Belgium Day 4: Porte de Hal, Dedication spot

 Monday morning started innocently enough with us eating breakfast and heading out to Porte de Hal via the metro. We were excited to finally go in Me's castle. We learned a lot about the history of Porte de Hal, which was built as one of the 7 gates in the city wall between 1357 and 1373. It was refurbed in the 1800s.

U's step count for the day was 15,435 with 53 flights of stairs.

Porte de Hal as seen coming up from the Porte de Hal metro station. Except back when Me lived here, the trees were not as tall so it was easier to see. (Crazy that the trees grew in 26 years, right?!?)

Large stone bas-relief that was a funerary slab of the knight Raes de Grez who died in 1318. It is engraved with the effigy of a knight lying down, his head under an arch and his feet resting on a lion.

Hinges where the gate used to hang.

Looking down on the gate area where a portcullis came down.

A few pictures of Porte de Hal.

Sir U

Sir Matthew (with an errant hand from his sister who was helping keep the armor on).

Weapons from the crossbow guild.

They had some old black and white video of Brussels from the early 20th century. It was fun to watch.

 The kids' questions and insights on the video were hilarious yet sad.

Megan: Is this from when you lived here?

Me: Ummmmmmm.....

We may have had a little discussion about context clues to figure out time period. 

Me: This is black and white.

Matthew: Which is your time period.

Megan seemed to think it could all point to being when Me lived there in 1998 and then gave this insight:

Megan: If you think about it, war equals history and history equals old. You were born 30 years after the end of WWII.

I think she just called Me old...

Me and Megan at the top of Porte de Hal.

Me, Megan and Matthew outside on the ramparts. We had nice views over the city. They were similar to the ones Me had from her apartment back in the day.

Me's apartment in Bruxelles (circled in red) as seen from the top of Porte de Hal. It was a great place to live!

Me heading down the staircase.

Matthew, Me and Megan

Megan and Matthew at the bottom of the stairs, singing the Star Spangled Banner. The acoustics were great.

Close up

Awwww! Nostalgia.

Me and Porte de Hal

We wandered a little around Me's old area a bit and bought food for a picnic lunch.

The Church of Saint Gilles. (Me's apartment was technically in Saint Gilles since it was on the outside of the ring road.)

We then headed to the dedication spot. It was a long trip, made longer by the fact that tram 44 was closed for the last part of the trip so we had to transfer to a bus. Megan started feeling not great; like she had motion sickness.

Map of Park van Tervuren. The dedication spot where Elder Holland dedicated Belgium for the preaching of the Gospel is the circle at the center of the 12 paths.

Me at the grassy area that was initially going to be the dedication spot. However, the morning of the dedication, they arrived to find a carnival set up. President Hart, the mission president, walked around looking for a more suitable location and found the site that ended up being used.

We ate lunch.

Matthew, Me and Megan at the dedication spot. Three rock segments that used to be one. 12 paths around the rocks with one path splitting into two. A wooded feel. A very nice and symbolic location.

We walked down one of the paths and back up another, talking about the dedication and enjoying the ambiance. 

Me at the dedication site. It is such a special place.

Large museum at the park.

Elephant statue by the park.

Things got interesting on the bus ride back. U had said he was not feeling great after eating lunch and Megan had already not been feeling well. Well, U threw up on the bus. And then Megan threw up. We tried to clean things up the best we could and were thankful for the person who gave us a big ziplock bag. Megan threw up again on the metro. U threw up a couple more times that evening while Megan kept throwing up over and over again, trying to get her stomach completely empty. She finally stopped throwing up around 11 pm.

Matthew and Me went out to get meds and some bland food for them. Then Matthew and Megan went out to get a few more souvenirs (#priorities!) as well as some food for dinner. Me had a caterpillar on her jacket, which the lady worker at the store we were in said was good luck.

We stopped by the Manneken Pis. He was dressed as an architect for world architect day which occurs the first Monday in October.

Matthew and Me

Chocolate to bring home from Leonidas. Yum!

We also stopped by the Grand Place and took some pictures of it lit up. So pretty!

Me then packed up most stuff (Matthew packed up his stuff, U did some of his clothes and Me did everything else), ran out to get some Coke to help calm troubled tummies and showered. Me and Megan swapped sleeping locations (including bedding) so Megan could be closer to the bathroom. Thankfully the vomiting slowed down.