Prowling my world, camera in hand

13 October 2018

Week 38: back to Brussels

Filed under: — Administrator @ 07:04

I had a quick business trip to Brussels during the week, with a free evening and good weather, so most of the photos in this blog are from there. There are of course some “local” images at the end.

38_1
After my usual routine of landing at Brussels airport, making my way to the hotel, hanging the clothes for the next day etc., I descended into the metro and went to Place Ste-Catherine:
DSF5507

38_2
The square was full of people enjoying the warm evening. It is one of my favourite places in Brussels:
DSF5512

38_3
Wall art:
DSF5514

38_4
Rue de Flandre:
DSF5523

38_5
Shop, Rue de Flandre. Yes, this is a real dog sleeping in the shop window:
DSF5524

38_6
This restaurant on Place Ste-Catherine holds fond memories for me. When we lived here in the 1990s, I would bring my then 8-9 year old son here for a Dad-and-son lunch of traditional Belgian food like stoemp or moulles:
DSF5525

38_7
I ended the evening at The Monk, one of my 3-4 favourite watering holes in Brussels, where, as I discovered on this occasion, they also make excellent spaghetti (man does not live by beer alone):
DSF5529

38_8
Next morning, I had a meeting at the Commission at 9:15, but as I am an early riser, there was time for a walk in the nearby Parc Léopold, another favourite spot of mine:
DSF5533

38_9
DSF5565

38_10
On the way to meeting later in the morning, I passed this building. It shows off one feature of Brussels’ European quarter. It is not just a place where the EU institutions are located, but also offices of numerous business lobbies and, as seen here, regions of EU member countries that also feel the need to be represented in the capital of Europe. I liked that this particular building was shared by four regions from Germany, Italy, France and Poland:
DSF5554

38_11
Brussels is full of modern architecture, which I happen to like, a lot. This is the new Council building:
DSF5556

38_12
And these buildings are near the European Parliament:
DSF5562

38_13
Entrance to the Parlamentarium, the public exhibition area of the European Parliament:
DSF5560

38_14
Plaque at the European Parliament, honouring the Solidarity movement that was a big contributing factor to the demise of Communism and paved the way for the subsequent reunification of Europe. With all the problems, we are still much better off today than before 1989:
DSF5557

38_15
An iconic image, in front of Berlaymont, the Commission’s headquarters:
DSF5570

38_16
My meetings done, I was back at Brussels airport less than 20 hours after arriving the night before. My last Brussels picture this time was the Tintin rocket in the departure hall:
DSF5571

More photos from my morning walk in the park are available here.

38_17
Back in the office on Friday, we went for lunch together, and I took this casual portrait of Carolina, which all involved liked very much:
DSF5577

38_18
A couple of images of beach life; this one in the middle of the afternoon:
DSF5575

38_19
And early in the morning:
R004545

38_20
At the weekend, I was out and about on my bicycle as usual. This is road between Busot and Jijona, the world capital of turrón:
R004557

38_21
The Río Seco was for once not completely dry, and the goats liked it that way, apparently:
R004548

38_22
It is by now a tradition to pay a visit to the mercadillo every Sunday, usually to buy some olives and a roasted chicken for lunch. But I always take a walk through the fruit and veg section:
R004563

38_23
The vendor’s shirt says “taste me”:
R004566

38_24
And finally two photos from my usual Sunday afternoon activity, a beer at one of the beach bars while watching the people on our own Playa Muchavista:
DSF5581

38_25
Feeding time on the beach:
DSF5578

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress