Genk

18 May 2015:  We planned to visit the wonderful open air museum at Bokrijk during out hike from Hasselt to Genk today.  However, I lost track of opening hours when making plans.  This morning at breakfast I checked Bokrijk's website — and learned that it was closed today!  That gave us some flexibility in our schedule, which we put to good use:  We lingered over breakfast, with sunshine pouring into the pleasant dining room of the B&B.  We then enjoyed a good chat with our hosts, Lieve & Jos.

Hiking through the forest of the Bokrijk domain, we encountered Johan, a forest warden there.  He was an interesting and friendly guy.  We enjoyed a long chat with him about our hike, the various varieties of sequoia trees (a particular interest of his and a topic with which Mary, as a Californian, is also acquainted), and some contrasting aspects of Belgian and American societies.  We were interested to hear Johan describe how he felt uprooted from his home, having moved 20 km to his present residence.

Today's hike took us through forests and along lakes, like yesterday.  We also walked along the Albert Canal again.  Today, we walked past the big Diepenbeek locks.  Such things interest me, so we paused to watch a barge passing upstream through the lock.

The barometer began to drop at the end of the afternoon.  We may lose our beautiful, sunny weather tomorrow...

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Another good day for laundry: 

Johan, the forest warden, and Carroll discuss life...

We're still headed in the right direction:

Belgian fruit pies, called "vlaai":

Action on the Albert Canal:

A tight squeeze:

Mary tests the aerodynamic qualities of some of the white fluff that falls from the trees here:

There is a dense network of marked trails in these forests.  Carroll's tattoo is new (marking, so to speak, his retirement); it is based upon a drawing of an elk done by Chloé.

Our backpacks take a break:

Our hotel in Genk: