* cababarant *

Friday, August 18, 2006

Brussels flower carpet

We went last Saturday to see the famous flower carpet in Brussels. Every two years, designers create a gigantic "carpet" made out of begonias in Brussels' Grand Place. It is on display in August for only four days, so we felt like this is something we should go check out. The funniest thing is that when I told our friend Sonja (who was staying at our house that weekend) that we were going to go see the Flower Carpet, she didn't look that impressed until I showed her pictures in a guidebook. She was like "Ohhhh, it's made out of flowers!" Apparently she thought it was like a giant rug with a flower pattern that they roll out every few years, and was like, "what's so special about that?!" I explained to her that, uh no, it's not just a huge Persian rug.

Well it was even more impressive than I thought it was going to be, even though pictures don't really capture it. Nor do the pictures capture the crowds! Jeez, you had to stand in line for waffles, even!

The 'Tapis de fleur' from the ground
Here's a panoramic shot I patched together from a balconey view

We went up to the balcony in the Hotel d'Ville to get a better view.

And of course, no trip to Brussels would be complete without a trip to Pierre Marcolini for bonbons.

But the most interesting part of our trip was getting stuck in Dordrecht, Netherlands. We were taking the train back, and apparently, a boat took out a bridge between the towns of Dordrecht and Zwijndrecht, so no trains were going anywhere. We got off the stuck train and asked what we were to do next. The NS train employees weren't much help: buses "might be coming" to take us (and everyone else) across the river to Zwijndrecht so everyone can catch trains to their destinations. Not very reassuring. Then we saw the crowd waiting for the so-called buses:

After about an hour, ONE bus showed up and half the people rushed it. We were like, "no way" which turned out to be a good decision because within a half hour, there was another half-assed announcement by the train people that the train to Rotterdam/Den Haag/Amsterdam would be running again. So the dash to the platform started:

We managed to squeeze ourselves onto the next train (which was not easy!)...

And at least we got a seat in the train vestibule -- and believe me, in situations like this, people don't have any sympathy for a pregnant lady with two kids. Kyle and I were joking that maybe I should start "experiencing labor" and see if that makes a difference!

We were home in 45 minutes after that, but not before some jackass squeezed himself into the vestibule with a giant bike, poking a little kid with an umbrella while he was maneuvering his big stupid bike. (What an idiot-- there is a bike parking car on Dutch trains.) Then the mom of the little kid started changing the kid's diaper in the crowded standing-room-only vestibule. Ugh. The only thing missing was a bunch of livestock to really turn it into a third-world situation. Where were the chickens?

I think we learned our lesson. Next time we're driving.

posted by sheryl | 11:04 AM |

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