most important religious festival---it carries the relics of Saint Waudru through a procession that involves thousands of painted revelers. At one point the cart has to climb a steep hill and participants help push the horse driven cart. It is said that in order for the city to prosper, the cart can't roll back. Apparently the only two times it rolled back were the years of both the first and second World Wars. The first battles of WWI occurred in Mons and parts of it were heavily bombed and ruined during the second. Strange huh? Enjoy the photos!