Day 11 (December 27)

Today we woke up at around 8:00 AM and began to drag our groggy bodies out of bed and got ready for our day. For breakfast today, we went to a local waffle stand at 8:45 A.M. We all got a plain waffle with butter smeared all over it, it was one of the best things we had ever tasted. Once, we were done with breakfast at 9:30 A.M, we called two taxis to drive us over to The Royal Institute Of Natural Sciences (History). 

The Royal Institute Of Natural Sciences

We arrived at our destination at 10:00 A.M. We began looking at all of the exhibits. First, we looked at the section of the museum called the gallery of humankind. This section included things like 3D super realistic moldings of the human body that came thousands of year before us. The moldings were life sized making it very cool to compare it to our body today. Another exhibit that really stood out was the mineral hall. The exhibit had a ton of cool minerals including Pyrite meteorites and even a piece of the moon. This exhibit has a cool history behind it. The Crown Prince William II donated 808 Russian minerals to the museum. Another exhibit had a bunch of old dinosaur bones and bird bones. Personally, we all loved the T-Rex bones structure the best. We learned that the museum was founded in 1845 as a descendant of the Musee de Bruxelles of 1802, and that the first director was Bernard Du Bus De Gisignies in 1846. Before, we left Pierce got a little The Royal Institute Of Natural Sciences key chain. After that, we left around 2:00 P.M, and we called two taxis to go to the Parc Du Cinquantenaire (History).



Parc Du Cinquantenaire

We arrived at around 2:30 P.M, and learned a little history about the place. Originally the part was a military exercise ground. In 1880, the area was developed as an exhibition center. An arch was constructed to commemorate 50 years of Belgian independence. Later it was reiterated as a park. When exploring, we thought the architecture was really cool and that it has a gothic vibe. For example the old fountain in the middle of the area. We brought a picnic lunch with PB & J sandwiches for everybody. We ate it at 3:30 P.M. The food was delicious, and after we ate Yuval had brought a soccer ball, so we could pass the ball around in a circle. We did this for a little while, and enjoyed each others company. After lunch at 5:00 P.M, we walked around the archways and park a little more. We all decided to leave at 5:45 P.M, so we called two taxis and went back to the hotel. 

South Park

When we got back to the hotel at 6:30 P.M. we decided to relax and enjoy our final day of our wonderful trip to Belgium. We layed down and watch a little South Park on TV. Everyone decided it was best to pack our luggage now and go to sleep early, since we had to wake up early for our first flight. We did this, said goodnight, and were sleeping by 7:15 P.M.