Liege
Before we left Malmedy, we had frites.
We had a nice visit with Jerome, an old friend of Gabe's from Belgian scouts, and his family at their home in Nandrin, a town near Liege. Jerome's daughter, Sophia, taught the boys a playful version of cache cache called "Cabolet" (not sure about the spelling). The seeker counts to 30 while standing next to a ball (or object) with their eyes closed as the others hide. The aim is to reach the ball before the seeker sees you, touch the ball, and exclaim "Cabolet and your name." The seeker must stay close to the ball to avoid losing. Laughter filled the air as we all enjoyed ourselves. In a round, Charlie cleverly positioned himself near Sophia while she counted. As soon as she declared "prête," he lunged in, touching the ball and claiming victory for that round. Sophia's frustration amused us adults. She never did specify that hiding was necessary.
In the last round, Jerome helped Sophia play a prank by draping a large zippered chair bag over her, making it seem like the chair was casually resting against the house wall. If Sophia had managed to stay even quieter, I doubt Luke would have spotted her. Although, being inside that musty bag made it difficult to breathe. After, we headed to Liege for the night. The area around our hotel was under construction, making access difficult. We entered a dim, empty parking garage, Luke said, "Let's leave, something feels off." We agreed, struggling to exit as the garage led us deeper before finally finding an exit. We called the hotel, got directions to another garage, and chose to carry only backpacks due to the neighborhood's sketchy vibe. While getting our bags out of the trunk, in the garage, I noticed a man sleeping on the ground, likely drunk. A bit unsettling. We settled into our boutique hotel, grabbed sushi for dinner. During dinner, we were discussing what family movie to watch. Charlie playfully chimed in with his snarky yet matter of fact tone, saying, "Can we watch “Luke Shut Up” — cause I have never seen that before." Charlie's knack for clever and well-timed humor catches us off guard every time and makes us laugh to the point of tears. We walked back to our hotel.
I didn't plan on including this in the log, but here it is. Red light districts. At first, I thought our walk through the Quartier Pigalle near Moulin Rouge, with places like Pussy’s and Dirty Dicks, was a one-off experience. We were actually on our way to a Brasserie but the line was crazy, so we opted for a different restaurant away from that neighborhood. Luke's eyes were like saucers, and we hurried out of there as fast as we could. Charlie and Luna were looking at us like, "Wtf? We're just 9!" Then, in Aachen, while we were wandering around, we walked by a pole dancing venue and some red lights down a side street. It struck me that Luke probably isn’t aware of that signal yet. And once more in Liege, while walking from our sushi dinner, there were ladies on the street, you know, Ladies of the Night. This prompted a conversation with Luke about keeping a low profile, staying invisible, and avoiding any trouble in such areas. Let's hope that's the end of our encounters with the Red Light districts. 🤦🏽♀️
