Designer Chocolate

Apr 21/07

We took a very early train from Heidleberg to Brussels, where we were met by Joelle. She's a wonderful lady we met in Nice, and asked us to come visit her. Joelle has the most beautiful apartment, that she spent the last year renovating back to it's original splendour. She took us out to see the sights in the historic areas and to visit all the designer chocolate shops in the city. I've never seen such expensive chocolate, presented in such fancy surroundings. The whole of the industry was very upscale. And some of them even had tastings...mmmmm.

We went to the Grand Place, which was surrounded by the townhall and church. It was a beautiful square, and VERY clean. It was one of the cleanest squares, even clean enough to sit on. We saw a guy with a little vacuum cleaning out between the cobblestones.

We went out for waffles, to experience the full Belgian experience. More chotoclate shops and we visted the famous statue...Mannekin-Pis (peeing boy). He's a little naked peeing boy, but he's got all kinds of costumes as diplomatic gifts. Odd.

Apr 22/07

Bridgette and I went to Brugge today, Joelle had to visit some friends. The train ride was nice and short, and we had lots of time to see the town, known as the 'Venice of the North', because of all the canals. We had the other famous Belgian food, french fries, for lunch.

We wandered through a beer shop, then ended up in a flea market for a few blocks. It was hard to get out of the market, but finally we got to the end, where we got to see some windmills. We headed back to Brussels, an met up with Joelle.

She had been out watching the first round of the French elections, which was a very interesting race as one of the candidates is both a Socialist and a woman. It will be an interesting race.