At 5:30 pm on Tuesday, December 27, Tom and I left Chicago via a very cramped American Airlines flight to visit Prague, Czech Republic, a city I have wanted to see for many years (ever since my friend travis told me how wonderful it was).

The best route I was able to plan via Orbitz involved a six-hour stopover in Brussels, Belgium (from 8:30 to 2:30). Instead of sitting in the nice, modern Brussels airport, we decided to take the convenient 15-minute train ride that runs every 20 minutes or so between the airport and downtown Brussels.

We spent a couple of chilly (note the light snow and ice) hours wandering around, seeing museums and palaces, and soaking up just a little bit of the flavor of the capital of the European Union.

Undoubtedly the most majestic building we saw was the large "Palace of Justice." I'm not sure I've ever seen any place so monolithic. It dates from the reign of Leopold.