There was a medieval feast in Forest, one of the 19th municipalities of Brussels. It is over all well known for its concert hall (Forest National), which can hold more than 8,000 people. It hosts all kind of musicals, shows, as well as music concerts, by a wide variety of music artists. Mamma Mia, Bharati, Abba show, Cliff Richard, Elton John, and many others have performed there.
It was a very sunny day so many people were present to participate in the medieval festivities.
The city hall
the entrance to the festivities
It started well : The first thing we saw was the long line of people waiting for the toilet !
No wonder after all the beer and wine and good food !
There were dances
and fights
A show with a skeleton puppet
men and women in costumes
Preparing for a fight with horses
As an oven was missing somebody tried to bake bread with two frying pans
The German stall called "the wild Rooster" had a lot of success with different kind of beers.
an elf sold elves !
a dragon watched over us
and this devil looked quiet scary ! I admired his boots !
leaving the place we just saw this real elf getting ready for a dance.
As the weather was so nice we did a little excursion to Huy a cute little old town. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liege, along the river Meuse.
Huy is also home to the finish of "the Flèche Wallonne" (Walloon Arrow).
When you arrive in Huy, the first thing you see sitting high above the city is the "Citadelle de Huy" (Citadel of Huy) As I couldn't take a decent picture, I prefered to show you a drawing.
I parked the car and then we strolled through the old narrow streets of Huy.
and arrived at the townsquare just in front of the city hall.
The square was surrounded by old houses and lots of restaurants and cafés.
We saw the "Bassinia" fountain, in a glass house, I couldn't find out why.
Originally it looked like this.
We also sat down and had a cool glass of beer, very much appreciated in the heat.
There also was this strange "house" standing there. First I didn't know what it was, until I saw on the other side "entrance".
I suppose it should tell us how to built a house or a shed with recuperation stuff.
Walking slowly back to the car we returned home. Huy is about 90 km ( 56 miles) from Brussels
When you have guests from abroad, of course you show them all the important spots of your city. Which I did with my friends Claudie and Pierre from Southern France. I have to say, I had never been in this enormous church, I only knew it from outside so I discovered something new to me too.
The church, on Koekelberg hill, is a landmark on the Brussels skyline. It is the largest building in Art Deco style in the world, at 89 m (292 ft) high and 164.5 m (540 ft) long (outside length). The cupola platform affords an excellent city panoramic view of Brussels. The central nave is 141 m (463 ft) long, and at its widest the building is 107 m (351 ft). The cupola has a diameter of 33 m (108 ft). The church accommodates 3500 people.
Symbolically King Leopold II laid the first stone of the basilica in 1905 during the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence. The construction was halted by the two World Wars and finished only in 1969.
This enormous building houses Catholic Church celebrations, as well as conferences, exhibitions, a restaurant with a theatre and dancing floor, a Catholic radio station, and two museums, which we haven't seen.
The building combines reinforced concrete with terracotta layering, bricks, and dimension stone. Modern stained glass windows represent the life of Jesus
When you are in front of the building you suddenly feel very small !
Views from both sides
and the front with the main entrance.
From the church you have a wonderful view to Brussels
I was rather surprised to read this sign near the entrance to the church ! A theatre in a church ???
and even more surprised when we entered the church and were welcomed by this cook ! This has never happened to me before in no cathedral. To the right was the entrance to the restaurant and to the left of the cook the entrance to the cathedral !
We first had a look into the restaurant, which was very beautiful ! We saw the red curtain of the theatre and the dancing floor in the middle.
Then we entered the cathedral
Climbing up the stairs for visitors, not the official entrance of the church, we thought it was huge !
Some views on the ceiling
and of the church itself
The stained glass windows were absolutely gorgeous, for the first time I saw very modern looking faces of religious themes. Here is just one of them.
We all were very impressed by this huge building which from outside looks a little bit like a mosque.
This is a brochure of the church in several languages
I love writing, traveling and photography. . I am German, i live in Waterloo (15 km from Brussels) / Belgium since many years. Waterloo is a famous place to many tourists, because Napoleon lost his battle here against Wellington and other European countries.
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