Brussels (with special introduction from Sir Gibbons)
Neil Gibbons guest writer: "The Drunk in the queue"
Upon arrival in Belgium, I was conscripted by Mrs Willis to aid in the acquisition of travel cards (I can string a sentence together in French). She and I thus proceeded to the Information centre. This is itself was quite the ordeal as we had to battle our way through a crowd of confused English tourists walking in all directions in search of the same information centre. We made it through, where it so happened that I was not needed as the man in the booth spoke perfect English. As he and Mrs Willis spoke, I watched as a drunk man stumbled over, bumping into everyone in the queue, finally pushing in front of Mrs Willis as she continued to speak to the guide. The drunk, whilst eating and dropping oatcakes from a large bag he had, took a single earring from his pocket and offered it to the guide. The guide calmly refused the earring and waited a moment until the drunk reliased he was not welcome.
We then found out where to go and got the travel cards.
How eloquent is Neil compared to me? Being one of two french speakers in the entire group of us, it's safe to say we relied on Neil's linguistic skills (especially on night 2 where we walked around looking for food for around an hour before Neil asked for directions from a passer by- that was an interesting night). Anyway, economics being the main focus of trip, we visited the European Parliment, the Audi factory, the Ecover factory and the Stella Artois factory (reluctantly declining any samples as it was a 'alcohol free' trip).
Upon arrival in Belgium, I was conscripted by Mrs Willis to aid in the acquisition of travel cards (I can string a sentence together in French). She and I thus proceeded to the Information centre. This is itself was quite the ordeal as we had to battle our way through a crowd of confused English tourists walking in all directions in search of the same information centre. We made it through, where it so happened that I was not needed as the man in the booth spoke perfect English. As he and Mrs Willis spoke, I watched as a drunk man stumbled over, bumping into everyone in the queue, finally pushing in front of Mrs Willis as she continued to speak to the guide. The drunk, whilst eating and dropping oatcakes from a large bag he had, took a single earring from his pocket and offered it to the guide. The guide calmly refused the earring and waited a moment until the drunk reliased he was not welcome.
We then found out where to go and got the travel cards.
How eloquent is Neil compared to me? Being one of two french speakers in the entire group of us, it's safe to say we relied on Neil's linguistic skills (especially on night 2 where we walked around looking for food for around an hour before Neil asked for directions from a passer by- that was an interesting night). Anyway, economics being the main focus of trip, we visited the European Parliment, the Audi factory, the Ecover factory and the Stella Artois factory (reluctantly declining any samples as it was a 'alcohol free' trip).
I slightly regret not taking my DSLR, but then again, Belgian waffles don't need a fancy camera to look good. We definitely took advantage of the unsurpassed Belgian cuisine.
If there was one word to describe the city, I would have to say creative. Art is incorporated into everything - even in scaffolding. Most cities would have ugly scaffolding during construction, but in Brussels they cover the frames with artists impressions of what the building will look like after construction is over.So simple but innovative.
There is a brief summary of our trip to Belgium, which was a great start to the holidays. I would recommend visiting when the weather is nice- as much as I loved it, I can imagine the walking tour being so much more enjoyable not being completely drenched.
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