Whistle-stop Belgian Tour

16/04/2009

Most of the group at our tour of the EU Parliament, Brussels

On March 26th a group of 13 enthusiastic students from a variety of majors including IR, Economics, Communications, etc, plus Mark Kopenski (Admissions) and Parviz Dabir-Alai (Business & Economics) set off on a whistle-stop tour of Brussels and Bruges in Belgium.

The group set off on Eurostar in the early evening.

The front entrance to the heavily guarded NATO headquarters, Brussels

Reaching our destination was both exciting and tiring at the same time. The accommodation was spartan but generally comfortable.

Some folks did moan about cold showers but no one caught a cold.

The EU commission building and flags

The first day was spent at the European Parliament, Nato HQ and the European Commission.

The highlight was the visit to Nato HQ as the group was treated to an exciting tour of many of the facilities culminating in a great talk by an 'insider' who for security reasons can not be named!!

Inside the EU parliament

The evening ended with healthy lashings of pizza and lovely Italian wine and a talk by a local Professor of History from Vesalius College.

Parviz Dabir-Alai in Bruges

On our second and last day most of us took the train to visit Bruges for beer and chocolate samplings. The day was spent in small groups roaming more or less independently of eachother.

Everyone loved Bruges and we think many return visits have already been planned.