Bubbles in Brussels
Poor John hasn’t seen much of Brussels. I’ve been lucky enough to have been here four times since 2000, but this is his first visit that’s been longer than 24 hours (he was here briefly in 2009 on our way to Africa).
So today was our see-the-centre-of-town expedition.
Weather-wise, it was one of our first really crappy days. The early morning had been sunny, but it was raining hard by the time we got to Rue Trone (our almost direct path to the city).
At the intersection, Poor John turned right to walk to town (I swear the man is crazy sometimes). After about 20 metres, I suggested that we back-track to catch the Anneessens bus. Wisdom won out and we huddled in the doorway of a bakery until the bus arrived. Poor John popped into the bakery and bought a strawberry tart as a gesture of gratitude to the baker.
We paid for the tart, but we didn’t pay for the bus ride. We are stupid tourists who don’t know how to work the machines or figure out the fares. Yeah, right! Besides we were only going three stops (to the Trone underground station) and hoped an inspector wouldn’t catch us.
Blowing bubbles in the Grand Place, Brussels.
We then took the underground and didn’t pay for it either. This is not a habit I recommend for travellers to Belgium or Germany, but on a rainy day you can hope the bus and underground are so full that an inspector can’t make their way through the crowd to check.
We finally reached the Grand Place which, in my opinion, is the most stylish and beautiful central plaza in all of Europe, to encounter bubble-mania—and I don’t mean champagne bubbles. Everyone seemed to have a bottle of kiddie bubbles (no idea how/where they got them), but very few kids had any bubbles. I took a lot of photos, but the bubbles are hard to see. I include one here—of a dad letting his kid blow the bubbles. That happened only once. Dad had about 15 ‘blows’, and the kid had one (and I have the photos to prove it). As Poor John pointed out, ‘It’s a classic example of a dad having a lot more fun than the kid’.
Reminder—you can click on the small photo to see a larger version.
Where to next? 
All right, you finally reached the Central Plaza called the “Grand Place.” When you enlarge the photos, you can clearly see kids blowing bubbles! Soooo where is the huge cat photo? LOL
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Buying a strawberry tart as a gesture of gratitude to the baker – indeed!! When has Dad ever needed an excuse to buy or eat a bakery treat?!
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