Hey All,
Hope everything's going well stateside :). We got a slightly later start on the day (I think we were trying to make up for little to no sleep on the way over). But luckily, in Belgium, breakfast is an all day event. Assuming you want waffles (which of course we did). And they were delicious.
After that awesome start to the day, we wandered over toward the European Parliament. I say wandered because it was off the map that the hotel gave us, so we had a general sort of sense of where we were going. I wouldn't say that we took the most direct route, but Brussels is very scenic, so it all worked out.
We got to the EU Parliament around noon, and started exploring the exhibits. The internet had told us to expect to spend around an hour in the museum, and around 30 minutes in the actual EU Parliament building. Lies. We finished the museum around three hours later, and among the things we learned in the museum was that Parliament is actually on vacay this week.
The museum was very well organized, and had a lot of cool technology to walk you through the history of the EU and the current state of things. Everyone got their own iPod-like speaker that you could just swipe in front of certain symnpls, and it would either give you information on the screen, or it would start talking to you. There were a few frustrating parts (for example, you would swipe your iPod-like-thingy and be reading through the information on a large television monitor when someone else would come up and swipe theirs and the screen would reset and be in their native language - European collaboration, my butt), but for the most part, it was very well put together. Lots and lots of information.
After wandering back by a large gate (in the rain, because let's be real, apparently that's pretty much the weather here), King Leopold's Park, and several other significant areas of Belgium, we finally found the metro, and were able to get back to the general area of our hotel. This was obviously cause for ice cream celebration :) Or just ice cream. I don't need an excuse.
Tonight for dinner, we followed a recommendation from Neil and Katie and had a very tasty dinner, followed by more wandering around. Pictures to follow, as soon as I recharge my computer. Tomorrow, we're off to Amsterdam!
Catherine
Hope everything's going well stateside :). We got a slightly later start on the day (I think we were trying to make up for little to no sleep on the way over). But luckily, in Belgium, breakfast is an all day event. Assuming you want waffles (which of course we did). And they were delicious.
After that awesome start to the day, we wandered over toward the European Parliament. I say wandered because it was off the map that the hotel gave us, so we had a general sort of sense of where we were going. I wouldn't say that we took the most direct route, but Brussels is very scenic, so it all worked out.
We got to the EU Parliament around noon, and started exploring the exhibits. The internet had told us to expect to spend around an hour in the museum, and around 30 minutes in the actual EU Parliament building. Lies. We finished the museum around three hours later, and among the things we learned in the museum was that Parliament is actually on vacay this week.
The museum was very well organized, and had a lot of cool technology to walk you through the history of the EU and the current state of things. Everyone got their own iPod-like speaker that you could just swipe in front of certain symnpls, and it would either give you information on the screen, or it would start talking to you. There were a few frustrating parts (for example, you would swipe your iPod-like-thingy and be reading through the information on a large television monitor when someone else would come up and swipe theirs and the screen would reset and be in their native language - European collaboration, my butt), but for the most part, it was very well put together. Lots and lots of information.
After wandering back by a large gate (in the rain, because let's be real, apparently that's pretty much the weather here), King Leopold's Park, and several other significant areas of Belgium, we finally found the metro, and were able to get back to the general area of our hotel. This was obviously cause for ice cream celebration :) Or just ice cream. I don't need an excuse.
Tonight for dinner, we followed a recommendation from Neil and Katie and had a very tasty dinner, followed by more wandering around. Pictures to follow, as soon as I recharge my computer. Tomorrow, we're off to Amsterdam!
Catherine
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