Brussels #3of3

The 1977 Dodge Cobra Van we drove in 1979 did not have a heater for the living “room.” We had tried to get a propane gas heater installed, but no luck. In a Brussels shopping mall we bought a small 220 volt electric heater. An excellent idea.

In a super market we found a large oven with a continuously moving belt. The customer placed a “loaf” of dough on one end, and a fresh-baked loaf of bread rolls out the other end, delicious. We have never seen this elsewhere.

One year we decided to go to the Hilton Hotel for a Brunch we had seen advertised. There was bad news and good news. The bad news was, the cost was $22 per person, and the good news was, the buffet at the Brussels Hilton was closed that day, for whatever reason.

Another year there was a large group of people, blocking streets, protesting something. We asked the lady in the tourist office, and she said they were protesting about the missiles. I said that must mean they were protesting against the Soviets. She said, “No the US, we don’t like your military position.” I asked, “Did you like our Military position in 1944 when we liberated Belgium?” The girl said she wasn’t alive then. I suggested she study her history. We immediately left Brussels. A big parade/riot was to start sometime soon, and the last thing we wanted, was to be stuck in a big traffic jam in Brussels.

We took Emmy’s Cousins Hugo and Maria with us to visit Cousin Monika in Montivilliers, France, then took them to parts of Belgium they had never visited. After we spent a couple of days in Brugge and Ghent, we arrived in Brussels on what we thought was a familiar street. The street then disappeared into a tunnel we didn’t remember, but we made it.

We find the city of Brussels an interesting place to visit. In addition to shopping streets and a modern shopping mall, the Hubert Galleries, a covered shopping mall, was built in the late 1800’s. Indoor shopping is not a recent invention of the USA.

In Belgium, food and other things seem to be more expensive than in France. Of course we don’t buy enough to really compare, but it seems that way. We see a lot of big American autos in Belgium, an awful lot of brick houses, and most people speak English in addition to their own two languages — French and Flemish.