[Photos taken 16 – 17 March 2024, posted online 02 August 2024. It’s a new month!]
The day after the concert I decided to hunt down a clothing store that I often get lucky in, and accidentally stumbled upon a whole shopping district, and the Grand Place (Grand Square)!
Dinner was quite French, and the following day I took the bus & train to the airport. The flight back to Iceland was uneventful, and the weather welcomed me home with wind and rain…
Saturday 16 March 2024
Nicely unflattering photo of me with the big town-hall-tower at the Grand Place, that I accidentally stumbled upon in a totally unplanned wander.
The day began with breakfast at the hotel. It’s interesting how quickly hotel breakfasts solidify into the same thing over and over again.
I went out on a wander to find a cafe to hang out at. These very colorful planks caught my eye.
Signs of spring!
It’s weirdly hard to get perfectly level/symmetrical photos. This was the most decent one of the set of the St. Boniface church and the square it sits by.
I found a nearby cafe with cool baristas and an open seat…
… except there were no laptops allowed on the weekends. So I just drank my coffee in peace and attempted unsuccessfully to find decent books on the electronic library in Iceland on my phone.
After the very nice coffee I walked on back to the hotel, knowing they had a laptop-friendly area on the ground floor.
The nook where I hung out. So hip!
Art everywhere, also by the elevators!
After lunch, I consulted Google Maps to find the way to a clothing store I usually get lucky at.
I found myself by the Monnaie Center, which seemed to have been entirely gutted, minus the floors, and about to be remade. Much to my surprise, I did not get lucky in the clothing store (Esprit), they’d changed their designs and colors to be useless to me. Perhaps I wasn’t the only unhappy customer, because the chain filed for bankruptcy in May 2024!
After the disappointing shop visit, I noticed there were a lot of people walking here and there, and decided to walk around to see what the fuss was about.
At some point I started up a Strava recording so I wouldn’t get too lost. It’s also very helpful to have the Strava “heatmap” on to see where others usually walk.
It was a cozy and pedestrian friendly area, but everything that sold decent food had very long lines. At one point I looked to my right though an alley, and thought… wait a minute… that looks very familiar!
Animated gif of the Grand Place. The big tower is big! (Wait for it to load).
Cute kid being photoed.
Flags and a tall tower.
I came in to the Grand Place on the far left.
Entering the courtyard behind the large tower.
History hidden everywhere.
A surrounded recliner.
A water “feature” on the outside of the building.
Much to my surprise, a parade of masked men appeared out of nowhere! (Animated gif, wait for it to load)
The back-side of a parade that came out of nowhere.
I decided to splurge on some overpriced chocolate for the family. I learnt after the fact that a cheaper version of the same store is not far away. Tsk, tsk.
