A Photo, a Memory, and a Taste of Belgium

The weather in Belgium has been cold and extremely gray for a while now. When you are deprived of sunlight for too long, the question “When was the last time I went out on a bright day?” starts to linger in your mind.

I took this photo in early November 2024, it must have been just a few days before winter truly made its presence felt. Even though the sky wasn’t fully covered by sunshine, I remember that day as a pleasent one. When my wife’s parents visited us, I took them to Brussels, the most common and maybe the first destination for anyone visiting Belgium. We got off at Merode station and spent some time at the first stop on our trip: Jubelpark, or Parc du Cinquantenaire, as it’s also called. Have I ever pronounced the French name correctly? Probably not.

Anyway, I believe this photo is a decent capture from the early hours of that day. The clouds in the sky already showed that bad weather was on the way. The winter was coming.

I really like symmetry in photos. I noticed the water fountain shooting up and placed its highest point right in front of the middle arch of the Cinquantenaire Arcade. I didn’t have any particular message in mind when taking this photo—it was just about the symmetry.

That day, my parents-in-law tried many different Belgian chocolates in the city center, and they loved all of them. If you ask me, I can’t really tell the difference between Belgian chocolates and regular chocolates; they all taste the same to me. Maybe I should have my tongue checked by a doctor!

Before that, I had made them try Belgian fries in Hasselt, but their favorite ones were from a shop called La Friterie, right in front of Manneken Pis. I always thought those places were just tourist traps and didn’t offer the real taste, but I was obviously wrong. I actually liked their fries, too.

We ended the day with waffles from Belgaufra. It was lovely.

I guess I must be hungry because, other than the photo itself, I’m only talking about food and desserts. Perhaps it’s time to wrap up this post.