Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Winnipeg rocks Brussels
 | 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.
# posted by Us : 4:35 p.m.
Comments:
<< Home
Receive an email each time this page is updated
Great post OO, I really like the link when you click on 'flithy'. I also laughed hard at 'Captain Spread Eagle' you're funny. It's great fun to see all those familiar faces in the same place, must have been a fun reunion!
Are you enjoying the Tour. Talk about 'never say die' Landis eh?? Very exciting!!
Post a Comment
Are you enjoying the Tour. Talk about 'never say die' Landis eh?? Very exciting!!
<< Home
Hangman
