BRUSSELS

I am now in Brussels. Having worked for the European Parliament for twenty years till my retirement, I keep my appartment and have resident status. Travelling between Brussels and Lisbon looks to me more as a shuttle than a standard flight.
I know Brussels since 1970. That year I transited here in-between a flight from Lisbon and a train to Cologne, where I had to pick my new car, later to be sent to Angola. It was a Summer Sunday and, near to the Grand Place, I watched on a TV café the second half of the Football World Cup (in Mexico); Brazil won superbly, to my enjoyment (almost every portuguese is a Brazil fan, if the opponent is not Portugal!).
Later I was a regular of the Grand Place every time I came to Brussels. I keep the memory of the its traffic changes: in 1981 the Grand Place was (still, in today's understanding) a big parking place; later the cars could come in and tour it, but no more parking; and later no more cars, just people.
Moving to Brussels, I had for some months a small apartment very near to the Grand Place, so I was quite acquainted with the new "just people" environment. Then, one Winter Sunday I woke up very early, went to the Grand Place and saw it as never more: there was no one but me in the profound beauty of that grey and half-foggy morning. Guess very few have seen it such a way! Later the Grand-Place was approved as a World Heritage site...