Brussels - part 2

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

After touring the Royal Palace and the garden across the way, we started our walk back towards the train station.

On the way we saw this awesome bike lane. Sadly, just as in Paris, Dave refused to try the "Villo" bikes. I liked the play on words of this name, and the first half hour of use is completely free, but I simply couldn't persuade him.

We also walked past another entrance to the Royal Palace, a gate complete with lions on guard. 

We walked across the Place du Luxembourg:

and sort of stumbled upon this tower, called the Hallepoort or Porte de Hal, a gate from medieval times. It was pretty fascinating, but we didn't have a lot of time, so we didn't go inside, just walked around and admired it form the outside.

 This modern skyscraper, such a contrast to all the old buildings we had been admiring, stands right next to the Gare du Midi train station.

The Tour du Midi or Zuidertoren - the South Tower

We ate dinner at an outdoor restaurant next to the station -- Dave had a steak & fries and I had "tuna toast" -- both with salad. Everything was yummy, and there was plenty of opportunity for people-watching.

And finally, we went back into the train station, said so long to Tintin and his friends, and boarded the train for Zaventem airport. 

au revoir, Paris; hallo, Brussels

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Today, after a leisurely breakfast and one of the cafes near the station, we took the train from Paris (Gare du Nord) to Brussels (Midi), a ride of about 1 1/2 hours. Strangely enough, there was a Canadian guy on the train, sitting just a few seats away (and talking the whole time.) Small world.

Disembarking at Brussels, the first thing we did was duck into the tourist office where we could purchase a map for €1. Maps have been free everywhere else, but hey, it's better than wandering around with no idea where you're going.

Of course, I wanted to find the Grand Place -- or Grote Markt -- depending on the speaker. We began by heading in the right direction, but somehow we got off track and drastically overshot the mark. The area is much smaller than it looks on the map, so it is easy to cover a lot of map in a short time. 

Turning around, we headed back towards the square, following the map carefully this time so as not to go wrong. And suddenly, we were there: 

The Town Hall (1400s)

The market was just getting set up and it was kind of cold, so we didn't hang around for long -- just walked around the square admiring the fairy-tale style buildings.

   

The Museum of the City of Brussels  (1868)

The architecture of the buildings is pretty cool, but the gilding elevates them into the realm of something special.  The building on the right is called la Maison du roi, the King's house, in French; but in Dutch the name is Broodhuis, the breadhouse.

These buildings have been rebuilt over the years since the 1400s, but they are still impressive.

Other buildings in the square are guildhalls.

The square itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

More of the Grand Place

Another fantastically elaborate building -- which seems to be simply a pharmacy!

And of course we had to check out the Manneken Pis, apparently a symbol of the rebellious spirit of the city. Imagine posing in front of this with your young daughter! (No, I don't know that guy! He just got in the way as I was snapping the photo.)

Near here we also ducked into a waffle shop, where I sampled a filled waffle, with Belgian dark chocolate. It was good, but nothing really spectacular.

Next we walked up stairs and steep streets to the Kunstberg or Mont des Arts (hill of the arts) -- beautiful gardens, statues and more historic buildings. Also a great view of the city.

Mont des Arts Garden

Church of Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenbourg 
OR Sint-Jacob-op-Koudenberg
1780s

Then we went on to the Royal Palace:

Since the king and queen and the royal children were away on holiday, we were allowed to go inside and walk around, but we were not allowed to take flash photos. Ask me how I know.








I was pretty impressed with all the chandeliers. Can you imagine cleaning these things? I didn't see even one cobweb.

Some of the rooms had gorgeous paintings, including scenes of Venice. The wooden floors were also impressive.

And the green stuff on the ceiling and walls of this room is made from wing cases of beetles. Amazing!

This is the front gate of the palace grounds:

 

Across the road from the palace is a lovely garden with a big fountain and many statues, including this one of Diana, or Artemis, goddess of the hunt.

This building, across from the other side of the park, is the Brussels Parliament Building. I liked the police officers standing guard, in their orange vests...

and these bicycle police in their orange helmets.