Place du Petit Sablou

It's funny the places that will speak to you when you're travelling. On my last day in Belgium, 5 July (the day after my trip to Bruges), I had plans for another big trip but just couldn't seem to rally. Part of it related to the fact that it was a rainy and even somewhat cold day, but also I felt unnaturally tired. I had this dreadful sense that I had suddenly grown old and this lack of energy was the new normal, but then it also occurred to me that, factoring in India, I had been running for two straight weeks. So, instead I decided to just hang around Brussels for the day, and ended up having a lovely time. I visited a couple beautiful cathedrals, which I'll post on later, and spent a couple delightful hours in a little chocolate shop drinking hot cocoa and writing in my journal. While out I came across a truly delightful little park, which was a bit out of the way but which only added to its charm. It was across the street from the Eglise Notre-Dame du Sablou (Church of Our Lady of the Sablou). The Place du Petit Sablou is tucked away in between the church and a row of apartment buildings (and what I wouldn't give to live in one of those apartments for a year). It featured forty-eight bronze statues representing the medieval guilds, as well as a fountain and statue of the Catholic Counts Egmont and Hornes, who were beheaded in 1568 for protesting the cruelties of the Spanish Inquisition. My best friend David and I always talk about having enough money to travel around and get apartments in various locations for six months or a year at a time - to fully immerse yourself into an area, as compared to just passing through. I think I've found my apartment in Belgium.