Brussels Stories

Happy Belgium Day (Friday July 21)!

Yesterday the country celebrated the installation of King Leopold I as king of Belgium in 1831.


(<- photo byJeremiah)


Early in the day, Norm, Jermeiah and I mad a trip to Atomium. Built in the 50s and renovated the last 2 years. It still carried a futuristic 50 feel, as can be seen going up the escalator from one shiny ball to the other.

We also visited a large old grave yard and snapped photos of the catacombs below. We had dinner at that belgian cafe on the corner by Bourse, you know, that tall one.

We ended up at Grand Place and Parc Bruxelles for the firworks, which sounded awesome.

(<- photo byJeremiah)

	Last weekend (July 14-17) was another 4 visitor weekend. This time the visitors were from Winnipeg, enroute to various European destination, mainly Germany and Finland. On the left are the usual suspects, (L->R) Jeremiah, Captain Spread Eagle, Kangoo Jens and Tracy.
Two teams of two racers arrived in Brussels, from Paris, on Thalys. The Jeremiah-Norm team arrived 1 train, or 1.5 hours, before team Jens-Tracy. After walking nearly 60km and visiting some of the favorite haunts of team Maja-Owen, team Jeremiah-Norm left first Monday morning having rented a car and drove to the next checkpoint near Dusseldorf, Ger. Team Jens-Tracy was left to sulk in the intense midday heat waiting for a flight out late in the day from the southern town of Charleroi to a lay-over in Stockholm, on the way to their next checkpoint in Helsinki.
	The weekend was not nearly THAT exciting. But we did have the chance to see much of Brussels, pose for ridiculous group photos, and avoid all museums.
	After the whole gang had assembled at our place we went for dinner at a pizza place by St. Catherines. From there we walked through Grand Place during nightly light show and stopped for our first round of Belgian beers at St. Gery. Saturday began in the afternoon as the new arrivals began adjusting to their new European time zone. We started out at the beach built at Bassin Vergote. Small beaches, showers, bars, beach volleyball and ultimate, etc. had been set up. From here we walked to Rue Neuve, the shopping street, passed the Opera house and entered Grand Place. We continued onto Manneken Pis. Here we stopped for another round of Belgian beers at the Travelers cafe. It was then time for dinner, we headed to the most exclusive restaurant in town at Terrace Marie Therese. Another round of Belgian beers and we headed off for a walk to Place Jourdan for beer and fries in traditional Belgian fashion - fries at the friterie, eaten at a local pub, with another round of Belgian beers. Hoping to catch the Louise elevator down to lower Brussels we walked to Club Havana to be rejected by the closed elevator, and the club because I wore shorts.
	Theme of the weekend: "I'm too tall for the airplane seats. My neck hurts. Massage me"
	Sunday: Again the crew slept in. Around lunch we headed out the door for a walk in the park, Parc Cinquantinaire. Made our way next to the instrument museum (the MIM) for lunch on the rooftop cafe, the best view of the city. Then it was time to get on the train to Gent. A half hour away, Gent has an extensive old section to the city. And it seemed very old. We chose Gent as a way to spend Sunday because of the huge festival in town that started last weekend and runs for 10 days. We walked from the train to the old city in about half an hour, mostly along the canal. As usual the canal was filthy, again, as usual, we were not swimming in it so that was OK. We then arrived downtown to a lot of music and performers and food and beer. After getting something to eat and seeing some performances we decided to see the inside of some churches or, well, get inside any large building made out of stone to get out of the heat. In particular we (Jeremiah and I really) wanted to get up to the top of the tower. We got there as Quasimoto closed the door in our face. So off to the castle, castles are cool. Again, door closed as we are approaching. So we sat on the canal and...... had a round of Belgian beers. After wandering around some more it was back to the train station for us. Everyone at the coast had the same idea, so we were stuck on the floor for the ride home. Back in Brussels we made our way to Sultans of Kabab, the best cheap dinner in Brussels. Then we went and saw a bad movie at the theaters, but it was great to cool down and rehydrate.

Monday I was back at the office and had a chance to rest. It all starts again in 2 days (Friday) when Jeremiah and Norm return after a week in Gelsenkirchen.

Last 14. Guys perform tonight. Vote for Keith! (or whoever your favorite is, which should be Keith).

	Wednesday we made a trip to Huy, Belgium to witness a part of the travelling circus show called the Tour de France. We caught a 7:30 train to Huy (transfer in Namur) arriving shortly after 9:00. Huy lies along the river Meuse, in the Belgian province of Liège. It was a very nice little town, worth visiting and one of the oldest towns in Belgium. There was a gondola that went from the river to the top of the Citadel, and across to the next hill top, unfortunately we did not have the time to check this out, plus it was too hot to do any climbing up steep old roads.
	Ever wonder how a marching band performs at a cycling event? Well, neither have I.... but they get on bikes (for the one handed instruments such as trumpets) or tandem bikes (for two handed instruents such as the snares and clarinets). This band just went around the round about for a while.
	The race start was about 500m from the station so finding it was easy and straight forward. It started on the river bank near the base of the Citadel du Huy. We had an hour to scope out the scene, take pictures with team cars and receive our free breakfast: deux pain au chocolate, OJ/coffee and race bottles.
	The race was scheduled to begin at 10:35, with a pre-race "procession" at 10:30. We got our spot along the fence, 5m into the race side of the start line at 10:20. We were so set to catch the 20 seconds of upcoming excitement. Promptly at 10:30 the procession began: it was a caravan of race sponsors. Like the ads before a movie, cars and trucks drove by like a parade and went on forever, about 40 minutes. Each vehicle had been modified to advertise whatever product had sponsored the event. And they all had people harnessed onto the displays. I would call this the clown's side show. Why were there cars made to look like pens? and what does a pen company have to do with sponsoring the Tour de France? Anyway, as you can see by these examples, there is a lot of money thrown into this event.
	Obviously the race did not begin at 10:35. We had to wait in the heat for another 1.5 hours for the race to start. All the while listening to the MC blab about stuff (French blabbing of course). Then they introduced each of the 172 riders at the podium (behind my head in the first picture) as the riders signed their names to something. The town was very excited about this start, a Belgian - Tom Boonen - started this leg of the race wearing the yellow jersey. Finally at 12:15 the riders started making their way to the start line. At 12:20.00 they started. At 12:20.30 we could no longer see them, our work there was done. (<>
	Imidieatley after the bikers went by we got see all their shiny spare bikes as the team vehicles drove by.... mmmmm........

207km down the road in Saint Quentin, France at about 5pm, Robbie McEwen of Australia crossed the finish line first.



Watch my start video (8Mb)
(or on Google)

This was a great day trip.

Keith made the next cut

Last but in no way least was angelic-voiced jokester Keith Macpherson, singing Vertical Horizon's "Best I Ever Had." It took a moment for the judges to begin their comments once he had finished, having to first rouse themselves from a stupor caused by sheer amazement.

"That again, like last week, was perfect," said Jake. "That's what you are."

"I just have one question for you," added Sass. "Can I get your autograph?"

Tuesday, July 4 was the festival called Ommegang: from the Flemish words "omme" (around) and "gang" (walk). It cost a fortune to get tickets to see the show in Grand Place, which is also attended by the King and Queen etc. But we went to catch the procession leading to Grand Place from Sablon. I am glad I saw it but I would not recomend making a trip to see this.

It has been very hot the last week, with temperatures hovering around 30C, with little releif at night. The artisans participating in this parade were dressed very warmly and seemed very uncomfortable. But, and we are no longer surprised by this kind of stuff, the parade was followed by a giant keg of beer with taps being pulled by horses.

	We felt we needed to rediscover fresh air; so we made a trip to the coast on Canada Day. We arrived about half way north of the French border and half way south of the Dutch border in Oostende. Except for fishermen, this part of the country was largely uninhabited until about the 1830's. This is because it was largely tidal grounds - so sandy and diurnally underwater. The early 1800's saw extensive damning and dyking to make the area what it is today. From Oostende we caught the coast tram (Dutch site) north to Knokke (say every letter) near the Belgian/Netherlands border. (top: Main street Knokke; Bottom: Notre Damme, Oostende)
	Upon arriving in Oostende we quickly had lunch and left to get to the coast tram. It was a very nice day, around 30C. But the tram did not have any windws that could even open. It was so hot we had to get off in Aan zee, for the first stop on our coastal pub crawl. The village was very cute, with a 50's tv show set up and the scene on the beach was very turn of the century with the rows of beach chairs and umbrellas. After beer and ice cream it was back onto the coastal travelling sauna. (Top: Aan Zee; Bottom: Beach at Aan Zee)
	We passed through Manitoba and many other small villages before ending up in Knokke. Knokke is a very nice, tourist town worth a visit. It has tried to keep its beach scene very nice by implementing such building restrictions such as maximum height restrictions at 2 stories - to keep the sun shining on the beach. In Knokke we watched both of the day's World Cup games at the coolest pub. It was also an antique store, so everything was on sale. It was arranged like living rooms all over the place, each one centred around a large flat screen tv. We liked it so much after the first game (the pub good; the game bad - from my point of view) we decided to stay late and catch the France - Brazil game. We left it a bit early because Brazil had no chance in winning and we had to catch the last train home to avoid sleeping on the beach that night. (Top left: modified Smart cars; Top right: Tram stops, including Manitoba; The rest: the Antiques pub)
	Then the fun began. Once the train had been a half hour late we found out there had been an accident in Gent. So they were sending out a separate train to get those of us stuck in Knokke. This eventually came and dropped us in Brugge. After a nap on the platform another train picked us up and stopped at every stop on the way back to Brussels. Our return to Brussels at 3am left us downtown without public transport. We were able to find a taxi which took us the loooooong way home.

Speaking of clean air. The smog here is crazy, doctor's offices and hospital rooms are filling up with asthma patients. Ozone levels are high making it difficult for many to breathe.