Showing posts with label Bokrijk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bokrijk. Show all posts

Thursday, July 21, 2011

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)




Monday, June 21, 2010

Bokrijk Open Air Museum

Today marked the first official day of Summer for Brandon. Russ had the day off of work, so we took off to explore the Bokrijk Open Air Museum near Genk. Poor Jess missed out on this one, because she still has a few more days of school left. Not to worry. We'll be back. We spent several hours exploring, and still managed to see only about 1/3 of the park. The park covers 550 hectares (that around 1,359 acres), divided up into 3 major areas. There are over 100 buildings there, dating from the 11th to 19th centuries, and they were carefully dismantled at their original locations and reassembled in the park. At the entrance to the park is this castle. Just around the corner (on the left side of it) is a great restaurant where we had lunch after exploring. I recommend the chicken panini (sandwich). Delish! Yep. I'm a sucker for windmills, so I had to get a picture of this one. This grain mill weighs 35 tons, and it it's prime, it milled around 700 kg of grain per hour. Now, the trees have grown up around it and block most of the wind, so it no longer turns. There are stairs on the back side of it, and you can climb up and explore it's inner workings. This is a long farmhouse from Helchtern, built in 1815. It houses the private residence, barn and stables, all under one roof. Bokrijk is a "living museum". Walking around in these towns is like transporting back into the past. When you enter the farmhouse, you see the people living as they did back then. This farmer's wife is knitting by a cozy fire. She's happy to take the time to answer any questions you might have about their way of life.

Although it's hard to see in this picture, this house has a water wheel in that middle section behind the half fence. When the stream turned the wheel, it turned a pump inside the house that was attached to a butter churn. Running water equals fresh, home-made butter. Very smart!The lady inside the house had just finished doing her daily laundry in front of the fire. This was a house for a poor family in town, like a broom binder. It was very small, but cute. The blacksmith was off running errands when we happened by his work place. Still, it was interesting to look around at all of his tools.

I just have to include a picture of this little fellow. He and his friends were having lots of fun, playing in a field behind the Blacksmith Shop. They were running around and kicking up their heels, while their Mom's were quietly eating and ignoring them. I'd love to take him home with me. Everyone we met was very kind. One gentleman even shared his pancake lunch with us (topped with homemade strawberry jam), cooked over an open fire in his home. I'm already looking forward to our next visit to Bokrijk, and finding out what other treasures it has for us to discover. It was very relaxing, just wandering through the woods and exploring Flemish life as it once was, many years ago.