La Mer d'Huile & The Small Country Problems

 The original plan for this long weekend was to go to Bruges with friends and wine & dine and the whole thing, but as you know- with kids - it's difficult to plan ahead. Olivia had a fever and some sort of stomach bug the past few days, so we opted out at the last minute. Today she seemed a little better, so we 'd figure that some fresh sea air would do us all some good. 
The problem in Belgium is that when you decide to go to the sea: 1) The rest of the population decided on the same plan 2) chances are that it is a school holiday 3) It is probably sunny with no to almost no wind. 1-2-3 resulting in traffic from start to finish. After some parking issues, you get out of the car, hungry and you try to find something decent to eat with a decent service. No that easy either, apparently. I generally don't get a good vibe from the coast here, because let's be honest...it's not the prettiest with all those ugly apartment buildings, it's full of tourist trap restaurants, dog poo on the sand... 
But after a good 30 minutes of watching my girl being so happy, looking out over the water, building sand castles, following the waves, I suddenly felt how you should feel at the sea: happy, calm & energized. And I appreciated it a little more. The color of the sea was so beautiful, together with the autumn light and the swell. Mer d'huile- my husband said. What a beautiful way to describe it. Everything sounds better in French.
After a few good hours of seaside bliss, we got back into the car, -together with the rest of Belgium. 
PS: Why not take the train, I hear you say, euh ... but that's a whole other blogpost.