26Apr2009: Day 335: Brussels, Belgium

It’s the last day of our world-wind trip. Finally a decent breakfast from the hotel consisting of eggs, sausage, mushrooms, etc. Makenna actually ate some cereal too but not enough. Luckily they were in little boxes and I grabbed a box for later.

It was a bit cold and overcast and sprinkled on and off for our last day which was a bit disappointing but as time went on, it got a little nicer. We headed off to Cathedrale des Sts-Michel-et-Gudule (aka St. Michael’s & St. Gudula’s church) and as we did so, Chris realized that it might not be a good day to do so as it is Sunday.

He was right. There was a service going on and so we weren’t allowed to walk around the church but could stand in the back and film and take pictures. The church was started in 1226 but officially consecrated as a cathedral in 1961. There was some nice choir music to listen to and it might have been a Gregorian choir.

We had to keep enforcing with Makenna that she had to talk quietly so she would whisper, “See the picture?” This was one of the things I kept saying to her throughout these past couple of weeks to distract her from doing one thing or another that I didn’t want her doing. Then one time after the choir stopped singing, she looked at me and had her arms folded and told me to fold my arms for prayer.

As time went on, Makenna was getting a bit anxious so we decided to go down into the crypt area. I was surprised it was open but there wasn’t much to it. It had some foundations and other construction elements from an earlier church dating from the 11th century. We stayed down there a little while even though it only took about two minutes to see, so that Makenna could roam around a bit and play with the little rocks she found. Unfortunately she started to throw them around and I kept trying to tell her to put them on the big rock “shelf.”

When she grew bored of this, we decided to leave the church and possibly come back later. It was open at 2pm to look around but we didn’t end up making it back. The outside seemed a bit more interesting anyways and we got plenty of pictures and video of that.

We got back in the car and drove about 5 minutes to the main area called, “The Grand Place.” This was a major touristy area with lots of shops (mostly selling Belgian chocolate,) and some really neat architecture on the buildings. We found the Hotel De Ville and made it in time to get an English tour at 12:15pm.




Since we had about a half hour before it started, we walked around a bit more and found the Musees De La Ville De Bruxelles (Brussels City Museum). It was free to go into but we had to leave the cart and I had to wear the backpack as a front-pack. I’ve decided that Makenna and Sunday’s don’t mix. She was a handful here and we only spent about 15 minutes looking around. We weren’t allowed to take pictures either. So I can’t really say too much about the museum.

We left and went back to the Hotel de Ville. We again had to leave the cart along with the backpack. Chris tried asking them if we could take the cart as we knew that Makenna was really tired. No luck.

The Hotel is Gothic in its architecture and is a town hall since 1402. There’s a tower that’s “in the middle” of the building yet it’s not directly in the center. There’s an untrue legend that when the architect realized his error that he jumped from the summit of the tower. The building is still the seat of the civic government and the royals in the area get married here. There was a room where there were pictures of past foreign rulers of Brussels including the Spanish, Austrians, French, and Dutch. It was hard to get all of what the tour guide was saying as she had a bit of an accent and Makenna was getting near to impossible to control. She kept saying “sleepy bunny” which is her way of saying that she wants a nap. Every time she saw a chair or a bench she wanted Chris to sit down and massage her back.

We ended that tour and headed back out to the main square. We stopped in one of the chocolate stores as they were giving away free samples from a chocolate fountain. We could even get the chocolate ourselves. Makenna helped herself to ones that were already done. We ended up buying some dark chocolate which I’m sure will taste pretty darn good once I get it away from Chris.

We then stopped in a souvenir shop and bought a magnet and Makenna found this little mini camera which when you click the button, different pictures of Brussels come up. She hasn’t figured that part out yet and just thinks she’s taking pictures even though she’s looking in the lens side. Chris thought the mini camera was 2.50€ and when the guy told him 3.50€ Chris told him he wasn’t going to buy it. The guy agreed to 2.50€. I thought it was very ironic that in the video below, Makenna thinks she needs batteries for her camera. Reason being is that we keep going through batteries like water on this trip. We think that either the batteries are really cheap or the camera needs to be replaced.

We left there and got a bite to eat which was chicken baguettes and gave Makenna some of the chicken pieces out of it. She wanted to eat the bread instead but we got her to eat some chicken because she wanted ice cream. We told her she had to eat some of the chicken first. Chris and I got waffles (mmm Belgian waffles…) with ice cream on top and got Makenna a cup of chocolate ice cream. Not surprising that she all of a sudden wanted my ice cream which was Crème Rocher. I didn’t want chocolate so that figures. She only had a few bites and all of a sudden she was insisting she had to have katchu. I couldn’t figure out what the heck she wanted and every time I asked if it was ketchup she said “okay” which is her way of saying yes. She doesn’t like ketchup so I couldn’t figure out why she kept asking for it. I kept telling her, “No I wasn’t getting any ketchup.” She got more and more upset. It finally dawned on me that she was actually asking for cashews not ketchup. We left the cashews in the car so that didn’t help her any and she was still upset. We finally made her lie down and covered her up and as we walked on she fell asleep pretty quickly.

What was nice in the area where we stopped to eat was the three string quartet. I filmed this little bit. I felt very European sitting outside eating and listening to music. Later, they left and another group with a saxophone, a dulcimer, and a guitar showed up and played.

Unfortunately, there were also beggars in the area. From when we left the car park there was one sitting at the elevator with her little girl. Then there was one while we were eating who came up to us. I saw this same woman do this to another couple sitting at the table and she pointed to her little child but I thought it was very intrusive to do this while we were eating. There was another guy on the street who had two or three dogs and a sign that he had no money for food but he looked pretty clean cut so I wasn’t too sure about that one. I guess I felt bad for the ones with kids and I’d hate to have to resort to that. Sometimes you wonder if it’s just a scam of sorts though. Chris thought they looked as if they were from Eastern European nationality, like from Bulgaria. It seems like most of the beggars we have run into during all our trips are from some Eastern European country, in our opinion.

As we walked, we found this other area with lots of shops and walked down and looked at some of them. We stopped in this one shop with teddy bears and it was hard to resist getting one. We moved on and I actually found a shop with this macramé chair and I thought of how my grandfather Rafferty could make something like that and here it is being sold in an expensive store in Brussels.

We headed back to the car and stopped at one more chocolate shop as it said it was the best in the area. We had a small sample and I personally didn’t care for the piece I had but it was a crap shoot as she had a tray full of different ones and I just had to pick one.

We got back to the car and headed for home. It actually was a short trip back to the Euro tunnel. Since we got to the tunnel earlier than our check-in time, we stopped for another bite to eat at the border and since Chris had some Euros left, he graciously bought me some perfume and a watch. I had lost a watch somewhere in an airport when we were coming back to England just after Christmas time. It just fell off my wrist. I still had another one but the battery keeps dying and I’m not buying another battery in the UK. I’ve already bought three (for three different watches though,) and one of the other batteries I bought also died. Not to mention the batteries for the camera like I stated above.

While at the stop before the Euro tunnel, Makenna got a chance to run around and found a ride that had the Teletubbies on it that she kept sitting in. She was pretending to also feed them something to drink. She kept running back and forth between this ride and the vending machines that you get junk trinket toys out of. I finally had to tell her other kids needed a turn so that she would go eat.

I’m sure my night will be filled with lots of unpacking and laundry once we get home, not to mention catching up on e-mail, voice-mail, and looking into possibly taking one more trip before we head back to the states. Not to mention putting all these blogs up for you all to read when you have about a full day to do so.

A few more things that Makenna did that I forgot to mention. Today, when we told her she could have the ice cream, she was so elated, she started laughing and said, “Yeah, I love ice cream.” Then she laughed again, and said, “I love balloons.” Chris and I started laughing as we don’t know why she made the two comments connected.

I may have written about this other habit she’s picked up, most likely from me. She’s been doing it quite a bit, and that’s when we ask her a question, like what movie does she want to watch, she’ll go, “umm, (make a clicking noise with her tongue against the roof of her mouth,) and then tell you. It’s as if she’s had to make some hard decision such as what college to go to.

She’s also repeating lines or noises from this movie or that movie. I know this just shows you that she watches movies too much but it is really cute at the same time. For instance, with Ice Age II, she’ll talk about the little squirrel and make this noise the squirrel does in the beginning which is “hey hey hey” and then she growls “grrr.” For Wall-E she keeps saying “Eva” like Wall-E does. Yesterday in fact, she did it as we were driving and held the “va” part of it as if she was singing a long note. We were really impressed as it went on for about 20-30 seconds.

She’s starting to also get more interactive with her doll and is starting to make her dance and pretending that it needs its nappy changed, or needs breakfast, or a drink. Chris mentioned the other night how she’s becoming a little adult. It certainly seems it at times until she starts hitting, spitting and screaming to get her way. Although, I might know a few adults like that.