runaway train...and never coming back

It's always fun to drive in Belgium. The traffic and driving culture is something spectacular to any other western European one, but once you get into it, it's kind of enjoyable. It feels like they left a bit more responsibility for the driver (to cope). One thing that stop me this time, that I have never seen anywhere else, was the runaway-track, supposedly meant for the trucks. Here's a snapshot from google earth.

The road is E42 highway passing by Verviers, and - coming from south - it's a gentle but rather long downward slope, which leads you to a steeply curved bridge over the city. As we were driving along the sign "runaway track" caught my attention - first because it was in english among all the rest in french, and two because i'm used to having exit's or ausfarts (in germany) from highways, but "a runaway track" sounds like something more than that.

Besides having the 90's legend "Runaway Train" from Soul Asylum ringing in my head for the rest of the week, I had a moment of silence for all the truck drivers that has had to use that track. As the picture tells, it's about a truck broad, a half truck deep, 25meter long chute, designed to stop a truck - for good. Probably to let some truck drivers out alive, the bottom end was packed with something that looked like a mattresses at sport fields.

10 points for the engineers who designed it, because it has probably saved the lives of the few who've come out of it alive... although, I doubt if the following curvy bridge would have passed the safety committees in any other country - when afterall, it's so difficult to drive that some will need to escape from it the last minute.

a minute of silence for the sake of all the truck drivers' widows.

more pictures from the trip

I enjoy taking photos. So I watched the most of last weeks vacation trough the viewfinder, which was really relaxing to me, but might have been annoying to others. However, here are some shots as the result.

This is a peek out view from the wyrwal's living room. Taking it felt just awesome. :)


Here's an excerpt of Antwerp - somewhere in Hoboken. Zoomed from the same 16th floor window.


A couple of pear trees (i think) in Germany near Frankfurt -Hahn airport. Even if you don't know anybody around there, I recommend a trip there. Ryanair flies there ridiculously cheap, the hotels are priced fairly as well, and the landscape is just beautiful. There's even a big nature reservoir. it's altogether a good place to have a look on the beautiful countryside of Germany.


This is an oak in park at Wilrijk, Antwerp. Count and name the birds. :) (if you click it, it gets bigger and more beautiful)


Here's a sunset to Antwerp horizon. They tell we've past the point of no return in global warming... these pipes keeping speeding it up. However, as we returned form +12C degree of Belgian spring back to -17C at Tampere, for a moment i just wished that it would come upon us a little faster.

spring trip

We returned yesterday from a week trip to Belgium. We had a wonderful week up at Wyrwal (the 16th floor).









Boys got to see sweet sweet Vera the cousin and we all enjoyed the time spent together. Here's some pictures.



One of the greatest thing traveling gives you, is learning how people in other countries live. Like Benjamin, who learned that at some places breakfast can be chocolate coated bread. What could be a better starter for a day?



During the week we took a one day visit to see the friends like Shannon, at CTS - the school we studied theology.

get set, ready, go!

Sarita took the boys to a skiing race. She did it all - the mom, the cheer, the coach, the crew, the press... anything. They had a good time, and boys did fine, especially Joonatan in respect that he had it rough. The binding broken off the other ski just before the race, and despite of Sarita's MacGyver like duck tape fix, it did not hold together. But he fought it through and finished as the last - but proved mentally strongest. (well, stronger than his dad, anyway) Benjamin scored as the second of the 3-yearers.