Brussels!

I escaped to Brussels this weekend for the birthday party of a friend of mine. It had been maybe 5 or 6 years since I really visited the city. A Friday to Sunday trip gave me some time to see a few neighborhoods I had never seen before, enjoy a few good meals, and enjoy the most unusual good early-fall weather. Below are a few pictures in random order of things I thought looked nice.




We had lunch at this restaurant on the Place Roupe Saturday afternoon, and it was really good. Well done flavorful food at a reasonable price, with a nice setting! They are known for their burgers, of which I had a gorgonzola - carmelized onion, BBQ sauce version, but they also have vegetarian possibilities as well.

This was in one of the shops we visited. While the focus of the store was NOT wall paper, I couldn't help but be captivated by what is shown above in the picture. Such a great idea for patterns I don't think I'd use otherwise! I loved it!


I just liked the perspective of this street view as I was walking to meet a friend for a beer.

Here we are enjoying a tasty beverage at a place on the St. Gillis Voorplein. The interior was really nice, with detailed lighting and a cozy atmosphere.

We came across this art-deco style building that happened to have an interesting illuminated glass dome ceiling on the floor above street level. Worth a shot, even if the picture turned out a bit blurry.
I think this was at the Hallepoort, but we were walking a lot that day. The friend I was with pointed out that it was an example of 14th or 15th century architecture that had been restored to be "stronger-than-before," which resulted in its over-polished appearance.

Wuhou Temple and Grounds, Chengdu, China

This is the entry to the Wuhou Temple complex in Chengdu, China. Most of the city of Chengdu is quite built up and striving towards modernity, but this is one of the welcome exceptions, containing several temples to ancestors inside, as well as a few gardens.



This temple, more than many others I saw, put a lot of emphasis on written things. This was only one of several extensive panels.


Temple interior above, complete with tourists, photographing and walking. Somehow this picture appealed to me more than the one I took with no one in it.






This was only one of the wall decorations; there were several different animals.



This gate I found particularly interesting. The gate itself caught my eye, but also the area that it entered onto was odd to me. It was a circular walkway, one loop, that went around a small hill in the middle of the garden. The wall around it was rather high, so the emphasis seemed to be on the path itself (hmm, how Buddhist!). The hill was also rather inaccessible. There was actually no other way in or out of this circular path except for this gate. I believe circles in traditional Chinese culture refer to luck or positive things, so I assume this is the idea behind this kind of garden pathway.

Leshan, China

During my trip to Chengdu, China, we took a day trip to the Chinese equivalent of a national park (children, retired, and national moral heroes can enter at a reduced cost!) near the city of Leshan, also in the Sichuan Province. This park is mainly known for the massive Buddha that is carved into the cliff along the river, but the park also has much more to offer in terms of temples, shrines, gardens, and walking/low-scale hiking. The picture above is along the path leading up to the Giant Buddha.

This picture actually includes the Buddha's knee and hand resting upon it. The total height of the Buddha is approximately 23 stories.

The Buddha dates from 713 AD and was carved with a drainage system included to prevent erosion. Air pollution has taken its toll, but the overall feat is still incredibly impressive.

The stairs pass down one side of the Buddha and allow visitors to pass in front before departing along another riverside path.
The cliffs are also dotted with many other smaller carvings, many of which have not fared as well against weather and exposure.

The river view is quite incredible here too, with the city of Leshan on the opposite side sitting between two forks of the river.


Further back in the park are a myriad number of other shrines, including a cave complex.

One of the cave exits pans out to this entryway, again quite impressive!


At the very bottom of the valley surrounded by these shrines is a single fountain with still water, complete with a stone frog at the bottom, ready to take any contributions!

Wenshu Temple and Grounds, Chengdu, China

My first day in Chengdu, China, I went with a friend of mine to explore the Wenshu Temple and surrounding grounds and gardens. It was a little haven of peace and quiet in the middle of a city of 11 million people. The photos above and below are both of the outer wall along the city street.


This burnt offering pot is what greets you when you first walk in the gate. There's a small complex of temples to ancestors and paths unfold from there through the gardens to other small pagodas, a tea garden, and a vegetarian restaurant as well.




Here was our little table in the tea garden. There were a lot of retired people sitting playing Mah-Jong as well. You order your tea at a window, and they give you cups with the tea leaves in them, and then an old man walks around with a pot of hot water constantly refilling your cup. He did this literally after almost every other sip, at least until we made a gesture of "thanks, that's enough." Good service!


This was just a series of wall corners along the path through the gardens. I think circles are a sign of good luck in Chinese traditional culture.





This was a view of a new construction project just outside of the temple grounds. I thought it was a good example of the contrast of old and new. I also liked the colors of the writing on the building, which I assume is advertising.


The paths of the gardens wrap around to bring you back to the main entrance and its group of buildings. Here's another gate structure with the circle for good luck.

Chengdu by Night

The Chinese city of Chengdu provided ample opportunities for photos, and this series is of night-time pictures. The statue of Mao on the square in front of the Sichuan Institute of Science and Technology was definitely a centerpiece of the city. But the recent growth is very noticeable, with many of the newer buildings dwarfing structures from previous times.

This fountain was on the same square as Mao, and actually has a partner fountain as well, the two circular objects forming a Ying-Yang design to the entire square. Below the fountain is an entry to the metro which was under construction and not open.

This was an advertisement by a real-estate office. Just the scale of it was eye catching.

These fountains were also on the square looked over by Mao. At this particular moment, the fountains were spraying in unison and accompanied by amplified orchestral music of Chinese songs. Once again, very impressive just because of the sheer scale of it. My favorite part was when some of the fountain jets started rotating, unexpectedly getting onlookers wet!

My last evening in Chengdu I had the chance to go to a performance by the "Sichuan Opera" which is a theatrical production that highlights several aspects of local theatrical tradition. This picture is of the "mask-changers" whose main action on stage was simply changing their masks or costumes, but at lightning speed, without it being clear how this was actually achieved. It really seemed to happen within the blink of an eye.

This is one of the sung portions of the program, a courtship story.

This is one of the closing acts of the Sichuan Opera performance.



The tower on the right (the darker one) is the Sheraton Lido Hotel where I stayed.

Chengdu by Day

This past week I had the opportunity to spend some days in Chengdu, China, thanks to the generosity of a friend who works for an airline. Chengdu is a city of 11 million people, and is the capital of the Sichuan Province in south western China, just in the neighborhood of Tibet. The picture above is a statue of Mao in front of the Science and Technology Institute.
This gate was the entrance to the street where the Wenshu Temple complex was.
Further down by the actual entrance of the Temple was a little street market where I managed to find a Chinese musical instrument that is made of a gourd, but with three recorder-like extensions coming out of it.
This was part of what was described to me as the "trendy shopping area" of Chengdu. My travel buddy who sees much more of the world on a regular basis than I do informed me that Shanghai and Hong Kong are much more like this than Chengdu. One could find here lots of name brands usually heading in the direction of expensive.

This pedestrian overpass was also in the "trendy shopping area."


This stadium in the middle of the city was actually the view from the hotel room.

Having been in other capital cities (Paris, London, Washington, Bangkok, Nairobi) I think Chengdu is actually the largest city I've been in to date. This is more an indicator of the size of the population of China than anything else. Beijing apparently has 18 million. These numbers are also similar to South American megalopolises, where I also have not been to date.

Despite the sheer size of the city, Chengdu actually seemed rather peaceful most of the time. This was probably helped by the broad 8-lane streets, with 2 lanes for bicycles and pedestrians on each side. The geographical area of the city did not seem overwhelmingly large either. We rented bicycles one day and covered a fair amount of territory.

One thing I had to adjust to was the scooter traffic in the bicycle lanes. They were just so much more silent than what I'm used to; it always seemed like a surprise when one went rushing past , because it wasn't usually noticed before that.

This will be the first of a few blog entries about the whole trip, so keep your eyes open for more in the near future!

The Hague - Den Haag - 's-Gravenhage

So while most of the previous blog entries have been about my travels, this one is just a short introduction to where I actually live: The Hague, in Dutch known as Den Haag, although the official name is 's-Gravenhage. Den Haag means "the hedge" and "'s-Gravenhage," an antiquated version of the name means "the count's hedge," harkening back to the "royal" origins of the city. What started as a village hundreds of years ago around an escape for the nobility has now become a city of around half a million people on the North Sea, in between Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It also serves as the functional capital of the Netherlands, home to the parliament and current royal family. Just for clarification purposes, in the past the Netherlands was widely known as Holland. In reality the name Holland refers to two provinces (North and South Holland) on the coast of the Netherlands, while the country itself contains another 10 provinces. Dutch is the official language.

This is a picture a friend took of the downtown/city-center area from his appartment. I'd say it's a decent skyline! The highest building right now is around 30 stories tall, although there are significant plans to build more towers right in the area of the tallest ones you see in this picture above.
This picture shows a bit more of the contrast of old and new in the city center. The building on the pond is actually the parliament building.

This is a picture of my house. I live in the floor above the ground floor. It's maybe a 15 minute walk to the downtown/city-center area from where I am.

This is the view from inside my house towards the house across the street.


This is a view of the rest of the street I live in.