Blogs from Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium, Europe - page 9

Thoughts on countries so far: Scotland - Cold, windy, beautifuly! Drive on the wrong side. People are friendly. Galic is weird! Really like Irn Bru soda! Neil, our guide rocks! Germany - Warmer, but windy on the Rhine. Enchanting towns. Everyone rides bicycles. Inexpensive for a tourist area. Dogs are everywhere... even restaurants, stores, and train stations! Luxembourg - It may be the country with the highest income per capita in the world, but they don't keep their streets and public places very clean! Spend some money on public maintenance! Clothing... women's at least, is expensive! Lower Luxembourg City (Base?) is quite pretty. Brussels - Very diverse in people and buildings. A lot of historical places. European Captial, and buildings to show for it. Never seen so many Kebap or Doner meat restaurants. Waffles are grrrreat! ... read more

Yesterday was our last full day in Brussels. Today we take the train to Amsterdam. Yesterday was another beautiful sunny day in Brussels. We did a lot of walking around and went to the musical instrument museum. That museum has a variety of instruments from all over the world. You wear a headset that is connected to a widget that plays a sample of whichever instrument you are standing in front of. It works pretty well as long as you are a person who can resist the temptation to fiddle with the buttons on the widget. I think I might be a fiddler. One great thing I got out of the experience is that I now know what a hurdy gurdy sounds like. After the musical instrument museum we circumnavigated the royal palace. It is a ... read more

Today we decided to go at a more leisurely pace. after breakfast we took the Metro (subway) out to the site of the 1958 world expo. (We haven't suddendly picked up French, and Dutch is hard to read let alone pronounce, so navigation through the Brussels under ground keeps on our toes. Fortunately we are pretty good at pattern recognition and can match up words on signs to words on maps. We have also learned a few of the practicalities. For instance, the subway car doors don't automatically open when the train stops. Whether you are getting on or off, you have to pull on the handle yourself to open the door.) Our first stop was the Atomium. This is a gigantic model of an iron crystal. It's analogous to the Space Needle in Seattle. There ... read more

While out walking today we found the widely viewed and most photographed statue in Brussels. It's called Manneken Pis. It is a statue on a fountain of a small boy going pee. You can buy copies of this statue in varying sizes and colors all over the place. This is a bronze statue made in about 1619. Since that time the statue has often been dressed up in a costume on special occasions. We saw some of the 700+ plus costumes on display in the city museum. There are two modern day bronze statues called Zinneken Pis (dog) and Jebbeke Pis (girl). We found these as well. The one of the dog is just a block from our hotel. The other is down a dead end alley in an area of expensive restaurants that cater to ... read more

Tonight we went to a place for dinner that was more frequented by locals and less by tourists. The menu was in French as far as we could tell. And the only French we know comes from singing the Toast Song and watching old Pe Pe la Pew cartoons. The fun part was that the wait staff's command of English was only slightly better than our command of French. We debated what to order and both decided on steak. In part because that was one of the few things on the menu we were sure we knew and also because it sounded good. There was some initial confusion when Brendan asked a few questions about the menu. It would have gone smoother if either one of us knew the French or Dutch word for horse. The ... read more