Visiting my Friend, Isabelle !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I waited so long for this visit to happen.. It is always a good feeling meeting your good friends..
A heart full of happiness..
You must have felt it .. So no need to explain..

It was my plan to visit Isabelle in Belgium (French, Dutch and Flemish speaking country : Probability is more to have problems in communications)..From Dortmund its not so far.. So I made this plan according to Isabelle's suggestion .. (I belive you all know her, We were working together in Porto) ..
Such a lovely, loyal pretty girl..

I had a extended weekend again.. So I went there..

Lets talk about the trip....I just fixed the ticket to go to her place by car with sharing.. As much as I know I fixed with that guy to go to Liege.. From there I need to take a train to reach Namur where she lives.. I got into the car and I don't remember anything since I was just sleeping all the way.. Once I woke up I seemed very fresh and the guy said to me in 60 km's we reach Brussels.. I was asking him

what???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought of going to Liege.. Okay ... I was cool anyway.. Belgium is a small country .. I assumed that from Brussles Namur cant be so far.. Unfortunately I just checked the train timings, frequency, travelling time from Liege to Namur not from Brussels.. I never though of going there.. So no idea abt travel time .. Okay .. I was happy any way that Its a good chance for me to see city centre of European capital city .....ha ha ha.. This is Me.. Ha ha ha..

I got down exactly in the city centre and I was walking for 30 mins around .. Just saw few places.. You will see some photos in next post.. Then I thought of leaving to Namur .. So I was looking for the bus, tram or something to go to central station.. I got good help from a girl then I was waiting for the bus.. It has come.. So I was asking the driver to give me one ticket to go to central station.. He understood me and with action he showed me that its in a walkable distance.. ... I was in a hurry i said please give me one ticket I don't want to search .. Since I was very adamant to go by bus (he doesn't really understand my situation) he said okay ..

You know guys he gave me a free ride.. There you see my luck meeting very kind people ..

And free ride in a bus sounds great right???

That was wonderful... Such a nice welcome!!!!!!!!

When I got down I was looking for the central station.. I couldn't see anything.. I was bit worried and asked help from the people.. . It was funny that one showed me the mark M in front and said this is the station..

Just look at this photo at left side.. How would you find out the Central station? very narrow entrance.. .. Right???

I never expect a central station in such a small entrance.. Finalmente, I found a place to get the ticket and I was in a right platform.. I confirmed this with many people.. I found belgium people are so kind and helpful.. I suppose to got into wrong train but one person volentarily said to me your train will be coming next.. Don't think that I am a fool.. and My ticket was for weekend.. So there is no time and train number display on it.. Everything was written and spoken in french and flemish .. So I was completely lost ..Okay? other wise I could manage myself.. I beleive so.. Ha ha ha..

When I was waiting for the train I thought of sending msg to Isabelle.. Before that she sent me message asking was everything went okay.. Ha ha ha.. I replied her I got wrong into Brussel and waiting for the train to Namur.. I informed her please don't start until I give you some news about arrival time.. ..

Atlast I reached and Isabelle was already waiting for me.. It was a good feeling to have good hug and kisses from a old friend.. Me, Isabelle, Jerome (Isabelle's boy friend) then started going home.. I didnt know that they have shifted to country side.. bit far from the city.. After our arrival Jerome prepared the Pizza ... He is a great cook.. He enjoys cooking .. Lucky Isabelle..

Okay.. here you see Isabelle welcoming us with Champagne..

And Jerome with Pizza..

It was really tasty .. After having two big slices of pizza (one with some Indian spice) with some alcohol I slept again good until late morning ..


This is the view from her window.. Such a calm country side.. So beautiful isn't????

So next day in next post..

Brussels : Capital of Belgium and Capital of European union!

So next day Isabelle wanted to take me to some city in Belgium .. It was not my interest of this visit.... But still we decided to go..

My friend always suggest to visit Ghent whenever I talk about Belgium visit.. So I asked Isabelle to take me there.. She said any way we have to pass Brussels so we visit some places in there too.. It seemed a good plan.. right???

We started from Namur.. Its a Namur Central station...



So there we go.. We reached Brussels.. Look guys.. Here is the Main entrance to the Central Station.. So when you go to Brussles always look for the main entrance, please be alert if you go by train and no worries if you go by car...

Some photos from my previous day visit..

View of Grand'Place ...

I really liked this clock.. I really liked the sound of the bell.. It was very loud and catchy..

Royal Palace of Brussels..

Some photos from Grand place..... This historic market square with its splendid guild houses and the impressive Gothic beauty of the Town Hall, is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful town squares in Europe.

You can see the beauty...

Brussels stock exchange...&

Do you know why this place is crowded???? you will soon see it....

Here comes the Manneken pis... (A small guy pissing: it represent "irreverent spirit" of Brussels... I wasn't impressed when I saw it.. But when I was searching about this I found something interesting about this ..)

(((( One story goes that a father was missing his child and made a declaration to the city that when he found him he would build a statue of him, doing whatever it was that he was doing. Thus, a statue of a little boy peeing was created.)))) from wikitravel..

Somthing from Manneken .. for the beer..

I am glad that I don't drink beer.. ha ha ha...

&
When we were walking in the city we found this interesting guy.. I just wanted to give him money.. He called me for the picture and gave me very special kiss (he said that) ..
Ha ha ha...
That is nice..

If you go to Belgium and If you didn't eat chocolate or waffels it would be incomplete.. I was partially incomplete since I just had chocolate this time.. Isabelle was convincing me that Porkodi its not going to be your last visit.. So she was right.. I will be visiting her again.. so next time..

Here goes the fresh chocolate dipped fruits (banana and strawberry).. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.. that was so delicious..
No wonder they are the one of the best producers of chocolate..

More manneken pis .. its all chocolates.. Here comes the issue I cant resist myself for the chocolate..
Ha ha ha....

I end this post with chocolate and moving to the next post..

be patient guys....

Obrigada for being patient!!!

Ghent : One of the beautiful cities I have ever visited!!!!

So we continued our journey from Brussels to Ghent.. this was the city of my interest.. I heard many times about this city.. So we will see in good weather..

Starts from the Main station.. (inside)

This is exactly infront of the station.. I was bit afraid .. Where is the beautiest part ?????We were looking for the tourism office.. We couldn't find.. And happy to say that Isabelle also was in my track that she doesn't understand Flemish..Ha ha ha... She is any way much better than me since she speaks good french.. Okay.. We talk about the trip...Then we found the direction for the historic part.. It said 2.2km .. We decided to walk ... That was a good idea for going..

Here it starts the Historic region..

(In medieval times, Ghent (Gent) was actually Europe's second-biggest city after Paris and although today it is somewhat overshadowed by Belgium's nearby capital of Brussels,
it is still a huge tourist magnet and stands at the confluence of the Scheldt and Leie rivers)

I was very happy to see the 13 and 14th century buildings are still in use...

Old post office...

Saint Nicholas Church..
It is a shopping complex now..

13th century building... Running a restaurant now..

&
A small house with blue door (in below photo) at right side was before the "Custom Office "... Its too small right?????

Must be handled with precious metals and Diamonds..

This was the fish market in early days.. They planned to have the tourism office here.. This is just an information for you.. ... because we couldn't find a tourism office until we finish our trip.. Ha ha ha...
but finally we found .. And I use it now for the writing you some informations..

So please don't expect to get some informations from the main station of Ghent.. This is the information for the people who goes by train.. Not the one who travels by car...

Lucky youuuuuuuuuuu..

12th-century Gravensteen Castle...
I captured these pictures from Canal tour...



Belfry of Ghent... You can find Isabelle ..







Town Hall...

One information for you...

In 2009 the city launched ‘Donderdag Veggiedag’ (Thursday Veggie Day), encouraging its residents to forego meat or fish on Thursdays. The city set the example by offering a vegetarian meal to city workers and in city schools on that day. Cities such as Sao Paulo, Brazil and Bremen, Germany soon followed suit.

So what do you think about this city???? Do you want to visit??? Please do visit me too ...