Brussels

Photo 1: Part of the Grand Place.

Photo 2: More of the Grand Place.

Photo 3: On the hop on hop off bus. "The wheels on the bus go round and round ..." :)

Photo 4: Street scene.

Photo 5: Monument, part of museum in Jubelpark.

Photo 6: European Commission building. This shot shows only a quarter of this massive building!

Photo 7: The Royal Palace which is used for ceremonial occasions. The royal family residence is a palace in the  Domaine Royal.

Photo 8: Guess whose lunch this is?

Photo 9: Now guess whose lunch this is? No prizes!

Photo 10: The art deco Basilica.

On Tuesday we arrived in Brussels after a quick train trip from Amsterdam across the lovely rich Dutch and Belgian countryside. We soon discovered an important difference between the two cities – Brussels has far fewer cyclists and the ones they have appear to be non-predatory. Another important difference is that the coffee shops here appear to sell coffee without the extra option of wacky weed. So you don’t get stoned just walking past them.

Brussels also has less in the way of canals but outside the modern business district on the fringes of the city centre it has much the same European style of narrow, adjoining buildings dating anywhere from the 17^th to the 20^th centuries. Fun fact: Brussels is known as the art nouveau capital of the world! (If you watch Big Bang Theory you will understand ‘fun fact’ :)). A more genuine fun fact is that this place has patisseries and chocolate shops in plague proportions. OMG!! Save our waistlines!! And we have walked past almost every one….with just the exception of buying Belgian chocolates as gifts.  In 3 days we had purchased no souvenir do dads.  Sue says: I think I have excelled myself really!!!!  We just bought a sweatshirt each – Phil’s is very plain and says “Brussels” but I couldn’t resist a chocolate brown one that says “Keep calm and eat chocolate”.  Sounded like a new saying for me!!!

Perhaps the most impressive part of the city is the Grand Place (see photos). Words can’t do it justice. Brussels, like the other big cities we have seen, also has many churches and cathedrals in gothic and other styles covered in wonderful sculptures. One of the most impressive is the art deco Basilica which took over 60 years to build due to interruptions during the two world wars. But one of the nicest things about the city is that it is 20 percent park land. The Domaine Royal is the biggest park and the Royal Palace sits within its grounds. Even the business district is referred to as ‘like Manhattan but with trees’.

The diplomatic district is interesting. The European Parliament and European Commission buildings are huge very modern structures. When you see them it is not surprising to learn that Brussels has more than 1700 international organisations headquartered here, more than 5000 diplomats and 39000 public servants. The various embassies are near the Commission but are simply commercial buildings with normal street frontages. So embassies like those of Germany, the UK and Norway have armed guards standing on the pavement right next to pedestrian traffic. Those guys are big and look pretty serious!

Today for Sue was all about haircut and getting the nails done.  My hair had grown exponentially, and I resembled an Aussie sheep before shearing!!!  I found a small salon not too far from the hotel, so headed there after breakfast.  It was located 2 shops from “THE” best coffee shop in Brussels (according to the hotel receptionist) so coffee for Phil and haircut for me. I remember well my last haircut in Paris 2 years ago.  The woman spoke no English, and I ended up looking like the sheep after it had been shorn – very little left, and all differing lengths.  Poor Sheree was devastated when she saw me, and it took a few months to get it back to “normal”.  Well I had visions of a repeat performance, as the young lady spoke no English.  With a bit of a game of charades and gestures, I thought she understood what I wanted.  And she did!!!  I now still have curls, but they are not being pulled down by the weight of my hair.  And it cost me 30 euros (about 45 dollars).  Score 1 to me.

Now the nails……I had seen a shop advertise manicures and pedicures as we went past it on the bus.  It was about a 1km walk from the nearest stop.  I sent Phil off to the European Commission for a walk, and to see if he could find anything related directly to his work (just in case we could claim the trip as a tax deduction???).  Well I finally found the salon with 2 girls working there.  I thought the hairdresser had limited English, but by God in comparison she spoke like Eliza Doolittle!!!  These 2 could work nothing out.  No they didn’t understand acrylic or infills.  They managed to get gel nails.  So I sat down for her to start.  It took her almost an hour to remove the old polish (shellack), and I have cuts from her dumb machine on 4 fingers!!!  She put gel over the acrylic I had there.  She never shortened them or shaped them in any way, and never used an emery board to make sure the surface was flat to take the polish.  Well they were almost done, and I asked her if she could do a design on 2 of my fingers.  Sacre bleu!!!! By now we were not trying to understand each other despite my brilliant attempt at charades!!!  She found 2 little flower decals which she reluctantly put on.  By now I am over this whole experience, and just want to leave.  I asked her how much it was….I pay my girls about $45.  Well holy hell it was a total of 74 euros (about $110 Australian!!!)  I almost fell to the floor when she showed me the price, but it was too late for my histrionics by then.  Well in conclusion 1 out of 2 services is not too bad, but my wallet is still complaining.  I will tell my girls at home that they are much too cheap, and I am sure we will all share a laugh.  Just one of those travel tales I guess!!! (And I think Phil is over listening to me rant….)  Let’s hope the gel stays on, at last until I get to Dubai, or even back home.