Driving to Brussels through rural France, you come across some outstanding scenes, like this one. This castle is perched on a craggy hilltop. It looks fantastic, even though we didn't have time to stop and investigate. Fabulous, but expensive, autoroutes mean average speeds of 130 Kph. Yes, AVERAGE.
This is the port on the Rhone River at Lyons. This is a large and interesting looking city and is worth a look on a return trip.
Brussels, at last. This little fountain is on the periphery of the Grande Place (Google it, it's worth it). I thought the street behind was worth the photo as well.
I don't know what the figures mean. You may have to do some research on this and let me know. Please.
Looking down (or up) a little street on the approach to the Grande Place.
We are a bit far from the sea for real lighthouses, so this is one for Deb, made from real Belgium chocolate. Sorry Deb, It won't survive the journey in the bag - it would be eaten!
This is the main Palace on the Grande Place. Rather than me prattle on about the various buildings and their history, how about you Google the Grande Place and check out the chequered history of some of the buildings and the Grande Place itself. It's interesting.
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Many of the buildings have gold - yes real gold - gilt on them.
Beautiful detail.
A view across the Grande Place.
Another view.
More gilt.
This ststue has an interesting story or stories, that seems to change with the telling. Another Google mission I am afraid. It's called Manneken-Pis. True! I'm not making it up.
Yep, that's what he's doing.
From inside the main building on the Place.
More on the Place.
Uh, huh, more.
A close up view of some of the gilt artwork.
A view across the Place.
A view from a little square adjacent to the Grande Place, a sort of a "food court" area.
Another view of the square.
Fountain in the square. Notice, they still have water in their fountains here, no water rationing.
A street near the central rail station. The Eurostar from London gets to Brussels in about an hour, two to Paris.
They are building a new square here, near the rail station.
As you can see, a nice clean city. It's home to the European Union, so I suppose there's plenty of money to spend here.
A streetscape. Notice the differing styles and periods of archtecture evident in just this one shot.
Looking towards the Grande Place (note spire) from just near the Brussels Park.
A view of the entrance to the Park.
Just inside the main gate. We had lunch here.
This appears to be the Brussels version of the Wiggles. Kids were having a ball, jumping and singing. Loud, too.
A view of the central avenue in the Park.
Looking back toward the Grande Place from inside the Park.
A streetscape on the way back towards the Grande Place and the Metro station, which uses trams.
Interesting building. Insurance, I think.
Again, the variation in architectural styles is amazing.
A neat little park behind the main rail station
A little Church of Madeleine, near the Grande Place. Said one for all of you.
Church interior.
Again
Kids day out. The various groups wear safety vests to help them stand out from the rest of humanity. Teachers are brave people.
Inside our tram in the peak. They were having trouble with the power supply when this was taken. There were stopped trams everywhere. Ours managed to keep going, thank goodness.
See what I mean about trams everywhere? And this was the above-ground section where we could see them.
There is a park outside our hotel called the Square Des Heros. these are the heroes. I don't know what they were heroic about, yet.
Looking at the front of our hotel from the monument.
Front of our hotel.
A tram from the front of the hotel. I like the trams, better than Melbourne's and much better than Brisbane's buses. Did I hear anybody mention Brisbane's trams?
