Bokrijk... History Brought To Life

Today, we took the Moms to Bokrijk Open Air Museum in Genk. It's a living museum, and it's lots of fun to visit. Entering this park is like stepping back in time to the year 1911. The buildings are from that time frame, and there are people "living" and working in them. They are very friendly, and will not only show you what they do in every day life, they will answer questions. (And yes, lots of them speak English.) Plus, there is a really cool castle just outside the park gates.

So, of course, we had to take some pictures.

I loved these grapes over the door frame of one of the houses.

This gentleman was cooking pancakes for a mid morning snack. He made one for us, and put a delicious apple/pear jelly on it. After we ate it, he told us that it was called something like "poopagain" jelly. They give it to children when they are constipated. That might have been nice to know before we ate the jelly. (You'll be happy to know that there were no ill effects.)

The blacksmith was hard at work, making lots of nails. It was very interesting to watch him form the nails out of a piece of steel.

This lady was sitting by a nice, warm fire and crocheting.

This water wheel was very pretty.

It's actually a grain mill, and you could go and look inside of it.

Here's a peek inside the building.

Russ and Jess made friends with the baby donkey. He was very sweet. And his ears were enormous.

We spent all morning just walking around and exploring the different buildings.

This gentleman was a book maker, and showed us how he attached the pages to form the book.

Wilbur was trying to eat the wood on the side of his pen. He didn't seem very friendly, so we let him have his space. I'd like to have an attack pig one day.

This little house was tucked off to the side. When Russ and Brandon peeked inside... They found a family of rabbits.

This is one of the biggest butter churns I've ever seen. Can you imagine the arm muscles these people must have had?

The church was on the back side of the park, beside the Museum Gift Shop. It was small, but very interesting.

They offered horse drawn carriage rides from one section of the park to the other. These horses were huge! We decided to just keep walking. We needed the exercise, because we had to work off the fantastic lunch we had at the park restaurant. Maybe instead of "The Summer Of The Moms", I should call this section "How I Ate My Way Through Europe." We're doing our best. ;0)