Tag Archives: gardens

Tuesday in Brussels

Posted on by
Reply

So with no plans at all, we woke and sat around for a bit on our various devices before going in search of a light breakfast. (I still can’t quite wrap my head around the difference in a breakfast in Belgium and a breakfast in Spain or Portugal: it’s more than twice as much here — it’s more like the US.)

Um … did I say light breakfast? Oops.

But hey, we will just skip lunch. That will make up for the yummy breakfasts we had. Besides, it was 10:40 by the time we ate, so lunch wouldn’t be needed. Right?

After that we went to check out a few of the “must sees” we had on a list. I will end this group of photos with the first of those. We arrived at the fountain to find tour groups there, and when they left some people just had to get their photo taken with the little guy (Manneken-Pis) Funny the things that become tourist attractions, don’t you think?

Our walk continued. I saw another marker for a Camino. (From here to Santiago de Compostela is one very long Camino!)

Right after that we heard music. There was piano. There was saxophone. I’m not sure if the video will catch the music much but we’ll see after I post it!

And then it was … well duh! Look where we are! Heh.

We continued our walk until we reached Église Notre-Dame au Sablon (Church of Our Lady of Victories at the Sablon).

We went inside and of course I took a lot of photos.

From there we walked through Egmont Park and over to the Palace.

And then we saw a changing of the guard. (Posting more than you might care to see, but I won’t know you skipped some so you’re off the hook. Breathe easy! But darn, I can’t turn you in the the palace police!)

When we walked through the park across the street there were tons of students and most were sitting around eating, but some were filling out something in a little booklet. I suspect they were all out doing some sort of assignment. I’m just guessing, though. Maybe they were writing poetry. Maybe they were reporting on pesky tourists.


It was windy, and we both were hit hard by our allergies. (Later on I got a closer look at a tree in bloom and my guess is that was the culprit.)

The walk continued, and we reached a viewpoint right near what we believe to be a police headquarters or some such thing. We walked along the side of the building, thinking it would take us to the street. Nope. Dead end. I told Dan the people in the building probably get a laugh at all of us tourists thinking that goes out to the street and we all have to turn back, retracing our steps (the final photo in this collection).

We walked by a botanical garden, or so it seemed. Going inside though, I read something that said it was no longer a botanical garden, which had moved elsewhere, because of the damage due to so much construction in the area. (It did appear to be nearly surrounded by construction.)

I had seen a church in the distance so I suggested we walk there. As we walked we saw wasn’t in the most lovely part of town. There was more garbage, and it was just rather dirty. Arriving at the church we found it wasn’t even open. I suppose I should have looked it up before walking all that way!

At that point Dan set up his map so that we’d make it back to our hotel, and off we went.

No lunch, of course, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have frites and beer, right?

In addition we had been such good children all day long — no whining about the distance we’d walked, no saying, “Are we there yet?!” — we decided a treat was in order. Or maybe it’s just that we had had one kind of waffle in Bruges and we wondered what these ones (in the Brussels style) would be like. Obviously they were extremely nutritious because there is banana on them. For the record I did not order mine with cream, but some guy sitting across from me shared his.

We came back to our hotel room for a bit. I managed to blog and even get photos up. I still puzzle over the whole issue with photos: sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. I’m not sure if it’s a WordPress issue, a connection issue, or an iCloud issue. I’m sure that is incredibly interesting to all readers. Or maybe not.

We already had figured out where we’d eat dinner tonight, believe it or not. It wasn’t your typical Belgian dinner, but instead we went for Thai food. I’d seen a good review for this spot, and it was nice and close. When we got there it was easy to get a seat inside, so I’m sure it was meant to be! The food was good, and it was nice to have a change of flavors. And yes, I took a photo of my dish: I liked the elephants, and I wonder if the other part that looks like wrinkled skin is deliberate or just an old plate. It does look like elephant skin to me.

Back to our hotel we went. The crowds were certainly out at this point!

I still had three pieces of chocolate from yesterday’s purchase, so I shared with Dan and that sufficed for our dessert. Truth is, one piece of this rich chocolate is often all I can handle!

Tomorrow we very well may take a day trip somewhere. We have two options, and I think I know what we have chosen, but I’m not absolutely certain. Stay tuned!

Goodnight for now!

Final Full Day in Montpellier

Posted on by
Reply

I’d say we got up a bit late, but since we have been pretty consistent getting up and moving around 9:00 I guess that’s our normal time at this point! We had our coffee in the room, got ready to go outside, and headed down the stairs.

Our first task of the day was to see how the trek to the train station would be, both for time and, because we have our roller cases, what the road surface was like.

On the way to the station we spotted a Protestant church:

Turns out getting to the station should be a very easy, maybe ten minute max trip. We checked out the station too, although we don’t yet know the track we’ll be on. (I like to know as much as possible as soon as possible, but track numbers don’t appear until shortly before the train arrives.) Our upcoming ride is the longest one we will have, mostly due to the number of stops, I think.

After that we wandered more, as we are wont to do. From the train station we sort of exited the old part of town for a bit. If we had more time in the city I suspect we’d have investigated more of this since there is some interesting architecture in Montpellier.

Eventually we went back into the center, and ended up at a small pop up art exhibit. There we enjoyed coffee and a small snack since we’d not yet eaten.



We knew we wanted to see the Montpellier Cathedral so we went in that general direction, enjoying a variety of sights on the way.

Across from the cathedral is the university, but we didn’t really see any of that.

Unfortunately the cathedral itself was only open for mass since it’s Sunday, but as we walked by we could hear the organ. It wasn’t mass time, so I could only guess that perhaps the organist was practicing. Whatever the musician was playing sounded somewhat modern to my ear, but who knows? I’m not familiar at all with solo organ works. I really wish we could have gone in to listen. From outside it sounded quite powerful. The cathedral itself is quite impressive from the outside, but there aren’t that many places where one can get photos and one side is really inaccessible.

We then ambled around and ended up in the Jardin des Plantes. It was fun to wander, and I’m especially fond of gardens where everything is labeled. I am betting the gardens is amazing in late spring and summer. But even now I really enjoyed it.

Then it was time to head to lunch. Of course that does take us a while, what with finding more things to photograph! Dan realized his battery was running low so we knew we’d have to go back to the hotel to recharge it, but we both knew, too, that we would also need recharging!

Lunch itself was nice and relaxing. And warm for a time, as the sun was shining in on us, as you can see (not a great photo, but in that sun it was the best we could do!) for much of the meal.

(You might shake your head at my goofy food photos, but it does help me remember the day so I try to take them when I remember.)

Then it was back to our hotel. Which is when I starter writing this (as is typical each day). No nap this time, though: I’m hoping I’ll sleep more soundly if I don’t nap.

Once we were ready to go out in search of dinner we donned our incredibly fashionable jackets (NOT) and went out. It really wasn’t terrifically cold, but I’d rather be too warm than too cold, so there you go.

As is typical, we walked a lot to find the right spot for dinner. We didn’t do much photographing (I’m not sure if Dan did any), but of course with an iPhone it’s easy to snap a few things.

We ended up about as close to our hotel as possible at, maybe, the most mediocre restaurant we’ve been at. And yes, I could have done better than to order fish ‘n chips at a restaurant in France! But we just weren’t in the mood to wait until more places opened, and we really just needed to get some food and head back so we could make sure we were mostly packed and ready for tomorrow’s 9:33 train. (This means, for us, that we want to leave here by around 8:30. Not early, I realize, for most folks, but considering how relaxed we’ve been on this trip it’ll probably feel early to us!)

Knock, knock …

… and goodnight!