Another Day of Great Fun in Brussels

I see that the time goes by pretty fast: we are, with this picture, in January 2006, in Brussels. We were on another school trip (don't assume that we were always doing it: it was only once in a blue moon, but I talk about that here because it was special) whose goal was to see the exhibition "Made in Belgium" for the 175th anniversary of the independence of Belgium.
In the morning, we took the train in Verviers (the nearest station): we were 150 students and a dozen of teachers. An hour later, we arrived in Brussels Central and we walked to the Grand-Place, where a man (a retired one) took care of us: he was going to show us the most famous places of Brussels—strange that some of us had never ever come to Brussels… We went in front of the Manneken Pis (hence the photo) and walk towards the Royal Palace (how original), then the Royal Library, and back to the Grand-Place. Pretty boring when you have already seen that 100 times.

But wait a minute… This sightseeing took place two years before, when I was in 4th year… Oops. Actually, on 13 January 2006, we didn't get any sightseeing, but we went directly to the exhibition. Fortunately, I was in the last part of the group, and I was staying close to M. Kuta, our History teacher, one of the most funny guys I know: that's him on the picture. Instead of looking carefully at the things exposed to our eyes about the history of Belgium, the books, the medals, the suits, the statues, the pictures, the paintings, etc., we couldn't help criticizing everything and make silly comments about whatever we saw. For example, we were talking about the building of the Caroline Europe, with Charlemagne dividing his kingdom between his four (!) sons: John, Ringo, Paul and George.
Later, we arrived in the Hall of Inventions, where we found this splendid ancient engine in front of which M. Kuta stands on the picture. We were kidding by saying that it was his first car's engine. At school, he was talking of his car being a Kutamobile or Fardier de Kuta (after the name of the first steam engine), and we tought it had to be precesely that. We also found his first wheels, as you can see.

Then, we had a one-and-a-half-hour (?) break during which we could do whatever we wanted (except from robbing a bank or something mischievous), so I decided to walk towards the Friterie Jourdan, a chip-shop. (Crap! I can't even find a picture of this worldly-famous institution on Google!) That is to say that, from the Grand-Place, we had to walk for 2,5 km in order to get our fries, and back again to the Grand-Place: another 2,5 km! We did it within an hour! (Needless to say that we walked really fast.) But it was worth the effort: those fries were my favourites at that time (now, I've definitely found better).

In the afternoon, we had to see another exhibition about Russian paintings in the beginning of the 20th century in the Beaux-Arts/Bozart Museum. Pretty boring. I was still with M. Kuta, but due to the guide's presence, we didn't dare saying silly comments (even though there was enough material for doing so).

Afterwards, we had another bunch of free-time, so we went walking not too far from the Grand-Place, and I remember having been to the Quick to eat (yes, I have a healthy life). We took the train in Brussels Central Station round 7 pm and we went back to Verviers. No one was injuried during this trip.