Brussels, Belgium

[March 31 - April 3]

Yum! Belgium waffles! (Sam Stevens shows his delight.)



We met Dean's parents here in Brussels, who were travelling on a business trip. Otherwise, we weren't going to come here but it was actually a very nice city.

Our first highlight was a nice hotel that I found with an Easter week internet special where we could enjoy such treats as a sauna and a full breakfast complete with sliced meats and fresh juices. Four stars for 60 Euros -- not a bad deal. After a night to recover from a full day of travel, we headed out to the airport to meet the weary parents and keep them awake with some sightseeing.

The main attraction is the Grand Place, an old city square with a lot of history and an interesting art display of 1000 statues made of trash symbolizing the "silent witness to humans' environmental destruction." Strange. Some other people have posted pictures of this.

We enjoyed walking around this area and ate a good meal in a nearby cellar restaurant.



As with European cities, there are numerous churches to visit. I can't even remember where this was but it was quite striking with the light. [Dean: Terrific natural lighting in this cathedral. Since we're still just starting our exploration of Europe, the cathedrals still hold a lot of interest for me, even if Marita keeps trying to prod me through quickly.]



Another attraction is a small statue of a peeing boy. It wasn't all that great, but is famous in the city. Read more about it here. [Dean: I'm sure that you've all seen people's garden statues of this piece, symbolizing "the irreverent spirit of Brussels." What's even more amazing than the piece however, is the inordinate number of tourist souvenirs available with the likeness of this unruly lad. Among the best is the product consisting of a corkscrew protruding from a miniature version of the statue.]

As with vacations with the Stevens family, eating is a big deal and we made the most of it! Belgium waffles were a sickly sweet treat and we also tried lots of different beers. [Dean: What's that supposed to mean? No oinkers here. The food in Brussels was very French-inspired, and we managed to find some very appealing cafes that continually called us back for more. They have more quiches than you can shake a stick at, all of them delicious. If you like eggs.]



On our way to the Musical Instruments Museuem, (where we heard all sorts of old instruments including the glass harmonica), we saw a serious skateboard area and Dean grabbed a good shot. [Dean: Daniel, this one´s for you. What you can´t see in this picture is the view in the opposite direction, consisting of the Belgian parliment building, or something equally important and impressive. Unfortunately, the u-shaped building and the gardens within have been made painfully ugly by a large amount of ugly grafiti. I'm a big fan of grafiti art, when done well in semi-appropriate spaces, but this stuff consisted of little more than quick, jotty tags lacking in any style whatsoever. It'd be nice if they actually cleaned this stuff up.]



From Brussels, we went with them to Vienna (the site of Sam's business meeting). More on this in the Vienna post. Later, Dean and I returned to Brussels to catch our cheapo flight out to Spain. On our last day in Brussels we spent the entire time working on this blog. Good thing too, because there was a huge rain and hailstorm during the day.