Today was another early start and to top it off none of the trains I take were delayed. If you speak to Belgians they will tell you that their trains are notoriously late. That translated to me arriving in the office at just around 8:10. Typically I have been arriving around 8:30. There was a light rain walking in this morning but it cleared up not long after class started.
The class went well enough today but I had believed we would be done an hour early based on my typical classes in the US. This did not happen and we managed to just get done by 5pm. In leaving the office after my students had gone it turned out that Nettie, who coordinates the training in Belgium currently, she is a temporary filling in for maternity leave employees, was also heading to the train. I think she might be the only person in Belgium who does not drive. We walked to the train station and I found out more about Belgium then both rode the same train to Brussels-Noord because her preferred train was seriously delayed, then I continued on to Brussels-Central and walked around the center of town a bit until I decided to get dinner.
I chose an Italian restaurant, Restaurant Luna di Venezia, thinking I would enjoy something Italian but when I got in I decided to have a soup and roasted chicken. The soup was something like a split pea with chicken in it. It was reasonably tasty if a bit sweet. I actually added some salt to it, which I never do. I also had an order of Bruschetta as a side and ate that with the soup. The chicken was good but the dark meat was a bit dry so I didn't eat the whole of the dark meat area and passed up on the wing completely. I accompanied my food with a Grimbergen Brune again because it was the best looking beer on their menu. After the main food I had a sundae-like dessert and an espresso. Both were good.
After finishing dinner I walked back to the center and took a couple more pictures. They were projecting things on the cathedral for Christmas. After a bit of wandering I headed back to the hotel and settled for the night. The locals say it is far too dangerous to be out in Brussels too late. I am not sure how much is true and how much is based on the typical hatred of foreigners and the like. They do make it sound rather dreadful, pointing out that the country has not had a government for 7 months and that they pay foreigners a lot of money when they are here illegally in the winter. I am dealing mainly with Flemish Belgians and they seem to have a natural disdain for the other half of the country which is French. Not that it is a war-ready-hatred or anything just a malcontent for the French part of the Government I think. The country is certainly not that big but it has 3 languages aside from the expectation to speak English. I suspect they are smaller than, say, Maine overall. So to be so diverse and house the seat of the European Union government is a bit tough on them it appears.
The few pictures I took are located here. Hopefully with 2 full days to hop around the area I will come up with some nice pictures.
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