Bruxelles

The weather forecast for Saturday was sunny and warm with no wind, the first good Saturday since Pinkpop! Since there was a special on train tickets to anywhere in Belgium we decided to head to Brussels for a day of exploring!

The train trip to Brussels Central from Rotterdam Central station is about 1 hr 40 min with only 5 stops. As we were about to get onto the train I realised that we had forgotten Marph at home, fail!

Our first stop in Brussels was Grand Place or the Grote Markt, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1988. The large square is lined with guildhalls and the gothic town hall. Grand Place and a third of the city was destroyed by an invasion of the French in 1695 and thereafter was re-built in the medieval style. The square is truly beautiful and has an air of old grandeur about it. We returned a few times during the day to the square.  

We wandered down an interesting side alley from Grand Place and found Manneken Pis, the famous bronze statue of a little boy urinating. The statue is much smaller than I thought it would be! Manneken has 650 different outfits (!) and wears a different one each Saturday from 9am to 6pm. We saw him with and without his clothes on and definitely prefer him without ‘~)

We continued wandering around the city and found the park, the royal palace, Petit Sablon Square, the St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, the Palais de Justice, The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert and many comic strip walls! The law courts of Brussels, or the Palais de Justice, is an impressive building built between 1866 and 1883 and is bigger than St Peter’s Basilica in Rome! The building is on a hill and from the top we had an amazing view over Brussels. From here we saw the atomium but we didn’t have time to get there. The St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral looks a lot like the Notre Dame in Paris from the front and is a beautiful church on the inside. The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert is a covered shopping street but is very fancy and upper class, we couldn’t even afford to buy chocolate there! Lol. The Petit Sablon Square is a small garden lined with 48 columns topped with bronze statues which represent the ancient professions and a fountain in the middle. The Petit Sablon is a really beautiful, serene and calm garden and we enjoyed chilling in the shade for a bit.

Belgium is as well-known for its comic trip art as it is for beer and chocolate. You might know that Belgium is home to Tintin but many other beloved characters such as the Smurfs, Lucky Luke, and many we didn’t recognize also originate, from Belgium. All over the city are comic strip walls, ordinary walls on edges of buildings that have been painted with different comic strips. We had fun finding as many as we could =) We found the Tintin one (close to Manneken Pis) but couldn’t find the Smurfs or Lucky Luke.

It was a toasty day in Brussels, about 28°C, and lunch time was time for a beer! We didn’t have as much time in this trip to try as many different beers as we did in Bruges, but it was still nice to have a Belgian beer in Belgium =) After lunch we had yummy ice-creams which we munched in the Grand Place =)

Before heading home we had time to walk down Nieuwstraat, which the map claimed to be the longest shopping street in Europe. At 300m, I am not convinced it is the longest shopping street in Europe, perhaps the longest pedestrianized shopping street? We were bleak to only find the Tintin shop as we were dashing to catch our train back but it was closed by then anyway. Next time!

We really had a great day in Brussels and are glad we went even if just for a day. The city was busy with many tourists but was not as busy as Bruges was or even some of the cities we visited in the winter which made it pleasant for exploring. Other things we noted was the architecture and the language. The city has an interesting mix of architecture. There are lots of old buildings but many modern ones too and even the styles are varied; some streets feel like you could be Italy, France, medieval Bruges or Holland, a very interesting mix. From that point of view the city feels confused but it all seems to work together. There is also much more French spoken in the city than Dutch in Brussels but we found the opposite to be true in Bruges.

Justin played cricket on Sunday but their side lost =( Justin was a bit expensive at 1 for 51 after 8 overs. And all too soon we are back at work on Monday! This week Bron’s lab group is doing a trip to Texel, one of the West Frisian Islands. We are away for two nights, Wednesday and Thursday. The plan is some fun competitive games for team building, ‘wadlopen’, free time for exploring and a visit to NIOZ, the marine research centre of the Netherlands. Really looking forward! In other news Justin’s trip to Angola looks like it is happening but not being organised very speedily considering they want him there the first two weeks of September, sigh.

Hope you are well and had a good weekend! Till next time!

x

Guildhalls at Grand Place

Old Town Hall at Grand Place

Grand Place

Boibs at Grand Place

Manneken Pis in one of his outfits with a hole in the right place '~)

St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral

Statues in the Petit Sablon (I realise you can't see the garden in this pic but it is really small! Small but lovely =) )

The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert 

A toro or a moose?

View of Place St. Catherine 

The Tintin comic strip wall!

Some of the other comic strip walls

I like how they used the existing overhanging roof tiles as part of the comic in this one. There is also a cartoon dog behind the real tree which you can't see.