There were 48 hours of sunshine in Belgium during the month of October. Total.

Now besides the obvious question that this statistic raises-- What does the sun do with all that free time?-- one has to ponder about what happened during the other 696 hours of October.

There really isn't any typical kind of rain in Belgium, but instead a varying onslaught just random enough to keep you on your toes (or sprawled on your face, depending how good the traction on your shoes is).

As far as I can tell, the Tour d'Eiffel itself is just the fortuitous result of a tower that at one time needed to be renovated. Oh sure, the French play it off like some guy named "Eiffel" planned the whole thing, but I'm thinking the chances of that being true are pretty slim.

Sidewalks are themselves a source of constant international-relations testing. Most fun are those that are about 18 inches wide, lovingly referred to as "curbs with hyperactive thyroid glands."