The main source of images this week was a 2-night trip to Brussels, plus some nasty weather in Alicante towards the end of the week. The images are presented chronologically.
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I arrived in Brussels Monday at lunchtime, and had some free time during the afternoon. I had an errand at Campion Photo in the African neighbourhood Matongé, so I walked around there a bit, as always looking for details like this old-style movie theatre lettering:
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Rue de la Longue Vie is a short pedestrian street with a number of African restaurants. The colours of this one, called Capafrica, attracted me:
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The food turned out to be excellent and inexpensive, with green banana soup as the highlight, and the decor in the restaurant was interesting as well:
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All the hotels in the EU quarter were full this time, so I ended up staying at a hotel on Rue du Congres near Madou, an area I did not know that well:
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Saint Raymond slays the capitalist dragon, near Madou station:
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Later in the afternoon, I had a meeting with a representative of the Motion Picture Association at my office, following which I once again walked through Parc Cinquantenaire to my cousin’s house:
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Tuesday morning, I had to give a talk at a conference held near Place du Luxembourg, a walk of 20-25 minutes from my hotel. The weather continued to be very nice, so I decided to walk rather than using the metro. I enjoyed the morning light while walking through the grand park near the royal palace:
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Parc de Bruxelles:
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I spent the afternoon at our office, and then walked backed to the hotel to change into comfortable clothes and go look for an Irish pub in which to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. The light was still nice:
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Brussels is not a megacity like London or Paris or New York, but its traffic jams can be epic. This is the inner ring on a Tuesday afternoon:
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All truths are negotiable:
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A couple of amusing pieces of urban art:
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Near my hotel were several grande monuments, including this statue of La Brabançonne, symbol of Belgium’s independence in 1830:
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Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:
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Old-style sign:
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On my search for St Patrick’s celebrations, I stopped at Poechenellekelder for a quality refreshment:
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I finally arrived at the Six Nations Pub near La Bourse, where I was meeting fellow LUGger Peter Dzwig from England:
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By miracle, a suitable hat appeared at the neighbouring table:
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My portrait of Peter:
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Peter’s portrait of me:
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Brussels City Hall was of course green this evening:
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Typical Grand’ Place scene:
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On Wednesday morning it was time to fly home, but before descending into the bowels of the metro to go to the airport, I snapped a couple of pictures of Brussels on a foggy morning. Here, La Brabançonne monument:
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And the Tour Madou:
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Back in Alicante; I swear that I did NOT set up this picture:
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Thursday was a holiday here, the weather was bad, a perfect day to stay home. My wife was cuddling with the cat, and as often happens, the dog came along, not wanting to be left out:
The last six pictures are from a 2-day long windstorm we had Thursday and Friday. The beginning of spring was not very nice in Spain this year, with torrential rain, flooding, snow and various nastiness in large parts of the country. Here in Alicante just a bit of rain and a lot of wind, and unseasonably cold temperatures of only 15-17 C. But bad weather can be photogenic.
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Our local beach, Playa San Juan, on Thursday afternoon. Normally El Campello and further north Benidorm are visible from this spot, but not today:
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Looking south towards Alicante:
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Nobody on the beach today:
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On Friday afternoon, on my way home from work, I stopped at at a spot, Albufereta, where the waves tend to be big even on calm days. There is a newly constructed promenade which has become a popular spot for the locals to take walks. But this day not many people were out and about:
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Anybody walking on the promenade was liable to get wet:
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