Lake District, Belgium visit

The last month has been as busy as the last with trips away, people visiting and work events. I'm lucky to have good friends in my flatmates and I'm getting to know a few people now through the local dancing crowds. My boss Steve and his wife Karen are also great to spend work and social time with. It's always a treat to hear what family and friends are up to so I endeavour to do my bit and keep this blog up to date.

29,30 September, Lake District
The Lakes are about 2 hours north of Warrington, up above Blackpool in England's North-West. Monique (mate from Christchurch) and her friend Jack (also from NZ) came up for the weekend for a visit. We tripped up past Windermere to Keswick and back again in a day, so it was a fairly long day of exploring amongst beautiful lakes and hills. Lake Windermere reminded me of Wakatipu back home with its tour boats, nice old buildings and waterfront.

10-16 October, Belgium
The main purpose of this trip was for work. We have an instrument installed at a laboratory in Wavre, 30 mins south of Brussels in Belgium. I attended to do some upgrades, and also help out on preparations on a newer instrument for a demonstration at a conference in Brussels. Over the course of the week I and my colleague Paul from Syft NZ had chance to visit a few locations, try the local beers and chocolates...

First stop was Waterloo, North-west of Wavre. A huge hill and Lion monument stands on the site of Napolean's historical defeat.

Next stop Grand Place in central Brussels. The open centre is flanked on each side with stately decorated buildings. There were plenty of drinking spots and varieties of beer to try. Paul and I typically took turns as to who would drink or drive on any evening.

Shortly after, we visited the Atomium. It is a strucure built in the late 50s, consisting of large silver spheres joined by tubular stems you can walk through. Didn't go up in it as the queues were huge, but the view from the top overlooking Brussels would have been pretty neat. Quite an impressive structure for its age. It was originally built for the 1958 Expo of Brussels and replicates a giant crystal of iron.

On the Sunday we firstly visited the Nazi concentration camp of Breendonk, North of Brussels. Paul and I did the audio tour, listening of prisoners' experiences, general life, torture and death in the camp. It was a really creepy place so the smile on my face didn't last long. Most moving were the firing squad posts, gallows and torture room. The place was cold, dark and cramped with mass communal French toilets and showers, straw beds with triple bunks. Definitely not a nice place to be but the visit was very interesting.

Hoegaarden Brewery is out to the east of Brussels in the town of the same name. Resurrected after a fire by Interbrew (who also owns Stella Artois) the brewery makes an unusual white beer from wheat among others. Here we had lunch before taking a tour (thanks to our sat-nav) through rural countryside back to Wavre.