From France we hopped a TGV train to Brussels, Belgium, the center of the European Union. Although we were only there for one full day, we managed to pack in a lot! Dave has gotten really good at navigating city transit systems, and we made full use of the underground on this day.
Starting at the Atomium, an exhibit from the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, we were able to get a great view of the city and a bird’s eye view of our next stop: Mini Europe. Inside the Atomium you are able to take escalators and stairs up the arms from one sphere to the next, viewing eight different exhibits which probably haven’t changed much since 1958! A lot of “retro” art and furnishings along with iconography from that era.
Mini Europe is made up of miniature models of the 28 countries in the European Union. This was fantastic timing in our one year trip as it served as a look back over all we have seen and learned in the last 9 months. Included in our visit was a booklet with information about each country including the capital, population, the year each country joined the EU, and many interesting facts about each place. Did you know that in Denmark’s income taxes range from 51% to 68%? Or that there are more saunas than cars in Finland? Can you imagine that Belgians eat more chips (french fries) than anyone else? That’s hard to imagine since I know that Americans consume a lot! We had a lot of fun recreating photos in locations we had already visited this year! Can you recognize some of these locations from previous blogs?
Next we headed to Brussels famous Arcade du Cinquantenaire. I have loved seeing the patriotism displayed in the countries we’ve visited with flags being prominently displayed. This arch displaying the Belgian flag reminded me of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris with the French flag, which then reminded me of the beautiful American flag we saw hanging in Boston when we started this trip back in September. All touching displays.
We strolled the park surrounding the 110 year old arch and the kids played on a nearby playground while Dave and I enjoyed a little sun on the lawn. We were excited to find a medieval festival being set up adjacent to the park and came back later in the day to take part. Dave and the girls tried some archery. They were naturals. The kids also played other games targeted at them like a mini catapult, and a rock throw with the intent of crushing a hard boiled egg. We also enjoyed some delicious food (beignets aux pomme, roasted pig, bread, apples, and brie) and got to hear a bagpipe band!
From the arch we made our way to the Parliament Building and the European Commission. We saw the EU flag as well as a statue representing the euro coin.
The rest of our evening was spent buying chocolate! We went in to all the different chocolate stores, sampled, and bought a bit here and there… which lasted us until our next stop, Amsterdam! It was a good thing we had the sugar fix stored away because our easy travel day ended up not being so easy. Because of construction in the Netherlands, a two hour train journey turned into a seven hour trip with 5 canceled trains and many unnecessary transfers. But, the best part of our day was making new friends! A guy from London, named Yu, and a study abroad student from Atlanta named Paul. We were all headed to Amsterdam and it became quite comedic after a while at how hard it was to go 100 miles! It was fun listening to the girls tell stories about our travels this year and it also gave us a little glimpse of what they were remembering and counting as meaningful to them. A month to go in our European travels - see you all soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment