Mussels in Brussels

With all due respect to Jean-Claude VanDamme...

Spent a great day in Brussels. Who knew what an amazing city this was/is? Checked in early at a great hotel; Manos Premier. Upgraded me to a suite with its own private balcony. This must be a 5 star hotel. The only downside is that it is a brisk 20 minute walk to get downtown. But there are many sites along the way.

First stop was the church (Notre-Dame). Church was started 600 years ago, but finshed 300 years ago. We think we have it bad for the Big Dig, try 300 years of construction.

Next stop was Grand Place. One of those places that stop you dead in your tracks. It a a wonderful old square built 500 years ago, and rebuilt after the french destroyed it in the 1700's.

Next, I had my obligatory Mussels in Brussels. Moulet Freites (Muscles and Fries) is the best known dish here in Brussels. It was great. I snapped a picture of the next set of victims. After lunch I made my way to the St. Hubert Shopping gallery. Very high end expensinve stuff. Sorry John, I didn't get anything.

Brussels has a fun side to it. There are large billboard size cartoon spread around the city. They just LOVE cartoons. Another quirky item is Manneken-Pis. This is a statue of a boy taking a piss and for some reason, this has become the symbol of Brussels.

Next, I headed back to the hotel, power nap, and then off to the far end of the city. Sorry this part was without camera. I saw the Royal Gardens and Royal Palace, as well as the new Arts theater.

Nice run this Tuesday morning in the rain. Ran to the royal gardens and the royal palace. Map of my run:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F%2Ftrail.motionbased.com%2Ftrail%2Fkml%2Fepisode.kml%3FepisodePkValues%3D8309776&ie=UTF8&z=14




I went out to dinner by the Grand Place, at a place that Jacques recommended. A very good dinner and fun place at La Roue d'Or.Spent a good time at dinner talking with a NYC couple that is returning from 2 months in India. He was very early 20's Johnnie Depp looking. Very easy on the eyes. Damn I missed the camera again.





After dinner (and a double scoop ice cream cone) I went back to Grand Place to see the buildings at night. All the building are lit up, words can not do it justice. Suffice it to say...there were 1000 people laying down in the square looking up at the buildings. So I joined them. Right next to me two guys were making out pretty seriously, and I wanted to note thet BELGIUM was the first country to allow gay marriage. Very gay friendly here. I stopped by a bar called Homo Erectus for a coke. Funny guys at the bar. Nice walk home, and posting before I go to bed.





The pictures I did take:


http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=566223002/a=21881784_21881784/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=comcast2/