Sometimes it’s good to just stop and smell the roses….literally….today was that day. So once a year in Brussels, they shut the entire city down from car traffic and offer free public transportation via buses, trams and trains. No car traffic…zip, zero, nada. You can’t drive a car in the entire city unless you are a) a taxi, b) driving an emergency vehicle or c) have permission due to health issues, etc.
We were curious as to what this might look like when we woke. Zombie apocalypse first comes to mind, like that scene from the movie 28 Days Later. There was no one out, I mean no one. No cars as far as the eye could see and the day started with rain so there weren’t people either. It was gloomy, eerie feeling, and pretty cool looking. Usually this day is celebrated by young and old alike, a grand parade through the streets filled with celebratory events and of course beer and chocolate (this is Belgium after all).
With a gloomy start to the day, we decided to take it easy. We had no plans. Cierra, pumped to have a washing machine, washed every article of clothing in our repertoire (right down to the socks and undies). She had them lined up like little soldiers on a drying rack (Scott James and Tom Braca would be proud). Kadeshia, our host for this month had a new washing machine installed yesterday while we were at Ghent. You would have thought Cierra had hit the mega ball lottery, she straight up had an assembly line going in here!
As the day wore on, and the clothes began to pile up and dry off, the sun finally came out. We ventured, with the rest of the zombies (the nice ones of course) into the streets and descended on Grotte Market (the old town). We had to see what our friend the Manneken Piss was doing, and more importantly wearing for the day. Weatherly Tribe predictions, Sienna = Christmas theme, Mommy = a biker, Mylan = a baseball player, Daddy = Oktobefest themed….man we were way off, and quite honestly still trying to figure out what kind of outfit he was rocking. Sienna said it was a peace/love outfit, Mylan a NASCAR race outfit. So I dubbed him for the day “a hippy racecar driver”. If you figure it out from the picture below, let us know, because we are still clueless. Regardless, Mylan duly noted again, that yes, he is still peeing. LOL.
After a walk through the streets (no cars remember) and a venture back to the house via free public transportation, I foraged for a wonderful dinner of kebab and French Fries, while Cierra and the kids stopped to pick flowers (read smell the roses). The kids had no nap, so crashed instantly! Done for the day and ready for more adventure tomorrow, we head to Paris.
Sienna finally gets to check the Eiffel Tower off her bucket list, not too bad for a 4 year old!
Weatherly Travels 