a restaurant on an island in a pond

Sometimes , I saw a couple of horses in the Cambre forest at the weekend, especially in autumn. Of course, they were not the wild ones, and it was doubtlessly strong probabilities that when seeing horses on Sunday, sunny afternoon, you would also find several horse-carrier bonded firmly with tails of large sized vehicles.

I was just running around the main road, which was extended just like number "8" shape in the forest, and one of its two loops had a relatively large sized pond at its center. This pond was so large that it had its own island, again at its center, on which a casual restaurant was located and I heard that it had a good reputation through the Internet. 

The problem in here was that there was no bridge to reach there. Running around the pond, and wondering how people would react if they face the unchangeable fact that they might have no mean to reach the restaurant, but prepare to swim, after making a reservation. So, I just had a sigh of relief, when I found there were two rafts, fixed at piers, waiting for the season opening, maybe, at the beginning of the next spring, when all ices on the pond will be broken and melted completely.
 
 Here was in the Cambre forest, Brussels.

small calender, brussels 2012

At this moment, just an hour before 2013, I have a small calendar in my hand titled “Brussels 2012”. Last year, I mean, in December 2011, my former colleague and his family came from Brussels to here in Maryland, and stayed for a while for sightseeing around DC area. At the time, they gave us this small calendar as a souvenir, and since then, I’ve put it on my desk next to my PC for an entire 2012. The calendar has twelve different pictures on each month, and they are, of course, a famous, beautiful piece of scenery of Brussels city I had once enjoyed. For example, crystal twilight Atomium at Heysel is in the page of September, and a Christmas tree in white at the center of Grand-Place is in the page of December.

Curiously enough, looking at these pictures now, I find there are few people in each scene. Here in pictures, there are just historical buildings, trees and flowers, and blue sky, sometimes, twilight-orange, water-blue sky. At the end of 2012, looking at familiar Brussels scenery without any people, I feel like listening to Gymnopédies, Erik A.L. Satie’s music, maybe something like a farewell for 2012 Brussels.

Anyway, having said Gymnopedies, I once went to Honfleur to visit historic Satie’s house, though I just found the house was closed at the time.

Brussels, Belgium in my small calendar.

golden arch and flea market in warterloo

There was a golden arch of the McDonald at the corner of the relatively newly founded Carrefour in Waterloo, and on Sunday around noon, I used to drive to there to get just a burger meal. The taste was same, and maybe, the scene I saw inside this restaurant was also same as everyone could see anywhere under the same golden arch in the world. I heard that around the Ville de Waterloo, quite suburb of Brussels, was one of the favorite places for American residents commuting to the capital by car. Quite often, I heard American-English conversation in this restaurant from the families who happened to sit next to me.

The uniqueness of this McDonald was not belonged to this fast-food-store itself, nor a huge Carrefour store sitting next to it, but the flea market opened at the parking of these stores in every Sunday morning. This flea market was opened in the very early morning and closed around 13:00. So, sometimes, I was walking among vendors while biting a burger and French flies with my fingers, and looking for nothing, but enjoying looking at what they were selling. They were selling toys for children and antiques.

Here was Waterloo, Wallon Brabant, Belgium.

a long hole near my apartment

I think it was at the end of the winter, and maybe a few more days before the beginning of eagerly-wait-for-spring, several years ago, I found in the morning that several blue excavators painted "KOBELCO" on its big shovels were suddenly digging the ground on the avenue just in front of my apartment. At the time I remembered that I got a notice from STIB (Brussels public transportation company) on the very previous night, and it said that the current rails of the tram 92 around my apartment area should be replaced for new ones. When roughly reading it without paying much attention, I thought the construction would start several weeks or a month later. Then, in the very next morning, looking at the excavators digging a hole, firstly I just made a slight smile unconsciously without saying anything, then, rushed to the workers and shouted that I needed to get my car out of my garage before they made big holes in front of my apartment.

Later, I called the commune/town office to ask whether they could offer a temporary free-parking lot for residents including me who were forced to make cars out of garages until the end of the construction, maybe for several months. The officer firstly asked me my address, and seemed to check a map around my area over the phone, then said that I was so lucky that I can park my car anywhere around my apartment without any permission, because streets and avenues around here were parking-free (besides construction area), really lucky, anyway, in any means.

At that night, first night of the construction, I left my office at the late hour, maybe around 22:00, then came back to my apartment around 23:00. Unlike normal operation, the tram 92 was forced to stop at the temporary final stop, which was well far from my apartment, so, I had to walk for a while from there. Near my apartment, I found excavators did a really good job on its day one, making a really deep, long hole along with the avenue. Then, around two blocks from my apartment, I saw a white sedan car literally fell into this hole. The car seemed to go to the garage as usual, just without knowing that there was a hole in front of the house, unlike the day before. 

Around 24:30, rescue crews (the resident called) came to pull the car from the hole. I saw it through the window before going to bed.

Here was Brussels, at midnight.

walking along with avenue de toison d'or

Walking from Louise square to somewhere along with Avenue de Toison d'Or, I was passing through literally the shopping center of Brussels city. On my right side, I found lots of  somehow affordable apparel shops and other stores including HEMA, dutch casual chain-dimestore, and on the left across the high-way like Tunnel Louise, I saw seamless luxury shops and a tallest hotel around there, which was once crowned Hilton name on it, but recently Swiss-capital bought it and renamed it, just "The Hotel". 

The name of Avenue Toison d'Or seemed to be quite popular here in Brussels, like 5th avenue in New York City or Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, maybe from my personal viewpoint. On a night of Friday or Sunday, I watched a local talk show on TV in French (by the way, Brussels has two languages, and I often watched French programs), and in a show, the male host/middle aged was costumed like a quasi-taxi driver, and whenever a guest/celebrity of Belgium came to his show-studio/ Taxi like set construction, the guest says her/his destination to go. And watching the show at the night, the actress like pretty woman said to the driver/host, just "Toison d'Or !" with an impressively chic accent. At the end of the show, the actress actually came to the Avenue, gotting off the real taxi (without paying, of course), at the very front of newly built galeries de la Toison d'Or/ shopping arcade containing a cinema, a couple of restaurants, and young apparels like scotch and soda, also Dutch chain, again.

Here was casually kind of the center of Brussels, Avenue de Toison d'Or.  

brocante at heros square

There is a small street named "rue de nieuwenhove" near Heros square in Uccle commune area. On the side of this street, I was just sitting and looking up at the nicely blue sky on a sunny day in late May, because this was the space I was given by the local chamber of commerce for its annual brocante/ flea market at the square. Though it was at the end of May and nicely sunny day, but here in Brussels, many people including me took a coat at a certain point on the day, simply because it was enough cold to do so.


Anyway, on our space, my wife offered used tableware including several dishes and cups, clothes, and toys for babies. And I put my old collections consisted of several books (all in English, they were about sports or business), a baseball cap (Chicago Cubs), and a soccer/football neck scarf (Paris Saint-German FC, a souvenir of my first visit in Paris). All were just for 1 euro at the time.


I still remember my first customer, who was a junior high school boy near Heros square, coming alone. At first, he took a look on a neck scarf of PSG, but showed more interest in biography books, particularly four of them, which were about football coaches, Mr Mourinho (Portuguese), Mr Wenger (French), Mr Cappello (Italy) and Sir Furguson (Scottish). Again, these books were all in English, and the boy spoke French, his native, and average-Dutch (both are must-learn-languages in Brussels school), but had totally no idea of English. While all these four people nicely attracted this boy because he took so much time to check all of them (actually checking pictures on the books), only, but a sky-high-barrier of English language prevented him from choosing neither of them. So, I actually helped him. I offered a special discount only for him, one for 25 cents (centieme euros), saying he surely could learn English with them. After my encouragement, he took Mr Mourinho's for 25 cents decisively, because it was the thinnest book among them.


Here was in the middle of Heros brocante, Uccle, Brussels.   

twilight sky at louise stop in summer

I'm not quite sure how many times I was just looking up at the twilight sky at Louise stop, especially in summer like today, while waiting for tram 92. Tram 92, my only commuter-tram, no alternative, was rarely coming soon whenever I was at the stop, and I saw always two or three tram 95s sharing Louise stop, coming firstly there. I do not know why so many 95s always came first before single 92 coming. I still think 95 trams did not outnumber 92 trams during evening-hours. And also I saw two or more 92 trams running opposite direction (inbound) before my destination's (outbound) coming. For several years, I've learned, maybe, it was just a nature of tram 92 outbound. 


Waiting for tram 92 outbound at Louise station, in the evening, I used to look up at the billboard of red "Q", Quick Burger chain-restaurant, Belgian version of golden "M" arch, at the top of the building standing at the corner of this Louise square. Then, usually I moved my focus on the opposite corner, where the Nespresso store was under construction at the time, later newly built. 


Sometimes, I saw a car with big "Red Bull" drink can/display on its roof led lots of roller-bladers, -skaters, including kids and adults, along with avenue Louise. On the other day, that Red Bull car also led lots of cyclists with lousy music. Each time, police cars followed them for safety.


Maybe, since I was waiting at Louise stop for such a long time, in total, I think I still have lots to talk about the events I happened to encounter there. Nonetheless, at this moment, just the twilight sky I looked up at in the summer evening keeps coming in my mind. So, the colors of Louise square were always orange and water blue.


Here was Louise, also a nice shopping center in Brussels. 

running uccle 10k event

The commune/ town Uccle has had its running event crowned with its name, Uccle 10 K, and in my memory, it's inaugural competition was held in the early summer in 2008. The entire course was 10 kilometer, having mix of up and down hills. So, it was really quite tough one. One of its uniqueness was we started from a horse race track at the very beginning of the race. We have to finish the entire horse truck before going into bois de la cambre/ Cambre forest park, then passed through la observatoire/ observatory, and jumped in Saint Job square, then went up to Fort Jaco, and finally came back to Cambre park and crossed the finish line at the horse race track, welcome back. 

Each time I participated in, a local TV camera took a shot of the start-dash of most competitive runners who eagerly occupied the front line of the entire participants. After on your mark, getting set, then go-signal echoed, several high school student-runners always got pretty good start-dashes. In a particular year, I found one of those "dash men" even did not wear a running shirt and pant, but put a casual T shirt and jeans on, with a pair of Converse sneakers. And as everyone can easily expect, these dash men slowly lost their propulsion power, like after launching of a space-shuttle putting into orbit, then they were among the mass stream. 

Here was in Uccle. The mascot of this event was a blue running man, quite simple. 

delhaize proxy in saint job square

Usually, on Sunday, there were few stores open for customers in Uccle. So, at the beginning of my Brussels life, I often wandered around my apartment in each Sunday morning, in order to look for any glossary stores, which could be open on Sunday and offer any slices of breads possibly consisted of my simple breakfast. And it took 15 minutes walk for me to reach a Delhaize proxy, a mini-supermarket, which was obviously a chain-shop of its parent company "Delhaize supermarket group", and open 7 days a week. I'm not quite sure how this store could be an exception to the strict Belgium rule banning Sunday operation for any stores and shops.


Anyhow, on every Sunday in Uccle, unless I was in a vacation-trip, I surely went to that Delhaize proxy, by walking, by running, and sometimes by taking tram 92. When walking, I cannot count how many times I crossed a bridge over the railroad to reach there, though the government owed railroad corp did not run any commuter-trains on Sunday, so, I did not see any train whenever I crossed. Passing the bridge, I went down a slope along with tram 92 line, and sometimes, the tram 92 was passing by me. I over-looked the saint job square from the slope, while already smelling baguettes or petite pains in that store.


Saint Job square, here was in Uccle, Brussels. 

going to delhaize through marronniers arch

The nearest supermarket I used to go so many times in Uccle was "delhaize". In my memories, there were two delhaize supermarkets around there, and to go to one of them, I usually came around the street slightly sloped down from la observatoire/ an astronomical-observatory. There were tall marronniers/ horse chestnut trees along with this street, and in the early autumn or at the end of summer, whenever running under these sacred-arch-like tree-tunnel, I often found lots of house-chestnuts accidentally crashed under my shoes.

At a certain point, I used my car to go to that delhaize. I always chose same avenue and street to go there from my apartment, hence, I drove down that same street under same tall marronniers. Maybe, since then, I never care house-chestnuts and its trees, and literally never saw them while driving. I also never thought about the sacred-arc-like tree tunnel, until I missed them now, with help/hidden-power of a glass of biere/ "coors-light", in here, in Maryland.

It was in Uccle, Brussels. By the way, I also miss the landscape I saw from the roof parking lot of that supermarket. Lots of tree-greens and browns, and also orange-brown roof tops of houses nearby, that's absolutely beautiful.

tram's chauffeur goes to a boulangerie at an intersection

Maybe, it was a mild day in the morning in Brussels. As always, I took a tram to go to my office, and the tram, as always, already had several commuters on board, and several seats were still empty when I got into it. I sit on  literally the front seat, just behind the tram driver/chauffeur. And as the tram was going, I was just looking at the scenery from the tram window, just as always. 

It was a nice day, so, sun was shining in the morning in Brussels, and I think it was rare in here. 


When the tram passed through several stops, there was a boulangerie near an intersection, which was not big, not like franchise-chain store, but seemed to be a family owned and managed small bakery, and always had various sweet rolls, croissants and brioches in its showcase. And at the time, I realized that I was not the only person who just wanted to take one of these good looking sweet rolls. While the tram stopped at the intersection with red traffic light, the driver quite naturally went outside, and quietly entered the boulangerie. He seemed to say "bon jour" to the baker, and pointed his finger at a quite nice sweet roll. It took just 5 or 6 minutes for him to go back to his seat with a nice roll, but the traffic light already turned from red to blue, and then red came again. This means that  he had time to take a first bite of the roll, at least until the traffic light allowed the tram/him went on.


Here was Brussels, maybe, in spring or early summer, several years ago. 

same rainbow

Today, I saw a rainbow hung in the western sky in this Maryland. At the time, dark clouds gathered as if we would have a huge evening shower sooner or later tonight, and as my everyday routine exercise, I was running through the country road leading to nowhere, but a local supermarket or discount wholesale warehouse. While running, I found that that rainbow was quite similar to what I saw when taking "tram 92" running through Uccle, southern Brussels, almost 4 years ago. That rainbow was above a small, local chain supermarket, named "GB". At the time, GB was already purchased by Carrefour S.A., French hypermarket giant, but allowed to remain its name for a while. I remember the billboard painted with strong colors of red "G" and blue "B" on the top of this supermarket roof, and above these, again, a beautiful rainbow was hanging. And maybe, that was the very beginning moment of my Brussels life. 

That was in Uccle, Brussels.

at a bagle cafe in leuven

It was in autumn when I saw some college students riding their bicycles on the old stone pavement in Leuven city. Their bicycles seemed to be a little bit old fashion, but its silver body was nicely glittering. I just stood at the end of a small alley at the center of the old town, and after the bicycles passing by, I walked across a relatively busy street. Maybe it was around 13:00, and just in time for lunch in here Belgium, so fortunately, I found a nice, casual bagel cafe standing along with the street. 


In front of the cafe, there were several tables which were already occupied by young people enjoying the afternoon sun shining. Inside the cafe, I listened to the mild-sound of jazz-like music running like a favor of coffee. I took a small table, and ordered a salmon sandwich with sesame bagle, a small glass of beer, stella artois, and a cup of espresso. The sandwich was good, since I enjoyed the incredibly fresh salmon. Shipping an espresso, I saw young people, maybe students of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, talking like singing with cups of coffee as if they were holding a seminar in a classroom, though it was Sunday afternoon.


Here was Leuven, this city has an old university.  

tram 92 going through uccle

In Brussels, I had taken the tram 92 going through Uccle for many times, and some time I enjoyed looking at, and some time, without thinking any, just looked at the scenery from the window of the tram 92. I think that, to say generally, the scenery was not so special. On the other hand, whenever I realized the "afterglows" of myself at a particular place I used to be, like at the cafe I used to take a cappuccino, I got the feelings as if I regret for not taking the photo, that kind of an ordinal scenery photo. 


Whenever the tram turned the corner of St Job square, I tried to remember the last time when I went to the Italian restaurant near there and what kinds of dishes I enjoyed at the time. 


After passing the square, the tram 92 started going up a little bit steep hill until reaching Fort Jaco.


Here was Brussels, now I realized how few photos of this beloved city I actually have.

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.

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

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.