Day 68 - Happy Anniversary!

Today Cz and I have been married three years, and together for eight. That's nearly an effin' decade, people! It doesn't seem so long though, which I guess is a good sign. In our time together, we have lived together, lived apart; lost jobs, found new ones; adopted cats; finished grad school; lived on both coasts; traveled Europe; worked both on and off Broadway, and oh yeah, got married. Now we are just over two months into a 'round the world adventure together. I don't know what the future holds, but it had better be good if it wants keep up with the past!

Since our anniversary night will be spent in a second class train coach from Brussels to Berlin, we are spending today as well and fully as possible. All the museums were closed yesterday because it was Monday. Today we made up for lost time, visiting both a special exhibit of paintings by Columbano Pinheiro, and The Museum of the City of Brussels. Pinheiro is one of the first realist painters of Portugal, and his work is heavily influenced by that of Manet, who he met while studying in Paris. The exhibit was well laid-out with placards of information on both the artist and his work presented near each painting. The Museum of the City was equally good. The first two floors were dedicated to tapestries, china, paintings, and sculptures of or made in Brussels. One of our favourite exhibits was a model of the city as it looked in the the 13th century. Each point of interest was labeled with a number that coincided with a number on our information sheet. It gave a description of the site's function in the 13th century, a brief history, and then what stands on the site today. I especially like the ones where the description of the 13th century site, and the description of the modern site are the same. The upper floor of the museum is dedicated to the wardrobe of Manneken Pis. Since the 17th Century, Manneken Pis has been costumed for festival days. He has over 780 costumes in total, though only 100 to 200 are on display at any given time. It is a great honour to costume the peeing boy, and the competition is fierce. His wardrobe spans both the globe and fashion history, from a full Samurai costume from Japan, to a Rwandan Elder from 1949, to Elvis, to a modern footballer. In fact, I knew of the peeing boy before I knew anything else of Brussels. I had used him in costume research for a production in Grad School.

All museumed out, we set off to find the Royal Park. The gardens at the foot of the king's palace are open to the public. They are formal in design only. In function, they serve as any goof city park should - as a place for children to play, couples to meet, and public art to flourish. An opera singer paced circles around one square of green and practiced his arias. In another corner, a pavilion was being set up for a concert. Behind the children's playground, a puppet theatre advertised that the next show would begin at 4:30. I dragged Cz from his nap (he was too tired to explore the park opting instead to make use of another prime feature - benches for resting), and found a spot near the stage. We had planned to stay only for fifteen minutes and then to use the internet and find some dinner. The show, however was so captivating that we wound up stying for the full 45 minutes. A brilliant marionette artist charmed us with both her own antics and the antics of her puppets. She had a wheel which she or a lucky audience member would spin to choose a musical genre. Everything from Classical to The Charleston to Hip-Hop was fair game. The Jazz Puppet had jointed fingers. The Disco dancers involved having their strings crossed cat's cradle style over and through her fingers. Best though was the classical. A little girl was invited up on the stage, and told to select the marionette that looked right for classical. She pulled out a wooden violin and bow on a marionette sticks and string. The puppeteer took the violin and bow off and bid the girl to mime playing. She then moved the frame over the girl's head as if she were another marionette. Very clever. After a few minutes, the puppeteer pulled out Marionette maestro, and he and the girl "played" a duet. Of course she got a standing ovation. The performance was totally free, though afterwards a hat was passed and those who wished to toss in a few euro could do do. We did. Art should be supported. I find it hard to imagine such a show happening in an American park, but then Central Park has Shakespeare in the Park, an Maclearan Pool has free concerts, so perhaps I am taking a dim view of American Culture.

After our day in the park we had a deliciously un-Belgian dinner of sushi. It was a terrific date, and we sat outside and people-watched as we ate. As soon as this post is up, we're off to the train station and Berlin!

We'll write soon...

Day 67 - Better Than Chocolate

Belgium is famous for its chocolates and waffles, but we have yet to eat any. We have been too busy wandering from monument to monument oggling the architecture. Brussels has been an active town since the early Middle Ages. The architecture is a whipped cream confection of Baroque, Gothic, Neo-Classical, and modern, all smooshed together on a tiny plot of land. Naturally the mascot of such a city should be the Manneken Pis, or peeing boy. A tiny statue that in its former life (circa 1619) provided public drinking water, and today is the irreverant symbol of a rather irreverant town. We also puttered around the market square, inside and out of various churches, and up and down the labrytine streets of the old quarter. The city is well way-marked for tourists, with signposts on nearly every corner. We relied on this some, but the towering white steeple of the Broojd Huis (Bread House) on Market Square was an easy landmark to navigate by.

In the evening we internetted again - only 10 days behind now! - until 9PM. We stopped because we had noticed earlier in the day a stage being set up in the Market Square. It was for the Brussels Summer Festival - every few days a different concert. We had stumbled into the city in time to hear the National Chamber Orchestra of Belgium perform a free open-air concert in front of the gothic State House Museum. We stood on the plaza sipping Belgian fruit beer and letting the music and crowd swirl around us. The building facades all around the square were lit up against the night sky, and it was easy to feel happy and far away from our ordinary reality.

Day 66 - Beach Bums

Today we went to the North Sea. Being the North Sea, it is COLD. OK, so it's less cold than the rivers I splashed in on the Camino, but still pretty chilly. I might have gone in if there hadn't been a brisk breeze, but HS, B, and I settled for just wetting our feet. The boys didn't even come near the water.

The beach itself is very pretty and quite clean considering how many people use it. There is a pier where brave (or foolish) souls can try bungee jumping. I was not even tempted. The platform wasn't nearly high enough, and besides, I'm holding out for South Africa where one can dive off a bridge into a 1200 foot ravine. Really, if you're going to do something, do it right!

Above the beach is a boardwalk with the standard stalls of arcade games and overpriced junk food. Soft ice-cream is the specialty. I don't remember if "soft" is spelled differently, but ice cream is spelled "ijs" and pronounced "ice". We each had a cone, and it certainly lived up to its reputation.

The whole experience is like a slightly European-feeling Coney Island. I'm not sure quite what makes it distinct from Americzn beaches - all the elements are there - sand, surf, boardwalk, families, etc but it feels slightly different. Perhaps it is more relaxed. There is not the frenetic energy that you get at Coney. People at both places are relaxing and having fun, but at the North Sea the fun is had at a more leisurly pace...That and in fine weather the women are often topless. Cz was very sad that today was cloudy.

We went back the housebout fairly early for a late lunch of chili a la B. As with everything we scarfed down in Germany/ Netherlands, it was delicious. We needed to eat early, because everyone except D was leaving to their various cities of work. We hitched a ride with M, as he drives through Belgium on his way home, and it's a country neither of us has ever been to.

We were dropped in Brussels at 7PM on a Sunday with no map, no clue where in the city we were, and nowhere to sleep. This was my choice. This generally freaks Cz out - even more so because the hour and the Sunday meant that the tourist office would be closed - but he stayed admirably calm. I popped into a video store and got directions to the hotel district. On the way we met a man with a map. I stopped him to just ask where he had gotten it, but rather than trying to direct us, simply offered us his spare. Map in hand, we were well on our way to a bed. We found a hotel that looked posh enough to expect courtesy, but no so posh as to be intimidating. I went up to the desk, complimented the place, and asked for directions to a youth hostel. The friendly concierge showed me where on the map to go (only a few blocks), and off we went. The hostel was full, but the upper floors were a budget hotel for only a few Euro more. We have decided to make this our anniversary treat, and booked two nights.

As it was too late really to go sightseeing, we decided to catch up on the blog, which was a whopping 12 days behind. On the way we passed a movie theatre showing The Simpsons Movie. In English. With French and Flanders subtitles. Double the hilarity, though we have no idea what Santa's Little Helper said to Bart (anyone care to send us the translation?). Oddly, movie popcorn is one thing I have really been missing on this trip. I'm not such a big movie buff, but I like the ritual of popcorn, soda, and comfy seats in a dark theatre. Tonight we got a fix of stupid American culture - granted it is the Simpsons and it makes fun of everything, especially Americans. Perhaps not the most cultural traveller-ish thing to do, but fun nonetheless.

The internet cafe was 24 hour, so we still even caught up on some blogging to boot!