Brussels, Belgium for Valentines Day

Ok, so I had a conference that I had to go to in Brussels on the 12 of February. Because travel out of Naples is difficult for connections, I have to travel the day before and cannot return until the day after. I went to this same conference a year ago and was impressed with the city center how gorgeous it was. So, I went to Denise and told her that I wanted her to go with me and I would take some leave after the conference so that we could spend a little bit of time there.

Now she told me no, she couldn't, the kids are in school, her callings make her irreplacable at church and the living room is dirty, the laundry isn't done and Paul is terrible so no baby sitter would sit for him.

So, I bought a ticket and told her she could either go, or we could throw it away. Once I put it like that, she found a way to clean the living room, get the kids to school, we drugged Paul (just kidding, of course for you no humor kind of people), did the laundry and found our way to the airport the morning of the 11th. What you see in this first picture is Denise in the window of our room, overlooking the tower in the Gran Place of Brussels. We had a gorgeous view only a couple of hundred yards from the city center.

So, after my conference we took a tour of the city. It was COLD!!! At least when you're from Naples, Italy it was cold. Temps were hovering around freezing and it was raining or sleeting a fair amount of the time. Nevertheless, we had a great time and came home on Valentines Day. It was a nice break.

Here is Denise in the Gran Place at night.

And here is Denise touching the guy's statue who was killed for resisting something from someone and now it is good luck to touch the statue. What's up with that???? What good luck did he have??

Here is the little old man out playing his violin in the cold for Denise. It sounded good.

And at the Atomium, made by Belgium when they hosted the worlds fair, some time. It some kind of atom enlarged twenty bizzilion times. To most people it seems big, but Denise and I handled the size quite readily.

Here is Denise in the antique district, which could be a blog in and of itself....but I will spare you the pain of seeing a beautiful Luis the 14th dresser for 27,000 Euro (add 30% for dollars).

And finally, if you dance, you have to pay the fiddler!

And last of all, here I am high-fiving my old buddy and mentor, Don Quixote!

See you all later!