Brussels

Brussels 18 April to 23 April

I love arriving in Brussels. I know the arrivals hall, the atmosphere is very relaxed, and a smiling Pedro is always there to welcome me. This time was no exception even though it was barely 8.30 am in Brussels. With a quick train ride and taxi from Midi, we were home. ¡Hola, casita! Here's the view from the front balcony.

And a quick aside. How lovely to fly from Munich to Brussels in the daylight and the spring! There is colour! Colours of the earth, depending on when the fields were ploughed, various shades of green growth, and the bright yellow of the canola seeds, as in Tokyo at the same time last year.

What do Pedro and I do on meeting again? Well, there are photos to show, tales to tell, philosophy to discuss, and the state of the nation to put to rights or at least air. His lounge is the most fantastic place to take the sun, whether mid-winter or spring, and we are both expert practitioners. Good to just read, too, and spend time in the same space. I finished The Spanish Game, the thriller I bought in Shanghai to help pass the flight and to take me (over the space of a few days) to Madrid. I’ll leave it with Pedro. Bought, read, and left behind Donna Léon’s Through a Glass Darkly (2006). Bonus: I also found Number One Ladies Detective Agency, which I’m sure he will enjoy.

We spent a lot of time walking in the sun, as Brussels basked in a bout of unusually hot and clear weather. Sometimes we went places on foot instead of taking the tram, taking in the spring air – such a contrast to the former winter visits with ice skating rinks and Christmas market chalets. Although I sometimes found myself in familiar locations, often the walks opened up new territory, like the two shops with animé and various models such as Tintin, Astérix and other characters.

Rediscovered English bookshops, Haagen-Dazs icecream and the cafés in the pedestrian gallery and found a fabulous new chain to eat at where everything is relatively healthy and marketed on these grounds (Eki-libre). And a shop that sells NZ wine – Lawson Hills, even. Checked out the familiar, such as FNAC (huge French book etc store), the INNO department store nearby and some of the many shops along the shopping precinct, while also venturing to a new (to me) Turkish restaurant with amazing Turkish pizza and a Belgian restaurant with a typical value-for-money menu of the day with food of the relatively divine variety.

Breakfast at Anja’s was a real treat. Anja is a translator, German by origin and married to a Pole. They have five-year-old twins, Maya and Olivia, who speak German, Polish and French. The breakfast was German and copious and the twins bubbly and very different – one a tomboy and the other a ‘princess’. Pedro has known them since they were born and enjoys every moment with them. They were just off for a week in Bremen with their grandparents, as Anja had an exam that week, and the car was packed up with bicycles and other things to help the week speed by. Their father was driving up and back within about 24 hours. Quite a trip. 5 hours each way.

Nothing else to report. There are some photos in the Picasaweb (originally) album at

https://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Brussels