Steve J runs Brussels!

Late Saturday after we got back on the train from our Antwerp visit, I decided to head out for a run. It was probably the worst weather day of the trip with 50 degrees and partly cloudy, but not too bad. Seriously, after the nonstop eating all day on Saturday, I really felt like I had to do something. Just FYI, if you want to get started on a low calorie food thing, this is NOT the country to visit first. Brussels is not only the capital of the European Union (EU), it is also the food capital of Europe - possibly the planet. There are restaurants and snack bars (including moving ones) everywhere! The best is that you don't have to eat at a 4 star place and spend 100 Euro to get something good. What I love about the Belgians is that they appreciate the value of a top quality snack. Yes, this is a Steve J kind-of-place.

Anyway, after I somehow fit in supper at our apartment I was ready for a run (Ok, that's not quite true. I had to make a quick run to the store to buy the next morning pastries ahead of time - then I was ready). I decided to visit two parks in the modern section of Brussels instead of trying to get through the historic section. At 6:45 PM the historic district would be packed in with tourists on very narrow streets - not good for running. You should be able to get plenty of pics of this area on the family blog in the next few days.

My first destination was Parc de Bruxelles to the north, which is situated in the city center directly in front of the Palais Royal (which I got a couple pictures of). Parc de Bruxelles is a rectangular shaped park with several wide lanes criss-crossing through it. The park is about 1 mile around the outer perimeter and the surface is hard-packed gravel/dirt. I would imagine the local business people and diplomats who run use this park frequently.

Also, they have frequent displays of art and other cultural stuff here too. Today, they had a display of really interested aerial photos taken from around the planet.

From there, I headed down one of the "urban canyons" of downtown Brussels to the next park, Parc Du Cinquantenaire. The traffic was heavy, but unlike Bucharest, there was actually order in the roads and the sidewalks where clear of parked cars (and traffic!). So, it was pretty easy to run downtown. I saw this bridge thing near one of the EU buildings that I thought was neat.

This park is in the shape of a simple house drawing and comes to point on the east side. Here there are a couple of massive structures which are now two big museums. The one that interested me was the Military museum. It had guns and stuff outside it and hey - I'm a guy, so anything with guns involved must be cool.

Both of these parks have really nice landscaping, but I can't be filling my "manly" running blog with pictures of flowers and other "girly" stuff. If you want that you can go back to the family blog, got it? I did take a picture of this castle sculpture thing for you though:

Brussels is a fairly compact and crowded city with alot of old and new architecture. From one of the highest points of the run (near the Crown Plaza Hotel) I took this shot that can give you an idea of what I'm talking about: All in all, it was nice slow meandering 1o Km run and I somehow finished it in about an hour despite numerous stops to take photos. I did have to get used to the gradual, but long inclines and declines here. Brussels feels very hilly compared to flat-as-a-pancake Bucharest. I hope you appreciate the mental toughness it takes to do a run like this, especially with these things located every 300-500 meters: Hope you enjoyed this run as I added another country to my list. Don't forget to click on all the hyperlinks if need more background info (meaning you're bored at work today).