King's Day - 06 January 2009

Today is the day when the Three Kings took their gifts to welcome the new King of Kings to the World. In some countries, children will get a small token, kind of an "extra" Christmas present. I loved this Santa Claus outside this house balcony... is he leaving? During the Christmas Season, many people in Brussels decorate their balconies or the outside walls with Santas climbing towards a windows with the elfs following him with bags full of cadeaux... didn't take any picture of those... will not have a chance this year!

At Cinquantenaire Park - 6 January 2009

I love this monument, I must have 100 pictures of it taken in the past two years. I like going up to the top and been able to see the city from up there. I am sure going to miss it... again already sad that we have to leave Brussels in 6 months. For more information on this park, go to
http://www.trabel.com/brussel/brussel-cinquantenairepark.htm

And here we are, almost a couple of frozen burritos. I have so many layers of clothes that I was actually sweating! We walked home from work, it only took us 40 minutes and I really enjoyed it, aside from a few spots here and there where the ground had a frozen layer of mud and I was afraid to fall... it wouldn't be a first!

Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy

On our trip to Rome back in October 2008, we seemed to end up at the Spanish Steps all the time, no matter where we walked, we came back to the fountain in front of the steps. And it didn't matter what time of day or night, there always seem to be tons of people there. It was fun to people watch, though, we always wonder in how many pictures we have been included in that area alone!

Snow in Brussels

This morning when I looked outside my window, I saw that it had snowed during the night. It was beautiful but since it was dark, I couldn't take a picture, I wish I had. It has snowed on and off all day but now it is not so fresh as it was early in the morning. As I was walking to the Metro, there was only one other set of foot prints... it actually gave me the creeps thinking that nobody else was around! LOL - anyway, I came home and decided to take a couple of pictures from windows on both sides of our apartment. One is a view of the side where the grocery store is - not a very interesting picture but it is not every day that I see all that snow. The other picture is a view of the city as far as downtown. Of course, you can't see much but you see that big bubble-looking white mark on the picture (it is a snow flake), well, it is right on top of the dome of the Justice Palace (Palais de Justice de Bruxelles - Justitiepaleis van Brussel ... have to get in tune with the locals and put everything in French and Dutch!).

My pictures for weekend 1 - 2009

Pat will also join in the fun. Here are the pictures that I took this weekend. Christmas is over and as you can see by this poor drooping Christmas tree, it is ready to be put away till December when we will get another tree that looks just like this one from the Bastogne area in Belgium. The people of the Ardennes donate a tree each year to the Mission in rememberance and in honor of the people who fought in the famous Battle of the Bulge. A photograph of the photographer. Bob certainly takes picture taking very seriously and here you see him in action. This picture is of the courtyard at the European Commission building. Each cube represents pictures and information about each member of the European Union. And the last picture is of a statue of two girls. This is actually one of group of statues in front of another building of the EC buildings. You can see a bit of snow fluries.

First Weekend - 2009

My daughter is doing a 365-day picture exercise but I am only doing it a week at a time. Here are some pictures of today. Pat and I went out today even though it was snowing a bit and cold!!! The top picture is of the monument at the Cinquentanaire Park on a cold, wintery day. You can see the very fine layer of snow on the ground. The middle picture is Pat standing in front of the monument to King Leopold II. This is on the side of the Royal Palace. The third picture is of one of the columns to one of the entrances to the palace. I thought it was a nice picture as you can see the Belgian flag flying through the trees.

2009 Resolution

I think my most important resolution for the New Year is to better keep in touch with family and friends and to keep my blog updated more often. We have 6 months left in Belgium so I think that we will take advantage and try to travel around Europe more, who knows if we will ever get to come back to this area again. Isn't this a beautiful picture? This is a view of the sunset from our balcony.