Before we do anything, if you haven’t seen the Daily Show clip on the Washington football team, please do so now.
Now back to Belgium.
We watched a half episode of Big Bang Theory dubbed in French. Hilarious.
Today we went to the European Union visitor center which was amazing. To see how far this vision goes back and how much work went into making it a reality. I have to say I was swept away by the presentation of the process for making a law and thinking how great it was.
Until I remembered that I was being shown an ideal of how the process works. I’m sure you could make an equally group-huggy video about the US Congress or the National Congress of American Indians but when you have some insight into how process actually works, it’s not quite as magical.
Not intending to knock it because giant collaborative efforts aren’t pretty – just pointing out that I know in reality there’s a lot more involved in making things happen.
In the afternoon we went to the fine arts museum which is housed together with the modern arts museum and the old masters museum and one or 2 other exhibits. We arrived late in the day (even skipping lunch, just like I would do with Bob) so it was a rush through. I told Erin I saw everything by jogging through the galleries.
We’re in a bit earlier tonight. We have some time here tomorrow and then we’re on our way to Ghent.
Yesterday when we came back from breakfast we noticed one of our curtains was missing. There is a gauzy white curtain and a heavy blackout curtain. The white one was missing. Oh no! We had opened the window wider to get some air in there. We looked down into the courtyard to see if our curtain was there.
It would have been quite a task to unhook it from all its hook and float away, but it seemed odd that the cleaning crew would come in and take our curtain and then go again. But that must be what happened. Our curtain was back when we returned last night.
At least 7 times a day I say, “Let’s never drive here.”
The driving seems extraordinarily insane. Narrow streets. Lots of cars and buses and vans. At one point we saw a car driving through an intersection stop for a car making waiting to make a left and chew the guy out. I’m not clear what the left turn guy was doing wrong or why it was worth the trouble to stop and yell at him. Later we saw a bus that was stalled? in the single lane moving in that direction. So buses and cars trying to get around it had to get in the oncoming traffic lane. So the oncoming traffic was jumping over a low lane divider to get in the bus/taxi lane.
The only car I’ve seen driving slowly was a driving school car. It’s a busy big city so maybe it will be different in a smaller place. However I will share that the guidebook said: don’t even think about driving in the fast lane on Belgian highways. They drive very fast and nose-to-tail and it’s too much if you’re not used to it.
