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Brussels.
Ever wanted to know what the centre for the EU Parliment looks like? I have,
so we went and had a look. There are photographs of the carbuncle of a
building (to use a famous Prince Charles quote about modern architechture :-)
) with no real style - it's plush but bland....... and to think that a LOT of
our tax money went into building that ananymous piece of c*** to house an
un-elected bunch of second-rate politicians that are more or less in charge
of Europe......... anyway I hear you're never supposed to discuss politics
with friends :-) Did I mention that our neighbours in the Pyranees was
employed by the EU and we had an interesting discussion on what he did - I'm
certainly not going to blog that though :-) for his or my sake.
Brussels was very nice, with a great atmosphere. It is one of the most
cosmopolitan cities I have ever visited and owes that to being the cultural
centre that merges the North of Europe and Southern Europe - which are quite
different. Belgium has a real mix of signage - Dutch and French (often in the
same shop and always on the same menu) but then I guess you would expect that
as they speak both languages but it goes further than that, there are tailors
aping British traits, styles and fabrics, hipppy shops selling tye dye
clothes and African market traders selling leather and er, smoking
equipment.... :-) it all adds up to a real eclectic mix and it is pretty
cool. They have some great buildings as well the Borse (stock exchange)
wouldn't look out of place in Rome, the Opera has a grandiose building and
the main town square is just amazing, hopefully you can see that from the
photos.
We aren't camping today either...... we've decided that this is our last
night in Europe (We never think that Britian is really in Europe) so we
decided to rough it and stay in a nice hotel :-) We picked a place on the
Southern side of Brussels called La Hulpe and stayed in a fab hotel called
"Dolce". It is a hotel, resort and conference center and it is splendid. Ther
service was great, the food was nice (if not a little expensive compared to
the meger costs of our usual repas) and the bed was luxurious after seven
weeks in a sleeping bag :-) We both felt a little bit scruffy staying there
but hey....... it was a nice end to our holiday. Did I say end.......... well
there is a little matter of driving home - that's tomorrows job. Driving from
here to Calais, ferry across and then motorways back to Yorkshire - nice.
See you all soon.
Ian and Claire
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