Manneken Pis

You can't be in Brussels and not stop to see the Manneken Pis. I'm pretty sure it's illegal and fined heavily. My favorite part about the statue - it gets dressed up! Who knew he was such a dapper fellow!

He also makes lovely bar decorations. Here is is likeness in the very appropriately named Tavern Manneken Pis.

The history of the statue is under some debate, but I like to believe that it was in the likeness of a boy who saved the city by pissing on the fuse of explosives set by an enemy. It's a lesson for us all. "Hey, I have a problem, let's pee on it." Problem solved!

Grand Place, Brussels

The sourcing conference started Tuesday. Meetings, meetings, meetings! After a group event (aka dinner) a group of us wandered to the Grand Place to stare at it's sparkly glory. And buy chocolate.

Bonus: I got a picture with my favorite food :)

Cologne

Or Koln, depending on who you believe. We stopped in Koln for about 2 hours on the way to Brussels from Warstein and omg they make ukuleles that look like rock guitars! That is so amusing.

We had dinner across from the Cathedral, which was the only sight we saw.

So much rain....

Soest

The downside of traveling for work is that half of the touring happens by the time the sun has gone down. Fortunately cities have invested in some good lighting!

After London we traveled to Warstein, Germany to visit a supplier, but it being Sunday nothing was open for dinner. Instead we went to nearby Soest, which is a lovely 1,000 year old town, for some delicious dinner and beer!  

Hotel Puster!

 Im Wilden Mann

Churches of Soest

An amusing story told to us by our hosts: In the summer various cities have a festival called Schutzenfest. The general idea is to shoot a bird (fake) on a pole. The traditions vary a little from town to town, but in this particular festival if you are the shooter to finish off the bird you are the King of Schutzenfest. This also means that you "get" to host (ie: financially) many of the parades and feasts of the rest of the festival. So if you aren't wealthy, you want to have fun shooting but you definitely don't want to be the winner. In a recent festival a young boy accidentally finished off the bird and was named King only to be immediately chastised by his parents because they now had to host feasts. So a note to everyone: beware Shutzenfest or bring some extra money just in case :)

It's raining, obviously

Because that's what it does here. 

I got into London on an evening train from Birmingham on Friday, so didn't have time to be too touristy. I did however have time to go shopping! The Marble Arch area is pretty great for buying stuff. My suitcase is officially full. There's one store here called Primark which is kind of like Forever 21 but with better rack organization. The clothing is fashionable but really inexpensive, and the store is huge. It was a mad house! There aren't carts of course, but wheeling baskets, and people had collections of them overflowing. Like, one person would have 4 baskets stacked on top of one another. It seemed like families came from all over Europe to this store specifically to shop for their entire wardrobe for the next 6 months. The picture I most wish that I'd captured was from the dressing room entrance. They had us stopped from going in, which I thought was really odd, only to have one of the employees sweeping out mounds of empty hangers that had been left on the changing room floor. Completely insane! I had been to a Primark previously, and it was very busy with a long checkout line, but this place was absolutely nuts. Chaos!

Saturday, despite the rain, I wandered around Covent Garden and walked to the British Museum. After staring at some old stuff I walked around the usual suspects in London Tourism - Trafalgar Square , Parliament, Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace... It was a bit of a wet walk and while I did enjoy it, I also suffered for it. My blisters did not bode well for the plant tours that followed!

This was once money

Things like this is why I like museums. I want to pay for things with cute reindeer coins!

Though this also made the exhibit so, you know, sometimes it's touch and go. 

 

Congratulations to whomever decided to put an "I grew hemp" stamp on Washington. You made the British Museum.

Unexpected history

It admittedly looks quite boring, but I was unexpectedly on the site of not only the invention of gas lighting but also steam engines which pushed ahead the start of the industrial revolution! I mean, I work in manufacturing so, you know, it's kind of a big deal. If not for this I'd be a farmer. (Which sometimes actually seems like a good idea)

The scaffolding is all covering the original Soho Foundry, which is a protected site and needs to keep from decaying further. There may eventually be a restoration effort but as it is currently The Company owns it and doesn't want to pay for that. It would greatly interfere with our cost reduction plans.

 

There was an official sign and everything

The Company, being in the weighing business, also has an on-site museum that chronicles the history of weighing systems over the centuries. Unfortunately the weights museum was closed as it's England and manufacturing types often don't work on Fridays, afternoons in particular. Perhaps I'll see it next time. I did get to tour the current manufacturing process for giant and not-so-giant weighing systems though, so we'll call it a consolation prize.