Fire in the night

No, Liege is not on fire. This is the site of the Arcelor Mittal steelworks on the Meuse, working the night away. There still appears to be some activity despite the financial crisis and the recent job cuts.

Extreme close-up!

Poor standard

On Saturday we went to a football match in Liège for the first time. Standard de Liège played Zulte Waregem. As the Standard are third in the league and challengers for the first place, while Zulte Waregem are 10th, it was supposed to be a walk in the park. It was not, the away team ended up winning 1-2. Nevertheless, it was a nice experience, I liked the atmosphere of the game. The fans were passionate but not violent. Here's a view of a stand full of Standard fans.

Here's an action from the first half, the Standard are attacking.

At half time, they released all these balloons as part of a campaign called Men Against Violence to Women. The police strongly encouraged us to sign the petition as soon as we entered the stadium. I just love such grass roots initiatives.

A rainbow interlude

The rainbow put in an appearance during one of the very short and few sunny spells we had this week.

Saint Nicolas

Saint Nicolas' day is December 6 but he's been around for at least a week and he'll stay for another week or so... Saint Nicolas gives presents to good children but he is accompanied by the Père Fouettard (Whipping Father), who dispenses lumps of coal or even whippings to bad children. He's black either because of the coal or because he goes down chimneys.

What exactly are the Père Fouettard and the old lady doing to Saint Nicolas?

Return of the snow

This was the view from my office window this afternoon.

Earlier on though, the sun was nowhere to be seen...

Pork!!!!

Another example of the culinary delights on offer at the Christmas Village. Who said that continental cuisine is all about balanced and delicate flavours? No comment on the cook...

Le cortège de la Saint Nicolas

In Belgium and the Netherlands, Saint Nicolas' Day is a student festival. Students consider it as their day, and they participate in several festivities, most of which involve the consumption of mythical amounts of alcohol. The result is chaos and disruption for the cities in which the festival takes place. This year, the mayor of Liege decided to minimize the disruption by relocating Saint Nicolas's Day on Monday 1 December instead of 6 December. Here's a few pictures of the highlight of the festivities, the Saint Nicolas procession. The students are wearing their traditional lab coats... making it look like a procession of mad scientists.