Antwerp and Bruges

Antwerp and Bruges

While I was working at the show Marguerita went on a tour to Antwerp on the tuesday

and to Ghent and Bruges on the Thursday.

Cathedral in Bruges

Aachen

Aachen (Aix La Chapelle)

Train to Aachen was excellent as we have come to expect from Thalys. Took just over an hour and then a taxi to the hotel, Merkure am Dom. Comfortable, if small, room. Went out for a walk in the evening and had a brief look ad the Dom and St Follian.

Looking towards the Rathaus Right Tower
Did not know what this was at this time

Had a drink and some suppe at an Italian Restaurant near the hotel. Waitress had been working for 10hrs straight and was a little forgetful. But we had a nice chat with her. She was Italian and so Marguerita tried some of her Italian . Went OK.


 Some 1000 yr old roses in the garden of the Dom

The DOM windows. Significant that there is no impaled
Jesus on the cross in this church

Interior of the original church built by Charles Le Gros in 800AD.
It is an octogon in the early christian style

Some detail of the mosaic ceiling in the oldest
part of the DOM. Quite Orthodox in its design

The back of the Rathaus as we first saw the building. Part of this structure was built as the place of Charles le Gros in about 800 ad. It is now the Town Hall and is still in uses as it has been since the 14th century

Back of the Rathaus

Front of the Rathaus

Brussels - The last day

Da Vinci Exhibition - Brussels

We had to be out of the hotel by 12 on the Friday and I decided that it was not worthwhile to go to the show, half an hour by train, for 1.5 hrs there, so I went to and exhibition of the works of Leonardo Da Vinci which was on the Old Bourse just a few minutes from our hotel.

The were exhibiting a lot of models made from his sketch books as well as showing some documentaries about his life and how he painted the last Supper.

Da Vinici's bicycle... no springs

Mobile crossbow

The inside of the Turtle
The Da Vinci Tank

We left our luggage at the hotel and went back to Le Grand Place for a lunch and a last look. They were setting up for a rock concert to celebrate the Federation of Wallonia and Belgium. Huge stage and sound system and while we were there they were doing tv and cound checks and, honestly, I hope they have done their environmental study before this as the  bass was felt rather than heard and I'm sure it would be vibrating the stones in the Hotel de Ville opposite the stage, particularly as the power levels were very high.

Brussels

Brussels - The Trade show

This was a good show but at the end of the day I did not have time to do the BLOG.

We arrived on Monday the 23rd into Amsterdam at 7:30 and had to hang around until 11 or so. In the last 30 minutes we discovered that we could have been sitting in comfort in the Hispeed lounge. Ah well such is life. The train took about 1.5hrs and was super comfortable, good leg room, drinks supplied. The dutch countryside flashed by and almost before we knew it we were in Brussels Midi station a few minutes from the Welcome hotel, our home for the next 4 days.

As soon as we were settled, we walked over to Le Grand Place, the centre of old Brussels where we sat in the sunshine, had a glass of Chimay Bleu and marvelled once again at the buildings which start with the old palace and the town hall built around the beginning of the 15th century to the old guild hall buildings built between 1400 and 1690 when they were destroyed by Louis XIV of France in one of his wars. These buildings were rebuilt in the original style around 1698 and ornamented with gold.

 Recently restored (it was covered when we were here 2 years ago)

 Above is the hotel de Ville, 14thC

 Saint Catherine, our hotel was on the right

This ICON was in the old church of St Nikolai. It is a picture of himself

Singapore

Saturday - we spent the morning pottering about, our hotel is a 5-10 min walk from Orchard Street. We walked down thinking we would get the hop-on-hop-off bus to see a bit of the town.

It is hot and sticky and the traffic is heavy. To cross Orchard or even the street the hotel is on you need to use the underground crossings (mostly, can't walk across at street level in this area) So we went down and found a huge underground shopping mall which also was connected to the MRT (The train system)

So we wandered about the 4 levels (underground) shopping, bought a Boost to drink, and navigated our way out of the cool into the heat again.

Returned to the hotel, and as I had arranged to meet a Label Traxx prospect at 2, we decided to go to the  S.E.A. Aquarium after that.

Had a good meeting then we had some lunch in the room and finally got underway to the Aquarium. Went by MRT and that was pretty easy but it was now about 5 and the crowds on one line were heavy. But we found the Monorail to the island of Sentosa where the Aquarium is located. At this point we were told that the Aquarium was closing at 6pm (instead of 9pm) this night because they had a private function on. (Damn the Formula 1, it has disrupted our visit here)

Well it was par for the day. So we took the monorail to the Beach Terminal and wandered along Siloso Beach.

Watched the Sunset

This was a Saturday night so the Island was filling up with young people, mostly, bent on partying along the beach or in one of the "attractions"

Today we will get to the Aquarium after we have to check out at 12. Plane is at Midnight and we will be picked up at 8pm.

We are about to leave

Thursday Night -

Twas the night before Friday and all through the house the bags were packed and checked and closed for Marguerita and Peter were about to depart.

Singapore is the first stop, business and pleasure.