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.

Belgium Day 3: Agnès, Atomium, Mini Europe, Basilica

 Sunday morning, we got up and ate breakfast before going to meet Agnès. She picked us up near Central Station and drove us around for the day. We headed up north to see the Atomium, Mini Europe and the Basilica. The Atomium had been refurbed since U and Me's visit in 2003 and it was much nicer. It was so wonderful to see Agnès and we both agree that 21 years is too long to go without seeing each other. U's step count for the day was 12,600 and he had 30 flights of stairs.

Matthew, Megan, Me and Agnès at the Atomium.

Looking up.

Looking down.

Looking out over Mini Europe which was our next stop.

Looking out towards centre ville.

Agnès and Me with some facts about the Atomium.

Megan with a scale model of the Atomium.

In a few of the sections, they had a light and music show called "Restart" by Thomas Vaquié which were really great.

Megan, Matthew, Me (and Agnès mostly hidden by the pole)

Agnès, Me and Megan (with Me recording a Marco Polo to share the coolness)

Another view from a lower level.

U

Megan and Matthew enjoying Pokémon Go! 

Megan

A couple last looks up.

We grabbed some lunch and then went to Mini Europe. It was much bigger than anticipated and gave a lot of info about the EU. We enjoyed learning about the countries, their size, population and relative wealth and seeing some prominent buildings.

Me, Megan, Matthew and Agnès at Mini Europe.

Sir Matthew

Dame Megan

Sir U

U with Olavinlinna, the castle in Savonlinna, Finland. U and Me visited it 2003.

Le Grand Place with the tapis de fleurs from 2024. Mini Europe receives the plans for the tapestry a month before the event so that they can create an exact replica and update their exhibit when the tapis de fleurs is opened at le Grand Place. Me got to see the tapestry in 1998 while living in Bruxelles. It was really cool! 

Me with le Grand Place

Eiffel Tower

The Belfry of Bruges

Matthew and Megan taking it all in.

Now exiting the EU and going to the UK.

Megan and Matthew looking at the Houses of Parliament and the demonstrations in front of them.

Close up of demonstrations pre Brexit. We especially like the person carrying the sign that says "I'm not for or against anything. I just like to walk around with a sign."

Royal Guard Matthew

Royal Guard Megan

Matthew and Megan with the Pride of Dover ferry.

Me and Agnès

Matthew with the Royal Crescent in Bath.

Heading back into the EU

Megan, U and Matthew with the Eiffel Tower. It even has the Olympic Rings.

Megan and Matthew driving the car in Paris. One was the robber who was fleeing with the stolen Mona Lisa while the other was the policeman chasing after them. Good news: The Mona Lisa was always returned.

Eiffel Tower, Atomium and Houses of Parliament

Arc de Triomphe

Le Sacré-Cœur

Bull fight at the Plaza de Toros in Seville.

Matthew enjoyed driving the boat.

Matthew's boat

Megan, Me and Matthew with the Trevi Fountain in Rome

Megan, Me and Agnès with the Trevi Fountain

Me holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

The Berlin Wall is coming down!

U and Matthew with Eltz Castle in Germany.

Matthew

Megan

Ariane Five takeoff. See Matthew and Megan behind the rocket?

Matthew

Megan

The Acropolis in Athens.

"United in Diversity" in all 24 official languages of the European Union.

This building was shaped like a giant German Christmas pyramid, with the rotating nativities that are traditional decorations.

U with the Atomium.

Agnès took us by the chapel in north Brussels (Strombeek). Me went here quite a bit during her mission as this was where baptisms were held as well as stake and zone functions. There was even a Halloween party. Megan and Matthew picked up donation slips in French and Flemish to use at home.

Megan loved the tiny chairs.

The church was labeled in three languages: Flemish, French and English.

Agnès then took us to see the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart. It is a beautiful building and very large--the 5th largest church in the world. Pope Francis had just visited Brussels and this church the end of September.

Matthew, Megan, Me and Agnès

One of the side areas off of the nave, very big in its own right.

Chairs set up in the nave.  You can see some of the impressive stained glass on the far wall.

One of the stained glass windows showing a story of Jesus.

Jesus with the children.

This window had scenes from the book of Revelation.

We got tickets to go up to the upper levels of the Basilica including going out on the roof. Here you have a good view of the Atomium.

There was a big Belgian flag flying between the towers of the Basilica.  It only looks small because the towers are so big.

It was pretty windy up there!

Zooming in, we can see the spire of Hôtel de Ville at le Grand Place.

This is a scale model of the Basilica. It is used to look at possible work and additions that might be made. It is on several tables and can be separated to look at the interior as well.

Aerial view.

A picture of the nave from up above on the second level (which was at least two stories above the lower level).

The miracle of the loaves and fishes.

The Last Supper.

Goodbye to a good friend. We hope it won't be another 21 years!

We had to get some more fries for dinner. This restaurant had over 20 different sauces to choose from.

We thought they were delicious.

There are a lot of ways you can eat Smurfs or Schtroumpf.

Me searched high and low for a shirt that spelled Bruxelles correctly.

We stopped by the Manneken Pis since we were in the area. He was naked this time (how Me is used to seeing him).

We also picked up some more chocolate. Leonidas was definitely a favorite as they had many white chocolate options.

We ended the evening playing Crazy 8s with our new Manneken Pis playing cards.