Car-free Sunday in Brussels

The annual car-free Sunday took place this past weekend. It's really good to see how well the rule of no engine vehicles allowed to the city - actually inside the ring! - is respected. All the entrances from the ring highway were closed; no one without a special permit, was allowed in.

The pedestrians, roller-skaters and bikers took over the city. Even during the Xmas shopping time there are not so many people in the streets as there were on Sunday. I took these photos in the center of the city.


We had walk around the Basilique of Kokoelberg, where there is a big Leonardo da Vinci exhibition, and the center of the city. There was a lot going on; in streets corners soft drink companies were distributing cans to everyone who passed by, some chocolate shops were distributing little chocolates, glass bottles with coloured paper messages inside were also given to everyone who cared to carry one (that was done by Passa Porte), a ship with pirattes was lost in the middle of the crowds, TV crews and police men were wandering with the crowds,... it was quite surrealist.

There were many little places to eat and drink. We had some Spanish tapas in Place Ste Catherine and a coffee in one little café. I found this café so nice that I was thinking to come back this week; unfortunately it was 'open' only this weekend, as many other little 'un-official' cafés.

I was thinking of starting roller-skating in order to be ready for next year's car-free Sunday...

Naginata World Championships 2007

The 4th Naginata World Championships were held yesterday in Brussels. It was quite surprising to see all the different types of competition they have: rhythm naginata, engi and shiai. Naginata is still very young in terms of international competitions: only 12 countries participated in the Championships!

The most different form of naginata was the rhythm naginata. The teams had created their own choreography based on the naginata movements. The jury gave points for musicianship, construction, artistry, content and technique. I took a little video of Japan's performance; they were the 2nd.

Japan took the 1st and 2nd places in the engi competition, as well as in the women's individual competition. Belgium did very well: they won the rhythm naginata and got the 3rd and 4th places in the engi and the 3rd place in women's competition. Congratulations to all!

We couldn't follow the whole day and therefore don't know what happened in the men's individual and team competitions.