Brussels In pandemic times, Brussels has the love bus. Now that the streets in the Belgian capital are mostly devoid of grumbling engines and honking horns, suddenly a simple piece of emotional poetry splits the silence.
"We miss you a lot. Big kisses," a loudspeaker from the bright red "Voices of Brussels" bus blurts out in one street. "We are sending you a big kiss," is another personal message cascading amid the brick houses. Sometimes a dismissive face looks down from up high and curtains are quickly drawn - wrong target.
Most of the time, it's the smile of the day - bullseye. "It gives me pleasure," said Asuncion Mendez, 82, after hearing a message from her great-grandchildren. She said it broke the dreariness of another lockdown day indoors and momentarily eased her fear of the coronavirus.
"It was a beautiful surprise. It warms the heart and makes people come together despite the lockdown," said her daughter Carmen Diaz, who watched and listened with her from a open window one floor above street level.
