We left Germany and headed for Brussels in the early morning hours on Saturday. It was a good plan because traffic was extremely light and we were able to make time on the Autobahn! We made it to Brussels in just over 3 hours, traveling at an average speed of around 180kph (approximately 112mph). It was a pretty fun experience, especially with Beethoven playing in the background!
Side Note: It is important to point out that the quality of the road is much better on the Autobahn than on American roads, and that the greater majority of drivers abide by the rules (i.e, use turn signals, pass on the left and then move immediately to the right). Of course this is because if you don't, the results are almost sure to be fatal! It is also important to point out that traveling at these speeds takes total concentration on the driver's part because it is even more important to know what is happening in front, behind, and beside you because there is no reaction time to spare! I also need to point out that on the previous trip to Rothenburg we hit an all time high speed for me at a whopping 230kph (142mph)! It was only for a short burst (maybe 10-20 Km), and the lead car was actually pulling away from me! Man, I wish I could take my little fun car over there for a run!
Sorry, I got myself sidetracked there. Back to the story! When we arrived we went down to the Grande Platz, the main square of the city. I have a routine that I try not to break, and that is to visit a place I call Leroy's place to have a Kriek (cherry lambek beer) upon arrival into Brussels. So this is exactly what we did.
The actual name of the place is LeRoy de'Espagne (The King of Spain). I don't know the story behind that, but I'll try to find out some day. All I know is that they have good beer and good appetizer type foods.
From LeRoy's you can sit and look out at the rest of the Grande Platz. Here is a couple of pictures of the Tower of Records. It's too tall to get it into a single shot. This is where they used to store all of the records of deeds to property. They felt it was the most defensible place to store them.
If you notice the building is not symmetrical. The story is that the architect, upon seeing the builder's mistakes, climbed all the way to the top of the tower and threw himself off!
These are just some shots of the other buildings around the Grande Platz.
Now this little guy stirs up a whole lot of attention. He is probably the best known attraction in Brussels. This is the Manikin Pis (Little boy peeing). No joke, this little guy gets dressed in different outfits, depending upon the season or the festival, and draws a crowd every day! He has probably been in more movies about Europe than any single actor or actress.
Not bad considering he is less than two feet tall!
This is a photo of Atomium. It was erected for the 1958 World's Fair. You can actully go up into it, but we opted to just drive under it and admire it that way. By this point in the trip we were fairly tired, and a bit cold and damp from all of the rain. The photo was expertly snapped by Lightnin, in between wiper blade strokes!
Well it was a fun trip, but it had to end.
After spending two weeks in 50F temperatures we were greated by 90F temps upon returning home, and the air conditioner died on us. So I'll be spending the day trying to get someone to come out and make the needed repairs so that we can get a little relief from the heat.
I hope you've enjoyed seeing the photos and hearing about our travels!
I will try to re-post about our trip to Mitenberg, It vanished when I tried to post it originally!
2 comments:
Sounds like another great trip.
FC,
It was! The weather could have been better, but hey it's spring.
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