shopping on a sunday!

So J and I were taking the bus to Wijnegem, and we got off the bus stop and this is where we ended up...

not kidding; this shopping centre was (suprisingly) open on a Sunday because of the upcoming festive season; but this being our first time there, we were suprised to see that it faced a big open patch of green...and then we saw the brightly coloured Christmas decorations, and knew we were in the right direction
so this is it, antwerp's answer to the all-in-one suburban mall...
with Sinterklaas decor
and a small house (which, by the way, parents would pay 6euros to take a picture with good ol sint, and get a small bag of candy) with a precariously climbing zwarte piet
I thought this was a pretty good use of a (pretty) normal piece of furniture, as a setting for the contact lens campaign..

and of course, this is us having our free samples of yoghurt (we got a tub of coconut [??!?!?!?] and a tub of raspberry)  ...
had to post this; they have this chain in holland as well; and I always thought it was an excellent way to get people into the shop - what better, than to call it free?
so we were done with our day of window shopping; and we stepped out and this is what we saw!!!
the weather forecast had warned that it would be a day of snow and the day temperature hovering around 1degree...
and being in Wijnegem (which is about 15 minutes out of the city) it was really quiet, white...almost like a movie...the snow really dampens the atmospheric sounds out...