Brussels at large

Finally worked my way back down south to Brussels.  Was planning to take the train back down but caught a ride with the sales manager instead and save myself the cost and logistical challenges.  Was interesting to see all the traffic jams instead of the train headaches.  Made it down to Brussels with time to spare so I hopped a train downtown to explore and find a nice dinner.  Brussels is definitely a place you can find a good meal.  

Explored the area around the Grand Plaza again.  All the side streets with cafes, bars.  

We spotted this place by the Centraal station that peeked our interest on Sunday:  Dinner in the Sky.  Exactly what you picture it to be (look it up on dinnerinthesky.com).  When we saw it on Sunday morning, it wasn't being used, so it got our attention.  When I came back down on Wednesday, it was in full swing.  Just imagine, eating an elegant dinner with 30 other people hanging out 250 feet above the streets of Brussels.  Sounds interesting but I kept thinking:  what if you needed to go to the bathroom?

Brussels has a ton of sidewalk restaurants.  A lot are down by the Grand Plaza.  The narrow cobblestone alley ways are lined on both sides with place after place.  All of them have some buy our front trying to entice you to chose them over the other (Free beer!  Free wine!  Glass of Champagne with dinner!  Tiramasu for desert!  Free shoulder massage!).  Lots of choices.  I did note that a lot of these places seemed to serve muscles.  Not sure if it was a seasonal thing or a regular part of their menu.  I didn't take the challenge - never acquired the taste for muscles (or clams for that matter).

We finished up on Friday but our plane wasn't leaving until Sunday.  Spent Friday night and all Saturday just wandering all over town.  My coworker and I explored an area north of town called Atomium.  A display made back in 1955 as part of the World Expo.  Was meant to be a temporary display but wound up becoming permanent.  Huge structure of spheres with interlinking tubes that you can go from one globe to another.  Restaurant at the top and display rooms in the lower spheres.  The shape is suppose to represent the molecular composition of an iron atom.  

Of course, for just a few Euros more and being in a touristy mood, we just had to check out the mini-Europe display next door.   Where else can you see the Eiffel Tower, the Tower of London, and the Tower of Pisa in 1 hour?

A bit cheesy?  Perhaps, but I am a sucker for cheesy sometimes and it was neat to see all of the various displays and intricate detail that went into the models.  All it needs is a horde of Viking Warriors battling it out.  

And the chocolate is coming...

If it's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (or 's-Hertogenbosch)

Feeling much better.  Thanks for all the well wishes.  Having a fever for a couple of days really can take the wind out of your sails.    

Moving on with our European saga, after a brief sweep through Brussels, we caught the train to 's-Hertogenbosch (remember how it's pronounced?).  Turns out this is a really neat town to visit for business/pleasure/whatever.  I feel totally remiss in my travel planning for this leg of the adventure.  Normally I scope out a destination in advance to map our a plan of attach.  TripAdvisor is my tool of choice in planning our my strategy.  Look for the local hotels, restaurants, things to see before we hit the ground.  I'll admit I did study up on our hotel, the Movenpick, but not much else.  Figured this to be a small town outside of Amsterdam with few restaurants, no historical sites, not much activity - one sleepy little Netherlands hamlet.  Totally wrong.  's-Hertogenbosch is a really interesting town and I only wish I had a few more days to really explore.  Many canals, lots of historic buildings, restaurants down every street, one reeeallllly impressive church some awesome architecture (inner geek showing), a night-time free opera on the plaza, and geese.  

Train ride up from Brussels was good, if slightly complex.  For those used to having their own mode of transportation (aka car), traveling by rail can be an interesting experience.  We had a 3+ hour train ride up from Brussels to 's-Hertogenbosch after a long flight and wandering around Brussels for few hours.  Needless to say, we were running on fumes at the time.  We bought our tickets before we started wandering around town (that's the boy scout in me) and we needed to take three trains (2 transfers) to get to our destination.  I can handle the logistics, but need to be in the right frame of mind to make the connections.  My coworker was pretty much zonked out for portions of the ride and, if I hadn't been watching the stations and change, we could have wound up in France.  Finally made it to den Bosch and caught a taxi to the hotel.

The Movenpick was a interesting hotel.  It was recommended by our supplier as a good choice and close by, but, being a cynic, I like to scope out the places I am going to be staying at before I hang my hat.  Good reviews, but I really couldn't get a good mental picture of the place from the write ups.  Very nice hotel - modern motif (think Ikea), clean, efficient, very well run.  I need to hop onto TripAdvisor and give them my two cents.       


Some shots from the Movenpick

View outside of my window
Spot the wildlife?

Something to tempt greet you when you check in.
Go ahead - try one! 

Something left by the hotel staff

Touring the town

Typical Netherlands buildings.
We saw many similar homes/buildings throughout the town.  

St Jan Cathedral

Big

Tight fit

And, of course, a few restaurants

One of the many sidewalk cafes around town
Not as contested or crowded as Brussels 

Narrow street with shops and restaurants

Another street, another cafe

Can you see what peeked my interest?  (Hint:  look to the end of the street)

Was interested in getting the translation of the statement 

Was chilly out - one of the different outside heaters that many restaurants had 

A quartet of gentlemen that played every night (for tips).
Very good musicians.

Good food

Veal medallions

And beer

Have no fear - the chocolate is coming.....

Belgium trip report (slightly delayed)

Ok, THAT didn't work out quite like I planned.  The plan was to make a whirlwind trip to Brussels, audit two companies, spend some extra time sampling the local gastronomical cuisine, exploring the rich architecture and culture of the Belgium and Netherlands, return home, take a day to regroup, and tackle the mountain of work in a short 2 day work week. Was working on posting a nice synopsis of the trip with pictures.  I was on track for most of my plans but, as they say in the movies:  "Best Laid Plans of Mice."  Started Tuesday feeling achy   In my shoulders, in my back, in my knees.  Usually that is a sign I have been pushing the envelope a wee bit too much.  Staying up too late.  I chalked it up to the 14 hour flight from Brussels to DC to Houston and hauling my baggage with all my booty.  Was hoping to catch up on my e-mails, reports, file my expense report, take care of several items before we shut down for the holiday.  By mid morning, I was feeling a bit worse, slightly chilled.  By noon, I was downright freezing in my nicely air conditioned office in the middle of a typical Texas summer day.  At 2, finally grokked something wasn't right and I was running a fever.  First time in a long time I bailed on my meeting and went home early.  Probably a good thing too - was slightly ditzy on the drive home.  Got home early and immediately hit sack and slept for almost 24 hours (sorry dogs, no walk).  Somewhere along the line, I finally broke out the thermometer and registered something around 102.5.  Started popping Advil to see if that could break the fever and managed to keep it to a cool 101.4 for two days until it finally broke Wednesday night.  Was lucid enough to e-mail work early Wednesday to say I was going to be a no-show and went back to my sweat lodge.  Spent a good solid 2.5 days sweating out the fever and having some really wicked dreams along the way.  Spent most of yesterday laying around the house just trying to get some strength back.  Hadn't eaten anything since Tuesday noon so I was pretty much running on empty.  Today has been pretty low key as well.  Feeling more human today - well enough to walk the dogs, water the yard, pick up the cleaning, but still not feeling 100%.  Hope to recover enough to mow my yard tomorrow.  Not exactly how I had planned to spend my extended weekend.  Anyway, here is what I had planned to post earlier this week.  It may take a few postings to cover it all:   

Long week.  We flew over last Saturday, arrived early Sunday morning.  Took a couple of hours to explore Brussels before we caught our train to the Netherlands.  Spent a few days in 's-Hertgenbosch (pronounced:  Cher-toe-gan-bosch) or "'den Bosch" as the locals call it.  Beautiful city located east of Amsterdam.  Lots of older buildings, canals. many restaurants   

Spent 4 days in den Bosch auditing a new company before heading back down to Brussels for the second half of my tour.  2nd audit was in Gent, just northwest of Brussels.  We planned our flight back on Sunday which gave us Saturday free to explore Brussels at large.  

I won't bore anyone with the audit details, but will give you a few highlights of our tour.  The few short hours we spend on Sunday wandering the streets on Brussels early Sunday morning were interesting.  I've always been fascinated by the architecture of Europe and the different buildings, monuments, displays one can see simply by taking a walk.  

From interesting artwork/diplays

Building clock - at each hour, the particular figurine for that hour will emerge from its alcove and ring in the hour.  

Art Museum/Autoworld

To museums

Autoworld Museum

Amphicar

To grand cathedrals

Grande Plaza

Grande Plaza

To lots of restaurants

To some unique buildings

Lots to see & do in Brussels, if you are willing to explore.  

More about chocolate and beer later...

Where's Waldo?

Been off the grid for a week enjoying some really, really good beer and some decadent chocolate.  Got to see some interesting sights, travel the countryside by train, sample some new food, meet some unique people.  Ate way too much, sampled many new local brews, ran several kilometers every morning, walked my tail off the last two days exploring the local area.  Two guesses on where I've spent the last week.     

Heading out this morning for the long flight back.  12 hours strapped into a shiny metal tube with 300+ other brave souls as we eat/sleep/read our way home.  Glad to be heading home to my loved ones but I am not looking forward to returning to temps in the 100s.   

Details and pictures (and there are lots) later.

Tot ziens!

Heuvos

Some people have them.

Maybe it is just my my recent brush with theft, but I seemed to be noticing things more of late.  I went in to the office early yesterday.  I am way behind on my office chores, working on another system validation and getting ready for my road trip next week.  

I was running some reports when the guy in the office next door came in asking if I had any binoculars (Sure - they were in my trailer).  Curious thing to ask one while at work.  We work in a 6 story office building and my office is on the 5th floor and looks north towards Houston.  Nice view.  With the airfield a few miles to the north, we get to see the occasional Space Shuttle or Air Force One or Squadron of WWII planes cruise by.   

Normally, you don't see a lot of action going on out of my window.  The occasional accident or congestion or fire engine.  But every once in a while something catches my eye.  Early yesterday, we spotted a guy on the roof of the local strip center (red wall) just north of us.  Now, we are used to seeing guys up on the roof on occasion working on the A/C units, but this guy just seemed, to quote a good friend, "wonky".  Being on the roof didn't catch our attention, it was the ninja stealth, low crawl movements he was making that seemed out of place.  He would crouch low up to the edge, peer over, then go back to the cluster of A/C units.  We spotted he had a pair of bolt cutters and seemed to be working on the A/C units.  Made sense to us - the building next door has been undergoing some roofing work and has guys up there for most of last week.  We thought they were doing renovations to the restaurant that had closed, but the more we watched, the stranger he got.  We alerted our security officer downstairs and he contacted the local police.  After about 20 minutes, the police rolled up on the building and started investigating.  Turns out that he wasn't supposed to be up there and was stealing copper piping out of the A/C systems.  When they rolled on him, they figured he had roughly $50 - 100k worth of copper in his truck.  We thought it was pretty ballsy for somebody to do that during the middle of the day.  I guess he didn't figure on people from adjacent buildings spotting his antics.  

The good news is the cops busted him before he could make off with the copper.  The bad news is the Japanese restaurant right on the corner was closed for the day because they had no A/C.  Sorry to see them closed - they are usually packed for lunch every day.  Hopefully, they can get it fixed quickly and get back to serving sushi.