Miles traveled. 7.2. 133.3
Feet climbed. 240. 13,140
Song of the Day: Land of Hopes and Dreams by Bruce Springsteen
Grab your ticket and your suitcase
Thunder’s rollin’ down this track
Well, you don’t know where you’re goin’ now
But you know you won’t be back
Well, darlin’ if you’re weary
Lay your head upon my chest
We’ll take what we can carry
Yeah, and we’ll leave the rest
Big wheels roll through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams
Well, I will provide for you
And I’ll stand by your side
You’ll need a good companion now
For this part of the ride
Leave behind your sorrows
Let this day be the last
Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine
And all this darkness pas
Our train to Brussels didn't leave until 11:45 this morning, so we had the luxury of sleeping until 8 am! We then indulged ourselves by watching some more English TV and using the relatively fast internet.
The train ride to Brussels took about 2 hours, stopping at several cities along the way. The train was packed, and had an interesting variety of people getting on and off at the stops. When we entered Belgium, it became clear that the security levels were high, as we saw a lot of police in the stations. The entire past week, we never saw any police in Germany.
We saw lots of modern windmills during the train ride. Germany's commitment to alternative energy is impressive and expensive. You may know that Germany has decided to eliminate nuclear energy by 2022. Germany has the highest concentration of solar installations in the world, which is quite ironic given the constant overcast and rainy days in Germany. In 2000, there was a total eclipse of the sun in Europe, with southern Germany being right in the optimal path for viewing. Tour groups from around the world flocked to Germany to obseve the eclipse. I happened to be in the Stuttgardt area on business that day. However it was a very overcast and foggy day, and it went from very dark to totally dark during the eclipse, so never saw the eclipse at all. Very disappointing.
When I lived and worked in Europe in the late 90's, I came to Brussels on several occasions for business. It is a beautiful city, but now is pretty much of an administrative and bureaucratic center for the EU and NATO. At times, it was very frustrating to deal with the EU bureaucrats and their penchant for regulation. From this standpoint, I can understand the sentiments of the Brits who voted to leave the EU.
As we left the central train station in Brussels, it became immediately clear that Brussels is a city under siege. There are police and military forces everywhere, with visible weapons. When we arrived at our hotel (a Marriott again), there was a guard at the entrance and you had to go through a security detector, similar to an airport. The clerk at the Marriott told us that this was put in place after the terrorist attack in March. It's a little intimidating.
As soon as we arrived at our hotel, it started to rain. This past three days, we feel like that character from the Peanuts cartoon strip, who always has a cloud over his head. Unfortunately, the forecast for the rest of this week is for rain, so we better get used to it!
We wandered out for lunch this afternoon. We were able to find s good local restaurant, and of course they were showing the Euro cup. So, we enjoyed a delicious lunch and watched France best Ireland 2-1 in the soccer game. Tonight, Belgium plays in the tournament, and we saw many people on the streets with their faces painted for the game. It will likely be intense around here....
Brussels has many fine sights and here are a few shots from our walk today. First, a couple of shots from the Cathederal:
Parts of the magnicicant Grand-Place, a terrific city square:
Here in front of a famous little statute called Manneken-pis, also referred to as the "pissing boy". Go figure that this is listed as a top 10 things to do in Brussels....
This evening, we went out for a lite dinner at a Greek restaurant. The streets and bars are packed with people watching the Belgium-Hungary round 2 Euro cup game. Once again, there is enormous security on the streets, with police, soldiers, etc, all carrying large rifles and pistols. In the end, Belgium prevailed 4-0, and the crowds poured out of the bars into the streets. It was an amazing scene. At one large building across the street from our hotel, a large group stood on the stairs singing chants. This went on for several hours after the game ended. You would have thought they won the World Cup, and not just a round 2 game of the Euro cup!
No comments:
Post a Comment