My 1st Day off: A Day Full of Architechture, Statues and Tits!

Today was my first day off since I've been here, and a much needed break indeed.  I wanted to do something fun so I went on an exploratory walk of the city, trying to end up somewhere cool.

Architecture-  The buildings here are so old and majestic.  Some of these buildings were created in the 13th Century.  I must have looked crazy as I was walking around looking literally at old cracks in walls.  They are all so cool, and the style of architecture is amazing.  In one place, the most common tourist spot, called Grand Place, there is even gold on the exteriors of the old stone.  Pretty amazing.  I went into another church today, the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, which was awesome, in the true meaning of the word.  
From what I have read, this place was built originally in 1047 and then renovated into the Gothic style in 1226.  It's amazing to think that this church is over 700 years old! 

This is the carving at the very front of the Cathedral... It is right above the door. Pretty cool welcome sign.  When I went up even closer, there were just so many little intricacies.

   



Apparently all of these churches have decorative pulpits.  I really didn't know why they had to be so extravagant but the entire church is so it might as well be.  The other really weird thing is that all the pulpits I've seen in Brussels are black.  They are extremely detailed and this one has  the devil chasing Adam and Eve from paradise.   It's amazing to think that all this is needed just for someone to stand and preach from. Created in 1699.  Sometimes I wish the guys that used to design these places were still around.  They are remarkable, and they seem to stay standing forever...  compared to common day buildings and houses.

 This is a view from the back of the church.  Looking straight ahead to the front altar from the entrance.  Behind the Altar there was a full room housing the Tabernacle.  The Altar was a 360 stage, and you can walk all the way around it, which I did, and at the back there's a huge Lion "guarding" the altar.  Kinda interesting.  That is the organ up on the side of the wall too. It was very hard to get a photo of it but it was a huge pipe organ, and it was playing amazing grace when I went in.

Another really cool thing I liked were the statues all the way down the columns in the church.  They were huge and each one looked down at you... 

 I don't really know what all these buildings are but they were very cool.  Some of them were in Grand Place, some were on Royal Street.  The first one is the Royal Palace.  












No idea but pretty cool------------------------------->

 This is the Palais de Congress.  It sits right beside the Head of the EU.  That building is the next picture.  Brussels is a pretty important place I guess.

This painting is right on the Palais tower.  It is interesting to see how closely tied religion and politics are in this country.

I liked this clock.---->



These next pictures are all taken at Grand Place.  The golden statue of the horse is on top of the "House of Brewers"...   Beer is gold in this city...

Statues!!
 I walked by so many cool statues today so I picked a few of my favourite ones to show you. The crazy part is that for the most part everyone in the city just walks by and doesn't even notice these.  I had to stop and look...

TITS

And now, time for Tits!! and by that I mean Birds.  (Sorry Feetham)

I got to see some brand new birds that I had never seen before and some I had but still very cool.  

Starting with new birds...

Great Tit (Back), Blue Tit (front)

Great Tit

 I was walking in a park and heard what sounded like Black Capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice, both North American Birds.  Then these little guys came down right beside me on the ground.  These birds belong to the Tit family.  

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

 After seeing these guys, I heard a really weird sounding bird, calling from the ground.  It sounded like a songbird calling so I was a little surprised when it was just a blackbird. Even more strange however was the next call.  It sounded more like a jungle scream than anything I'd ever heard before.  This made more sense when I saw the bird.  There in the tree above me was a Ring-Necked Parakeet.  It was introduced accidentally over the past few decades and now they are like crows across Europe.  Very pretty, equally as noisy.

Ring-Necked Parakeet

Eurasian Blackbird

Only other notable birds were the 2 Peregrine Falcons who make the top of St. Michael's Cathedral their home.  I watched them chase pigeons and eventually the bigger one grabbed a pigeon and they retired to their home.    

Peregrine Falcon (flight)

Peregrine Falcon (sitting on Cathedral)

Needless to say, I had a great relaxing day of walking around and just exploring!  It really is amazing that all of these things can be found within about a 15 minute walk from my apartment here.  The other nice thing is that when I finally got to the park (where the birds  and the white statues were) I could barely hear the sirens!  It was so nice just to get away and do nothing.  Although I am very excited about being at Cirque this is what will keep my job fresh.  The sport psychologist at Cirque (J.F. ) explained to us that on the dark day, our day off, we should just forget about Cirque and do something totally different.  This was a great retreat away!! 

Miss you all,
'Til next time.
Aa