{"id":1077,"date":"2013-11-19T07:03:59","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T06:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=1077"},"modified":"2013-11-19T07:03:59","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T06:03:59","slug":"week-46-brussels-in-the-rain","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=1077","title":{"rendered":"Week 46: Brussels in the rain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week was another week partly spent in Brussels. This time it was typical Brussels November: rain, wind, blustery. But I had some good meetings, and dinner with my cousin Nicole. The pictures are presented chronologically, starting Tuesday evening and ending Thursday evening (I flew home to Alicante on a 6 a.m. flight Friday morning).<\/p>\n<p><strong>46_1<\/strong><br \/>\nI arrived Tuesday afternoon, and in the evening went to a bar in Ixelles to meet with an ex-colleague for beer and dinner. Here I am walking along Avenue des Arts near the Tr\u00c3\u00b4ne metro station:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_1.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4683\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_2<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the heart of Ixelles, the intesection of Rue St Boniface and Rue de la Paix:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_2.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4686\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_3<\/strong><br \/>\nWednesday morning was cold but sunny:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_3.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4690\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_4<\/strong><br \/>\nI spend much of my time in Brussels going to various meetings and events in the EU quarter, and I quite like the modern architecture there:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_4.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4691\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_5<\/strong><br \/>\nThis is going to be the new building for the Council. The old building was built at a time when the EU had 12 or 15 Members and is too small to accommodate the current 28:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_5.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4692\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_6<\/strong><br \/>\nOne thing that strikes me about the EU institutions is the relative lack of security. This is the entrance to Berlaymont, seat of the EU Commission; anybody can just walk right by, there is no visible security except of course the access control inside:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_6.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4693\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_7<\/strong><br \/>\nWednesday night I walked through the Parc Cinquantennaire to my cousin&#8217;s place near the Merode station:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_7.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4699\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_8<\/strong><br \/>\nA delightful surprise awaited me at Nicole&#8217;s. Her father, Uncle Joseph, had come from Le Mans to visit for a couple of days and to see me:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_8.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4705\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_9<\/strong><br \/>\nThursday morning, on the way to a training seminar at a hotel near Place du Luxembourg. There is a piece of the Berlin Wall there too:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_9.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4709\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_10<\/strong><br \/>\nSeveral hours later, around 5 p.m., and I am on my way back to my own hotel. This is some impromptu artwork on Place du Luxembourg:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_10.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4710\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_11<\/strong><br \/>\nI took a shortcut through the courtyard of the European Parliament:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_11.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4712\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_12<\/strong><br \/>\nLooking down a long and mostly empty esplanade:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_12.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4714\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>46_13<\/strong><br \/>\nBack at Rond-Pont Schuman, near my hotel. I totally agree with the sentiments expressed here:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2013\/46_13.jpg\" alt=\"DSF4717\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I went to my hotel, changed, and went out for a brief rain-soaked walk looking  for a restaurant to have dinner. Then back to the hotel for an early night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week was another week partly spent in Brussels. This time it was typical Brussels November: rain, wind, blustery. But I had some good meetings, and dinner with my cousin Nicole. The pictures are presented chronologically, starting Tuesday evening and ending Thursday evening (I flew home to Alicante on a 6 a.m. flight Friday morning). [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":877,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1077"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1078,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1077\/revisions\/1078"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}