Euro-Brussels and Schaerbeek Don't put anything here Page Content Page Name (for URL) Page Title Breadcrumb Text <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-05-27-a-euro-brussels/20050527_001_1166 2005-05-27-b-schaerbeek/20050527_008_1081 2005-05-27-b-schaerbeek/20050527_014_2593 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-05-27-b-schaerbeek/20050527_017_8642 2005-05-27-b-schaerbeek/20050527_015_4395 2005-05-27-b-schaerbeek/20050527_019_6228 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-05-27-b-schaerbeek/20050527_021_4273 2005-05-27-b-schaerbeek/20050527_022_2575 2005-05-27-b-schaerbeek/20050527_023_6098 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> Next day we headed to Brussels. Since we were still staying in Ghent, we had about 40 minutes of driving to do before 10 a.m. when the only tour of European Parliament started. We made it to the vicinity of European Village by 10, but by the time we found parking it was too late. Driving through Brussels also turned out to be quite a challenge for a stick-shift beginner, as many parts of the city were quite hilly. Add to this the need to avoid European MPs in their limos or on their bikes. (The site of men in black suits on bicycles was quite something.) We made a circle around the European Parliament building (a very *fin du siecle* glass structure), and decided to look for a place to park for the day. This turned out harder than we thought. As we were circling Brussels looking for affordable parking, we came across a square that had plenty of parking and seemed to be close to downtown. To our further delight it turned out we could park there for the day. Having left the car, we went into a nearest building to ask which way downtown was. "If you are looking for Brussels, it's that way," we were told. "And where are we now?!" "Schaerbeek." As it turned out, however, that while technically in a different town, were were in fact walking distance to Brussels downtown and Schaerbeek turned out quite interesting. We walked through an immigrant neighborhood, with half the store signs in Arabic and another half in Turkish and even caught the end of a Turkish street fair. We also encountered a church that was showing clear signs of de-plastering As we learned in Haarlem, many of the churches in Netherlands used to be painted bright colors, but were then white-washed after the reformation under the influence of Calvinist asceticism. Those layers of plaster were now being removed to expose the earlier layer of paint. So, we are guessing the same happened to this church in Schaerbeek. Advanced Fields Category 2002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014E. AsiaE. EuropeL's FamilyL's FriendsN. AmericaN. EuropeS. AmericaS. AsiaW. EuropeY & LY's FamilyY's Friends Prototype Redirect Permissions0 Actions Config Markup Module HTML/Meta/Keywords HTML/Meta/Description Save Hook HTML Fields Main Head Body Header Menu Logo Page Content Template Sidebar Footer Tags Allowed for XSSFilter HTTP Fields Cache-Control Expires Don't put anything here Guru Fields Templates Don't put anything here Translations Fields Edit UI Admin Edit UI Don't put anything here A summary of your changes Edit Summary Don't put anything here Don't put anything here save preview cancel
