Day and Night at the Grand Place...

I visited the Grand Place, Brussels’ most popular tourist destination, twice on December 6. First, on my own during the day.

There was a life-size nativity scene...

...as well as a 72-foot (22-meter) Christmas tree, a 50-year-old tree cut down from the Ardennes with a replacement tree planted at the same time. Apparently it took 8 men 10 hours to decorate the tree with 40 red spheres, 120 baubles and nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) of twinkling fairy lights.

There were also 50 mini Manneken Pis to celebrate the little guy’s 400th birthday (although the current statue only dates to 1965). 

I nearly skipped going to see Manneken Pis, but I was so glad that I went as I was surprised to see him in his Sinterklaas outfit, which I would have expected him to have worn on the 5th rather than the 6th. 

I must confess that I felt like a local when it dawned on me that it was unlikely that the tourists (approximately 30,000 visit him daily) all around me had no idea who Sinterklaas was. So now I’ve seen his Sinterklaas and Santa Claus outfits—only 999 outfits to go. 

That evening, after a pub crawl with the Manneke Piss Hash House Harriers (BMPH3), Jimmy and I wandered through the Grand Place, which is even more spectacular when lit up.

The Gothic town hall from 1452 is the only remaining medieval building.

Poor Jimmy missed seeing MannekenKlaas as he had already disrobed by the time we came by.

Urban Art in Brussels...

I saw a variety of cool urban art during our stay, ranging from traditional...

...to surreal.

It wasn’t surprising to see a tribute to Magritte, a Belgian Surrealist, combining his iconic bowler hat with his “this is not a pipe” pipe.

Nor was it surprising to find this version of the Manneken Pis.

Back to Brussels...

On the first Thursday of December, we caught a train down to Brussels for our first BMPH3 Christmas Hash Weekend. We brought a picnic dinner onboard complete with bubbly.

It was dark when we arrived, which meant we got to see some pretty lights on our way to our friend’s apartment. 

The following morning, Carmel went to work and Jimmy had meetings, so I was on my own and I enjoyed wandering around her neighborhood.

Just like in the Netherlands, finding public toilets is a challenge. I followed signs deep into a maze of a shops near the Grand Place, where I found this funky toilet...

...complete with fish tanks and disco lights.

Inside the Interceptor...

We were happy that we were able to register for a tour of the Maritime Museum Harbor. Luckily for me and Jimmy, both Sally and John are fluent in Dutch and could act as our translators. What an incredible bonus that the tour guide opened the door to the Interceptor and let us walk around it on our own. Here is the conveyor belt, which continuously extracts debris from the water and delivers the waste to the shuttle.

The shuttle automatically distributes the debris across six dumpsters situated on a barge, filling them equally until they are full.

When it is almost full, it automatically sends a text message to the local operators to come and collect the waste. They remove the barge, bring it to the side of the river, empty the dumpsters, send off the debris to local waste management facilities, and return the barge back into the Interceptor.

The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit, hopes to deploy 1,000 Interceptors in the heaviest polluting rivers by 2025; it is estimated that just 1% of the rivers account for 80% of the plastic pollution. The first two Interceptors systems are already operating in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Dominican Republic. Later this year they hope to deploy in Thailand, Honduras and Los Angeles.

We were all impressed and thrilled to have seen the Interceptor up close.

The Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor...

My main goal in going to Rotterdam that day was to see The Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor, which was temporarily visiting the Maritime Museum Harbor. It is the first scalable solution to prevent plastic from flowing from 1,000 of the world’s most polluting rivers into the world’s oceans. 

It is 100% solar-powered and operates autonomously, extracting up to 110,000 pounds (50,000 kilograms) of plastic per day.

As you can tell, we were all quite excited to see this new invention...

...and I took a lot of photos.

Just beside the Interceptor was this sculpture hanging above our heads. 

Offshore Experience...

Now that David is working as an engineer on an oil platform off the Scottish coast, I thought it would be fun for us to go with John and Sally to the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam to learn more about what his life is like. The new exhibit called Offshore Experience started with a safety briefing before flying out to the oil rig. Giant screens surrounded us projecting the changes seas and time of day. We were all impressed with how sophisticated the exhibit was.

There were a large variety of activities to teach us about the various offshore ships that help in the search for energy sources.

John works in the energy sector and has helped his company to procure some of these mammoth ships, so he was able to share a lot of knowledge.

Turns out being an ex-helicopter pilot didn’t ensure that Jimmy would be able to land a helicopter aboard our rig. 

Next we visited the temporary exhibit Dealing with Drugs, which was also fascinating as we took on different roles as we learned about the massive quantity of drugs that flow through the Port of Rotterdam. 

In this room, Jimmy was in charge of deciding how much electricity to use while torturing a snitch.

In another room, we got to try our luck at being customs officers.

We also saw some art, including this 1930 painting of a grain elevator, which was similar to the one I visited in front of the museum in September.

Working in Paradise...

Although Ashlynn enjoyed working at Howlin’ Jay’s, they were unable to give her enough hours to meet the requirements for her to earn a second visa, so she continued to look for other options. She was excited, but didn’t have high hopes when she was invited for an interview on Fitzroy Island, which was a 45-minute ferry ride from Cairns. She was surprised when they offered her a bartender job on the spot. What incredible luck! Instead of working at a fried chicken restaurant or toiling away on a distant farm, she would be living and working on a tropical island on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef.

On November 22, Ashlynn started working at Fitzroy Resort at Foxy’s Bar, the island’s casual café, and living in the employee accommodations, basic rooms with two beds. She was paid well and charged just one hour’s wages per day for her room and board; although she could keep her belongings there, it was nice that she wasn’t charged for her room on her days off, which were always spent off the island. There weren’t any vegan options on the menus, but luckily some of the chefs would make her special meals so she didn’t have to live on salads alone.

I borrowed this photo to show the 100-room resort. Ashlynn ended up rotating between Foxy’s and Zephyr’s, the fine dining restaurant where she was also waited tables. She also did a few shifts at the pool bar. Bjarne originally had intended to do a six-month internship on a farm, but only lasted two days of picking bananas. He then found a gardening job and hoped to see Ashlynn on her days off. On her first day at Foxy’s, she referred to him as her “boyfriend” (although she didn’t consider him to be at the time) to the manager to help him get a job.

Bjarne had no restaurant experience, but they were willing to interview him; less than one week after their first kiss, he also moved to the island. Not only did he become Ashlynn’s first boyfriend, but they also started living together. Their first room had single beds, but eventually they moved into a nicer room with a double bed.

The island is covered by a rainforest and is protected as a national park with several hiking trails. It is surrounded by beautiful beaches and a coral reef. They only went shore diving once and had to wear special stinger suits to protect against the jellyfish which invade the waters every summer.

Hard to beat the view during their three-minute commute to work. 

Amazingly, Ashlynn managed to avoid getting entirely sunburned during her nearly three months of living in paradise.