mechelen

Walking down a street in the city of Mechelen, I hardly saw the stores and shops open on Sunday. Along with this street, I found several famous, expensive apparel shops, like Hugo Boss, but closed. Only small-sized grocery stores, like a mini-GB (chain-store owned by Carrefour), were open, and these somehow seemed to prevent the street from being a part of the ghost town.

The street comes from in front of the train station of Mechelen, and when starting from there, I firstly found myself in the middle of the quasi-American, normal, or unusual, street. There were restaurants around there with a little bit big and colorful, but old and lost luster signboards. The buildings were not new, but not too old.

Until walking across the small canal in the city, and finding the top of the cathedral, I hardly realized from now on, I was going to the small parts of the medieval romance in this small city. The small canal was like a boarder between the new and the old, or 21th and 13, 14th.

As getting closer to the heart of the small city, I heard the tone of carillon coming from the cathedral. Amazingly, one of the songs was relatively new, "Yesterday", the Beatles number.

Here was Mechelen, Belgium.

sweet rolls

In Prague, the traditional sweet roll in the pic is the well-known speciality, which can kept attracting tons of foreign sightseers.

I took the pic in a small shop located near the Wenceslas Square, and actually bought and enjoyed the sweet roll. Taking a bite of the roll, I felt the slight smell of cinnamon, and sounds of crashing tiny rocks of sugar on it. In a small shop, the middle-aged woman silently kept rolling the breads to make tons of sweet rolls, and sometimes answered bluntly to the sightseers who wanted to try the roll.

Before coming the small shop, I also got the other sweet roll in a stall located in front of the supermarket near the main street in the city. The stall was small and made by the quasi-wooden materials, anyway, painted dark brown like a sweet roll. Just like the proprietress in a small shop, the middle-age woman in the stall kept rolling the bread, and sometimes took a roll reluctantly to the shoppers who held small changes. I still remember that the stall' s roll was cheaper than small shop's, and also only slightly the taste was better.

Here was Prague.

in the train from prague to wien

That was one of the most curious scenes I've ever seen in a train.

At the time, I was in the international train, EC173, which left Praque Holesovice station at 13:33 for Wien Sudbahnhof. To say correctly, it was one or two minutes before actually the train started to go from the station. So, it was around 13:30.

When I was on the board of the train, and kept my reserved seat with putting my backpack on the upper baggage-rack, I just wanted to go to the restroom, toilet, WC. The small WC in the train was usually located in the vestibule or deck, which was also an entrance to the coach.

When I went to the vestibule, I found there was an old lady who kept saying good-by to her family members (maybe) and hugging consecutively with each other, most importantly, in front of the door of WC. I just said, excuse me, several times with a little bit loud voice, but she and her family seemed to decide to ignore the outsider for this important family ritual. I just saw the cleaning woman who was standing in the vestibule and also waiting for cleaning the trash box which was also guarded by the hugging old lady and Co..

The moment when the old lady said a little bit sharp scream was so curious for me that I still remember the exact detail of the scene. The old lady was hugging with the middle-aged woman who was fat and maybe also her kin. They were hugging for a while and I think it was longer than ever. And the next moment, two women leaned against the door of WC, toilet, and slowly the door began to open. Two women still hugging with each other, were slowly falling down on the floor in the WC, toilet, restroom, washroom, or what ever. They almost lightly hit their shoulders or even faces on the corner of the toilet bowl or silver pan.

Two women were screaming on the floor of the WC, amazingly still hugging. I and the cleaning woman, who were only two witnesses of this tragedy, said, are you OK?, at the same time. The other family members, who already finished their retuals and left from here, rushed into the vestibule. The old lady reiterated " the door was opened" with looking at me a little bit viciously, though I never touched the door and even was still waiting for relieving myself in the WC.

That was so curious, and when I saw the faces of the family, who could do not to laugh, I finally felt relief to go to the WC.

Here was on the train, EC173, Prague.

waiting for a clockwork

When looking for my hotel around the center square of the Prague city, I found lots of people looking up the old clock, and seeming to wait for something, which would maybe happen at 18:00. It was around 17:55, and was bright and really nice summer evening, so (at the evening) still I enjoyed the beautiful afternoon-blue sky with partly white clouds.

At 18:00. Time was coming.
One of the small windows above the large analog-circle was opened. From the inside, something finally came and made noises with the rings of a bell.

Sorry, I was not so sure what was actually came at the time, but it was maybe small, and for not so long time he/she had showed him/herself in front of the crowd.
Soon, the small door was closed as if it was nothing special.

The show was over in the very short moment. And a very small part of the crowd was yelling, like "whoo" with clapping hands for a short moment. That sounds of clapping seemed like the end of the summer season, at least for me.

Here was Prague, the Czech Republic.

frites in antwerp

The frites shop in the photo is located near the cathedral of our lady, Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal. This is maybe one of the most famous frites shops in Belgium, at least I heard so from my colleagues. My colleague said that the madam and monsieur in the shop had regularly and separately made the frites, and he continued if I was so lucky, I got the frites made by the monsieur, which was a little bit good, a little bit, maybe.

So, must-go shop in Antwerp.

Unfortunately, I was full at the time, and I just took the photo instead of joining in the line of the waiting people. So, still I'm not quite sure even if the madam and monsieur are for real, maybe there is a possibility that just friendly guys may make a good one, or maybe not.

When I standing there for a while, two American sightseeing girls were waiting for their frites, or in their case, french fries. They found a curious sauce for frites, named "Samurai".

"Samurai?" one girl said, and another followed "Wasabi?".

Samurai sauce for frites was a kind of usual choices in many frites shop, not Wasabi taste. I learned afterward in Brussels.

Here was Antwerp, Belgium

champs-elysees, sky high

Walking down the avenue des Champs-Elysees, I found the sky was so high and blue. And turning around, I also found, though it is obvious, needless to say, the Arc de Triomphe was there.

The typical famous spot is not so bad in case you are in a sky-blue (not blue-sky, in term of the nuance of word, anyway).

The day was so hot, about eight of ten people I pass on this avenue wore sunglasses.

Unlike Brussels, in Paris, I found several Starbucks"es" around corners of the streets and avenues. And on this hot day, maybe seven of ten people want to have a "frappuccino", frozen drink, which has been trade marked by the company. I'm the one who got a caramel-taste.

The reason why I came here was so simple. Maybe, it was my sophomore year of high school, I read a comic book, which was about "judo- (sports from Japan) girl". In that comic book, father of the judo-girl had been in a vagrant life, and began to teach the judo-tech for the French archrival of his daughter in Paris. The mother of the judo-girl realized her husband was in Paris, then said "I'm looking forward to walking down the avenue des Champs-Elysees with family".

So, I'm walking down the ave.

Here is Paris, France.

luxembourg night

Summer night live.

In Luxembourg city, this night is a little bit special. Giving me a pamphlet of an event programme, the concierge in my hotel said that this city's summer night was always like this. Not always, maybe.

About 60 groups of bands played Jazz and blues around the old towne area, which was in the narrow ravine and famous as parts of the symbolic historical place in this small, but beautiful country.

The towne itself was lighted up, and reverberated by the consistent rhythm of trumpets and drums.
The stream of people made their walks so slow. Really, there were lots of crowds on every street.

20:30, still everyone took a cup of beer from a stand, and enjoyed a "Frites". The climax of this festival had not come yet.
My path to walk was nearly closed by the cloud of middle aged men with their fat berries. They listen to the music sincerely, really.

Here was Luxembourg night.

subway wandering in antwerp

When arriving Antwerp, as usual, I tried to go to the center of the city without knowing the exact place and how far it was from this beautiful train station. Wandering the station, I found the entrance of the city-subway, or the quasi-subway, like-a-tram.

The name of the subway-stop in the central station is "diamond". Brilliant. So, decided to go, why not.

Then, for a while, actually I found myself around the outskirts of the city, seeing the guys in the bar drinking heavily with red faces around noon.
Simply, I took the wrong line.

Here was the outskirts of Antwerp.

bon jour, brussels

Since this June, I began to live in Brussels, Belgium. Maybe, this metropolitan-international city is my first European city or Euro-city (so, expensive, now!) to stay for a long time in my life. I've been here for a month and, my first impression in here is, just "the changeable weather city no one has never predicted, even weather-forecast has not" .
So cold early summer I've ever experienced, even colder than Boston's summer.

However, food is so good, especially, a blue mussel with white source.
Anyway, maybe, I will write about walking holiday European edition, from now on, maybe.
So, see you soon.
Here is Brussels, bon jour.

landscape of kyoto, shorenin

When visiting the temple in the pic, one of the biggest surprises was meeting the big camphor trees in the precinct. I met one of them in front of the main gate of Shorenin temple, located in the eastern part of Kyoto city. At the time, the tree made itself light orange-brown, maybe you can see the color of morning sun light being harmonious with the brown trunk in the pic, right.
It was a nice day without thick clouds bringing the chilly sleet just like the day before. I heard that the temple had a beautiful Japanese garden, but before going in, I knew it well.
Here was in front of Shorenin temple, Kyoto city, Japan.

landscape of kyoto, ninna-ji

I'm in Ninna-ji, kyoto, and seeing the silver shinning garden made by a myriad of small stones and short trees partly planted. The cloud in the light blue sky is coming from the north with bringing flakes of snow. The breeze may be cooler than ever in the year.
I pay 500 yen (JPN), about $4.5 (USD), to enter the part of the wooden structures consisting of Ninna-ji, old temple near in north ward of Kyoto city. When I enter the nearest Japanese construction from the main gate, I meet the silver garden. I just sit on the floor, and for a while just look at the garden, sky, and cloud without thinking anything.
Here is Ninna-ji, Kyoto.