Brussels & Belgium

part three

images from excursions

:: May 13 - 18 ::

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Before our excursions, Kristin and Bob enjoyed the rare opportunity to replace the plug on the vacuum cleaner cord. 

 

At a central Brussels bookstore we found the magazine with an article about Benny and Kristin's landscaping.

Oh, and they remembered the carton of grow-your-own mushrooms they had been given and which they had set to mature in the basement--the mushrooms had, indeed, mushroomed and proved to be tasty!

Our Saturday excursion was a bike ride along the canal to the center of Brussels for the biannual Zinneke parade and celebration. 

We don't quite understand it but did enjoy it.

Returning, we stopped for a bit of supper and refreshment to witness progress on the site of what had been a huge freight station and customs facility--The Gare Maritime--which is part of the even larger Tour & Taxis redevelopment of industrial land. We had visited this long-term project earlier in its gradual transformation into what Bob sees as a new-town-in-town .

On Monday, daughter Karlyn arrived fresh from receiving her Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree.

On Tuesday, Karlyn went with us to The Africa Museum--an interesting long tram ride to a museum we had visited before it closed for five years to transition from its colonial, Belgian-Congo origins to a more balanced and respectful view of the history and people of central Africa. In the museum's words:

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