You know it's sad when your biggest tourist attraction is a statue of a monkey

I found myself wandering around the exciting town of Mons, Belgium. John once again had work in an obscure little town.

To be honest, I was NOT impressed.

So far, this was the dirtiest, run down, transient filled town we'd come across yet. We wished we would have known the job was only going to take 1/2 a day, so we could have reserved a hotel in another city. Like Bruges. (my favorite of all Belgian towns) Or more likely in Haarlem or Amsterdam (Netherlands)

I pushed back my fears of getting mugged, and headed to the local Tourist Information center, and asked them what was worth seeing in their little town.

He told me all about the monkey statue and if I put my left hand on his head, I will have good luck for a year.

He also pointed out a garden, a clock tower, and a church on my map. I hit all the big sights in an hour and that included playing sudoku on my cell phone for at least a half an hour on a bench under the clock tower. It was actually really nice and cool there in the shade.

Dinner however was the highlight of the day. John took me to this little place he knew about, where they serve you raw meat and provide you with an incredibly hot rock to cook it on. I heard about 500 degrees Celsius? I'm not sure what that is Fahrenheit, but dang hot. And you got a bunch of dipping sauces. We both ordered the shishkabob style chicken, pork, and steak. It was fun. And really yummy.

And yes, I did burn myself. (But is anybody really surprised?) My arm grazed the corner of the rock. Luckily, miraculously really, this place actually put ice in my Coke. Like three whole cubes. I was able to immediately put ice on it, and so no real harm done.

Oh, also I really like this door handle. I want one just like it.