Sunday in Brussels

Good afternoon ladies

I am back home now but will still write about Sunday & Monday in Brussels as separate posts.  On Sunday we had a few problems with the Internet at the hotel, it kept dropping out & then we had all sorts of problems being able to get back on.  I think the receptionist must have cringed each time her phone rang.  So I didn't bother trying on Monday to bring you up to date with Sunday.

We had a very uneventful journey home thank goodness & got home about 10:20pm & I am sorry but it was a bit too late to write the blog then.

So! back to Brussels;

On Saturday evening whilst we were out having a very nice meal, sitting outside the restaurant & watching the world go by, we decided which of a couple of museums we would visit.  We plumped for the Musical Instrument Museum.  We also decided that if that didn't keep us busy for as long as we hoped we would then visit the Magritte Museum which holds the works of Renee Magritte. The last e of Renee should have the accent over it but that is not available here on Blogger.

Well, we didn't get to the other museum as we spent over 4 hours in the musical instrument museum.  It was absolutely fascinating.  There were instruments through the ages & from different countries.  We were given a headphone set each (at no extra cost I might add) as most of the exhibits had points at them so that you could listen to what the instruments in them sounded like.   Photos could be taken but you had to turn the flash off.  Whilst this sometimes helps with indoor shots because of the lighting provided it can also spoil photos.  Anyway as always I just clicked away between listening to the music & when we got back to the hotel found that after deleting the rubbish shots I was left with 147 photos.  The first 6 of them were of the royal palace that we had walked pass to get to the museum.

About halfway through we decided to have a sit down & a cup of coffee - the restaurant was on the top floor (10th in fact) & was busy with people having their lunch, so anyone wanting just drinks was asked to go out on the terrace.  Very nice view of the city if you don't mind heights - but it was also very windy up there.  Never mind we survived & then went on to continue our look around the museum.

I mentioned a bit further up the page that we didn't have to pay for headphones - didn't even have to leave a deposit on them.  On the Saturday at the model village included a guide book each at no extra cost.  Pity that doesn't happen over here.
 
Now! I actually have a musical background & am a qualified piano teacher (in another life now) so when I walked into one of the areas of the museum that had all the keyboard instruments in I was absolutely speechless.  So that is where a lot of the photos were taken.

So here are some of those photos;

This was the first instrument we saw in the whole of the museum & brought back many happy childhood memories as my elderly aunt had a pianola & I used to sit for ages listening to it play. I used to think it was my uncle playing but when I found out it played by itself it was just magical.

Those are just two of the many virginals & clavichords & early pianos.

Just imagine that one in a modern home.  It is 2 grand pianos sat on top of each other & was huge.

I loved this one- all I could think of as I looked at it was that Tim Holtz had been there - faded jeans or tumbled glass I can't make up my mind which one. Mind you looking closer at the "distressed"  effect perhaps both were used????  Te, he.

There are many more photos obviously & I might pop one in now & again for you to see.

After the museum we popped back to the hotel to freshen up then whilst we were trying to decided where to go for our evening meal the heavens opened so decision made - we ate in the hotel restaurant.

So that's our Sunday in Brussels.

More later about Monday.