[paw broon]

Linda and I went away for a few days.  Train to London for 2 nights where we went to the theatre to see The Mousetrap.  Then Eurostar, London to Brussels.  2 hours at high speed, in comfort and the coffee was good.
Apart from the beer - Belgium has hundreds of different beers and many of them are really strong - we visited the art galleries, full of old Masters - Van Dyck, Rubens, Breugel etc. right up to Magritte and more contemporary artists.
More of interest to this site would be the comic shops.  Difficult to get across the range in some of these establishments.  As it's Brussels, most of the books are in French but there is shop specialising in Flemish versions. In most of the comic shops, you can find Flemish language versions if you look for them.  Couldn't find Belgian editions of Dutch comics, e.g. no Eric de Noorman but I did find - and buy -  a pile of "petit format"/ pocket library size comics, a number being reprints of British strips.  Steel Claw, King Cobra, etc.  Also an issue of Super Boy, the French one not the Clark Kent one; Oliver which is a French version of Robin Hood; Sunny Sun which doesn't have a Sunny Sun story but, oddly, has a reprinted Fly adventure, lots more.  Plus a couple of issues of Le Fantome; a Mandrake collection and a couple of issues of De Rode Ridder. 
We also took a tram to the Atomium.  Have a look:-
http://atomium.be/

[narfstar]

I hope to make it someday to Europe but may never    I wanted to teach outside the US after I retired here but my wife is not comfortable with it.

[paw broon]

We spent a few days in London over the weekend, mainly as the National was on.  This is a monthly mart in the centre of London.  I'd been before but this time I felt there wasn't as much choice.  It also nowadays incorporates - 4 times a year - the British comic mart, which is supposed to be lots of tables with solely British stuff.  Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot on display, so a bit disappointing. Nevertheless, with a bit of digging and patience I teased out some obscure British stuff from cheapo boxes which were in no particular order.  Plus a small pile of Cowboy Picture Library, on which I was even able to negotiate a discount - or did the dealer just want rid of them?  I wonder.
The comics highlight was the day before when I went out to Putney to visit 30th Century Comics.  What a great shop.  Small but perfectly formed and stuffed full of all sorts of comics - British and American. As always, this was a great way to spend a couple of hours and a great, if wallet shredding, experience.  Bought a lot, probably spent too much and my wife hasn't seen the credit card receipt yet.
Apart from comics we went to Greenwich to the Royal Observatory and came back on the river Clipper. Great seeing the city from water level.
We saw some delightful impressionist art at the Courtauld Gallery and the Barbara Hepworth retrospective at Tate Britain.
A couple of really good Italian restaurants and tasty, but overpriced, wine plus, in another restaurant, a new dish for me of octopus and fennel (awfy good) meant we ate well.