Photo Shoot

Just a few pics Ross and I took around town....

Shrubbery

As I mentioned in an earlier post, they take their shrubbery seriously. Pretty amazing, huh? Notice even the trees are shaped into big balls. And this is everywhere! Funny thing with all the walking around I've done, I have never seen anyone pruning.

Shopping Cart Savvy

This is one ingenious way to round up carts at the grocery story. In order to use a shopping cart, you have to put a 1 or 2 Euro coin in the slot and this key mechanism separates your cart from the others. When you return your cart and reinsert the key you get your coin back. Voila! No random carts all over the parking lot and no cart runners needed.

Of course, as Ross observed, in the US, no one would bother since the biggest coin is a quarter. And speaking of coins, I conclude the Euro system has too many. While I think the 1 and 2 Euro could be pretty handy, I just seem to collect them because I can't get used to using them. In addition to the 1 and 2 Euro, there's a 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, and 50 cent! That's 8 coins compared to the US with really only 4 that are used.

Belgie Frites? Not French Fries?

A Belgian historian recounts that potatoes were already fried in 1680 when the poor inhabitants of the Liege' region allegedly had the custom of accompanying their meals with small fried fish, but when the river was frozen and they were unable to fish, they cut potatoes lengthwise and fried them in oil to accompany their meals.

A Belgian legend claims that the term "French" was introduced when British or American soldiers arrived in Belgium during WWI, and consequently tasted Belgian fries. The supposedly called them "French", as it was the official language of the Belgian Army at that time.

Whether or not Belgians invented them, "frites" became the national snack and a substantial part of both national dishes, making the Belgians their largest per capita consumers in Europe and their symbolic creators.

AZERTY keyboard

Yep, that's right. No QWERTY keyboards here. And see how it has all those symbols I need? like the 2 little dots over the "i" in Belgie so it can be pronounced properly as "bell ee ya"? and the Euro symbol on the "E" key? and all those others that I have no idea what they are?

The standard glovebox cooler

No, I'm not kidding. That little round thing is blowing out cold air so the glove box can be used as a cooler and an open container of beer is apparently perfectly legal. For passengers only, of course. Not sure why there are 2 indentions on the door though. Guess that passenger may need 2 beers with the speed people drive around here!

And speaking of driving. There are no STOP signs. Seriously, the only STOP sign I've seen was in the grocery store parking lot. Approaching a 4-way intersection is anybody's guess. I can only assume that drivers around here are just smart enough to know you may want to yield or even STOP when you are approaching a 4-way intersection or about to pull out into oncoming traffic? Hmmm . . . maybe those STOP signs really aren't needed.