Well, Patrick and I made it! Some of it was good, some of it was lacking. We went straight from work so we could get inside before everything closed. Although this was a good plan, I definitely don't want to have to go exploring in uncomfortable clothes with a twenty pound briefcase again anytime soon.
We caught a cab down to St. Michael's. I thought it was a fluff class when I took it, but apparently my History of Art class came in handy. This is a gorgeous, gorgeous Gothic cathedral that was apparently torn down and built again numerous times over the centuries. The one you see was built starting in 1226.A couple of things struck me about this church. The first was the size. You can see people in front of the doors for scale. The word "awesome", though quite cliché, is the best descriptor I can think of. The towers are 69 meters (about 226 feet) tall I was also impressed by the pipe organ. Someone started playing it as we were walking through, and its sound filled the whole cathedral.
The crypt was pretty disappointing. It is simply the excavations of the Romanesque church that was built underneath it in 1047. While I am impressed by the age, there just isn't much to see. You go downstairs into a small room, and you've literally seen the whole thing. The other disappointment was the English explanations of the art and architecture; they didn't really exist.
We walked in the rain to our next location, the one, the only Mickey Dee's. I ordered a Royal Cheese value meal (thanks Will!), and Patrick got a six-piece chicken nugget meal and a beer. I was surprised by how very similar the food tasted to the food here. When my brother ate there in Spain, he said it didn't really taste like American. Okay, he said it was pretty bad. But I couldn't tell the difference in the fries or the coke, and only the cheese in the cheeseburger tasted like it was off. 
The burger was packed in one of those Styrofoam containers we haven't seen in the states since the late 80's. I was surprised that the restaurant was strictly smoke-free and that the bathroom cost 0.30€ to use.Unfortunately, we didn't hit the Atomium. It was too far away from where we were and it wasn't worth the hike in the rain.
In case you were wondering, this is a monument. |
We hoofed it back to the hotel room after this, which was probably a mile/mile-and-a-half away. As we came to the subway station by our hotel, we realized that we could have taken that pretty much the whole way back and not gotten drenched. Live and learn, right? It was nice to get back to the room early for a change. The only non-pornographic English-speaking channel was not working, and I slept for about three hours. I brought along a slew of DVD's for just such an occasion. All in all, it was a good day.
Ommegang starts tomorrow. They were setting up bleachers in the Grande Place as we were coming back. I'm still not exactly sure what it is, but it does look like it's going to be cool. I hope the weather holds out.It's pretty easy to use phone cards over here. The rate back to the states is 0.07½€ per minute. I'm really hoping Alesha's home when I call tonight.
More tomorrow!
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