We found out over breakfast that the EU made a decision yesterday and they made the Belgian Prime Minister, the President of the EU. Evidently Tony Blair had also put himself forward for the job but was never going to get it because “he is an absolute imbecile!”
We have a quiet day planed for today just mooching around the centre of Brussels. On our way into the centre we were amused to see a very frail old man standing on the top step of the Metro escalator (blocking the path), with a walking stick in one hand, and sending a text message with the other. Is this the new Belgium?
We were making our way towards a famous little statue in these parts, it is a statue of a little boy pissing. Everywhere you go you see replicas of all sizes in the tourist shops, made of everything from plastic, to chocolate. What impresses you most about this statue when you see it, is the size. It is small, about 55cm tall, and it is dressed. According to a school teacher who was pontificating at great length to his class about it, “It has 847 different costumes, and if you are laughing about the size, nobody promised you the Statue of Liberty.” And that is the Manneken-Pis, the statue that is supposed to give you good luck if you dress it. They have a guy whose job it is to dress it in its various costumes (they get changed every day). With the attitude to work that we have seen, we wonder if it is a job share position.
Our next destination was the Cathedral, but not before passing a large statue in a square of what appeared to be Don Quixote, and his little fat buddy on his donkey. What are they doing here? We thought that they were a Spanish thing.
The cathedral is a grand old dame, with a white stone interior, with large pillars parading down the length of its nave, supporting the 12 apostles. Half way down there is a very large and very ornate, dark wood pulpit, that almost looks like it is a Chocolate sculpture (appropriate really), with large flower arrangements about its circumference. The whole church is illuminated by its uppermost windows, which are clear, unlike the others within the church which are masterpieces of stained glasswork. There is a modern pipe organ opposite the pulpit, which seems to be recent upgrade, and might relate to the Royal wedding that we saw the photos of in the foyer. It wasn’t until we arrived in Belgium that we realized that they still had a monarchy here, and it seems that the Royal weddings are held in this cathedral, which gets decked out accordingly, into a lavish affair.
As we were sitting there in the cathedral, taking in the ambiance and reflecting on the last six months of our travels, we recalled our visit to the cathedral in Bruges. We were quite encouraged to see a church in full service for their midday mass on a Friday. Once again we were sitting in the back rows drinking up the atmosphere, when we suddenly realized that we were attending a funeral. So that was why the hearse was outside, and why there were guys in suits with funny hats and gloves, standing at the back (they were the undertakers). We were the funeral gatecrashers. We decided not to hang around for the cups of tea and sandwiches, in case they started asking us questions … in Flemish.
During our meanderings through the streets we came across quite an eclectic mix of sights, sounds, places, and subsequent thoughts and experiences. Based on our observation that the Brussels community have an aversion to smiling in a general sense, we decided that it would only be right to try and improve matters by trying to make as many of them smile as possible, by smiling at them. The result wasn’t always as expected. Most stared determinedly at their feet, others looked at us like we were insane, one poor guy must have got the fright of his life because he physically lurched suddenly right off the footpath and almost fell over in his excitement. It seemed that he thought that our insanity was contagious. Others just looked at us blandly, as much as to say “It’s alright for you, you’re a tourist, you get to leave this place.”
We may have mentioned this before, but there is a real anti-German feeling in this place, and they really hate being mistaken for a German. Which brings up the obvious question, why do they stick with the flag that they have. It is the same colours and stripes as the German flag, only their stripes are vertical instead of horizontal. Why don’t they give them selves a new flag, then there would be no problem. How ever in a country that can’t agree on anything, including the language that they should speak, perhaps this is a major undertaking. Would they ever agree? I have a suggestion, perhaps their flag should be a plain grey, or perhaps beige.
Passing by a bookshop we saw some amazing books, no really, they were ‘Amazing’ books. Amazing weddings, Amazing auctions, Amazing etc, etc. Thumbing through the Amazing Auctions, there were examples of things that had been up for auction like Bonnie and Clyde’s bullet ridden car, Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress, and Belgium. Yep, that’s right, during a time when Belgium was taking forever to get a parliament together, some smart arse put Belgium up on eBay. It was there for a couple of weeks before it was taken down.
Later in the day we headed out towards the EU compound. This place is massive. It makes you wonder exactly what Brussels did, and what all those people did, before the EU came along. Street after street of huge glass walled towers. On the edges of all this we passed a group of six vans crammed with police officers. We wondered if it was a stake out, and someone had been sent out to get the chips. One officer in the front seat of one of the vans, was reading a book, ‘Stake outs for Dummies’ perhaps.
A few metres down the road we saw the reason for their attention. There was a protest going on outside one of the glass buildings, but not a protest as we know them, this one was rather … nice. The theme seemed to be something to do with the EMB ‘European Milk Board’. They had a line up of 14 large tractors, a brazier burning in the middle of the street, a banner propped up, and speakers blaring. One set of speakers was blaring out pop music, and the second set was blaring out what sounded like pre-recorded chants, slogans, and general protest noises. There was only one guy in sight, and he was keeping the brazier warm. I guess they didn’t have time to come here in person, they had to go to work, so they met in a barn, made their recordings, and sent Kev along to do the job. Very strange. It hardly warranted the hordes of police officers in riot gear, and the riot trucks that were surrounding the tractors. It was like they were keeping the tractors at bay.
We have a quiet day planed for today just mooching around the centre of Brussels. On our way into the centre we were amused to see a very frail old man standing on the top step of the Metro escalator (blocking the path), with a walking stick in one hand, and sending a text message with the other. Is this the new Belgium?
We were making our way towards a famous little statue in these parts, it is a statue of a little boy pissing. Everywhere you go you see replicas of all sizes in the tourist shops, made of everything from plastic, to chocolate. What impresses you most about this statue when you see it, is the size. It is small, about 55cm tall, and it is dressed. According to a school teacher who was pontificating at great length to his class about it, “It has 847 different costumes, and if you are laughing about the size, nobody promised you the Statue of Liberty.” And that is the Manneken-Pis, the statue that is supposed to give you good luck if you dress it. They have a guy whose job it is to dress it in its various costumes (they get changed every day). With the attitude to work that we have seen, we wonder if it is a job share position.
Our next destination was the Cathedral, but not before passing a large statue in a square of what appeared to be Don Quixote, and his little fat buddy on his donkey. What are they doing here? We thought that they were a Spanish thing.
The cathedral is a grand old dame, with a white stone interior, with large pillars parading down the length of its nave, supporting the 12 apostles. Half way down there is a very large and very ornate, dark wood pulpit, that almost looks like it is a Chocolate sculpture (appropriate really), with large flower arrangements about its circumference. The whole church is illuminated by its uppermost windows, which are clear, unlike the others within the church which are masterpieces of stained glasswork. There is a modern pipe organ opposite the pulpit, which seems to be recent upgrade, and might relate to the Royal wedding that we saw the photos of in the foyer. It wasn’t until we arrived in Belgium that we realized that they still had a monarchy here, and it seems that the Royal weddings are held in this cathedral, which gets decked out accordingly, into a lavish affair.
As we were sitting there in the cathedral, taking in the ambiance and reflecting on the last six months of our travels, we recalled our visit to the cathedral in Bruges. We were quite encouraged to see a church in full service for their midday mass on a Friday. Once again we were sitting in the back rows drinking up the atmosphere, when we suddenly realized that we were attending a funeral. So that was why the hearse was outside, and why there were guys in suits with funny hats and gloves, standing at the back (they were the undertakers). We were the funeral gatecrashers. We decided not to hang around for the cups of tea and sandwiches, in case they started asking us questions … in Flemish.
During our meanderings through the streets we came across quite an eclectic mix of sights, sounds, places, and subsequent thoughts and experiences. Based on our observation that the Brussels community have an aversion to smiling in a general sense, we decided that it would only be right to try and improve matters by trying to make as many of them smile as possible, by smiling at them. The result wasn’t always as expected. Most stared determinedly at their feet, others looked at us like we were insane, one poor guy must have got the fright of his life because he physically lurched suddenly right off the footpath and almost fell over in his excitement. It seemed that he thought that our insanity was contagious. Others just looked at us blandly, as much as to say “It’s alright for you, you’re a tourist, you get to leave this place.”
We may have mentioned this before, but there is a real anti-German feeling in this place, and they really hate being mistaken for a German. Which brings up the obvious question, why do they stick with the flag that they have. It is the same colours and stripes as the German flag, only their stripes are vertical instead of horizontal. Why don’t they give them selves a new flag, then there would be no problem. How ever in a country that can’t agree on anything, including the language that they should speak, perhaps this is a major undertaking. Would they ever agree? I have a suggestion, perhaps their flag should be a plain grey, or perhaps beige.
Passing by a bookshop we saw some amazing books, no really, they were ‘Amazing’ books. Amazing weddings, Amazing auctions, Amazing etc, etc. Thumbing through the Amazing Auctions, there were examples of things that had been up for auction like Bonnie and Clyde’s bullet ridden car, Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress, and Belgium. Yep, that’s right, during a time when Belgium was taking forever to get a parliament together, some smart arse put Belgium up on eBay. It was there for a couple of weeks before it was taken down.
Later in the day we headed out towards the EU compound. This place is massive. It makes you wonder exactly what Brussels did, and what all those people did, before the EU came along. Street after street of huge glass walled towers. On the edges of all this we passed a group of six vans crammed with police officers. We wondered if it was a stake out, and someone had been sent out to get the chips. One officer in the front seat of one of the vans, was reading a book, ‘Stake outs for Dummies’ perhaps.
A few metres down the road we saw the reason for their attention. There was a protest going on outside one of the glass buildings, but not a protest as we know them, this one was rather … nice. The theme seemed to be something to do with the EMB ‘European Milk Board’. They had a line up of 14 large tractors, a brazier burning in the middle of the street, a banner propped up, and speakers blaring. One set of speakers was blaring out pop music, and the second set was blaring out what sounded like pre-recorded chants, slogans, and general protest noises. There was only one guy in sight, and he was keeping the brazier warm. I guess they didn’t have time to come here in person, they had to go to work, so they met in a barn, made their recordings, and sent Kev along to do the job. Very strange. It hardly warranted the hordes of police officers in riot gear, and the riot trucks that were surrounding the tractors. It was like they were keeping the tractors at bay.
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