Car-Free-Day in Brussels

Sunday was the annually car-free-day in Brussels, with no cars allowed and almost all museums and public buildings open for tours.


We mounted three bikes on the car and went to the outskirts of Brussels and then spend the whole day riding through the city. Luckily for us and the thousands of other people biking, it was a sunny and beautiful day.


This day the 'Manneken Pis' statue was dressed up and was relieving himself with Kriek, the Belgian cherry beer that we had quite a few bottles of (wine bottle sized!) the evening before.


Again, biking requires eating a lot of fatty stuff! These are huge slices of bread packed with 'frites', burgers and sauce, called "machines-guns".


The city is separated in the lower and upper town, with the lower being the most interesting and lively and official and glass-and-steel jungle being on the higher part, including the EU-buildings.


One curiosity in Brussels and Belgium is that there are four (!!!) parliaments in the city. The parliament of the region Flanders, the parliament of the region Brussels, the Belgian federal parliament and then the European parliament. Crazy place this, and I guess that they don't want to be alone with this mess, so they are spreading it via the EU to the rest of us. Or is it we that want to share the pain with them?


"One of the amazing moments of Brussels" according to Thomas is when you come up at the John Kennedy Ln and see the Brussel version of Arc de Triumph in front of you with the Belgian flag seen through the arcs. "It's like being launched into the monument". Then you enter a new tunnel and come up again as seen in the picture above. Guess this is the only day of the year this can be experienced by bike.


This is where much of the European mess is cooked up, the commission.

And here is a lot of talking going on - European Parliament. That is when they are not in Strasbourg talking. One of EU's fantastically wasteful and inefficient compromises is that the parliament have to move between Brussels and Strasbourg every month. As usually I blame the French for all of it. ;-)

Thomas' home in Halle

Thomas was a colleague of Wen at the Belgian embassy in Beijing. He lives in Leuven where Wen is studying and we are staying right now. He invited us to come over a weekend to his parents home in Halle, just south of Brussels.


On the way there we passed by Waterloo and stopped take a picture.

His parents live in a large house with a huge garden that is very well taken care of. In the garden they actually grow vegetables, berries, and fruits, and they even have ducks and chickens.


His mom cooks wonderful food and I really appreciated the coffee with chocolate. Despite all that biking a probably did gain some weight that weekend.


Thomas took us for a biking tour in the town.

Belgium and Leuven

Frites and waffles

We have arrived in Leuven where Wen is about to start her studies at Catholic's university of Leuven. A very famous university according to all Belgians I meet, unheard of for the rest of us (?). Seriously, it is a very old and famous university (I've learned). I'm not sure how long I will hang around. I have my re-exam in Gothenburg in the end of October.

Bus to Brussels

Eurolines Paris-Brussels, 25 Euro.

Chinese and French speaking bunch

An evening out with Fredo and Catherine, friends from Peking University, and some other Chinese language students.


Catherine and her phone with animated pandas.

Marine

One evening we hooked up with Marine, a friend that I met when I was studying in Singapore a couple of centuries ago. Her boyfriend was watching football so we provided a good excuse for her to go out. We had a great evening with some amazing crêpes, cider, and wine!


She is from the Bretagne region and knows how crêpes should be done. After a drink we went to taste some together with a jar of cider. Wish we had that kind of grub back home!


Later on we got a crash course about French wine culture at her place!
Thanks for a great evening Marine!

China town in Paris

We checked out some of the "China towns" in Paris, among them at Belleville.


We saw this poster, apparently there is quite a lot of these in many places around the world. Possible some Faluñ D@fa member who wrote this using the same language that is usually used towards them.

中共邪教亡我中华 - Chinese Communist Party is an evil religion that kills my China
退党平安 - Quit the party membership! Have peace!

Meanwhile a whole bunch of wedding couples passed by, going in and out of a beauty saloon nearby to and from at least 4 huge limos that were choking the traffic on the street.

A week in Paris

We spend a very relaxed week in Paris without doing anything particular except having a good time. Seems like the city has improved its catering to tourist quite a bit since I was here last time.


Samuel's flat. Nice with lots of pretty funny China related stuff all over the place.


This Japanese magazine article was hanging in the toilet. The 'best points' for taking pictures in Paris! So... we tried our best...


With that good advice how could we fail. Best point for taking a picture in front of the Arc d'Triomphe! :)


Our mean of transportation, the Metro.


An afternoon we went to Versailles, but since we are pretty lazy people we didn't walk to far in the very large park.


Walking aimlessly and sitting in cafes...

Paris: Staying with Samuel

Me and Wen took a Ryan Air flight from Skavsta to Paris. Now we're staying in Samuel's flat mostly bumming around while he's sitting in a library during the days finishing off his thesis. I will put up some pictures when I get the chance.

Stockholm: Quick visit

Taking the Swebus from Gothenburgh to Stockholm in the middle of the night, arriving 5:30 to the capital. We had food with us and after a little stroll around the central parts, we had a picknick and slept infront of a statue near the castle. When I woke up there were some tourists taking pictures of us!


Wen before the castle

In the afternoon we went to the East-Asia museum and checked out an exhibition called "China before China" and one about Japaneses tatoo art.


Riddarholmskyrkan. I believe the top of this church was made in Åminne, the tiny place where my parents live.

In the afternoon we took the Airport coach to Skavsta and the Ryanair flight to Paris.

2 days in Göteborg

So, we left Värnamo and are finally on the road. First stop Göteborg and Henrik's wedding. We stayed at my sister Cecilia's place two nights and I showed Wen some of the places where I used to hang out.


On the boat out to the Gothenburg archipelago




Picknick on one of the islands.


Walking in Haga. It's a little bear blowing bubbles on to the street.


Zelmas, a cafe close to my university that I often visited when studying there.


"Killer-disease is spreading in restaurants and cafes in Göteborg". If I survived SARS in Singapore and China then I'm sure I'll be alright from anything in Göteborg.


If you ever go to Beijing and Tiananmen square, go to the 7-11 right to the south-east of Qianmen and check out the poster outside the entrence. There is a picture of the 7-11 shop that can be seen in the background of this picture there!

I failed the exam and I was mighty pissed off. I think I should have a good chance of passing it in October though. They have put up all previous exams and study material on the net (I didn't know that), so now I will be able to prepare a little bit better. Only 2 people passed the exam by the way. I shall have my revenge.

Henrik and Maggie's wedding

"Tager du..."



Me and Wen attended Henrik and Maggie's wedding in Haga parken in Göteborg. I was studying with Henrik back in 96 at Chalmers.

Tina 20!

My sister Tina's birthday! Our little family tradition is to make hot chocolate, some sandwishes, and strawberry cake, and then wake her up early by coming into her room singing the birthday song.

This day was a busy one. After singing for my sister, we rushed to the train station to go to Gothenburg to attend a wedding there.

Fishing

Fishing Day 1


Jakob, me, and Wen went out with the smaller boat.


This is a cruel business if you are a little fish.


No luck that evening. But it was nice just being out on the lake.

Fishing Day 2


Dad in his baby "Ester".



Wen and the sun.


We were quite convinced that the fish in this lake were all dead.


Well, we did finally get the lunch for tomorrow.

Food

These days are pretty relaxing. Most activities have been focused on food. Picking mushroom, cooking, making coffee, and preparing dessert.


Wen putting the final touch on an omelette.


Blueberries and vanilla ice-cream


Finding another tiny-winy mushroom.


Peeling potatoes


To fulfill the Swedish stereotype...


Apple pie


Me, Wen and a bowl of potatoes. And a fish. She still hasn't gone through the fishing experience, though it is also coming up.


Making dumplings