Exploration, Day 1

NH Brussels City Centre, Brussels, Belgium

As I am currently up to one hour of sleep in the last 33 hours, you'll have to excuse the typos.

It turns out that the electrical systems work correctly. You have to leave your card-key in a slot by the door for the electricity in the room to work. It's probably to cut down on the electricity used in the room (so you don't leave your lights on, etc.

Deidre and I hit a whole lot of sites. I'll try to give a brief description of each. There are links to what I saw (if I can find them) and the names of the pictures I took when I was there. We must have crossed downtown at least six times, so these aren't necessarily in order...

Tour d'Angle - Original City Wall- DSC01446

A piece of the wall that originally surrounded the city.

Albert on a Horse - DSC01447

I can't remember who this is... but his name is obviously Albert. Oh, and he's riding a horse.

Two guys on horses - DSC01450

Again, I have no idea who these guys are. I thought the bird on his head looked funny.

Notre-Dame de la Chapelle (Our Lady of the Chapel)
We walked in and mass was going on... which you would expect to happen on a Sunday morning, I guess. The place was packed to the gills; standing room only.

Author - DSC01451

Yeah, I didn't write down his name. But I do remember he's an author. Edit: Apparently this is Bela Barkot. Thanks Will!

Galeries Royales St-Hubert - DSC01452

The first enclosed mall in the world. Unfortunately, nothing much was open on Sunday.

Grande Place - Bourse (Stock Exchange) - DSC01453-56, 67-68

This whole plaza looks pretty impressive. It's got all of these old, old buildings surrounding the whole thing. All of the dates up on the wall (at least the ones I saw) were from before 1700. I think all we had over in America at the time were tepees. There are 5 statues in one corner of the square, including Europe, Justice, Asia, and America. As I was pointing out America, so loudmouth Belgian came over and starting complaining about the war in Iraq. Good times.

Manneken-Pis - DSC01457

This is just what it sounds like - a little boy going to bathroom. Apparently this is like a huge deal here. The gift shops are fully of this and there was a huge crowd around him waiting to take a picture.

Eglise Notre-Dame du Sablon (Church of Our Lady of the Sablon) - DSC01459-62

This place was awesome looking. It is a huge Gothic cathedral with an intricate impressive arch.

Musée d'Art Ancien (Museum of Ancient Art) - DSC01463

This place looks awesome. I can't wait to actually go inside. But I want to do some research first so I can spend my time wisely inside. The Musée d'Art Moderne (I think you can figure out what this is) is right next door as well.

China Town - DSC01469-70

Okay, maybe not China Town, but who would have thought that there would be Chinese markets in Brussels?

St. Catherine's - DSC01471,81-83

A very nice cathedral. Services were not going on when we entered.

Rugbyman's - DSC01473-80

Mmmmm. Lobster.

We Love America - DSC01484

Some random store. If you look in the lower-right hand corner you can see "God Bless America", slightly cut off. This was nice to see, especially after being yelled at as an imperialist earlier.

Palais de Justice (Palace of Justice) - DSC01487

A huge, huge building! I hope to get more pictures soon.

World War I & II Monuments - DSC01488-90

Several monuments to those killed in the World Wars from Belgium.

Anyway, there's probably much more I could write or say, and I probably will later, but we did see a lot today. I'm going to crash now.