Castle Laeken

From Sunday 19th of April until Sunday 12th of May the Royal Greenhouse near the official residence of the Belgian Monarchy, Castle Laeken, is open to the public. I went along with my DSLR to get a few shots of exotic flowers and appreciate the wonderful architecture of Alphonse Balat, the mentor of Victor Horta. The price for a ticket was extremely reasonable (2.50 euro) and other attractions such as the Japanese Tower and the Atomium are nearby. Check out a few of the shots I took below. My favourite part of the whole tour was a sign in French and Dutch with the words "a touch of culture"- see the obvious argricultural pun? Anyway the translation or French was a jaunty "Une touche de culture", much lighter than the Dutch "een vleugje cultuur"!

Flowers

Japanese Tower



More Flowers



Crown of the Greenhouse

Roof of the Greenhouse from Inside

A bientot,
Niamh x

Le Corbusier

Today I went to the "Le Corbusier" exhibition at the CIVA (Centre Internatinal de la Ville). As an architect he was famous for his futuristic, modular deisgn. I loved the precision in his sketches and his enthusiasm for playing with different geometrical shapes. He also made a series of great collages of which I had not previoiusly been aware. Le Corbusier explicitly used the golden ratio in his Modulor system for the scale of architectural proportion. In addition to the golden ratio, Le Corbusier based the system on human measurements, Fibonacci numbers, and the double unit.

Le Corbusier

Modular Design

Collage

Geometrical Design for the World Expo in 1958

A really great exhibit... and only 5 euro with my student card;)

A bientot,
Niamh x

Liege

Given the positively tropical weather we have been experiencing recently in Belgium I decided yesterday to take a trip to the city of Liege. According to my guide book, Liege is a dreary industrial town at the best of times so I decided that it might have a better chance at a positive impression when bathed in sunlight. Beside from getting a little bit lost (as always) I really enjoyed walking around the streets and chilling out in the multiple green areas along the river bank. I also discovered that they have a Primark in Liege which brought me untold amounts of joy and an adorable new set of floral bed sheets.

Pont de Fragnée

Church

River-side

Primark!!

Liege is well worth a visit- even just to see the tremendous Gare de Liege Guillemins (and a Belgian Primark)!

A bientot,
Niamh x

Furniture shopping, Restaurant "Strofilia" and De Haan

This weekend was pretty busy as usual! On Saturday I went furniture shopping in my friends' area near Comte de Flandres. Designs in the shops were very much influenced by the tastes of the indigenous population- a lot of crazy sparkle, diamantes, Morrocan carpets and even a race-car bed. In particular, I liked the coffee tables which have seats incorporated into their design- it really reflects the social culture of the Morrocan and Tunisian people to always have guests visiting their home.

Strofilia

On Saturday evening, a group of us went to Strofilia, a Greek restaurant near St Catherine. It really was Greek Haute Cuisine with a feta and tomato salad served on a saucer sized plate for 12 euro! They also refused to serve yoghurt with honey (usually a speciality for greek restaurants), probably because it was too proletarian.

De Haan

Finally, on Sunday my friend and I decided to spontaneously head to the Belgian coastal town of De Haan. The weather was so beautiful that we decided to blow off our scheduled horse riding lesson and I got a pretty bad sun burn as punishment;) We ate traditional croquettes and chilled out by the still freezing sea. Some people seemed to be confused that it was only April and were already heading into the sub zero water!

Table with built in seats

A very nice weekend in all!

A bientot,
Niamh

Bois de la Cambre

Bois de la Cambre is an urban public park on the edge of the Sonian Forest in Brussels. Seeing as Spring finally arrived in Belgium this morning, my friend Delphine and I decided to go for a nice walk and "prendre un cafe" at the woods. There is a sweet little restaurant, "Le Chalet Robinson", on a small island in the park which can be reached by boat (one every half hour). It is a little bit of a farce since the distance between the island and the main park is about 20 metres but it's still a unique experience! Boats can also be rented in the lake. The park is very nice, convenient and close to the city centre. I would definitely recommend bringing visitors to the park, especially on a lovely Spring day!

Shadowy Hills

Robinson Island

A bientot,
Niamh x

Namur

Today, I went to see the Citadel and other sights in the capital of southern Belgium, Namur. In the Middle Ages the counts of Namur built a well-protected castle on the craggy rocks over-looking the river junction. I was a little bit reluctant to walk around the grounds myself since it was so quiet so I spent a while strolling around the pristine shop-fronts of old Namur.

Palais des Congres



Theatre de Namur

Maison de la Culture en La Provence de Namur

Citadel

Cool House by the Water

A bientot,
Niamh x

Board Games and Bad People

Today I went to play some board games at my friend. I prepared homemade pizza and icecream for the occassion. We played "Settlers of Catan" and "Dominion", strategy games which are apparently very popular in the Netherlands. It only detracted slightly from the games when she had to translate my secret reward cards from Dutch for me.

On the way there my Smartphone was stolen. I'm always very careful about using my phone in public and covering it but I had to carry it in a backpack due to the multitude of ingredients I had in tow. C'est la vie!!

Board games

Ice-cream in adorable bowls

Pizza time!

A bientot,
Niamh x