Liege, down the fishy lane

I have always wanted to see the underwater life. Best would be to snorkel, or scuba dive ; but I cannot depend on such wishful thinkings. The Aquarium's I had visited have been abysmally dissapointing. However, when i scoured Belgium tourism guidebooks there seemed to be a good one at Liege... A distant rustle..a gush of enthusiasm, and I decided to pay it a visit.

The place is actually an aquarium, cum a natural history museum and a science museum. Wow, its going to be back to memory lane then. Since childhood I had a fascination for natural history and science. I recall going to Science museum at Lucknow in 5th standard, 1991. I think it had just opened and was a big thing in India then. The credit ofcourse goes to Mom,Dad who knew I would like that and took me there.


The first impression wasn't a great one. I found the fish cubicles to be tooooo small. Nooo! I wanted to see fishes in a much bigger glass pond. But as I intermixed with excited children and their eager dadies & momies, I started enjoying the rich marine life on display...

Thats my spotted seahorse or yellow sea horse, hippocampus kuda. What a delicate litte thing.. How does it hold its own in the deep see water ???


Naturally, the biggest draw was the big pool that contained sharks! They seemed to be pretty agitated, or perhaps its not in their nature to rest and relax in a corner like other fishes. Round and round, up and down they went, occasionally baring their teeths. These were obviously not the great white's ofcourse but they were sharks all right.

In the same building that housed the aquarium, there was a natural history museum. Thats the skeleton of the blue whale! I initially thought it must be a dinasour! But on closer look ( basically at its tail, which gave away its identity ) it was obviously a gigantic fish.

There was also skeleton of anaconda, which was huge ! I have a video of that. There were other skeletons too and a very big section on birds. But what astonished me most were the giant crustacians on display. Simply huge crabs..let me take a shot..2feet by 1feet, and I am being very realistic. It must be scary to encounter them in real. Then there were gigantic beetles too, around them I wouldn't be caught alive. Well amazon basin looks like a tough call now. Kidding...

Over all quite an interesting day.

Markt Rock

It can't get bigger than this. Leuven hosted 3 day rock festivel from 13th to 15th August, and everyone was invited.

Paman was here, and though we had packed schedule during the day, nothing was going to prevent us from spending at least 2 nights at the extravaganza.

There were 3 parallel shows going on in different part of the city at any given time in the night. Some shows were with entry fee, and some were free!

Both days, I went to Vismarkt . At least 5000 gals and guys, many with a glassful of beer in hand swayed and rocked to the beats of the band.

What struck me most was the decency and controlled manner in which young junta was conducting itself, without loosing a beat or missing a sip.

It was a pity that when a few young girls posed for my camera I totally missed it. I even heard some rich cackling laughter, but i was so busy capturing what I was concentrating on, I totally missed the point. It was Paman who brought to my notice of the incident... I couldn't believe it.....

Dinant, on the river Meuse

Dinant is an idyllic river-side town in the Ardennes, to the south of Belgium.

Southern Belgium is a hilly area. Numerous rivers criss-cross the landscape and often being the seat of atleast one or two main cities of the region.



The city lies along the length of river Meuse. The city caught my fancy with its inherent simplicity, er.. kuttiness (tamil for small). It was all that was visible in front of me, across the river. A towering cathedral under back drop of the citadel at the riverside, made for an impressive view.



The citadel is strategically located on hill top accessible from a side through bridge across river Meuse. In earlier times, there was only 1 bridge every 15-20kms, and citadal assumed all important position in the war, overlooking the bridge. Many a gruelling battles have been fought to wrest the citadel from the enemy.





There are 3 ways to reach citadel: the ropeway, the roadway and the stairs. We decided to take the ropeway in the benfit of time. In citadel a guide, an elderly man who explained the history in French, took us through the different parts of the citadel.




City top view, with a clear view of the connecting bridge. Try going back in time...imagine yourself holding a gun keeping a hawk-eye on goings on across the river...




Poor lives, who had to suffer the fate.. There was also a chopper near by (not in pic) that was used to chop off hands of criminals whose offence was lighter.



It was a lucky strike. We landed on the day, on which there was some boating even going on. People thronged the bridge, and river side to watch boaters with their boats in different constumes. It didn't seem to be a racy, but some sort of boat-fancy-dress-competition. At the end of the day, a function was organized to give the adjugate the best of the lot.



Belgium is famous for mussels. It must be one of the favourite dishes of the land, and Dinant seemed to be serving only mussels for the dinner. We gave it a try.. Hmm.. not bad...

Comic Strip Trail, Flower Carpet @ Brussels

Brussels is a delightful place.

The first thing that strikes you are the buildings with the striking gothic architecture, the churches...the spires. Alongside you find modern glass buildings. Quite a unique blend.



After getting down at Brussels Central, everyone makes a beeline for the Grote Markt, the Great Market..., a world heritage site. Its the central market square in Brussels, surrounded by Guild houses from the 15th century.

This time around, a flower carpet festival was going on, which happens once every 2 years. It was beautiful. Begonias of different colours make for the flower carpet right in the center of Grote Markt.



It was drizzling, sometimes raining proper but that wouldn't come in our way to explore the Comic Strip Adventure. Brussels has a trail dedicated specially to explore its comic strips. Basically at different places in Brussels, the house or market walls are painted with comic strip characters! Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke et all were all there waiting to be explored.



It was an entertaining walk, which got us introduced to a local Belgian elderly man who was so enthusiastic in helping us with directions. Then we met another old frail lady, who the moment she saw us on the trail, dropped her bags to help us spot one strip. It was drizzling, and we were amazed at the enthusiasm of the elder people here.



But its not just cartoons, we discovered lot of graffi, floral designs at entrance of shops too. It was quite artistic.In the end, we ran out of time and couldn't uncover all the strips but got the some good ones. Rest are for another day!



Along the way we visited the famous Mannequin Piss. I am not sure why Belgians are so sentimental about this pissing child. Its history is also unclear, but its a national monument. It draws tourists from all over, but I found it a little funny. Apparently, folks here dress the child appropriately for the weather. Its supposed to be summer time right now, and mannequin is without clothes on. But in winters,I have heard he is pampered with a variety of dresses and woollens!



We closed the day in the Mannequin Piss Pub (right opposite the pissing child), with traditional Belgian beer.

A Day in Amsterdam

This was one trip, I was going totally neutral with assumptions. Amsterdam has been most famous for its RLD, and its open attitude towards sexuality. But what could that mean ? Does it mean that you find evidence of it littered on every street and every thing you do there. Do people exhibit it openly ? Well, I was curious to know what is Amsterdam ? What are the first impressions... So here goes...



Amsterdam on a sunny day gives the same feel as that of Mumbai, the crowded streets, the hustle-bustle... city on move...Honeslty! Quite unlike other cities I have been, which seem to be starved of people.

This guy on the right, on a busy market square was trying to grab attention of people. I am not sure of the idea, but he was funny alright.. "Madam, watch out from that guy behind you... This is Amsterdam madam, anything is possible here". Well... That was an interesting start.... Slowy the crowd built up, but we had to move on.



When you see a tulip, you should think of Holland...Netherlands is famous for tulip farming. Tulips come in a variety of colours, and people seem to be very enthusiastic about it too. There was a whole bustling street (&more) devoted to flowers..



Inside a Clog ! Clog is another names for wooden shoes. We found them in all souvenier shops. Couldn't figure out what it signified. Surely, nobody wears them ?! It turns out, these were indeed the shoes that were worn by heavy duty workers during the industrial revolution time. I reckon though, these are out of fashion. Believe me they were quire hard, and can't imagine someone wearing them...



Amsterdam is surely an art connoisseur's delight. The city has numerous meuseums on Van Gough, Rembrandt, and the lot.. The statue is that of Rembrandt. Just close to the statue, a guy (not in pic) was keeping the passer bys enthralled with his reproduction of english classical. The city is celebrating 400th anniversary of Rembrandt and is littered with posters, paintings and everything related to Rembrandt...

So where does the RLD, other business lie ? It is restricted to a narrow corridor of two lanes near railway station. It is a small portion of the whole city, and certainly life is normal there.. Yes, you find women publicizing their availability through the windows of their buildings, but felt it a little low key.. a bit wierd. Maybe the real feel you get by some active participation by entering Moulin Rouge say. But no thanks. Not my cup of tea.

I think I haven't seen last of Amsterdam or Netherlands. I need to visit Madam Tussad, Rembrandt museums, Windmills, clog making factories some weekend... Lets see...

The Sand Festival @ Brugge

Brugge is a small city in the Flanders region of Belgium, with considerable Dutch touch. Belgium has both Dutch and French influences, splitting the country into two. Brussels, the capital, in the bang center of Belgium has touches of both.




No visit to Belgium can be complete, amongst other things, without a visit to the Venice of Beglium, The Brugge. With its water-ways, greenery and small winding roads, and houses sporting a medieval look, its not surprising its one of the most popular city's to visit.





I have been to Brugge twice, and still not enjoyed the romantic boat trip it is famous for. Obviously Brugge as a lot more to offer. We decided to check out the sand festival and the aqua park that has Dolphin-Seal shows.


The theme of the sand festival was 1000 years of Brugge! City's history, folk-tales, faith, youthful love stories, legends were there to enjoy through the medium of delicately crafted sculptures.



The girl on the right is holding the 'relic of holy blood'. During the annual procession at Brugge in 1382, the inhabitants of Ghent ( nearby town ) attacked the city. While trying to escape from attack local priests misplaced the relic, believed to have been stolen by attackers from Ghent. It was a huge blow to the city. However, one day a local girl went to a local river 'Rele' to wash wool and rediscovered the lost relic. The city's joy was great and tradition recontinued!



Fascination with Tintin continues with our visit to the Tintin shop. It was closed, but that did not prevent us in having a few moments of glory with 'Thundering Typhoons'.



The dolphin-seal show was great fun, magnified by being in the company of cute children all around. They clapped, cheered with their parents at every move of the dophins and the seals. It was awesome. Some dolphins mimiced walking on the surface of water, while some in groups did mid-air somersaults. The best was when Dolphins kicked the big football sized balls with their fins into the stadium. The children could hardly contain themselved and were all over the place trying the catch the flying gift from friends from the sea!