Down memory lane

Today, May 6th, we took it pretty easy. Partly so I could catch up on these blogs and just because.
We did go visit where Blanka and her family lived when Blanka was a girl. It was very amusing to hear her and Henk talk: "That is where the bakery was. The cherry tree is no longer there. This is the path we took to go to school. We can't see the church steeple. So and so lived here. The … lived there. And on and on…" They managed to agree on most things.
You could say we took a trip down a couple of memory lanes, starting with Korenbloemstraat 21 (Cornflower Street 21).

This was Blanka's home until she was 12 years old.  1944 to 1956.
Blanka with her parents, two sisters and three brothers squeezed
into the narrow home.

In the early 50's only two families had cars and Henk remembers
 them clearly - a Ford Taunus 12M and Standard Vanguard.
Today the whole street is lined with cars.

Never got a clear answer as to why, but the near by prison,
(see the red door, that is the back entrance to it)  kept coming up
in their conversation. It left a lasting impression on them.
During the war the Germans used it as a prison and many
stories circulated about what happened in there.

This busy intersection is not too far from Blanka's first home.

In 1956 Blanka's family moved to Ontmijnersstraat 5 (Minesweeper Street 5).
The street name bears witness to the impact the war had on Belgium.
 This was the family home until 1972.  

We wandered around the neighborhood and between Blanka and her brother,
they could name most of the neighbors; and could tell stories about every one of them.