Belgian national holiday, Bruce's birthday party

I am catching up with some events that I have posted out of sequence...  Bruce and I got back from our trip to Gelsenkirchen, Leipzig, Bayreuth (with a stop in Bamberg) on Sunday, and yesterday morning I took him to the airport to fly back to Canada.  We had a great time, and I have been going through the photographs to send him copies of the ones from the Fuji camera.  I will share a few photos that I haven't had time to post before.

The 21st of July was the Belgian national holiday, and it was the first July 21st that we have been home in Brussels for in some years.  As this is the first Belgian National holiday that we have experienced with three Belgians in the family, we decided to go downtown and check it out.  Our neighbours Raoul (who is also a Belgo-Canadian) and Luisa invited us to go together with them, and we had a great time eating frites and drinking Leffe blonde at the Parc.

there was a great jazz band playing 1930 swing at the bandshell

dancing in the frites line

Belgian national food and drink

pedestrian traffic on the Rue de la Regence

Duncan trying out McLaren Mercedes at the Mercedes House at the Sablon

The 24th of July is Bruce's birthday and for the first time he was here in Belgium with us so we could celebrate it with him.  This special occasion called for a "Napoelon" style sabering of champagne...

note the protective eyewear

cheers! 

carrot cake for the birthday boy

Carrot cake was requested, and so Malcolm learned how to make the famous family recipe.  A good time was had by all!

next post... Bayreuth!