Today was great. We went to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts this morning, and it was one of the best art museum visits I think I've ever experienced because, simply, we had an incredibly knowledgable - and interesting - guide. She limited the massive building to a few select pieces, and gave us great detail about those pieces. The level of detail and depth in each painting became so much better and more evident with her guidance. It was really quite great.

Following that, we were left to our devices, which in my case meant heading to Gent with a colleague, Anna. Gent is a beautiful little university town around 35 min outside of Brussels, and was great to explore. We saw some incredible buildings, had a few great Belgian beers, and enjoyed a gorgeous, sunny day. Also, we saw more bicycles in one place (around the train station) than I've ever seen. Amazing.

This evening, we had dinner with a group of very interesting Europeans, a mixed bunch of people working within or for the European parliament and some journalists. As part of the dinner, we had a fascinating discussion about the challenges of forming a true Union of Europeans - a discussion that mirrored, in many ways, some of the challenges we face in the US of reconciling state needs/desires with federal. Fascinating.

I'm exhausted, so that's it for tonight.