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.