La Tour D'Argent Gembloux

... wind dies down, honestly! We have six hours to wait in Heathrow, where we will buy stuff that's either cheaper or more familiar than stuff in Brussels, we will eat something (farewell weight watchers, knew my trousers wouldn't be baggy for long..), probably take the mickey out of English travellers in their football shirts and sit in the lounge and write on the blog.<br><br>Very excited about going to Thailand!!

... head home as we had planned an early-ish morning the next day, we were going to rent a car (booked online) and drive out to Bruges. So we got up and went off to the Europcar place...and...it was not open...now, cutting a LONG, frustrating story short, we didn't end up getting a car, because it was Sunday, and nothing was open! So after a miserable and annoying morning, we went back to the hotel, had a little nap and then went back ...

... laughing at the thought of it now. I still have no freaking idea how to play, I just fluke my way through. Imagine me, and my bloody poor French, and having the game explained to me EN FRANCAIS. Ouep, I have no freaking idea what was being said, but, whatever, lets give it a go and say &lt;&lt;oui, je comprehends&gt;&gt; anyway. I tried to play, have the basic game down but still have no idea how to change suits. Funny thing is I actually ...

... nice city! Luckily, we got to see some of the beautiful parts later in the day. We spent the afternoon sitting outside a café on a nice plaza, and had our dinner on the gorgeous historic Grand Place. Speaking of dinner... delicious! Starting with a flight of different Belgian beers, it was a perfect little birthday toast over wheaty, dark, and even cherry beer. Man, the Belgians really know their beer... Don't blame us when we come home with a beer ...

... the Museum of Musical Instruments, since we had pretty much seen the touristy bits of the city and were tired of fighting the wind and wandering aimlessly around. The museum was very interesting, and filled with pretty much any instrument in the world you could think of! You get big headphones and when you stand in front of a certain marked exhibit, you would pick up a signal that plays a snippet of music involving that instrument ...

... buildings in miniatures. Well, not really mini as the Eiffel Tower is about 4m high. It was really nice and sunny and the place was crawling with people. We actully counted on the "Mini" of the title but we must've spend a little over an hour and we were hustling too... Next, we took the metro once again and went to where the heart of chocolate...hmmm sorry, Brussels I meant, beats. Grand Place! There is simply no way to get a feel for this place, unless ...

... by announcing a timetable for increasing its ODA to 0.7% by 2014. That brings the total number of countries on a timetable for 0.7% to 12, or more than half of the 22 donor countries. And of course, now that Europe's biggest economy is on track to reach 0.7%, it is very likely that all 15 of the European Union donor countries will soon announce a timetable to achieve 0.7% of GNP. The 15 EU donor countries as a group, indeed, are likely to set a shared timetable to reach 0.5% of ...

... to catch our train. It didn't say anything about Antwerp when it arrived, but maybe that was because the end stop wasn't Antwerp? Who knew. We boarded the train and found an empty compartment to sit in. We sat and watched Brussels go by. We left the touristy old district, and went past many apartment buildings with laundry hanging out. It must have been laundry day in Belgium, because everyone had laundry out. The buildings gradually got farther apart, and we started going ...

... on the perhaps the best day of the year to be in the captial of Belgium. For some reason, Chicago clown and the yanks persuaded me to take the sax with me to the fireworks, and on the drunken trundle back to the hostel, i pulled the old girl out and wielded some headturning riffs for the proud Belgian masses. It went down a treat and impressed the pants off the yanks, thrusting the night into another echelon of partiness. Everyone was in excellent spirits, and i ...

... is also the center of Belgian chocolate production, did you know that too? Erin, Amy and I were fascinated by these amazing achievements and decided to explore the food and sites of Brussels. Democracy Thrives in the Heart of the E.U. We first went to Grand Place, the heart of historical Brussels, to see sites and plan our eating journey. Grand Place is this great plaza with ornate buildings surrounding a public forum. The square is the ...