Brussels Belgium

We visited Brussels on a few occasions, naturally doing the classic tourist thing, finding the Manneken Pis statue.

Brussels was on the way to or from Amsterdam and Lisse if we took the eastern route (rather than straight up by Düsseldorf). We would spend a few hours in the main square and surrounding streets, enjoying the scenery and hunting down little street vendors selling Belgian Waffles with cream. The cafés round the main square are wonderful for a lunch break.

Also, in 1993, Audrey's school class took a trip to EuroSpace camp in Brussels during January of that year. They learned a lot about space travel and what its like being an astronaut. We saw the video of her in the zero-G chair. It looked like fun!

A quick day-trip to Brussels from Stuttgart to meet with some folks on business. In and out - didn't even stay over.

Another trip back to Brussels, we stayed longer this time. Two of us flew in from Stuttgart on Wednesday (12 January), and another drove in from Mönchen Gladbach. The others left Friday evening, but I stayed until Saturday (15 January). We went down to the Grande Place Thursday night for dinner and sightseeing, and the Friday afternoon after our meetings were over I returned to the Grande Place by myself to explore some more. We were staying at the Hotel Mercure and holiday Inn out by the airport, so taxi rides downtown would cost about 600 BF (~$16) one-way, but there was a municipal bus that went right past the hotel so for 50 BF (~$1.30) each way, I was able to ride down on Friday and return.

Thursday night's excursion was primarily for dinner. We ate at a Lebanese restaurant (Al Barmaki) off the southwester side of the Grande Place (67 rue des Eperonniers - a few streets west of the Manneken-Pis). Friday was purely for walking around and exploring.

Gene in front of the famous Maneken-Pis statue..... if you look closely the stream is aimed right at his hat.....(40kb JPEG file)	One of the many streets around the Grande Place that are filled with restaurants (50kb JPEG file)
The King's House (Maison du Roi) on the Grande Place. I asked them to move the crane out of my camera angle, but they wouldn't oblige...... (52kb JPEG file)	The southwest corner of the Grande Place by streetlight (52kb JPEG file)
An alley north of the Grande Place where a lot of seafood restaurants are - all with elaborate displays of fresh seafood outside (48kb JPEG file)	One of the many seafood displays in the seafood restaurant area (62kb JPEG file)
The Beer Temple - selling all things relating to Belgian beer, including hundreds of kinds of bottled Belgian beer (45kb JPEG file)	The City Hall (Hôtel de Ville) on the Grande Place. This is a stitched "panorama" made from two photos so there is some distortion in the shape of the buildings and the center part has some image shadowing (54kb JPEG file)
This is a full 180 degree + stitched panorama of the Grande Place. Because of that there is some size and shape distortion, but not too bad. (209kb JPEG file)

Another business trip to Brussels, this one quick as well. I flew from Boston on Monday (19 June), landing in Brussels on Tuesday morning. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday working and meeting with folks, then flew out and back to Boston on Thursday. Not even enough time to get jet-lag! The Euro2000 soccer championships were being played in Brussels while I was there, so the city was a lot more crowded and noisy (especially after the games let out) than normal. I stayed in the Ibis Hotel one block from the Grande Place. A nice hotel, and a great location!