A Day for Brian

For Saturday, 6 August, I mapped out a pretty good day filled with activities that I thought Brian would really enjoy. If one gauges enthusiasm for our day's events by number of photos taken, we took 209 on Saturday. Brian employed a good strategy in his journal to record the day. I copied his structure in my journal and I will use it again here.

STOP 1: City Museum of Brussels to see the wardrobe of Manneken-Pis, something which Brian had mentioned he wanted to see. Kids free on the weekends. Also interesting models of the city as it developed and a bonus for Mommy, watercolors of Brussels painted between 1894 and 1897 displayed alongside maps of the street corners, photos from early 20th century and photos today from the same spots.
STOP 2: Actual Manneken-Pis outdoors, seen in a Belgian costume. Souvenir shopping along the way.

STOP 3: Jean-Phillipe Darcis cafe, previously mentioned, this time for an eat-in treat of decadent cakes with coffees added for the parents. Of course we got macaroons to go.
STOP 4: Porte de Hal, one of the gates into the original city and the only one remaining. We did not pay to go inside to the museum, just walked around and ate lunch on the bit of wall remaining. We will not go into what happened to Julia's shoe. Note both Brian and I bought a one-day transit pass for the day and we got the most out of that for certain, with 9 rides (which does include transfers).

STOP 5: The Beer Museum in Schaerbeek, a northern part of Brussels. I must admit I got turned around in getting us there so we had a bit of a walk after the subway and bus ride combo to get there. Luckily after we arrived, it started pouring (and not as we were wandering around looking for it). History of beer, over 1,500 beer bottles, 800 beer glasses, old equipment for beer-making, and free sample of beer (OJ for the girls). And more beer to buy from the sweet couple running the place. I am a good wife.

Side bar on transit: lots of transit and waiting for transit although afterwards we felt like it provided good rests for all of us between activities. To the left, the girls waiting for Tram #7 after the beer museum. To the right, the girls on a 1905 tram for an historic ride.

STOP 6: Tram Museum, at which we not only went on the old tram, along the same tracks out to Tervuren through the forest where Julia and I had gone on Thursday, but toured the extensive collection of trams from horse-drawn to about the 60s. Julia in particular loved going on the trams in the museum; it was really cool.
STOP 7: A special dinner at a fancy restaurant next door to our apartment, Le Pre aux Clercs, the perfect ending to a special day.