Namur

Ok, even though my sights are always set on far away places, I haven't forgotten about my immediacy to certain places that I have not yet explored.  I'm talking, in this case, about Namur.  It is the 'capital of French speaking Belgium', and is home to just over 100,000 people.  I'm going there today.  I realize it's already noon, but better late than never right?  (Blanche Devereaux might say "better late than pregnant").

Alright, It's just about an hour on the train, and as I plan to take the train which leaves at 1:07, that should land me there, out of the station and map-in-hand by 2:15.  That leaves me lots of time to explore before the sun goes down (which happens almost an hour later here than it does in Toronto.  Brussels, like I have already mentioned, is about 700km north of Toronto and even though you'd expect the weather to reflect that, it doesn't.  The reason why the difference is so extreme at this time of year is that we're at the summer solstice and so the sun is as north as it ever gets right now.  That being said, our days are exaggerated and nights shortened to their maximum and minimum lenghts.  Actually, it will be at its peak tomorrow, but you get the idea.  You can take the same example by comparing the poles.  At the north pole now, there is constant sunlight.  At the south, no sunlight.  To a lesser extent, Brussels is getting more sunlight and Toronto less.  Even though Toronto will have its longest day tomorrow also, ours will be longer because we're that much closer to the north pole [and the sun]).

Alright, that went on for longer than I thought it would.

Namur here I come!!!