Inspecting the troops

Same street, different day...

It's the Belgian National Day today. This day commemorates the day on which Leopold I took the constitutional oath as the first King of Belgium, on 21 July 1831.

Every year a military parade is organised to celebrate the National Day. And of course the Belgian King Albert needs to inspect the troops before the parade starts. We happened to sort of "run into" this moment and I quickly took a couple of shots of the King passing by. I am quite happy with how it has turned out.

Compared to something like St. Patrick's Day or Queen's Day in the Netherlands, the Belgian National Day is a low-key affair. O.k. they have a military parade and some other activities in Brussels, but there is not a lot of expression of Belgian-ness as I explained last week.