Somewhere I recognise!

I was sure I'd wandered these streets before -- but today I finally walked into a location and went, "hey, I recognise these buildings". It was the Grote Markt/Grand Place (Great Square, or maybe Market Square, or maybe Great Market). I had definitely wandered around this with theobviousname when we were here oh those many years ago.

Yesterday, I spotted the Atomium from some higher ground near the palace. I wandered in its general direction, but didn't find it. I asked at the desk, today, and it isn't within close walking distance (not on the local map), but I could get there by subway. I think, instead, I'll get the car out and drive over there. (As well as driving to the site of the company that I'm training at, so I know where I'm going.) Hm.. and probably to a local climbing gym, too.

Chocolate!

So, I went chocolate shopping this morning. I bought 100 € of chocolate bars, including:

8 Valhrona "Grands Crus" chocolate bars ranging from a milk chocolate at 33% cacao, to a dark at 85%.

6 Zaabär chocolate and spice bars: Licorice, Curry, Mace, Sage, Star Anise, and Coriander

7 Dolfin "The Art of Blending" bars: Milk with Green Tea, Dark with Fresh Ginger, Dark with Rose Pepper, Dark with Crystallized Orange Peel, Dark with Ground Coffe, Dark with Earl Grey Tea, and Dark with Green Aniseed.

2 Cafe-Tasse: Milk with Caramelized & Salted Hazelnuts, and Dark with Cocoa bits.

2 tohi: Dark with Lemon & Ginger, Milk with Cinnamon

3 NewTree: Dark with Cassis (Black Currant), Dark with Thyme, and Dark with Chili Pepper.

Total: 28 bars. I think the prices were fairly reasonable compared to buying the same bars would be in Canada -- if they were available at all. (I think I've seen the Valhrona and Dolfin around before, and they were in the $8-10 a bar range, but I'm not sure.)

I may, also, grab some chocolates Thursday before I head home. I'm thinking, possibly from Valhrona, but maybe a couple different chocolatiers.

Went climbing today...

I found a local gym, and drove out to it. I was lucky to walk in and find someone else who was alone and looking for someone to climb with. I did a few routes, including one that was marked as 5c+ (would be about 5.9/5.10a), and it felt like that difficult technically -- but it was about 3x as long as I'm used to at my regular gym (Coyote). Holy cow, did it burn out my forearms. Still it was a really fun route, with lots of interesting moves.